Entryway wardrobe, kitchen and old rendering pictures

Quite happy today as it is not that long since our last update. We've had some nice house development so thought it was best to share it quickly - also because it is really cold and windy outside and I (Geir) did not feel like doing any gardening today.

First of all, we have now semi-finished the wardrobe in the entryway. This is built in a simliar style to the ones in the bedroom, but with a slightly different structure as it is quite a bit wider. Instead of using structural ply as a dividing wall, we made up 3 frames out of EcoAsh to hold the upper part up and to hold the rail for hanging clothes on.

On the picture can be seen 2 of the 3 frames that hold it all up. The bottom of the wardrobe is built in the same way as the others, as are the doors.

All doors closed - except for the missing doors on top. These will come once we get to collect the hinges.

The next big project was the kitchen. From our original plans we have redesigned the kitchen, mainly due to our oversized cooker that we got second hand. We were planning to have an island bench in the middle and a breakfast bar on the bench towards the dining area, but have now changed this to have a bench out from the wall next to the fridge, with a breakfast bar on it, and just a normal bench towards the dining area. This has given us lots more floorspace in the kitchen - about 2m x 3m - which gives plenty of space for 2 or 3 people to be in the kitchen at the same time.

Since we are having a pantry we decided not to have any cupboards on the walls. This would have been difficult anyway, due to the main wall being a strawbale wall, but we really not need it either.

In respect of the structure, the boxes (as can be seen in the pictures below) are all built using 18mm structural ply resting on 90mm x 35mm hardwood beams. The walls in the boxes are of the same material, and the top sheet is made from form ply - also 18mm but with a special coating suitable when doing concrete form work. On top of the form ply we will pour a 40-50mm thick concrete slab which we will then polish (read: sand - due to cost) and wax.

To start with the latter, i.e. the concrete polishing. As many of you may know this is quite common when it comes to floors, but also on bench tops and table tops. We called a concrete polisher guy the other day and found that it is extreemely expensive. For floors it normally costs around AUD 100 - 150 per square meter. This guy wanted around AUD 600-800 per lineal meter of bench top, something we really cannot afford. We might call someone else too, just to confirm the price, but at these prices we have to do it ourselves. We do know someone here in Cremorne who made a table themselves, but have not had a closer inspection of it yet. We hope that me might get some free advice before we start the work.

But as a quick test, we did a quick sanding, using a belt sander with 40 sanding paper, on the bathroom floor. Before sanding it looked like this:

After the sanding it looked like this - in a dry condition:

We wetted it down to check what it might look like waxed, and it comes out quite nicely. This sample is based on a normal concrete slab, but we are likely to use a white cement instead of the normal gray, and may also put some other interesting stones/shells/glass in the concrete to bring out different features in the bench  top. We have decided to make a couple of tests first before we try it out in situ and we'll bring you pictures of these when they are done.

Now, back to the building of the kitchen benches - we did some pictures as we went, so here is a little overview:

Bottom beams, using 90mm x 35mm Eco Ash. The front beam was sanded down nicely so it will also double as a kick board.

18mm structural ply wood in place to form the bottom of the bench. Holes have been drilled for pluming pies and ropes were put in place so that we will be able to drag the pipes and cables from the dishwasher to the right locations.

Holes for wooden dowels were drilled both in the bottom and the sides using a template. The wooden dowels were then inserted.

Sides are put in place on the benc toward the dining area.

Sides are in place for the bench on the Eastern wall, where the sink will be.

A sheet of 7mm ply was then put in place on the bench towards the dining area. This was not really necessary, but as this "wall" will be covered in recycled bricks we thought it would be easier to lay the bricks by having a straight wall to follow. It also gives a ply back for the "boxes" in the bench, rather than a brick wall.

Boxes seen from the doorway into the pantry. The last job is then just to put the top on.

The top, made from form ply, is installed. When doing so we ensured that all the side walls were level and then screwed the top to the side walls. Picture is taken from the living area, looking east towards the kitchen.

Picture taken from the eastern corner of the dining are towards the kitchen/pantry.

Also taken from the dining are, but from the western corner, looking towards the living room on the left and the hallway into the bedroom and office.

And finally, looking from the hallway mentioned above towards the kitchen and dining area.

There are a couple of small things that have to be finished (hopefully tomorrow) and then the next step for the kitchen would be to pour the concrete bench top. We will come back to this when it happens, but before that we have to do the third coat of render on the inside. And there are other things that also have to happen before that stage.

And now for some pictures of the rest of the house that has been rendered some time ago, but where we have not published any pictures yet:

Hallway towards the two bedroom, laundry, toilet and bathroom

Second bedroom. Brick wall on the left has now been given one coat of render, and the strawbale wall with the windows has two coats.

Laundry with 2 coats of render

And finally, part of the second bathroom with two coats in place.

Another issue that has been resolved in the last few days is that of flooring. We have long wanted wooden floors in the house, except for in the bathrooms, toilet, laundry, entryway and kitchen. We had originally planned to used Tasmanian Oak which we would have bought from the local saw mill. All our Australian readers would probably know about the whole forestry debate in Tasmania and the various controversies involved. We are not opposed to using timber in the construction of our house but realise that there are big differences within forestry practices and the concept of sustainability. The fact that trees are planted by Forestry Tasmania in place of the ones felled, does not take away the fact that a lot of very bad logging is taking place, and some extremely valuable areas are being clearfelled and cable logged. For more information about this, please visit www.wilderness.org.au  (The Wilderness Society), or for a different point of view, visit www.forestrytas.com.au (Forestry Tasmania).

We visited the enviromental fair in Hobart a couple of weekends ago - an annual event every October, with lots of displays from organisations and companies dealing with more sustainable technologies/designs - and there we met someone whe had imported a lot of bamboo flooring for a project close to Port Arthur. They had excess stock and were offereing it just above their container import price, but for less than it is normally available through shops in Australia.

After some research and many phone calls we have decided to go with bamboo flooring. The type we will be using is called carbonized vertical bamboo. The cabonization process basically means that the bamboo is heated up and changes colour from its natural light colour. Vertical refers to the way it is manufactures - basically pieces of bamboo are laminated together side by side on edge, rather than with the horizontal which is thin layers of bamboo laminated together on top of each other.

Bamboo is by most considered to be a more sustainable product than timber in that the growing cycle takes about 6 years and after the bamboo is harvested, new bamboo grows out from same stock and can be harvested again in another 6 years time. In terms of hardness it is actually harder that Tasmanian Oak, meaning that there is less of a chance to get dents in the floor. The planks of bamboo are pretreated so there is no need to use either an oil or varnish after it is laid, thus saving us quite a bit of work.

Overall, with the amout of flooring we have to cover, the bamboo floor turned out to be a couple of hundred dollars more expensive than tas oak would have been, but considering that it is far less work, and a more sustainable product, we decided to go with the deal we got.

Here is a picture of the product laid on the floor at the project near Port Arthur:

And this is what it looks like in our house at the moment:

A lot of work in front of us!

See you all later.

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