Laundry cupboards, bricks in kitchen, landscape pictures

Having finished the cupboard doors for the bedrooms and the entryway, the next project was the laundry room. We decided to go for a similar style to that of the kitchen, using structural and form ply to make the cabinet. However, rather than having soft closing drawers, we will just be installing a shelf and use similar doors to the once described in entry no. 100.

Putting together the laundry bench was quite and easy job after having finished the kitchen, but here is a quick overview:

EcoAsh used for the base of the cabinets, combining as a kick board.

Plywood measured and cut to fit the bottom of the cupboards. Holes made in the ply to let the water pipes come through.

Sides installed

And then the top, again using form ply, fixed to the sides and at the same time ensuring that all the sides are vertical.

The finished product, well, at least before we pour the concrete bench top.

Another project now completed is the thermal mass wall between the kitchen and the dining area. As could be seen in entry no. 99 we used a thin piece of plywood as the back of the kitchen cupboard towards the dining room. This was done partly to get a ply finish inside the cupboards, but also to make it easier to lay the recycled bricks on the other side.

Cleaning and laying the bricks took about a day and a half - with the cleaning not being the nicest of jobs. The end result so far is as follows:

Seen from the north east of the dining area. The idea with the raised up part on the right is that we and hide pots and pans behind it whilst eating, basically so we don't have to look at dirty dishes!

Seen from the north west of the dining area. We will put a nice piece of hard wood on top of the raised up part and the concrete top will extend out to the edge of the bricks with are now a little lower than the ply top.

Seen from the living area towards the dining area.

Since last time we have now also managed to finish the varnishing of the cupboards in the two bedrooms and the entry way. We used a water based varnish even though it was almost twice as expensive as the oil based one. The main reason for doing this was that it does not small as badly and that you can recoat it after 3 hours, instead of around 24 hours. As such, if you organise the work properly it is possible to get 3 coats done in a day.

After varnishing, the cupboards look like this:

Entry way cupboard, seen from the hallway

Entryway cupboard, seen from outside

Bedroom 2 cupboard

And finally, bedroom 3 cupboard

We have also finalised a part of the kitchen that had not yet been done, namely the top of the bench towards the wall where the fridge is located. One small problem we had here was that due to the redesign of the kitchen, the inlet for the ducted vacuum cleaner was not in an ideal position. As such, we had to extend the pipe a bit and have the inlet incorporated in the kitchen bench. This meant that the bottom shelf could not be as low as what we had planned, but this is not a very big problem.

The white "thing" under the shelf is the inlet for the vacuum cleaner, moved from the plaster wall to the ply. The bench top corner will be rounded before pouring the concrete to ensure that it is not sharp and dangerous.

And finally for today and this diary entry, here are some pictures of trees and the property as it looks now:

Tree planted in 2001

Tree planted in 2001

Trees planted in 2001

Blue gum planted 24 months ago.

Eucalyptus Morrisbyi, a threatened spices, growing on the hill to our east. We will be planting 130 of these trees on our property in the coming year.

Some more Eucalyptus Morrisbyi.

"Pipshy" as seen from the hill to our East a few days ago.

And finally, to keep our friend Billy in the UK happy, here are a couple of pictures of us:

Jodie in the forest up on the hill

Geir cooking dinner in the cabin.

OK, that is enough for today.

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