Peter and Natasha

1. Good vibes
(Comments)

I'm sending you all the best good juju, vibes and karma for today's inspection. As I type this, mum & dad are winging their way to Aussie shores and I just know they're busting to meet their latest gr

2. Contribution and temperature
(Comments)

...ing zero, moral support and providing 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...

3. Love Arthur and Martha
(Comments)

... names Trini, and yes, it will be great to have Ivan with us.... Ari called last night and she is coming today and staying tonight as well.... and she has done all this before on her house - Peter won...

4. 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

5.
(Comments)

...get that bit right - cogitate and do a Dad - think much before acting. It looked hot at the Aussie Open today, so I was thinking of you. Wellington had a cold Southerly change and the temperature dr...

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

...blogs alone on the trials and tribulations of trying to get our solar hot water system working properly. Today is a cause for some serious celebration - the mystery is solved, and in the end it was mu...

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

...hat they have tried so far has not worked. But we are ever hopeful! I had a lovely drop in visitor today - Jan who I immediately remembered coming over to help one day when we were rendering. Ja...

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

...ious winter sunshine coming through our north-facing windows. It has been very cold, and very windy, and today's sunshine was a welcome relief! It was -1 degrees outside this morning when we woke...

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

...d an oven in summer. So our house is bliss! I imagine that some people would like it warmer. Take today for instance. We were in Melbourne overnight and arrived home at around 4.30pm. The sun h...

10. Performance
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

Today has been quite hot, and we have been home all day, so I have been checking out the temperature inside the house and out. Today we reached a high of 37.3 (in the shade) and amazingly Peter has be

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

... years gone by we have visited other houses and got a lot out of seeing what other people have done, and today we were able to open our doors (and minds and hearts) for others to experience. When I ap...

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

...pulled myself away from the amazingly warm and snazzy slow combustion wood heater which we had installed today. Oh my goodness, it's an absolute revelation..... and all due to Peter's very generous pa...

13. New opportunities
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ny questions for us! They were very satisfied (as were we) by the results at the end of the day. Then today we had another visit from our fabulous friend Logan, who along with Peter (and a little ...

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

...n when it's 10 degrees maximum - as long as there is sunshine, we get hot water. It's looking less windy today, so it might be a good day to walk around the block planning where our bare-rooted fruit ...

15. Rendering Bliss
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...h was fantastic. The crappy weather did not deter Mel from coming out to render with us for a second day today (yes, she is an absolute legend, we are very aware of this!), nor did it deter Aygun (ano...

16. On the path to completion
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

Well today my fears have been allayed. People have told us (from experience) that once you move in to a self-built house, the motivation to get things complete is rare and almost non-existent. Given w

17. At least another day
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

We rang up to book in our Certificate of Occupation inspection today, but there's a 24 hour wait until the inspection can take place. This is a little annoying as we tried to book it in on Friday but

18. Hot days on the deck
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...gether different sized, patterned and shaded pieces of recycled timber.I expect to finish the last of it today and then get back to ceiling. I need to put up the last of the insulation and fit sizalat...

19. It's a long way to the top if you wanna straw bale
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...o say hello, and Tathra and Gilda came to get stuck into some rendering. It was fantastic! Then today we had Josie & Anthony, and Geoff & Patty come to help build. Patty has filled ou...

20. Appreciation
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... pretty much at zero, as maximum rest and taking care of my growing belly has been the order of the day. Today I spent some time resting and snoozing on the futon couch/bed in our bedroom-to-be at the...

21. New Year's Eaves
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ed. Hopefully it will be done by the end of the year (tomorrow). I've been putting in ceiling insulation today as well as cleaning up inside and out. It's easier to think in a clear space so although ...

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

Today was good indeed. Logan arrived at 9am and we threw in the last of the bedroom windows. I've been waiting until I had another set of hands until I fit the remaining windows, one of them being the

23. Bog blog
(Blog/Walls and Render)

I broke my rule of working on any day over 35˚ today. I knew it was hot, but hadn't realised it was that hot. The mercury has moved to the 40˚ mark today in Bacchus Marsh and that might go s

24. Dirty work
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... they worked on, and more. What a beautiful group of people we've had come to help, I feel really lucky. Today I embarked on some more rendering - inside this time. I really had fun doing it all by my...

25. Render, kitchen, doors
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...stalled a lot of insulation and we put in some more sizalation too. The ceiling is slowly getting there. Today I've been working on our composting toilet, digging a trench - yes it's back to digging a...

26. The joy of windows
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...t a lot of joy to be had there. I'm talking about the windows I've been joyfully installing in our house today with the help of Aygun. Before getting to install anything today we went on a big clean u...

27. Many tasks
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... couple of years ago. As a result of the sodden ground and ongoing rain I didn't get into much rendering today. It was just me on site except for a wonderful lunch visit from Natasha.I mixed up my tas...

28. Getting closer
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... in order to have another area complete. That will mean that end of the house has all been final coated. Today we had Mel, Aygun and Katrina out to help us with the studio while I started putting up c...

29. Good mud
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... the ceiling to give us both, and not compromise fire safety or insulation.  More about that later. Today I managed to sell our surplus of bales to the local farm supplies shop and clear some spa...

30. Another big dose of generosity
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ce, and I think everyone slept pretty soundly except for Peter and I, mainly because of the heat. Today we awoke to a much cooler morning, and thankfully it stayed pretty cool (compared to yest...

31. Unfinished business
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ing attention before the 2nd coat is shrinking and even better, most walls now have their first coat on. Today, Angela and then Brenton came to help and rendered the remaining parts of the bathroom an...

32. Catch up
(Blog/Walls and Render)

It has been the first really warm day of spring, with temperatures reaching 29˚c. I wore shorts today for the first time in many months! We are about halfway between our 1st and 2nd coats of rend

33. Keeping the focus
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...t fine! We have had lots of fun over the last two days. My sister Katrina has been with us yesterday and today, and our fabulous friend Samantha came over today as well. I took a few days off work to...

34. All loved up
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... are SO MANY ideas and suggestions that have made a massive difference to our build, and I just realised today that we have been really open to it. My mum has come down so many times to cater ...

35. When too many layers are not enough
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...tra long socks - check Two woollen beanies - check Long woollen scarf - check But was I wrong! Today was icy - and so so so windy. Even inside the house out of the wind (well kind of), I wa...

36. Reality Check
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...at our planning and forward thinking has been a little lacking. I am working tomorrow (Saturday) so took today (Friday) off, got to sleep in a little and then go out to the house building with Peter o...

37. Many hands make fun work
(Blog/Walls and Render)

We have met the most amazing and generous people whilst on this house building quest. Today we had visits from our beautiful friend Sharon, and the always dependable Nicole (Nic) along with her two

38. Down to the wire
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...c! This gives me hope for living in a low rainfall area. Secondly, we had wind gusts beyond 100kph again today, the house stands without a creak or squeak but the portaloo has gone horizontal again. T...

39. Let the stuffing begin!
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

It's been a lovely weekend. Peter and I really enjoyed working together yesterday, and today we had lots of lovely visitors. Whilst I had some rest at home this morning, Alan and Peter started getting

40. Roof on, except when it's not
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...erent feeling having a roof overhead though, it increases the options of things to work on considerably. Today I have been putting up window frames in the clerestory window gap so that we can further ...

41. Big steps down a long road
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

... I'm really looking forward to the next two days!  Finally, Happy Birthday to my Dad Ian, who is 70 today!  Woohoo!  ...

42. A great day
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

Our wishes for a still day must have been heard by someone importatant, because today we had a perfect day for roofing! Tim and Darren (our roofers) arrived early this morning, as did Peter, to a cool

43. Long Way There
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...ss with the extension ladder (maybe they had a nasty altercation in a previous life-time). Yesterday and today I have been fixing walls (taking bits off the end as they are hanging over a bit), buildi...

44. Couldn't fascia before
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...le board and Colorbond steel in the size and specifications we require. I took on the first part of that today by fitting the board to part of the north side of the house. It's tidying things up quite...

45. Straw Bales
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...r fascia together, but that is all that stops us getting a roof on.  But it gets even more exciting.Today is the day we start putting up our walls! We had a day of help from Cam and Leora yesterd...

46. Wind. Cheese. Time.
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...corporate. It's kinda fun though. Although it will be a bit harder to carry timber around the site after today when we'll have our straw bales delivered. We had between 5-10mm of rain yesterday, the t...

47. 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

48. Inspection time
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...'s put off until we can work this out. Maybe 2 weeks. Watch this space. We had our framing inspection today. The last inspection we had was for a moonscape called stump holes, some time last year. ...

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

...e hard yakka). In the meantime I just keep telling Peter how amazing he is.  It's still quite windy today, and Peter is out there again, up the ladder (and being careful of course). Now we just h...

50. Stillness doesn't stay still
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...ng up a string line. Again the weather intervened but it was a very productive day. The plumbers were in today finishing off some black water piping and installing our grey water unit. It's been a goo...