Forever House #17

Weds 26th June, 2013

The 'A' 'Team

Building up to the big "push", over the first week of July out at the farm. There was much preparation done last weekend when Jeff came back out with me to do some serious work. We towed the trailer into Lismore, via a few suppliers to pick up needed items. Fastenings, a dozen sheets of Hardiflex, and three bags of insulation was all we could fit this trip. Rain threatened and insulation is said to be useless if wet. We took what could fit in the ute on top of boxes from home. We got to the caravan after dark on the Friday night - work started on Saturday morning and went fairly solidly until Sunday afternoon. On the way home , we were driving east into a full moon all the way. It was dark by Casino. We were starving and talked about what we were going to make for dinner all the way home in the car, took turns having hot showers, and made a delicious meal to complete a fabulous weekend.

Power plan

Jeff sorted out the ramshackle scaffolding to suit his purposes. He had brought a ladder from Dad, and one of his own, to add extra trustworthiness to what was on offer. I use a lot of 44 gallon drums as my supports when mudding. But Jeff needed to be up 3m at the ceiling height. (Being tall as I am, a high ceiling was important to me - although it does add it's challenges sometimes. If I'd had an eight foot ceiling, the mud walls would be finished as the height they are now. But I am very happy to meet the challenges for the contribution the extra height adds to the feel of the house.)
We planned the wiring on Saturday - drew a plan in my journal. And Jeff  single handedly drilled the furring channel to the top hats in the areas that are our current focus. Next week he, Ken and Connor, Currawinya Dave and I, will run the wiring, lay the insulation, and sheet the areas of ceiling that cover the rooms that have mud walls. We estimate seventy square metres. 

Jeff's handywork

lfurring channel on top hats

I hovered around the edges being of assistance to Jeff when needed. I made coffees and lunch. In between times I cleaned out the rat infested shed. And Jeff and I had a four hundred dollar fire as we burned a whole mellomine chip board kitchen which I bought and took out to the farm in 2004. I am so glad it never was installed. But, I am very sorry it became a rats nest. To be rid of it is a very cleansing outcome for the weekend. The before and after photos say it all. I did save the cupboard doors, in case I decide to paint them and use them in the Forever House kitchen. I'm thinking I'll use metal cupboards, I don't want hidden wet timber anywhere. The doors I saved are slatted pine, and my cheapest option. Painted with glass knobs - I think they might scrub up. And they have a history in this project.

Before

After exhibit 2

After Exhibit 1

The house is deliberately including things with a history. Maybe that's about a place for me and mine to belong. I have moved often, but now, creating history in an already familiar place among familiar people has become important. I said to someone the other day, and I have said it often, I don't want to have to remake myself again. Life is good as it is. I have two beautiful spaces to call home. The kids have a history out at the farm as well. Much as they would rather forget many of their school experiences out there when ten and eleven; they have both embraced what is happening with the house now. Neither of them can wait for it to be finished. Spence has a heap of friends he wants to bring out. And he offered to come out and help. Maybe Christmas. Danika wants to live there some time in the not too distant future and grow vegies and make music. She keeps hassling me for my next blog - she is living vicariously through me in regards to being out at the farm often. I told them unless Jeff and I win the lottery they'll have to buy it eventually because it's my superannuation.
Back to the kitchen, I have a gorgeous Baltic pine bench top long, straight with a double sink. Long story short, I was given it by the magistrate I worked with when working in the courts. It fits perfectly along the wall under the kitchen where a pipe is set in for a sink. 

to be remade to fit the back door

While I was cleaning up the shed I rediscovered some damaged old stained glass windows I came upon a long time ago when first at the farm - I am a little unsure how I happened upon them. I always thought of them as things that needed repairing, and I don't really like repairing so didn't look at them too closely nor think much about them. But now I have had a good look through the layers of grime, and they are beautiful. Of course. So the stained glass projects I thought I had crossed off my list have been added back on. I will redesign the useable pieces of these windows into the outside door to the bathroom and the other back door off the mud room.

Will be remade for the bathroom door

and this - they are top and bottom

I didn't describe the impromptu house warming Jeff and I had with Daph and Stan a couple of weeks ago. They came over after dinner to sit around the fire with us, and no sooner had they arrived than it started to spit. We could have all squeezed around the caravan table but I asked if a fire can be moved, and Stan said yeah do you have a metal wheel barrow. Which I do. So we wheeled the fire down to the front deck of the house under roof, and tranfered the fire into a twenty litre drum. I lit the candles in the manifold in the dining room and it was exciting to be in what is fast becoming a locked up house. It was raining outside and we were cosy as. This week when there are people at the farm we'll do that often I hope. And I hope we will go down to the river where years ago we Currawinyans built a wood fired mud oven under cover. Pizza night at the farm.
I'll have ten days worth of progress to tell of next time.

$400 fire

Forever House #16

Sunday 16th June, 2013

I have been trying to work out the last time Jeff was out at the farm with me - I think it was for New Year's Eve at Bill and Susan's share. And I am delighted that he was able to see his way clear this long weekend to come and work with me on the plan for the ceiling, the electricity, the insulation, and plumbing to a lesser degree. It's not a moment too soon that he did come. The mud is so close to the roof in the bathroom corner that it is hard to use a drill under there.

Jeff's very welcome fires

Jeff being there meant we had a nightly fire, which was lovely. I don't worry about that when I'm on my own. The weather was actually very mild though and we were able to shower outside under a solar shower. The hot water had to be topped up with a boiling kettle cause the days were overcast most of the time.

Writing from home on a rare at home weekend...but as always I have been progressing the Forever House while not out there. Today I grouted the two mosaics I started at Rosa and Kens a fortnight ago. I'm pretty happy with how that went although I will now try cleaning the stones with hydroclauric acid to give them back their colours. Unless I can find an alternate method for doing this that is less chemical. The stones look a bit grout grey at the moment.

Grouted trial tiles Rosa and Ken set me up with materials

Today I completed a communal project as well. I was having a mosaic day on the verandah in the mid morning sun. My friend Toni donated a good number of large hand made ceramic tiles, some years ago now. The picture below describes them far better than I can. I've played with this selection of tiles a number of times. I don't know their history, I must find out. Toni made them. And they all belong to the same tile family but they don't connect to each other in any physical way when you lay them out. At first they were going to be the splash back above the pedestal bathroom sink. Then I thought they should be a frame around a mirror that I would mud into the wall above the sink, using some of the tiles down close to the sink as the accidental splash back. So I thought if I stuck the pieces on to mesh (fly screen) I could then use mud like grout to adhere it to the wall. My friend Wendy glued the tiles onto mesh in a frame design for me a few years ago and it has been living under a bed at Pip's place awaiting its final destination. I went to Pip's and collected the frame on mesh a few weeks ago. The most recent guise of the tiles is still as a frame but it is now the centre of the shower floor. Toni made the tiles and Wendy was the gluer of the tile frame onto mesh. And now I have sicoflexed the pebbles (collected from the river bed with Jeff last weekend), and a few broken corners from the terracotta tiles that will surround the design, onto the mesh. It is ready to be glued down and grouted when I/we get to the tiling. I wonder if planning to have this stage completed by Christmas is wishful thinking. I think not. You can see the difference in the colour of the stones when grouted as compared to when not grouted..

Shower recess mosaic - you won't slip over in here! very OH and S.

Things are moving along a pace - and with next weekend, followed by ten days the week after - there is going to be some serious and I think crucial work done. That is largely getting the insulation, ceiling and wiring up where ever there are mud walls below. I need to be able to mud up to the ceiling to finish the walls and get to painting them and tiling the floors. I think it is about a third of the roof that needs doing - about seventy square metres at a rough calculation. Jeff is on to it (poor thing in amongst his two jobs). He is coming out with me again this weekend and then for four days in the ten days I will be there in early July. We'll have Ken and his oldest son Connor, and Dave my Currawinyan helping friend and Gab will be back from SA by then - so a working bee is on. I'm feeling quite keen to make a plan so everyone, man woman and child, will be able to do something towards the house. They are all keen for that I believe. I think there are seventeen people in half week shifts. There'll be a lot of painting of ceiling sheets by women and willing children. There are mosaics to be made by everyone and there will be some mudding done because that's a must. Ken's kids think they are going to make a mud brick. They may get a surprise when they have to load the mud straight onto the wall and shape it there. So there's the camper trailer to tow out, and a trailer carrying twenty-five sheets of ceiling. I have to get paint brushes rollers ceiling sheets adhesive joiners fasteners sicoflex. I have fly screen and there are heaps of pebbles to collect. I have some tiles and Peita is bring a selection of coloured ones she picked up cheap. She's bringing them up on the train.

I did quite a bit of mudding last weekend see here

And at night

I went to Carrington Bazaar in Lismore, Revolve - the recycling centre at the tip, and the second hand place on Wyrallah Rd over the last few days. And a few weeks ago I wondered into the Antique place at the western edge of Casino. I've seen a number of things that I would love to buy. But will not - I've got enough to keep me busy and no budget for anything I don't already have. Apart from essentials of course, to complete the house. There are certainly things I have to buy. 

Danielle suggested polished cement for the floors and I love the idea. But I have all the tiles, and mosaics were always in my mind's eye, so I will go with plan A.

I am culling stained glass projects - doing some special pieces but not everything I was thinking. I have to draw the line somewhere. (Especially when you consider the stained glass projects I have lined up for Tuckurimba as well.) I have the beginnings made on the wheel window between the second bedroom and the dining room. And I have a design picked out for the wheel between the main bedroom and the kitchen. I'll repair the glass in the front door I got from Quan. And I may or may not do a design in the back door. There is plenty of beautiful clear coloured but textured glass in the French doors I am using for windows. I plan to replace the central panes of those doors with clear. The two doors I have for the bathroom are also beautiful - don't need another project.

This week, I'm hoping to have drawn up a design for the loo window. I have the paper ready and the ruler and the design. I just need to draw it to scale. I think I might make the flowers take on the look and colours of lantana. I'm actually going to turn the lantana that is growing around the front verandah into a hedge. Ive decided I might not be able to completely beat is so I'll work with some of it to suit myself. The window design is not being chosen necessarily because it is my favourite. But I have made it once before. Probably before the kids were born. It was initially in the old bathroom of the house we renovated in Avalon. Then when we did renovate I installed that window into the ensuite. I didn't live in that renovated house very long and I can't even find a photo of the window. So I feel this Forever House is a bit biographical and for whatever reason I am going to repeat this window. In different colours and possibly with lantana flowers if I can make them work.

I also have this pile of bottles to cut. I probably don't need them all but definitely some of each colour. I still have some cut flagon bottles and a few colours out at the farm.
When we get out there this weekend I will do whatever I can that is helpful towards getting the furring channel up on the roof over the mud wall areas. These are strips of metal that the electrical cables will hang above, the insulation with drape over, and the ceiling sheets will be fastened to with glue and then big flat headed screws. If I am of better use doing something else I will dig dirt, and collect water ready for the many mudders. I will also clean up the site and work out where and how the sheeting will be best painted and then stored for use.

Forever House #15

Saturday 1st June 2013

As the June Queen's Birthday long weekend approaches, and Jeff and I have some time to chat about a plan for the five days out at the farm, I am reminded of all that has lead to this point where the many ends have to be tied up, the options, ideas and thoughts have to be culled and turned into decisions made. I thought when the kids and I moved out to the farm in May 2004, that I would complete the Forever House over the eight months we planned to be there. I had made an agreement with their father that Spence would be back on the coast by the end of the following January to start at Alstonville High School. 

Mick (right) helping Andy survey for the poles

A friend I made when I first settled in on Currawinya, Mick, kindly intimated that I may be slightly wishful in my thinking regarding the time frame. I came back with some response like - yeah you just watch me! The proof is in the pudding, Mick was absolutely 1500% right.

But, in hindsight, nine years later, the satisfaction of completion, and the importance of completion is so much more intense, meaningful, hard-earned, so much more of an achievement than it would have been if it had been finished in that short time. The house will have more soul, input from various others, more and richer stories due to the time taken to collect its parts. It feels like a huge crescendo. And I plan to follow the crescendo, once the house is habitable, with whatever the musical term is for "continued activity and rhythm with a peaceful yet joyous accent". If there is such a term or maybe that is a Donnaism.

bottles tied with wool ready to soak with nail varnish remover

During the three weeks between my most recent visit to the farm and the June long weekend, I have been getting on with what I can to progress the Forever House. I cut almost all the remaining bottles required to complete the round design between the two bedrooms. I found a picture of cut off bottle necks being used as candle holders - here are two of mine being used for the purpose - not bad when windy.

Tea light candle holders - good in a breeze

And I had a mosaic lesson from friends Rosa and Ken. They have been making mosaics on large concrete pavers with their kids over time and now have about forty at a guess - a pathway to their front door. When I make my mosaics for the Forever House they will lay among normal floor tiles and therefore need  their top surface to be level with the surface of the rest of the floor. Therefore I am attempting to emulate those tiles you buy on a backing mesh; I will silicon the mosaic pieces onto fly screen mesh first and then glue them down and grout them along with the other tiles. There will be some inconsistency in the levels because I am using all manner of things in the mosaics such as stones and cups and plates and whatever else I can find that might work. But part of the reason I am putting lots of mosaics in is to add a textured surface to the main traffic areas in the house. Tiles can get a bit slippery when wet.

Portugal tile

Here's what I did at Rosa and Ken's. I used small pavers as the bases. The first one is using tiles I collected off the ground last year on a three day walk I did in Portugal - my "Portugal tile". The other includes flat stones from Yellow Creek at Currawinya, the rim of a lovely plate, and the terracotta coloured tiles I am using at the Forever House.

 

Stones, plate and terracotta tile

At this stage the mosaic pieces are stuck on to the pavers with glue which Rosa and Ken make up from powder. The glue has to dry for twenty four hours before grouting. So that will happen next weekend when I am at home. When these tiles are finished I will put them into a pathway I made at home.

Other research over the intervening three weeks took my sister Danielle and I to the Lismore Regional Gallery to see 'Not Quite Square - The story of Northern Rivers Architecture" - an exhibition of alternate housing - part of the 40th Anniversary of the Aquarius Festival. Interesting, though we had to waltz through too quickly. I did however take a couple of pics that may or may not influence the finished Forever House. Lighting on a wire and a fireplace surround (neither of which were part of the alternate exhibition  - just lovely features of the Regional Gallery building.

Lights on wire at the Lismore Regional Gallery

I have plenty of ideas about lighting - the final choices will depend on what proves to be best regarding price, power usage, aesthetic and bargain opportunities at the time the lights are needed. My friend Susan has a chest full of coloured glass fittings that I have my eye on...

 

Beautiful Fire surround at Gallery building to inspire me

And the fireplace - well the hearth is one thing - I have a lovely timber mantel piece that I want to put somewhere - and over the top of a fireplace would be the ideal spot. But the fire situation is causing me some grief. I bought a wood fuel oven from the Tender Centre in Lismore a really long time ago. I'm thinking mid 2004. I'm pretty sure I got it for $116. It features in many pics - the Forever House has grown up around it (see photo above with Mick, Andy and the poles). It's not a beautiful piece like some wood fuel stoves can be - but I hope it is functional and it is important that it has a final place in the house. Initially it was to go in the kitchen as the stove, heater, and water heater. However at some point, and I think Jeff may have influenced my thinking, we decided to go with instantaneous gas water. For a while I thought I could place the stove in the loungeroom as the fireplace, and cook in it when it was alight. Then my friend Suzi offered me a large black potbelly which I gratefully accepted - and it is now earmarked for the hearth in the loungeroom/dining room which puts the fuel stove back in its more obvious spot in the corner of the kitchen. However the potbelly is not a combustion stove, it uses a whole lot more wood than a fuel stove, so what I am thinking is that the fuel stove will heat the house most of the time and the pot belly will only be lit when extra warmth or ambience is required.
And, I have taken a picture of a window where I work - I think it is delightful and I am going to use it as the design for the wheel that is in the wall between the main bedroom and the kitchen.