The house is finished

We have now been 3 weeks in the house and it's been great.  To finally have our own space again has been good  for everyone involved.  Cath and I have spent the last three weeks getting used to the house, finding out it's successes and failures.  I am please to say that failures are small, our open showers do not work as we wanted them to, and people who spend a lot of time camping would know there are a lot of bugs out there!!  We get them coming through the screens for the lights.  It's all a learning curve and I'm sure we will continue to learn and find ways to make things better.
Would we build a straw bale house again?  maybe too early to answer this as our response at the moment is no.  We had a shit year with the weather and every aspect from footings, to straw to render was greatly affected - perhaps building in a dry year we might think differently. I think 12 months in the house will determine how we feel about it - having a winter in there without heating (we have individual heaters) will show us whether the straw will work for us.
As for the land and the spot we are in - we love it!  It's great to see the cows next door just wander by the front door - kangaroos are truly in our back paddock - and last week whilst out on the deck I saw a Koala climbing up the tree - a sight most people don't get to see in the wild, so I am stoked about that.  It's peaceful and calm - something that appeals to me after a long a stressful year. 

A few photos...

We still have so much to do - as you can see the house is not painted, and the other rooms do not have the floors done.  We want to get a veggie garden going, and we are still unpacking boxes... but I am learning that we will get there - and sometimes there is a book that you just need to read before doing any work... or maybe a puzzle



Fixout Stage

Well the house survived the floods - we had a lot of water on the property, but this was from the rain rather than the river.  Its good to know that we will be OK if the bremer floods again.
We are now 2 - 3 weeks away from moving in.  We can hardly believe it!! We are out there this weekend to do the prepping on the walls so we can then paint them.  Got no idea what colours yet... maybe we will be inspired...

This is oliver's room - the bench seat that we will use to hide all his toys.  The floor has been done but the skirting and architraves are yet to be finished.

 This is the loft - louvres out for painting and skirting and architraves done.

The Granny flat is the most complete at the moment - skirting and architraves are done and now just waiting for the walls to get the decor coat.

View from Ollie's room looking back on the breezeway.



We were out at the house on Australia day painting some of the louvres, it was pretty hot but I thought the house fared pretty well - although it was sticky work I did feel that the heat was not oppressive.  The Granny flat breezeway with both sides having earth walls helped cool that area down.  I think we are both hoping that we will not need to get air conditioning. 

Handover date is the 7th of Feb - and we are quietly confident.  We spoke to Paul the builder and told him that we were prepared to let the date slide if it meant finishing it completely.  We have had some issues sourcing dry clay for the external render, but we think we now have enough on site to get this completed. I think we would all be happier if the house was done and dusted without Paul having to come back.  We are sick of the place being a building site and he is sick of staying in the caravan so its nice that we are all heading in the right direction.

Plumber on site next Monday with the Tank man to clean the tank and connect the sewerage / water - then its just the electrician to finish off and we are done!

Can hardly believe it...

Internal fitout

The tiler has been and installed the tiles, its great to see the trades come through - I beleive the plumber has been out there to install the fittings for the bathrooms.  Paul managed to source some lovely camphor laurel to finish off the top plates for the living room and the bench seats in each of the rooms.

Internals

From the loft looking out towards the east - you can see some of the camphor laurel board

Spiral staircase to the loft - beyond that you can see one of the bench seats

Goin up to the loft

Main Bathroom

Breezeway looking down to Ollie's bedroom

The Laundry

Getting closer

Since we moved out of the rental we lost the camera charger so we were unable to get any good photos - of course we found the charger after we had bought a new one.... Murphy's law!!
We went out last Saturday to have a look at the progress. The guys have started cobbing for the first coat of render, the rain is playing havoc with the schedule and consequently the house is not going to be ready until early feb.  Cath and I are very dissapointed, but when it rains as much as it has been doing there is not a lot that can be done.
Some pics of the outside...

This is the back of the house with the first coat of render on

Front of the house

Master Bedroom with the railing starting to go up

Looking at the master bedroom door and  entry to the bathroom

It's called 'enclosed'

It's been a busy old time for the three of us - finalising moving, getting organised, and putting wood on steel joists.
We went out a couple of times to fix the cleats on the joists but we did not get them finished in time.  I found it hard to work if Ollie wasn't settled, and though I'm not making him my excuse I did find it hard going.
Cath and I can't believe we are getting closer to the finish.  We went out to speak to Paul last night and we should see some tiling early next week, flooring next week, then after that maybe some mud on the straw.  It will be hard being in Canberra and knowing that things will still be kicking along - I think we are both looking forward to some chill time - once we are back we will have a lot of painting and fencing to do.

Latest photos

Finished deck out of the main bedroom - just needs squaring off

Cath and Ollie hanging out on the deck

 Decking on the right breezeway completed

Outside loft completed - windows and louvres are in.

update from the house site

I went out over the weekend to check the place out (without Cath cause the car is broken and the only one with a car seat) and took some snaps on the progress.  They are making good progress with the exterior cladding and the sliding doors are in.  We will be out there one the weekend (car permitting) so we can finish the cleats and tidy up behind the shed in prep for all the gardening equipment to come out there.  We worked out we have about 8 weekends before we go to Canberra and there are a lot of things that need to be done from our side.

Hoping that Paul will start trimming up the walls so we can get going with the cobbing

Installing cleats

When we went back to Paul and asked him to quote for the whole job there were a couple of things we excluded.  Preparing the soil (which with all this rain has become a major headache - hopefully resolved by the stuff that was taken out of the biolytix hole).  The sanding and finishing of all floors, and installing cleats to the steel joists.  We decided that screwing the decking to the steel would take too long and was valuable labour time we did not want to spend.  We came up with the idea of installing pieces of timber along the joists so the decking can then be nailed to the timber - making it a quicker process.  This will also make the decking hopefully end up in line with the internal flooring making it seamless.... well that's the theory anyway

Site Supervisor - you just gotta have them!

Thanks to everyone that came out on the weekend to help - we managed to get all done bar the pool table area and the northern breezeway - and that was because the doors and scaffolding were on them.  We'll get back out there this weekend and hopefully some of the decking will be down.