Second coat of rendering completed

It took us a total of 4 days to finish the first coat of rendering outside the building (and one inside wall). Better than we expected and we found the work much easier than fixing the chicken wire to the bales. We might be looking at finding another method for the chicken wire come the house building. We finished in time for the rain to start, and over about 3-4 days we had quite some rainy and cold days, but these were used for other tasks. Among them, we have now almost finished all the posts for the house - that is, drilling holes in them so that they are ready to be put up - so at least that job is done.

The weather then became better and it was time to start the second coat of rendering. The mixture we have used has the same proportions as the first coat, though with less water, thus making it a thicker mixture. It also has some added tiny plastic fibres that is supposed to help against cracking. We were, understandably enough, a bit uncertain about the second coat - not having done this before - but it also went on quite well. The work was a bit harder than the first coat, and our arms and shoulders are a bit tired now, and it took us 5 days to get all around the building. The hardest part was really rubbing the render down after having applied it to the wall and let it dry for a couple of hours (see pictures below), but this turned out to be a very important part in order to get the finish we wanted.

So, what does it look like? Well, hopefully these pictures will give a small impression. It is still cement grey coloured, but this will change with the third coat that will have added oxides for colouring.

Southern side completed	Eastern side completed
Northern side completed	Western side completed, but still missing doors

For those of you who are particularly interested, here are some close up pictures of the render:

Dry first coat

Jodie applying second coat of render

Wet second coat - before rubbing

Dry second coat - after rubbing

And finally, here is a picture from some distance:

The windows are in, but the doors are still missing. The cable that can be seen hanging from the wall, is the electricity supply that will run to the house through the covered walkway between the garage and the house. Hopefully this will become visible in the next couple of months.

So, what is next. Well, first of all we will be planting some more trees. We have now received another 176 trees from a local nursery and will hopefully start planting this Saturday. We are planting bushes on top of all our mounds and also putting in blue gums and black woods to form a windbreak tot he north of the house (still far enough away to get the sun inside).

After that is done, we will start working on putting up the frame and the roof for the house. All the materials have been ordered and should hopefully be coming over the next week or so. But first we have to put up 34 steel posts to hold the frame up. More pictures are bound to follow. We are currently hoping that putting up the frame and roof will take a couple of months, but who knows as things always seems to be taking longer than we think. At the same time, we will try to get the inside of the workshop rendered so that we can put up a work bench and also get the garage doors up.

And finally, just wanted to let you know that even though it is winter here in Tasmania, the forecast for tomorrow is 19 degrees C !!!!

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008