A roof for a struggling artist

Hi! and greetings from Australia!

I’m a 69 year old artist living in a forest in country Australian.  After a traumatic accident where I sustained multiple injuries back in the 1970’s I started living my dream of leaving the city and moving to a peaceful place so I could recover, grow a garden, build a little house and work on my art.

A few years after my accident I got a small insurance payout and was able to buy some land, and with the help of friends, built a little hand made house where I raised my kids and started making original music and working on my paintings.

I live here on my own, and as I’m growing older, things are a little more difficult, but I love living here, growing much of my own food and being grateful to still be alive after nearly losing my life all those years ago, and  best of all, working on my paintings.

The land is steep, and I’ve had to have some areas cut out and flattened, especially as my old injuries are now making themselves felt. My little home was built on various levels making best use of the building site, but I’m now finding all the stairs more and more difficult to navigate.

A few years back I managed to make enough money to have an area leveled in order to build an extension including a bedroom and ensuite, all on the same level as the kitchen/living area. This means, that once I have this extension done, I won’t have to use the stairs except for the odd occasion and visitors can stay in what will become the “old bedroom” and I should be able to happily and productively stay here for years to come.

For many years I’ve managed to make do with my pension and the occasional painting sale but these days, but I’ve been having a few too many falls and would dearly love to finish my extension so I can live more safely and get on with my art work.

The skeleton of the building is growing slowly. But I’m on an aged pension, so can only afford my builder one day a fortnight. I have been collecting windows and doors that I’ve found at rubbish tips with only slight damage which I’ve been fixing, and I have timber for most of the rest of the structure, but I find myself with no money left for the roof. Which is why I’m asking for help!

Pricing it with my builder, even though I’ll be buying 2nd hand materials, he thinks it might cost around $5000 and as I can’t think of any way of raising this amount of money, I’m hoping someone might be able to assist me.

I would be immensely grateful for any and all help. It would mean so much to stop worrying about how I can get the roof up, and to be able to relax and get back to paintings once more!