Peter and Natasha

1. Summer heat in the Marsh
(Comments)

... in the house though. Very, very exciting! Keep up the good work and good luck for the next week or ten days....

2. Go Peter
(Comments)

...he pointy end of things...be kind to yourself...and also I hope you get some good sleep in the next few days.....I hope this will allow you some peace in your mind, and then this will allow for the na...

3. Kitchen delight
(Comments)

...h stump holes full of mud and comments about your ute being stuck in the mud. What a change since those days clearing out stump holes and getting floor bearers on. It has been a remarkable achievement...

4. Boxing, Bales and Gales
(Comments)

... make the trip. We're looking forward to seeing photos of the straw bale installation over the next few days. Happy building!...

5. yay
(Comments)

Thanks trin, yes, you are right, funny how we have all these days off for a Christian celebration. I don't know where I would put the wedding photos, maybe I will add a new photo album just for people

6. easter joy
(Comments)

...uys - hooray for the dominant Christian culture of this country such that you could have these glorious days to build! Lookin' great. You should include some of the lovely photos of you two frocked up...

7. scale model
(Comments)

...l. And no need for perching on ladders. We'd love to see the progress on your house on one of our rare days off. We are still getting ideas from everywhere as our house goes up....

8. Glitch
(Comments)

What disappointment that things have conspired against you over the past few days. It is really tough trying to overcome such setbacks, but you'll probably discover some unexpected silver lining furth

9. who is treebeard?
(Comments)

16 degrees sounds wonderful right now Sue, grass is always greener i suppose...however 3 consecutive days of 43 degrees is beyond the pale. Just think Peter and Tarsh, next summer (or maybe the on

10. wild and windy
(Comments)

...th unstoppable. Might need to work in the early morning/evening this week though, the forecast is for 4 days over 35 degrees. Still, we've had remarkably few heat waves this summer, and Jan. is nearly...

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

... late, that is for sure. It got to 34 degrees this afternoon, and at 8.30pm it's still very warm. A few days ago it didn't get above 12 degrees all day - and overall it's been blowing an absolute gale...

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

...  Having the wetback fitted and connected will allow us to heat our water on cold and cloudy days with our slow combustion fire. We bought the fire from Insolar (www.insolar.com.au - these ...

13. New Life
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...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. Secondly, our local community has been hit with a huge social, environmental ...

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

...so he is rightly pleased with himself. So after 3 weeks of full time training and then working Sundays at our local Foodworks, Peter is knackered (and so am I) so this weekend is catch up weeken...

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

...the first people we met. Ari now has a fabulous partner Dean, and a gorgeous daughter Issy (born a few days after our Dylan). They have a straw bale house in Malmsbury (just past Kyneton on the way...

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

...ound a straw bale owner builder 50 min drive from us, and Peter helped them build for a few months (2-3 days/week). It was an investment of his time, but absolutely invaluable - in fact it's almost wo...

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

...some fabulous clips, and some compression clamps. The intermediate straps were compressed over 3 days, and this compression is extremely effective in providing strength and stability to the wal...

18. Deck done
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... all the "more important" building tasks! I built the south deck!  It took me about four days to complete but I've been looking forward to it for ages so it hardly seemed to take a mome...

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

...l here, so we have not had the windows open much, which makes the house quite stuffy and hot. But those days are now a distant memory.  Peter has been working really hard, sometimes in q...

20. Twos
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...w we can frolic again without a care.   Not that we have much time for frolickery. In the last two days I've returned to building action. Being a rural location we get lots of flies, spiders and ...

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

...th I have had my 'head down, bum up' working in my environmental job (GFA) , and we are now on holidays, recharging our batteries in our beloved Port Fairy with family and friends. It's a perfect...

22. Carried Away
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

....... 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 day where we are both off from work, and this time we have ...

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

...o we were putting the finishing touches on the house, nervously awaiting our inspection. Those were the days! A few days ago Peter did a plan of the things we have left to do and we are feeling ...

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

...in. It may seem like a never-ending task to some but we just do a day here and a day there. Most of our days are now taken up with work or looking after Dylan so we build when we can. It's a really ni...

25. Chipping away
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

On cold days there is a lot of temptation to do odds and ends inside but we still need to attend to weather tight issues outside. So I've been rendering the east wall, continuing what was mostly finis

26. A holiday
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

... 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 the house with no way of doing any building. The only house related task we did w...

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

...it filled in that tight angle a bit. So after a few hours the room was ready for a second coat. Several days later we started. What we have discovered with render is that in summer, render can dry in ...

28. Rendering Bliss
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...d hang out until sleep time again. Luckily he sleeps well, so I got to have a good go at rendering both days. I am like a bull at a gate, as I never know how much time I am going to have to render, an...

29. A big list and a special visit
(Blog/Living and Finishing)

...ifferent angles and distances so I'm always enjoying seeing it from different spots. A couple of days after finishing this rendering we had a visit from Brian Hodge (our building consultant), w...

30. Keeping perspective
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...nishing off in the ensuite... and the list goes on! The good news is that Peter only has 2 more days of contracting work, and then we can get stuck into some organising and building work. In a...

31. Taking a breath
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...er has had some contracting work, which is fantastic for our bank balance, but has meant some very long days and burning the candle at both ends. Regardless, we are as happy as fishies in the se...

32. Certificate of Occupancy!
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...rting to dawn on me that we are actually living in a house that we own and built. Living here for a few days has given me the chance to see the house as a home and not just as a series of problems to ...

33. Train keeps a-rolling
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

It has been a while since my last blog, due to having worked long days every day since the 12th of Feb. It's now the 28th and I'm getting quite achey and pained in many ways (not helped by a ladder fa

34. Patience is a virtue
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...nd then there is the cob and rendering on the outside. Patience, patience! At least we have a few days of cool weather to keep us sane, and mum is here working like a maniac helping me pack, cle...

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

The weather lately has been pretty toasty, quite often 35˚, so it might seem odd to be working outside while the temperature stays cooler inside. But while there is decking to do, there is enough

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

... of occupancy, we are pacing ourselves and enjoying this new journey called parenthood! The last few days have reminded Peter and I of the amazing contribution our friends and family have been, and...

37. Dylan arrives and lock-up achieved
(Blog/Lock up and inspection)

...l have a comfortable place to live and grow in. I've been pottering away during the week on a couple of days but my mind has been back with Natasha and Dylan. And I'm exhausted from the new rhythms th...

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

...ot to a stage where it really helps to pay some professionals to accelerate our progress (Natasha is 10 days from her due date and our mortgage is looking very pregnant too). Steve and Shaun from Cull...

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

...ing and quite simple to achieve. So I felt like we got a lot done today after a couple of relaxed days off over Christmas and Boxing Day. A bit of help goes a long way. Thanks guys!  ...

40. Dirty work
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ly, overseeing our amazing visitors rendering for a while but I got back into it myself in the last two days and remembered how much I enjoy it. It's a process with stages like most other jobs but it ...

41. Composting toilet
(Blog/Walls and Render)

... roof, get the materials required and dig an absorbtion trench. With the digging it could be an hour or days. Let's hope for the hour. The toilet looks good and I wanted to use it there and then. I wi...

42. Getting closer
(Blog/Walls and Render)

Heat, a cool change, a couple of days of paid work - it's been an interesting week. On the first 3 days of this week I had the company of Natasha's dad Terry who helped with a good amount of rendering

43. Ongoing heat
(Blog/Walls and Render)

.... The temperature has been going into the 30s since about Friday and it looks like continuing for a few days yet. Apart from sapping my energy levels and making outside work a very hot and sweaty busi...

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

...the outside walls with a second coat. We had optimistically hoped to have all the walls complete in two days, but this was a little unrealistic! So we are back to our planning board to figure out how ...

45. Catch up
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...for my jokes. I can't help myself. Logan's company was greatly enjoyed, he has spent quite a few of his days off helping with our build and I really appreciate his skills, attitude and Kiwiness! As wi...

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

... and we are trusting that everything will turn out just 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 c...

47. Rendering with the stars
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...as we were up at 6am preparing and on site at 7.30. What a huge day! We were planning to do it over two days but now we have the majority done and that's a great feeling. Thanks so much to EVERYONE wh...

48. Countdown
(Blog/Walls and Render)

...ad the word about straw bale. So after more planning and thinking tonight, we are ready for 3 big days, and very excited (and nervous) about how we will go with our first coat of render. Trust i...

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

...ger weekends, and to not have to worry about food is such a god-send. She made our all our lunches both days, and we got home from building at 7pm tonight, happily exhausted, knowing that we didn't h...

50. Tank you
(Blog/Rafters and Roofing)

...lf quite engaging most of time, I am rather predictable. We've also set next weekend (12th and 13th) as days to launch back into internal walls, with any extra sets of hands we can muster. If it all g...