More plastering, some render pictures and some gardening

So another two weeks gone and what have we done? Well, more plastering has been completed since last time. The rest of the house now has the second coat on, so all that is left is a bit more sanding, the third coat and then the final sanding before the painting. Having gone through some of the bad parts of plastering in the last entry, we now have some good news to give. It does get better with time! Last week Geir did the first coat in 2 bedrooms, the big hallway, the laundry, bathroom and toilet. This week he completed the sanding of the first coat and applying the second coat in the same amount of time as the first coat, if not quicker. Of course, the second coat is just to apply the plaster and no fiddling with the paper tape etc., but the first coat in this part of the house was also done better (read: using lest plaster) and as such much less sanding than in other parts of the house. Doing the sanding is still not nice, but when there is less to sand back, it is quicker and not so bad. Professionals probably don't have to do any sanding after the first coat, if they make a very neat job of it, but we're not really at that level (yet).

Bedroom no. 3 ready with second coat applied

Bedroom no. 3 again, looking out through the door to the hallway.

Hallway, standing at the eastern end, looking towards the living room.

Hallway, looking towards toilet and bathroom

And finally, the bathroom. Picture taken from almost floor level, looking towards the shower.

We have not completed any more rendering since last time, but the plan is to do rendering tomorrow (Thursday), Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we will then have finished the brick wall in the living room and inside the movie/music room - both with the second coat. If time allows, we will also try to do the entry way, but if not that will have to wait until later.

The render in the other rooms have dried a lot since the last pictures and are now much lighter in colour. As such, we are posting some more pictures, including a couple of "truth" windows. The final colour will not be cement grey, but hopefully a bit more of an off-white colour, but at least the current result is a bit closer then when the render was still wet.

Wall and ceiling in the dining room, looking west

North-eastern corner of dining room

Internal strawbale wall between living room and movie/music room

Internal strawbale wall towards hallway and entry

So, what else have we done in the last couple of weeks? Well we have completed some more gardening work. Jodie has finalised the pruning of the fruit trees, straw bales have been spread around the garden to protect trees and bushes, we have placed more tires around the native trees we planted earlier - they now have to each - and we have weeded the reed bed and transplanted some more reeds from the lagoon. So, some outdoor pictures to finish things off for this time:

Trellises for the grapes (not yet planted)

Trellises for raspberries - 20 planted so far

Close up of raspberries which are now starting to come out with leafs

Garden bed from strawberries and blueberries. The frame was built from hardwood timber given to us by a neighbour. It has previously been used as a fence. The posts are there if we want to change the use of the bed later. It was just easier to put them in when we had the tractor available!

Vegetable bed with broccoli, leak, etc.

Vegetable bed for lettuce, spinach, silver beat, etc.

Fruit tree trellis - strawbales to protect the trees and to keep the moisture in the ground

Apricot

Cherry tree.

Tyres protecting the natives we have planted along the lagoon. Overall we have this year planted about 650 natives.

That is it for now. As always, should you have any questions, or any comments, please send us an email. Just go to our contact page to find the details.

Cheers for now.

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