Forever House #49

form work for the cement corners
and Lolly's renovated French doors in situ

Tuesday 6th June 2017
Unbelievably, after all the strife I've been in with my right arm and more recently left neck , I've had two good night's sleep - no numbness and no need to sleep upright.


Over the weekend I've been continuously heating the wheat bag and laying it on my neck. I've also been heating up a hot water bottle for bed time to use when the wheat bag cools down.

I bought the hot water bottle out to the farm just in case. Ronnie was just saying, by the fire, that a hot water bottle would be good in the camper trailer. He was very pleasantly surprised and keen when I told him I'd brought one out with me and that he could have it.

The windows go in. Tthe metal work and blocks get straightened up
ready for the corrugated iron to go above it all.

So today started with porridge and coffee by the fire with a fog forming all around us.

Then it was straight into making cement to fill the formed up corners of the block work that Ronnie had prepared earlier. These needed to be done so he can get on with running the metal flashings around the outside above the block walls, and then the corrugated iron.  He's re-done some of the metal framework so that the lines of screws in the tin cladding will be straight. And he's trimmed the top of the block wall - which was like a roller coaster - so that the corrugated iron has a straight edge rather than having to cut it to follow the undulations as they were. Such is the perfectionism of Ronnie! I get that in the end the finish will be amazing and these seemingly fastidious things will make all the difference.

Ronnie making frames for window openings
(these are for the bird highlights)

Among other windows, Ronnie put my bird highlight window up. Oh my... much excitement.
The green frame inside the oiled timber jams looks fab. A momentous day.

One of two bird highlight windows goes up (missing one pane).

I just have to solder the remaining pane of this first window, and the five panes of the second window and install them in the frames - sometime after Ronnie has gone. They are theoretically part of bringing the house to lock up but not crucial at this stage. More pressing is getting the bedroom windows sorted for installation while I still have Ronnie here.

I love this photo at twilight looking back up at the house with the moon just rising

the friction hinges off the old windows
before

I got on with renovating the friction hinges that belong to the bank of six old windows in the main bedroom. They came up a treat. I'll be attempting to get two of the windows undercoated and painted and re-glazed tomorrow for Ronnie to install when he can.then two the following week and two the final week. It's great that he is coming back for a further two weeks to complete the lock up. He, like I, just wants to see the house finished.

and after
I have scraped, steel wool-ed and sprayed with stuff
to protect them and make them slide better.
I had bought silver spray but the brass mechanisms
are way too beautiful to cover up with paint.

the renovated shower - now with pully system

Salmon, sweet potato, broccolini and corn for dinner Yum.
I made sure I had my shower before dark, cosied up in bed under two doonas, with my hoody and a head torch on. Ready for sleep - fingers crossed my arm copes well again tonight.

Wednesday 7th June 2017

inside

outside

Aloe vera growing prolifically

Off came the form work to reveal the concreted block work corners had worked a treat. 

Window furniture before renovating

beautiful brass door furniture to go on bedroom windows

one of six windows sanded
and blue undercoated

2 coats of green ready for glazing
and then final coad

another section of the lock up
getting sorted by Ronnie...
a plank of hardwood recycled to sit above the kitchen window

the rock wall that still exists post fire back in 2000.

A close up of I my filthy rear canopy window
which I left open over the two days I was there...
When I went to pack up and looked up at the window
this is what the elements had created out of the dirt...
a magnificent masterpiece. Awe-some

the smiley face was drawn on the window prior - when it was just dirty -
by a man in a servo who was thanking me for moving my car
so he could get fuel while I went in to pay for mine haha

Forever House #48

Monday 5th June 2017
By the time I left work at 3pm and stopped here and there on the way out, it was 6.15pm and dark on my arrival at the Forever House. I had already met with Ronnie @ Bunnings car park at 7.45am and we'd shopped for pop rivets, Intergrain (Merbau colour on this occasion as opposed to Jarrah - Ronnie thought it would be less orange), cement screws, biscuits to join timbers together for the frame above the mud walls, and glue.
Then to Richmond Sand and Gravel for 4 barrows worth of sand and gravel, and a bag of cement. This was half a tonne's worth and seemingly more than we needed but we wrapped it up in black plastic and gaffer tape like a huge dead man laid in the bowels of Ronnie's ute between the tool boxes and air compressor. Next stop Budget timber where we collected another half tonne of hardwood - the makings of the frames for the glass walls above the finished mud walls in each bedroom. I got fuel in a gerry can while Ronnie tied that load down and we realised his mud flaps were dragging on the ground... We went to another servo for air in both of our vehicles' tyres, and gas for the cooker at the farm.

At that point Ronnie decided we needed to ditch some of the sand and gravel at my house to make the load more realistic. I left the gas bottle at the North Lismore servo accidentally. Ronnie trailed me home to unload the dead man. There is now a black plastic and gaffer taped package in my yard awaiting the next concreting job...

Ronnie headed west; I packed my car for the farm and headed back into Lismore.

Before work, I took a couple of paintings I had done at an abstract art workshop on the weekend into the framing shop. It seems my creative muscle is being flexed at the Forever House and I feel quite freed about creating at the mo. My sister Danielle, who was also at the workshop, thought I was channeling our Dad, Frank, who was prone to landscape painting.

While at work I left my car getting two new rear tyres due to a slow leak in one and them both being on their last treads. After, I went to collect the gas and filled another gerry can because we're going through more than one each week for the genny to run power tools, fridge and to recharge the battery tools. I food shopped at Casino and took out money to pay Jason who slashed my block.

Ronnie had the fire alight when I arrived in the dark. We wandered around looking at all the work he had done since I left last Wednesday. He'd swept through also and the place looks amazing.

He's realised he wont get as far as lock up by the end of this week. So, after a week's break next week (following the Queens birthday weekend) to spend with his family, he'll come back for two more weeks to move the project along to lock up.

I'll take pics tomorrow. We'll mix concrete first up to fill some gaps in the block work - to tidy up the corners and give him a finish at the top of the block wall to meet with corrugated iron.

Forever House #47

Tuesday 29th May 2017

Ronnie ripped a hardwood plank we've been using
as scaffolding, to strengthen the front sliding doors.
He oiled it with the Jarrah coloured Intergrain.
He also doused the top of the mud with
Davkin Ultra Prime... I hadn't intended to seal
the outside of the mud walls but now I may have to...
or this waterfall effect could be a feature?!
Ronnie forcing my hand maybe....

Six days since I was last here and although progress is being made, photos don't show it really. Today I left home early but didn't arrive at the farm till 11.30am. Caught up with Ronnie who came out yesterday morning and is chipping away at things that are not immediately apparent to the naked eye. But that is building. He's preparing all the window openings and mouldings for the metal that will go up around the block walls. He's done heaps and suddenly all will be apparent when the metal goes up and the windows go in. He's redone the shower too - in the fifth of a six week stay. the canvas bag is on a rope pully system now to lower it for filling instead of heaving the hot water up and pouring it in up high. I think the revamped shower will serve not only us for now, but me and others for some time prior to the internal bathroom being operational.

On the way out today I had about 8 stops. Picking up food, fuel for car and genny, oil for genny, Bunnings for cement and screws, a recommended electrician at Casino to discuss solar install at the Forever House, timber yard to talk about collecting hardwood packing timbers that usually get burned but which are free and would make great cover for the metal bedroom walls.

Formwork removed from wheel! And mud wall complete.
View from inside second bedroom

Before we found out my Jeff was sick we ordered and paid for the Solar system for the farm. We took delivery of all the bits over three and a half years ago. Unfortunately the batteries have been sitting around without being charged during that time. I need to find out if they are salvageable and pray they are because to replace them will be a big expense. I am not sure the electrician I visited will do the work but I wanted to start the wheels in motion getting quotes etc. I'm no expert on solar - but I guess my time for learning is coming. These systems are very expensive and need to be taken good care of if they are to last a long time.

Mirror formwork removed and mud wall complete
view from dining/lounge room

After unpacking the car I put the kettle on and made Ronnie and me lunch.Didn't start mudding till 2pm. I've realised that I don't need to do much more mudding before Ronnie finishes at the end of next week. Just enough to finish the walls where the glass wall frames will go. I can continue the last of the internal mud post-Ronnie. My time is much better spent getting windows sanded, painted and glazed. And any stress I can take off my shoulder is a good plan for now.

oiled bedroom windows - smells and looks very lovely

Stumbled in shed rolling my left ankle and bruising the pad on my right hand. Sanded and varnished window openings in the main bedroom. Ronnie recommended Intergrain oil - which smells amazing. I didn't realise I had bought it in 'Jarrah' colour - it goes on quite orangy but dries a beautiful rich dark colour. Happy. I gave the bird highlight window frames a final green coat. Completed the 2nd bedroom wall to lintel height. Took the formwork Andy built many moons ago out of the wheel in that wall. Another small step for this womankind.

Ronnie will come back to help complete the inside when he gets his next break. He's got a shed to build at his home, a holiday in NZ, and an extension in Lennox to get done in the meantime. But he's very keen to come back and help me finish Yay 
I didn't bother with a shower using the fancy new pully system. I didn't get dirty enough and am only here for one night. Veg burgers, stars amazing, Cold, Fire, chatting with Ronnie, and in bed about 8.30pm. Night.

Wednesday 30th May 2017

frosty morning

Such a cold night. There was frost on the ground when I rose to meet the morning at 6.30am. My hands were happy to wrap around a warm coffee and porridge. Ronnie was working in the best spot today - in the sun out the front doing window jams. I got straight into my final mud row to level out the wall between the main bedroom and the kitchen ready for the glass wall framing.

Ronnie's window jam creation

mud wall complete - view from inside main bedroom

Ronnie has waxed his work boots so his feet were dry whereas my feet in my untreated wet boots were freezing even with double socks. And I was working on the shady verandah with my hands in water and mud. Brrrrrr.... The sun thawed us out though and we pottered on with our various tasks. Ronnie was having a lovely time with his jams in the creative concoction of windows we are creating near the front door. I was just doing enough mud to finish what needs to be finished for this push. With my arm the way it is I have let myself off the hook from further digging or more mudding than necessary. And I re-oiled the frames in the main bedroom with the Jarrah Intergrain. Dropped the last of the tin of oil but only lost a little. Whenever I say "Ronnie..." he stops and
helps me do whatever it is I need - and although he asks rarely I assist him too if it saves him a trip up and down a ladder. American Pete and a friend of his Paula called in. She was suitably impressed with the house - I told her she was saying all the right things. We have largely burned our way through the pallets so I collected a ute load of tree parts taken from a pile down the block left after the clearing was done by machinery last year. I wanted to make sure Ronnie had wood to go on with. He'll chain saw it up.











My last job before leaving near dark was to putty in four of the five panes of bird highlight window because I was itching to do. I haven't done much puttying before so felt a bit stressed trying to do it well enough to pass Ronnie's eagle eye. He'd already told me he'd sack me if I was his painter! Anyway he gave my puttying the nod so that was a relief. It, with it's twin bird window, will sit up high anyway and the stained glass will draw the eye not the putty. So on leaving the farm today my intention was to spend this weekend getting the bedroom windows prepared to be installed next week but I really do have to give my neck a break. The osteo since returning from the farm gave me orders. I So they may have to be installed in their current state and I will just remove one at a time and work on it as and when over the next weeks. My plan will be to spend a couple of days a week out there working with windows, painting walls and laying tiles. Chipping away at that rate will certainly see continuous progress.

Forever House #46

Lovey to find Jason had been and slashed

Tuesday 23rd May 2017

Steep or Less steep?
the fork in the road on the way in

 5.15pm showered and waiting for Ronnie to shower ahead of a dinner date we have up the hill. My dear friend Gab has come home to Currawinya for a few days. She and her husband Dave now own the cottage the kids and I lived in back in 2004/2005 when we started the Forever House. GabS stayed with me last Friday night, along with American Pete who came into town to shop - and they wanted to cook dinner for Ronnie and me tonight. Pasta and salad at Pete's house. Looking forward to that after a big day today.

Meet Gab

Ronnie got the last 3 metre ceiling sheet up using the sheet lifter. He only has the eaves down that final south side of the house left to do. So after four weeks of fighting with the lifter on top of the scaffolding - I will take it back to town with me tomorrow.




Ronnie will spend the remainder of the week putting pale eucalypt corrugated iron up around the top of the block wall Jeff and my kids Spencer and Danika put up back in about 2008.

I'm two rows closer to the ceiling. Ronnie has formed up for me to mud up to the opening for the glass wall that is happening above the 2nd bedroom. We measured up today for the timber I need to order to frame that glass wall. I'll order it on Thursday - for him to collect on his way through to the farm next Monday. I'm pretty excited to have those frames up - so I can wash all the glass I bought and cut it to height and mix and match the placement of the various colours and textures. It will look like jewels I reckon.





Since Friday morning's osteo appointment my arm has been very well behaved. Today I dug and sifted 4 barrows of dirt so I hope that has not set it off again. A good night's sleep tonight will be the proof in the pudding.

This afternoon I've sanded the cedar windows that will go above the sliding doors. Tomorrow they will get undercoat (Ronnie recommended Davkin Ultra Prime which will protect anything - metal, wood - forever. He had me at forever!), and two coats of dark green paint to match the green of the aluminium windows and the shed. Maybe even some of the bird window panes will get puttied in (tell her she's dreaming). That's my plan during and after laying another row of mud. 

Ronnie's staying two more weeks after this one. I will come out on Monday afternoons after work and return to town Weds eves for those couple of weeks. He'll be working with metal and windows, skylights and doors.

I'll be getting the final mud rows done and prepping the windows which all need some love and paint.

Window prepping shed when not a mosaic shed

A dozen friction hinges need rubbing with steel wool, a smeer of vaseline on the mechanisms, Davkin Ultra Primed and finally sprayed silver with rust inhibited paint. 6 windows need sanding, undercoating and painting twice or three times, reglazing with a combination of original and fresh glass, puttying and then painting the putty. With Ronnie as my task master I am trying hard to to it all my best.

mosaics waiting their turn to find a place in the Forever House

My shower before leaving the farm on Weds 24th May afternoon was probably my final swim in the river until winter is past. Oh what a gift that river is.