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.