Peter and Natasha

1. Photos
(Comments)

Would love photos of your vegetable garden some time and of course some with Dylan in them would be even better!

2. loo details
(Comments)

...e about your project. We went for the ecoflo - details at http://www.ecoflo.net.au/products/Toilets/fulltime/fulltime/classic750ecotoilet.html. If you are ever down our way, you are very welcome to vi...

3. Question about the Loo & Thanks
(Comments)

...t for our own straw bale house to be built in the next couple of years. Also wanted to say as a long time reader, first time poster how much I enjoy and value your site. I've been thinking about st...

4. Little Steps and Bigger Steps
(Comments)

...e in a different way now you have front door access - fabulous. Dylan will be just about running by the time we see him at his present rate of progress. Time can't come soon enough....

5. Tidy up
(Comments)

That is something we could have done when we were over stayinhg with you if only we'd had a bit more time. It will make a huge difference to Dylan's view and the kangaroos will no doubt be happy as w

6. Deckadence
(Comments)

just think of all the gorgeous times and memories to come on the fabulous looking deck.....crawling tackers, frothy bevvies, trikes, meals.....lovely

7. thank you
(Comments)

...eading our blogs....we look forward to giving you a grand tour of the house when you come to visit some time in the future (hopefully not tooooo long...!). xx...

8. Contribution and temperature
(Comments)

...iding refreshments are pretty important contributions! Loved being there today! Looking forward to next time. It was warmish outside and even with the lack of doors and seals around windows it was...

9. Kitchen delight
(Comments)

... the kitchen in the house. It makes it all seem very close now. I checked back on your photos from this time last year - you had rain then too with stump holes full of mud and comments about your ute ...

10. windy
(Comments)

The unseasonable and extreme wind reminds me of when we moved to Kinglake - it snowed 3 times in the first 6 weeks...coldest spring in 25 years. We were utterly ill-prepared for the cold and felt so h

11. Great Strides
(Comments)

.... We are enjoying having more frequent updates again now that you are back on the build on a more full time basis....

12. government
(Comments)

Yes Ray, by the time Government policy trickles down to the people who elect them it is very diluted and practically ineffective. The other disappointing thing I've just discovered is that the rebate

13. Red Tape
(Comments)

...in't get much As weither the goverment are real about the planet the answer is no As to the delemer re time line create a taem to come back on track and put my name on the list regards Ramond...

14. Tradespeople
(Comments)

...cular one is concerned, I hope you haven't paid him in full and I hope you don't. He has messed up big time....

15. brenda
(Comments)

Viewing the bush scene with the two new logs after felling brings back so many memories of times in Cooktown in 1974 acheiving the same chore, and spending time removing the bark hard to believe the s

16. Greetings from Scotsburn
(Comments)

...t place. At least with timber framing you can make adjustments relatively easily. Hope to catch up sometime and see your progress, or you come up and visit us. Good building and best wishes, Anne &...

17. grateful
(Comments)

...story.... so thankful for your support and fantastic unlifting words. It's the stuff we live duirng the times when there's not much else left....

18. treebeard
(Comments)

Trine it's time you read Lord of the Rings. Treebeard is a character in the second book. He's a tree. With a beard.

19. cogitationary
(Comments)

Thanks Mum, yes cogitation is the order of the day. It got to 43 today so I'll have lots of time to do that because I can't work in that weather! I stopped at 40Ú today. Midday! Phew. Lucky I sta

20. Singing and
(Comments)

Wonderful to know you've the time and inclination for singing and dancing! It is great to see that the battle of the joists is close to being won. It is a fascinating journey and one which we are so

21. Hot water at last
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ry and kitchen hot water, I turned down the basin flow, got into the shower and hoped for the best. Sometimes it can go quite cold for no apparent reason, but not this morning. Now I am not goi...

22. Goodbye yellow tongue
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

Back around the time of the bushfires that wrought havoc and misery on the state and winds that blew me off the joists and damaged my knee, we were laying down the yellow tongue flooring. That has b

23. When you're hot, you're HOT!
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...vely breeze come through cooling the house down at night, and we are also really enjoying spending some time on our two now complete decks - the handrails and finishing touches really do make a differ...

24. In hot water, or not
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... since March 2010. Generally we can get it working by turning on multiple hot taps at once but that sometimes doesn't work and it's a barely lukewarm shower or nothing. Not much fun in winter. It all ...

25. New Life
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...t 15 weeks, and would do anything to get horizontal, so my priorities have been else where! At the same time, Peter's work has really ramped up and his 'part time' job is often 6 days a week. Se...

26. The longest time
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...e we have been doing on the house of late - but things are turning around, phew! Instead of having time, but no money, now we have money and less time! Ha, I know which one I would rather. As I s...

27. Sunshine on my shoulders
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ter had some friends come over this last week for a jam, and we are busting to get into some recording! Time to put this amazing shaped room with fantastic acoustics to work!   ...

28. It's all relative
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...dn't light the fire. The sun warmed the house up very nicely (to 18 degrees) and we spent some gorgeous time on the north deck soaking up the warmth of the sun. Divine! But I have nothing to ...

29. Building Community
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal .MsoChpDefault div.WordSection1 One of the great things about the community we

30. The Hilux
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal .MsoChpDefault div.WordSection1 Well before we started to build our house we bo

31. Nice Dream
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal .MsoChpDefault div.WordSection1 I remember the feeling we had coming back from outi

32. Our Fabulous Composting Toilets
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

...ll we use the toilet in the same way (ie sit on it and do our thing!) and the stuff in it composts over time. This is from the Ecoflo website: "The waste is collected in a small chamber dir...

33. No Experience Necessary
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

...roughout the build. In saying this, Brain did not set foot on our property during our build. Sometimes we needed to sendhim photos, but mosty everything was done over the phone. * Gettin...

34. How we built/compressed our external staw bale walls
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

...ression may not seem like much more work, but it was significant. Intermediate boxing added significant time (and costs) to the walls, something we did not know when we designed the house. Having said...

35. New Loo
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...mployers in the Bacchus Marsh/Melton area. Work in his field (film - sound editing) is pretty dry. Part-time work locally is what we are after, to supplement my work/income and get us moving on the bu...

36. Brewing
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ey, and it would be great to provide more detailed information for others - both to save them money and time, and sometimes just as importantly, to save them heartache. I have had numerous peop...

37. Ticking things off
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...nd hot. But those days are now a distant memory.  Peter has been working really hard, sometimes in quite warm conditions and Dylan and I have been his cheer squad. He has really enjoyed ...

38. Twos
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

This blog's theme is twos.   With our focus on working for the majority of the time recently, we've spent little time maintaining our block of land. As a result it's become a bit of a jungle. The

39. Off the wagon
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...on holidays, recharging our batteries in our beloved Port Fairy with family and friends. It's a perfect time to catch up, re-energise and get some added perspective on finishing the house. I have a co...

40. Carried Away
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

This must be the longest 'in between blogs' time on record.... I think in part because we don't have much to report on! We've both been working part-time, and Sundays have started to become our only d

41. Past the two-year mark
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

Time is a funny thing. In some ways it seems not long ago that we first set out on our house-building quest, full of enthusiasm and blind faith. In other ways it seems like a great deal of time has pa

42. One room to go
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ey are few (ceiling, flooring, the walls are mostly taken care of!). We feel OK about spending a little time gardening now and just appreciating this amazing spot we live in. ...

43. Website and progress
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...us way would be to put a couple of Google ads on a part of the page and hope that they get clicked from time to time. I asked Natasha what she thought of this idea. Clearly websites don't get provi...

44. Front and south
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...as a platform to render on so last week I got on to the joists. I've been itching to do this for a long time so it was very satisfying to get into it. I got most of the joists on, enough to be able to...

45. Opening our doors
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...n and get some additional work done on the house.... that was certainly accomplished. Just at the right time, we've been able to finish many half-finished projects, and other things that have just bee...

46. All weather access
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

We started building in October 2008 and since that time we've been subject to the vagaries of the weather when trying to get on to the land by vehicle. At times this has meant taking on a little rally

47. Heaters and Cupboards
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

Well it's been a busy few weeks, and now it's all coming together! I have just pulled myself away from the amazingly warm and snazzy slow combustion wood heater which we had installed today. Oh my goo

48. A holiday
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

Being a Kiwi there's only so long I can stay away from the country I grew up in and it was way past time for Dylan to meet all of his family on my side. So we've spent a wonderful 11 days away from th

49. Winter is here
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...w combustion wood heater (looking in ebay at the moment) to get some warmth into the house. At the same time, we have been trying to fill in the gaps where draughts are coming in to reduce the cold ai...

50. Render window trampoline mushroom
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...in! Through in the studio our small east facing window has been blocked up by a piece of ply for a long time now. Finally I got to putting some glass in there! It is an amazing window because it's sma...