Saturday 26 April 2014


Another week – where did it go?  Something to do with work, work and more work – and a lovely trip away for the Easter weekend J!

What a lot of progress too – these short weeks don’t seem to slow anyone down much.

We’ve had plenty of painting:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We’ve been fortunate to be able to borrow some great painting gear from our neighbour down by the lake, Wes – and it has made all the difference in being able to get through it much quicker.
Still plenty to go though!  You really don’t know how much wall space you have until you have to go over every square centimetre of it!  (And by you, I don’t mean me! ;-)  This is all Michael and Andy’s handiwork.  And we (someone) will have to keep on going over it too – this is only the undercoat! 

We’ve had tantalising tiling too:
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

(Which I am sure would look even better if blogger would insert this photo without the rotation!) 
And hot bath hobbing:
 


 
 
 
 

(Tiling is at a bit of a stand-still until we can get the bath in – plumber is very, very busy – so we are waiting…).
And while we are waiting, we’ve had excellent excavating:
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 That’s my sister, Sharon, having a go! 
And, then Michael dug plenty more holes around the house – to get our water pipes to the tank and back:


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And lookie – he has found some big rocks – we mean BIG ROCKS! – so we are also now waiting on the bigger excavator to come dig them out – next week hopefully!
But while we wait, there’s plenty to do – or we can just gaze at this:




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Because when a day starts with 3 mixers flat out:
 


 
 
 
 And ends with 3 barrows all in a row:
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 You know your renderers have been J. 
And they have done most of the third and final coat and it looks just stunning and you are seriously in love with it and just want to stare at it day and night and why not, because it *is* mighty, mighty fine…swoon…(go on, scroll back up and look at it again –it’s gorgeous!)

And as much as I truly love that rendering, our Easter visit to Michael’s sister gave pretty photos too:
Like Lake Yearlering:
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 And sunset over Corrigin:
  












Pretty, darn special views, aren’t they? 

How blessed are we?  Gorgeous home coming along and wonderful family that we can visit and who visit us too.  Life is good.

Tuesday 15 April 2014


Last week, Jeff the Joiner came over and hung our French doors.
I think they are stunning, of course!
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And look, the come complete with two cheeky monkeys!!
It was quite weird being inside the house with the ‘doors’ closed – it felt really closed in – and they don’t even have glazing yet!!  Sometimes I do wonder about me…

Monday 14 April 2014


So, what else happened last week?
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Inside render J - gorgeous!! And you can see the truth window too.
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 Outside render – how good does this look?  :-D
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I love the colour of the wet render – it is exactly the colour I wanted it to be J…but the lime in the render bleaches the yellow sand it and it dries to this pale cream…
...so the guys tried a bit of yellow pigment to see how it looks:
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What do you think of this colour? 
I love this deep yellow…

- but there is no way it is going to be the outside colour of my home!
So, back to the mixer it is – ¼ strength pigment to see how that dries.  Lucky this is only the second coat so it can easily be covered J

Sunday 13 April 2014


So it has been a week!  A busy, busy week with all in our family going all over the place!!
And plenty been happening on our home building too J.  There’s been door frames hung, render applied, painting and more painting and more painting, and picking up of supplies to be ready for next week! 

So I have lots to write about – including another sharing of my philosophical musings – which is what I am going to start with today – why not?
So, you know I am pretty much into choosing building products based on their environmental credentials – and you know I don’t think we could actually ever choose anything remotely close to 100% environmentally perfect, even with an eco-style of building – mostly because unless it is pretty much straight from nature, used without harming nature in fact, then it automatically has some black crosses – and so, if you want to build with an eco bent in our society then you just have to make compromises (I wrote about it here too).

Anyway, the latest ReNew magazine (Issue 127) had a very good article on just these thoughts too – check it out if you can – and it got me thinking a-new (again) on how close our chosen products have come compared to my environmental ideals.  Especially our tiles and bathroom and kitchen fittings, as they are what we have picked up this week.
Another article in ReNew compares insulation products and it brought a new perspective to my choice of wool insulation – with reminders that I am surprised I didn’t think of!!!  It reminds us to consider the animal welfare of sheep farming, the environmental impact of grazing animals compared to plant crops (or especially compared to natural bush) and the problem of chemical residues in the lanolin (wool fat).  Oh, well our decision was made on our best knowledge at the time and I am still happy with the product – and I didn’t find any product that specifically said it was organic, RSPCA certified wool insulation so I am not sure if the ideal wool product exists – so a compromise…

When Andy and I were discussing the environmental impact of straw a few weeks ago, we considered if cordwood construction was perhaps more “friendly” – and I thought it probably would be in a heavily wooded area – after all, it sounds near on perfect to take a natural, native, renewal building product direct from where it is growing, move it a few feet, cut it to size and build.  Sure the modern construction method introduces other elements that also have an impact to consider…so the compromise conundrum continues.  But, check out cordwood construction I reckon – there are some great photos on google.  (It was never going to be my choice of building style – aesthetics still has to play its part for me, and it just isn’t quite me).
Well, that is enough philosophy for now – I’ll bet there’s more to come though one day, so be prepared ;-)!

Now for a photo:


This was my last week Saturday job while the renderers were busy – painting waterproofing paint on the cut-down, old water tanks that will be our vege gardens. 
 
I wanted to look at the camera and smile for the photo – but my son who was taking it said “It wouldn’t look like you were working Mum if you turn around and smile”.  So, the photo session turned into this - a non-working photo J.

Saturday 5 April 2014

Our rendering was started yesterday afternoon J.




 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Looks so, so different - good different!
…silly, but I think I am going to miss seeing the strawbales…lucky for our truth window then!
This first coat should be finished in a couple of days, then take a week or so to dry (depends on wind conditions), then the second coat will take another couple of weeks at least, then a final coat when it is time.
Do you see what I see?

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
Glazed windows J.  The wonderful Jeff, the joiner ,came over and put in all our double glazing – sure is different to be looking through glass rather than holes in the walls. 
Tempting too to clean them straight away, but it will only need doing again next week, and the week after, and probably the week after too – there will be enough mess created around them I am sure.

Friday 4 April 2014


This, my friends, was the last straw!!!
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 It is a beautiful thing to be finished stuffing J! 
And those wheat heads are placed strategically in our truth window – so we will always see what makes up our home…
And it will always be thanks to these three!
 


 
 
 
 
 
Ryan is now taking a well-earned break for a few weeks, Andy is going to hang around a bit to see what happens next – and Michael will be working as hard as ever to keep progressing painting, helping with the rendering that is about to happen and all the other jobs on his ever-growing list ;-).