Peter and Natasha

1. vegie sausage stumps
(Comments)

Love the squirty glue-sauce! And it's amazing how our brains can work through things in sleep and dreams, I tried to take Tim's pulse in my sleep the other night...he wasn't impressed but in the mor

2. Friendly spider
(Comments)

Maybe the spider was trying to thank you Peter, for providing shade via your mode of building, ie stumps and not slab. Perhaps it is just taking refuge in the portaloo until the house floor goes on fo

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

...many things, and we would not have been able to get through the first hurdle of our build (getting the stumps in) if it wasn't for the work Peter did on Ari's house. The confidence that Peter gai...

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

...low. They are based in Qld, and have toilets that can be used on a concrete slab kind of house, or one on stumps lilke ours. The model we are using is the Classic750. It needs 750mm clearance undernea...

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

...te obvious, but it really is important.  Our test came very early in the build, in trying to get our stumps in. In 6 weeks Peter lost 10kg and Natasha lost 5kg, digging, cleaning out and re-diggi...

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

...th a front end loader David moved any impeding mounds of rocky earth that had been there since we put the stumps in nearly two years ago. With a cleaner slate to work with he then cleared the weeds an...

7. An excellent Sunday
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...r original stump adventures, trials and tortures. Today's ones were a lot more fun. Getting the new stumps in was quite easy and by the end of the day we had most of the decking bearer on for th...

8. Specifications of the house
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale House)

We've had a few questions about the actual building of the house, so here's a start: Stumps: * Timber - Treated Cypress Pine (termites don't like it) * No of stumps - 104 plus 13 verand

9. Boxing match
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

We received a couple of deliveries today which allow me to get on with the all important job of boxing and will also set us up for our baling weekend. All of the strapping, clips and tensioning tools

10. Wind and Rain
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...e wind. The wind at 128 Possumtail Run really is quite amazing. It's stopped us doing lots of work, from stumps and foundations (string lines didn't stand a chance) to the roof. In fact, it's stopped...

11. An old friend
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

I had a visit from an old friend today, or maybe son/daughter of old friend because he/she was not so big. Or too small for that matter.  As mentioned in a previous blog, I came across

12. Last good hole filled in
(Blog/Posts, beams, framing)

...'s been a funny feeling putting posts in the ground, kind of like a flash back to when we were putting in stumps but without the angst of not knowing what was in the ground.    The intention...

13. Veranda posts
(Blog/Posts, beams, framing)

... put rafters on we need to put our veranda posts in.  Doing this is like an extreme version of doing stumps.  Instead of 1.5 metre pieces of cypress pine we're dealing with 4.8 metre lengths...

14. T is for Termites
(Blog/Posts, beams, framing)

A lot has happened since the last blog but then again, not much has happened. Confused? Stick around, I'll explain.Since Tuesday we've been going back and forth trying to work out some clever kind of

15. Inexperiencedbuilderitis?
(Blog/Posts, beams, framing)

...pleted house and it will be a totally unique home to live in. Tomorrow I'm looking at finally bracing any stumps over a certain height, this is a fairly simple affair consisting of measuring the sizes...

16. Waking being
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

... been times when it seemed like nothing was happening, at least nothing was visually different.  The stumps were a good example of this.  But when posts started to go up, we could see our ho...

17. Hard to comprehend
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...and one or two of them smashed into our decking bearer knocking it off the stump and loosening one of the stumps.  Several sheets were broken into pieces.  These are heavy sheets so for the ...

18. Measuring Stump Heights
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...- things that look way off are actually perfect and things that look right on are right off! With stumps all at the same level I have put on Kordon, a termite barrier, with a metal ant cap on...

19. Last 6 stumps in
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

We have placed the last 6 stumps in the ground today.  After a big Saturday with help from Matt Noyes - man of many talents - and Peter Hosking we nailed 17 in a day.  That set us up for

20. Dingo Maestro Stu
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...ers, compacting the soil back into our concrete padded holes. Then we marked out the position of the stumps (we are getting very good at this by now, third time lucky) ready for stump hole drill...

21. Clean Fill - yeah right
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...bsp; So we’ve had 32 cubic metres of clean fill delivered to go into our trenchy holes around our stumps.  It’s come with bonus material!  One load with lots of chocolate wrap...

22. Trail blazers or crazy, hmm, not sure!
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...e trail blazers! The rock in our earth really is something. We have been working all weekend to get more stumps in - and we are now up to the single holes that have been excavated. They are pretty ...

23. Concreting underway
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...one was a huge relief and milestone. Today we (me, Natasha and her Dad Terry) have been putting in stumps!  We've gone for the easy ones first, those beautiful 1m deep lovely round holes...

24. Rain has arrived
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

...this week for Peter - we must have been in these trenches up to 10 times cleaning them, marking them for stumps and trying not to get caught up in string lines....he is so amazing. I have so much a...

25. The Bath - a great invention
(Blog/Stumps and Bearers)

... - we want to get it done this week! Once the concrete pads are laid, we can get busy getting the timber stumps in and back-filled. Then we will be well on the way to getting off the ground and out...

26. Straw Bale House
(Straw Bale House/Straw Bale Homepage)

...d say that without this experience, we would not have been able to get past the first big hurdle (getting stumps in - turned into a mega task!). We were both able to go to Ari's wall building w...