Getting closer . . .

Well, it’s been a month since I posted an update.  Life has been full as usual.  Let’s start with the house itself, the roof is on at last, first the purlings went on, then the sarking, then the iron.  It was a big job and the four days we were on the roof it was 23, 29,31 and 29 degrees Celsius respectively.  Hard work but very satisfying, especially as we can now get into the shade and work.

On the few rainy days we have had in March it has been wonderful to sit under the roof and have a cuppa, listening to the rain pound down.

We can get on with the framing also now that we have shelter, it is much more comfortable.  I was starting to wonder about  a recent statement I’d made about wanting to just build houses for the rest of my life.  Imagine if you had to do it regardless of the weather, no wonder those master builders make so many mistakes when you employ them, I should feel guilty about chastising them (but I don’t).

I managed to fall off the roof but only sustained minor injuries to my leg, where I cut it on the steel bracing.  Thank goodness that we are complying with the Building Act 2000, the Building Regulations 2004 and the Plumbing Regulations 2004 and the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 and the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations 1998, phew . . . and I was wearing a safety harness!!!  You see, it was worthwhile filling in 59 different forms and giving the beaurecrats 25% of our budget in fees after all, still one mustn’t be cynical.

The next shot shows the eaves, there is a lot of work to go getting them finished as we are framing them up for extra strength.

It is sometimes hard to get the work done as we do love to have visitors and don’t need much of an excuse to knock off for a cuppa and piece of cake.  This helps me to remember that the journey is just as important as the destination.  Ah so, wise words grasshopper.  We often have dinner in the dining room, and you really don’t notice the lack of walls unless there is a cold southerly blowing.

The next shot is looking through the en suite towards the hollow on a misty morning.  The wall at the front will be made totally of glass bricks.  We have collected 1000 bottles so far and our friends Coral and Tom’s backyard looks like the aftermath of the Falls Festival.  I will post some shots of the glass bricks soon.  Bryon is cutting and turning the bottles inwards and then sealing them.  In the larger ones he is creating mosaics out of tiny glass tiles.  They look fabulous and are going to cast coloured light into the room.  The en suite is simply a tiled room with a shower head and a lapis coloured glass sink.  No messy screens or vanity to clean, and the 3m high coloured glass wall should look breathtaking.  It is aligned due north to take advantage of the sunlight.

As you can see it has since been framed up, with internal sliding door cavities all ready for the doors.

The framing has taken almost a pallet of 6 metre MGP10 framing as we are building the walls to comply with the building code as weight-bearing, when in actual fact the roof is supported by the post and beam structure which is held together with 384 galvanised bolts.  Some of the members are 200mm X 45mm.  Considering the extra strong frame and the fact that the slab is poured onto solid granite, this house isn’t going anywhere in the near future.

This shot is looking from the en suite through to the 12m long living area.  The house is really just two main rooms, and totals 97sqm.  We analysed our last house to see which rooms we used and which we didn’t and came up with the idea that our two favourite pastimes are eating and sleeping, hence the large kitchen/dining/lounge which is designed for entertaining, and the master bedroom.  We have two al fresco dining areas also, one to the south which is shady, and one to the north in full sun all day.

The front of the house has 40 sq m of double glazing which has helped us gain a solar efficiency rating of 8.  We can already feel the heat radiating back from the slab at night, and half the walls aren’t up yet.  The house is designed to get the most from the sun.  The roof has a 10 degree pitch and there is no wasted material in the roof as it is simply an insulation sandwich with no trusses.  This keeps costs down and saves unnecessary use of timber.  The whole house is built with plantation timber and the larger members are laminated plantation pine.

On the summer solstice the wide eaves keep the sun from contacting the slab, and at winter solstice the sun reaches all the way to the back wall meaning the slab is totally bathed in sunshine.  We created a mock-up in Google Sketch-up to test the angles and it has proven to be correct so far.  I recommend using that free program if you are designing a house just to check out if your plans will work out with regard to the sun.

We have clad the back of the house now and even clad over the south-facing windows as we will not be installing the glazing straight away and this will protect the framing from the weather.  We checked out many claddings and for budget reasons came down on the side of Hardietex rather than the Axxon cladding.  This will eventually be rendered and it was 25% the price of the next choice we had.  Building a house on a budget of $40K is limiting but not impossible.  You just have to get creative.  There will be a second bottle wall on the western end of the house which should be pretty spectacular at sunset and there is a 3.2m high stone wall with wings made into seats on the north side.

We love living in the bush and have had some beautiful sunsets and amazing sights some mornings when the mist comes down from the Elephant.  For those that aren’t familiar with the Elephant, it is the 757m high mountain that dominates our skyline to the south-east.

These two shots show the sunrise on the eucalypts behind the house as the mist starts to clear.  A beautiful sight.  Sometimes the sea mist comes in during the afternoon and you know it is coming when the temperature drops quite rapidly.  On the hotter days in the summer you can pretty well guarantee a sea breeze . . . as the Break O’Day plains heat up the hot air rising pulls in a nice breeze from the ocean.

We have noticed the weather is slowly turning now and daytime temperatures are starting to get below 20 more often than not.  Things will get interesting when we get down to -6C.

I have included this shot of a fungus incase anyone can identify it.  It was only about the size of a 50c piece and had the consistency of scrambled egg.  Very unusual.  We have had some success transplanting orchids lately and the native bush’s resilience where we have cleared for the house site never ceases to amaze me.  Those natives sure are hardy.

Bryon has been busy with his studies in between building and socialising.  His main theme this semester had been “time”.  He is seen here painting “plein air”. 

It is one of a series of the bush showing changes in the light during the day.

He has also done some vignettes of the light changing in the garden at Fingal, and a series of still life that shows fruit decaying.

Oh those crazy old fruits at the Uni, they do get some funny ideas don’t they.  Bryon is looking forward to when he can negotiate his own portfolio rather than do these repetitive exercises.

I am ready to graduate on 4 July with only three more units to complete and have decided to defer my post-graduate studies till next year.  It will be nice to have a break from assignments.  I may even work one day a week seeing a few clients, who knows what the future holds.

Now to the most important thing, FOOD, here is a shot of today’s afternoon tea, a vegan date loaf, yummy.

We have been trying lots of new recipes recently and have discovered a great “meat” loaf which we have had with fresh salad from the garden.  One of these days I will get around to publishing some recipes on here.  We eat like horses but have still lost so much weight.  It is great and we are both feeling fit and healthy. Quite often lately everything on our plate has come from our own garden, it is great just going out and picking fresh food and then eating it 15 minutes later.  No food miles, no chemicals and no additives and remembering to live simply so that others may simply live.

We are harvesting a big bag of tomatoes every day at the moment and Bryon has made lots of relish to take us through the winter.  I can’t wait to have more time once the house is finished as there is so much more we can grow.  We are enjoying vegan cuisine very much.  It is so much more than eating vegetables as so many people imagine, and we are discovering new foods and new dishes every week.  We are born again when it comes to eating and we just love it.

One final photo, I took this shot as we were returning to St Marys early one morning, the suns rays were filtered through the cloud cover, our property is in the middle left of the frame at the foot of the mountain, somewhere in the fog.

As always, we are loving St Marys as there is so much happening.  Our social life is busy and there are loads of activities available if you choose to take part.  I’m even doing a drawing course soon.  It is a nice quiet life with minimal stress, the natives are friendly, and life just rolls along.

I think I am starting to unwind, it has only taken three years of retirement, with one of those spent here.  I am constantly reminded how good life can be, doing what you want, with the person you want, in the place you want . . . now if all our beautiful children would just move to St Marys and bring the grandchildren with them, life would be perfect.