Last entry in 2006

Almost the end of the year, but not the end of building. We probably still have quite a few months in front of us.....  So the new year's resolution is to move into the house some time in 2007, and hopefully then start having guests coming to visit us !!!

As some of you might have noticed, the Sydney - Hobart race is currently on. Wild Oats XI won again (also won last year) but not on handicap. As far as we know the winner there is Love and Hate (at least it is still the leader when writing this). Luckily there were no major disaster this year, except for one boat sinking and some people injured when the mast fell down from one of the super maxis. If anyone is interested, you should visit the home page  http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/default.asp  We had a quick look at the boats today and there is a lot of money in Hobart harbour at the moment !!!!

Anyway, we have also been to the Taste of Tasmania today and thus had a day off from building. The Taste of Tasmania is part of the Hobart Summer Festival ( http://www.hobartsummerfestival.com.au  ) which takes place every year. Going there on a Saturday also combines the thing with the Salamanca Markets and there were loads of people around today. Luckily we got into the Taste when it was still fairly quiet so we got a table by the sea, had a good bottle of Tasmanian Riesling, some African style food and a really nice ice cream and berries dessert. A nice day to spend our Saturday.

On the bus back to Cremorne we met a guy called Jeff Phillips who is a travelling artist - he paints on rocks. Just had a look at his website and there are some really nice pictures of his art there http://www.cryobenthics.org/

OK, that is enough of links for this time. We have also done some building work since our little 3 day Christmas break. We have now started our second "section" of straw bale walls. This time we are building from the entry on the southern wall towards the toilet on the eastern wall. So far we have managed to do about 6 layers of bales, just up to the top of the window, and over the next 2 - 3 days we hope that the bailing will be finished on this wall, so that we can start putting up the chicken wire and then start the rendering. It is all going pretty well, but this section is a bit tricky in places in that the wall is far from straight - as can be seen from the pictures below. For the next layer of bales, we also have to cut in a groove on the side of the bale because of our ceiling joists and the ledger holding the ceiling joists up, so this will give an extra challenge. Further, the wall is about 3.6 meters high and with the cement slab being 40 cm, this makes about 4 meters in total. With our scaffold being 2 meters tall, it is not hard to imagine that the top course of bales will be a bit tricky, but we will just have to see how we can do it! We probably will have more about this in our first entry for 2007.

First corner, with the entry way on the left hand side.

From the window in the hall way, then the laundry room, and then an external wall outside the laundry door.

This is inside the entry way. The copper pipes are for the solar hot water system. These will be insulated when the rendering is done. The two black pipes are for hot and cold water, and will be better arranged next time the plumber comes. One is just a bit long at the moment.

Inside our wide hallway, also called a "play/reading" area. We'll just have to see what we do with this space, but it all made more sense to make it a bit wider and a bit of a room, rather than just having a long hallway leading past the bedrooms and down to the bathroom and the laundry.

The laundry as seen from the outside. There will be a straw bale wall where the black plastic is on the right hand side of the picture. The wall on the left hand side is an external wall, and is mainly there to hide the laundry door when you come to the house. This way it won't be confused with the main entry to the house.

Again, this shows the external straw bale wall. Also new is the structure which will hold the roof up. This will give us a sheltered area outside the laundry and the plan is to build a small deck here and also to have an outside sink. An the roof will again be colourbond in our wilderness colour.

The pole is the same as what we used for the veranda - green hardwood 100 x 100mm which has been planed down and will be oiled.

So, that is about it for this time. Happy new year to everyone. Hope you get a chance to come and see us once our new year's resolution has been fulfilled !!!

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