Rosalba and Mark are working on their house again this weekend.
Mark has been working on creating a window frame from scratch for the large louvre window in the walk in wardrobe. In the two pictures below you can see the opening before and after installatioin of the wooden frame. Mark made the frame out of Camphour and found that it smells very strongly when you cut it. Not bad but tickles the nose a bit 
Today I’ve been working on the deck again. This Kookaburra took an
interest in my work and didn’t feel intimidated by me at all when I got to
within arm’s length to take the picture.
Today I started with the balustrade on the front of the deck. I am using recycled hardwood that we picked up yesterday from a demolition yard.
As you can see we are already using the deck as our “camping” kitchen.
Over the last few months I have been busily working on the deck.
We purchased recycled and new decking timber. The new decking we purchased mainly because we couldn’t get enough recycled decking at the time.
In my experience it is a lot nicer to work with recycled decking as there seems to be a lot less wasteage and the decking boards seem to be straighter as well. Added to that is that the recycled decking is also cheaper when you can get it.
Anyway, here’s a quick picture of the progress of the deck from quite a while ago.
In November 2010 we’ve got the our Solar electricity system installed and we’ve now got electricity throughout the house. It is just great to be able to use some tools now without having to run a noisy generator.
Here are some pictures from our PV system:
The first pictures shows the concrete pad we poured for the external battery enclosure.
In the second picture you can see how we used some of the waste abling twine, by adding it to the concrete mix to make the pad stronger.
As seen in the third picture, we’ve made the walls of the encloser out of Hebel (aereted concrete)
Working with Hebel was easy and fast. We used a plain saw to cut the hebel blocks to size when necessary.
Next couple of pictures show the batteries. Each one of these weights about 70kg.
The cable Rosalba is holding in picture 6 shows the size of the cable that connects the batteries to the rest of the system. It’s about as thick as a thumb.
And finally a view of the solar panels installed on the roof. As you can see we are very happy finally having our solar system.
Since the workshop, Nick, Roger and Andrew (the brilliant roofer has joined the team) have been hard at work putting on the lime render on the outside
. The first and second coats were pumped on using the long awaited render pump. Nick had ordered and paid for the pump back in February 2010. It arrived in June 2010. I did not envy their work with the caustic lime with all workers losing some layers of skin where the lime ate through their clothing. The final coat was done by hand. I chose an earthy soft yellow in the end after discovering the cost of shades of blue. You need to be patient and do a test patch as when it first went up it was “baby-poo” yellow but once dried, it is a golden wheat colour. 
Meanwhile on the inside I commenced the final coat. The wonderful people who had come to the render workshop had made excellent progress on the first two coats, slurry and “discovery” coat. The “boys” decided another coat of clay and straw would be needed before the final coat of clay, sand and colour. This they completed before the render pump arrived.I played around with the mix for the final coat. I added very fine straw to one mix but was not happy with the look so I opted for fine saw dust that was lying around. Other things I added were borax and wheat flour paste. Andrew had finely ground up a pile of the clay but even with the addition of oxide I was having trouble lightening the heavy terracotta colour. A visit to “The Clay Shed” in Kunda Park resulted in me finding the right colour mix with the help of the very knowledgeable Cameron. By adding yellow oxide, as well as the beige oxide and diluting the terracotta clay with the white clay I have ended up with a very neutral beige. My Italian heritage had the last say and I added glitter to the render mix to make it interesting. The final coat mix is:
2 buckets of terracotta clay, 2 buckets of white kaolin clay, 10 buckets of brickies loam, 6 cups of flour paste, 2 cups of borax, 1 cup of bicarbonate, 2 cups of beige oxide, 3/4 cup of yellow oxide, 1/2 bucket of fine sawdust, glitter and water.
The mix is easy to work and sticks well even upside down. At present have completed one bedroom, lounge and dining area, 1/2 Mark’s study and 3/4 of pantry. I enjoy it but it’s a killer on the arms especially my right arm. Fortunately I work with some talented acupuncturists at Alba Therapies who help keep my shoulders and arms from seizing up.
Sewig room render complete
Glitter in the render
Lime render complete with colour
Kat Gawlik (www.forgreenies.com) not only made plenty of pictures at our rendering workshop but has also made a very professional video as can be seen below:
Thank you Kat for your professional coverage of our rendering workshop.
Mark and Rosalba are building a strawbale house!
We are both interested in sustainable living, alternative energy. We are also in the middle of starting a small organic farm growing fruit, veggies, and chestnuts as we both believe that organically grown produce is healthier and have bought organic products for the quite a while now.
