Forever House #12

Friday 17^th May, 2013

Three rows of mud - a weekend's worth or work



Another long weekend here at Currawinya. I did get my three rows of mud completed on the last visit. Can't imagine over what time span it took me to do the previous three rows. The rock in this picture replaced the glass window shelf I had put in – the window didn't last the night, I found it shattered into a squillion pieces when I went to work on the Sunday morning. I had a lovely time mudding various things into the walls over sunday and Monday last visit. There is the manifold candle holder to the right of the pic. I left myself with no prepared materials to go on with this weekend. Realistically, I aim to get 2 rows done this weekend.

I have come loaded up with lots of extra curricula options this time. I did take home all those bottles. And on the way home I dropped in to see my friend Susan at Mallanganee. She and Bill are mad collectors of all things old, interesting, beautiful, historical, Australian. She took me out into the shed to see what she could find to contribute to the mud walls. She gave me a lovely timber piece which was once the top of an old dressing table that held the mirror. It has a cut out design and a couple of shelves. I bought five clear glass balls from her that may have been fishing floats originally. She also has a chest full of pastel glass light fittings, and I am hoping to relieve her of almost all of them – for a price of course. Susan is collecting very specifically to build a stock for the wonderful shop she and Bill are planning to open next year. They live in the most gorgeous old building in Mallanganee that was the bank. There’s a great big room at the front – the bank – and the business is called Bankhouse Originals. I am prematurely grasping at some of her stock! Like a kid in a lolly shop. 

bottles with the necks cut of f

Anyway, over the intervening two weeks I have watched a few youtubes on cutting bottles. The cut edges will be inside the walls so there is no great need for a perfectly straight cut. And I didn’t want to wait for a bottle cutter to be purchased and delivered. So I opted for the demo by a young girl where you wrap wool several times around the bottle where you want it to snap, and tie it off. You’re supposed to take that wool off the bottle and soak it in nail polish remover, but I leave it on and drizzle the nail polish onto the wool until  soaked. You have a sink full of cold water at the ready, light the wool and turn the bottle slowly as it burns, keeping the warm air in the bottle; just as it starts to extinguish you submerge it in the sink and voila! Just below the wool, the bottle pops apart with a fairly clean straight edge. Close enough for my purposes anyway. Over several nights I cut eighteen bottles, the first nine pairs for the design. The are here at the farm now ready to go in the wall. I bought some clear tape to bind them together at their cut edges.

I have also been Googling ‘whitewash recipes for mud walls’. I have a number of different ingredients to mix and trial while I am here this time. I was given a recipe years ago but have lost it and the little notebook that has lots of mud house building snippets of interest. I must have another look – I would have put is somewhere safe! That recipe uses ‘snot’ as the binder – snot being the product you get when you soak prickly pear in water for an extended period of time. I may get some soaking to try next time I’m here in three weeks time. It should be snotty enough by then I hope. Though I think I was told it soaks for eight weeks. I’ll do a bit more research about that.

On this occasion I don’t have any snot soaking to trial so I’ll be blending ingredients such as milk powder, linseed oil, PVC glue, lime, water and possibly Bondcrete. Not all at once but in combinations, to see which works best. I’ll paint them on to the wall below the kitchen window, which will eventually be under the kitchen sink behind  cupboards.

And I have a paint brush and green paint to paint the loo door.

Tomorrow’s plan is to dig heaps of dirt, cut heaps of straw, cart many buckets of water, and collect a load of sand from down by the river. Then I think I’ll paint the first coat on the toilet door and start playing with whitewash. Sunday and Monday will see two full rows of mud laid. I’ve brought the metal wheel out to put back in the wall between the second bedroom and the dining room. Dave can hopefully help me with that when he comes over to chat about the order of things.

Dave and Gab are going home to SA for a family fix over June. He plans to get a bit done on my place before then, completing the metal wall where it meets with the block wall near the front door. I’ll get another four day weekend mudding while he’s away. Jeff is hopefully coming with me on that occasion to do a power/water/insulation and ceiling reconoiter. Then in July, I am taking leave from work and coming out for ten days. Whoot whoot! Jeff will join me for some of that time; and by then Dave will be back from SA. I think we will be working on the ceiling/insulation/wiring. I’ll mud as I can, and my sisters Peita and Danielle are also coming out for several days each. It’s all happening. I think this blog is actually really helping me with the momentum. Peita wants to do some tiling – so I think she can make a start in the main bedroom. Not sure if Danielle has a particular activity in mind – she’s an artist so I imagine she might either mud with me or make a start on some of the mosaics for the floor. I have all the terracotta coloured tiles stacked up in the middle of the main bedroom – I’ve had them for years! My intention is that anyone who wants to should make a mosaic the size of one of those tiles to be laid randomly in the floor.

During the week, I followed up on a work colleague, Eliza, who said to me ages ago she had a couple of French doors she was looking to sell. I was hoping I could get a set in preference to that set of windows I got from Quan last visit. I did buy one of Eliza’s sets of doors and they are beautiful. It’s very helpful having a Forever House Fund – which I’ve been  transferring one hundred dollars a week into for the past few months so that I can pay Dave and also buy what I need. The windows Quan gave me have another spot earmarked; two of the three will be turned on their sides and placed above the three point six metre sliding doors out on to the verandah. They will be perfect there as highlights. 

Daylight saving having finished sucks. It’s seven-thirty Friday night and I’ve been in the van for two hours already. I could probably do with a read and an early night. They reckon a frost is likely this weekend. Clear skies and westerly winds.