We were blessed again with mild weather for
rendering. Brad and Mark arrived to a lovely cool morning at the house on
Sunday morning, and before long we were getting stuck into the third and final
coat of render on our inside walls.
We had almost forgotten to do some test
renders, but thankfully the hot weather dried them out quickly (Peter did them
Friday morning), and his combo of 5 parts washed sand, 10 parts local red
clayish sand and 1.5 parts lime, was just the thing. This was a real bonus, as we
didn’t have to muck around changing the render mix on the day. As an added bonus, we loved the colour of it as well.
We had a fantastic line-up of Teresa (aka
the workhorse legend), Ben (the self-proclaimed and very necessary ‘anal’ wall
finisher), ever vibrant and adaptable Hans (thank you for lending us your tools)
and Cath (best cake-maker ever and excellent wall finisher), as well as Logan
(thank you for your hard work and fabbo kiwi humour). So we were set for a
great day.
Each coat of render has required very
different work once it hits the walls. The third coat, not surprisingly
requires the most work and finishing. I must mention that I am on ‘no duties’
and mostly watched all of this (torture!) so when I say ‘we’, I mean
collectively! Once we got into the swing of it, we worked really well as a
team, and the first wall that was done was a piece of art – the down side is
that it is now the benchmark, and without Ben’s perfecting eye, I’m not sure if
we will be able to match it on our other walls!
One interesting thing we found was that
Peter and I have different ideas about the kind of finish we wanted. Our theory
was that we would go with the higher end of what we both wanted. I like the
more rough look, with little holes and dents, whereas Peter prefers a more
finished look. No problem for me, and it was resolved easily and
quickly. Brad had told us that we wouldn’treally know the kind of finish we were looking for until we
did it and had a look. He was right (of course!).
I remember looking at other straw bale
houses and photos and wondering how our walls would look in comparison, and I
must confess I LOVE our walls. They are better than I could ever have imagined.
The third coat is so
transformative that it’s hard to believe that the final coat makes them look
soooooo good.
We got the lounge, kitchen, dining, and
master bedroom/ensuite done yesterday, and now we have a much better idea of
how long things take. So the next
two weekends are hand-rendering extravaganzas, and now with our experience in
the three coats, we can set up teams and really go for it.
The rendering stage is by far the most
favourite part of the build so far for Peter and I, and everyone who has had a
go has absolutely loved it – what can I say, there is something very special
about playing with mud!
Straw Bale House 
