Forever House #45

Tuesday 16th May, 2017

ceiling sheets up and looking fantastic.

Much chillier this week - got a doona on tonight as well as the two lighter covers I've been using. I took a sleeping bag to Ronnie's Camp earlier today just in case he needs it. He's wearing his whole wardrobe to bed by the sounds of it! He said he just puts another sloppy joe on.

We had two cruisey productive days today and yesterday. Both of us arrived at the Forever House around lunchtime, after collecting metal from Metroll, and I did a turn around Bunnings collecting putty and other bits and pieces for working on windows when not mudding.

Wetting down to prepare for next wet row.

A bird's eye view of the mudding

On arrival yesterday I had enough mudding ingredients to get stuck in. I laid the first row in a long time on the wall between the second bedroom and the dining/lounge room. There has been a stack of cement ceiling sheets leaning up against that wall since Ronnie and I arrived on the 1st May. So rather than cover them in mud and water, I waited till now when Ronnie and the trusty sheet lifter, has lifted them all up 3m to that ceiling.

This wall has quite a lot of creative additions to work around. I think this came about because it was the last wall to be started and the creative juices went a bit mad. No regrets though I like all the little touches. They become more distinct as the walls grow.
This wall will be complete in about five more rows - at lintel height. I did a row yesterday, and another this morning and today I continued mixing mud and laid a whole row across all the remaining walls. A six mix day.

This is a mix of mud lifted out of the barrow.
Those blobs are the cobs -
hence the name of the method is known as cob.
You get a sense of how many barrows of mud
have been dug and then made and laid.

Ronnie making the form work
to mud to in preparation for the
fixed glass walls I am doing
above two mud walls

Ronnie just got on as he does. He finished all the inside ceiling sheets in the last week - and he's continuing around the outside. He's got scaffolding up everywhere - tricky to find a track through it without ducking and weaving. To put this last run of sheets up across the front and down the left side of the house, he has to remove the corrugated wall sheets that Andy put up years ago and trim the tops to allow the ceiling sheets to slip in above them when replaced on the walls. Ronnie designed and ordered some metal mouldings in the same pale eucalypt as the walls, which get screwed up snug to the ceiling and around the windows. The courrugated iron wall sheets slot in to these mouldings. And there are strips of corrugated rubber that squeeze up inside there - all in an attempt to ensure a proper vermon proof lock up.

Check out the tidy finish at the ceiling
and around the window frame

The skylights are fiddly
but a nice touch

Every day the work-site looks more like a house. Every batch of mud made and row of mud laid is closer to the last mud. It seems incredible after all the digging, sifting, barrowing, chopping straw, carting water and sand - that all of a sudden the mudding will be finished. It'll still need spraying with bondcrete and water to seal it ready for painting. But the laying is about 7 days off being complete.

I've dug enough dirt to lay another six batches of mud tomorrow. I'll dig some more after that ready for next week. I'm sanding windows ready for painting and glazing after the mud work each day. No idle moments for this girl. Not at home nor here - until it's done.

Ronnie and I have eaten well. Veg burgers last night and chicken and veg tonight. By the fire.

I've put a sheet of marine ply under the mattress of my bed in the van. Slept much better last night. Sleep time ready to do it all again tomorrow. Zzzzzzz.....

All the bottles snug in mud

Wednesday 17th May 2017
Today I got up early enough to make porridge for Ronnie and me. I feel the provision of food is the least I can do while I'm there - when I'm gone he eats nutrigrain for breaky, muesli bars for lunch and baked beans for dinner. So I gave Ronnie his porridge where he was out by the fire and went back to wait for my coffee to perk. When I got back to the fire Ronnie had run our of milk on his porridge and tipped coffee on it... not a great move he concluded.

2nd bedroom details

Bottle wall from main bedroom perspective

The six barrows worth of dirt I dug yesterday was ready for today's two and a bit walls worth of mud. That equates to 180 shovels full of raw dirt, thwacked with a lump of pine atop a wire bed base into a barrow, to sift and remove larger rocks, and pushed down whichever is the path of least resistance, to my pile by the cement (mud) mixer on the front verandah. Always good to start the mudding day with the ingredients needed. The only continuous requirement beyond dirt, chopped straw, and sand is water.

My right hand is going numb as I write, lying back on pillows in my caravan nest; that radial nerve is in trouble again. I've been trying to work my right arm less than gung-ho - but carting water and digging dirt are probably the things I can't get away from and I don't want to get away from them - I'm just meaning re the use of my arm... My other injury is a bump on the back of my head - standing up suddenly and whacking it on scaffolding. Ouch! Though it didn't bleed so all good.

The pictures will tell the story of the progress over the past week. Ronnie framed up for where the mud is to finish so that he can install a timber frame for the glass wall which I will create atop the mud. I went to AJ Magnay on Friday afternoon and was like a kid in a lolly shop in the glass room there. I bought $300 worth of glass that measures 500mm or longer. I will cut these various colours and textures into lengths that will fit the height of the framing. The width of each piece doesn't matter. An eclectic mix of glass coming up - won't know what we've got till it's up! I'm looking forward to this phase!

my makeshift mould to stop
the mud over the mirror
falling down before dry

Watch this space - 
at Ronnie's suggestion
the gaps around the french doors
will become coloured glass rather than wall

Ronnie dug a brand new sanding device out from behind the passenger seat of his ute. It has added a very handy dimension to the window prep I am doing after mudding and digging each day. I head over to the mosaic shed, which is currently the window prep shed - and sand and scrape and remove hinges. Most of the glass is already removed except a few panes where the putty is so hard it feels impossible to remove - so I may just leave those as they are. I've got a shopping list of hinges and other door furniture, plus gas for the stove.

Also to report - my American Currawinyan friend Pete dropped in today and took footage of the Forever House with a baby drone. He's a cameraman and the drone adds a string to his bow. I will put that footage up on the blog when I get a copy. It's awesome!

Left farm @ 4.30pm and got home about 7. Shopped for wine, milk and dinner - ended up scoffing inari with seaweed x 2 and hazelnut chocolate x 1 in the car on the way home. Home to a hot shower - though mud hair accompanies me to bed until tomorrow. Hoping my right shoulder doesn't give me too much curry overnight and that I might swim a km in SCU pool in the morning. My body would love the stretch but my shoulder will be key...

I have had two treatments for my shoulder since being home and have had two nights without a dead arm which is most exciting and a relief. I went to an Osteopath who used to treat me on the Northern Beaches of Sydney way back when I was a 19yo milko (40 years ago). He now works out of Lennox and he is a magician. 

The repaired window for the external bathroom door

Sunday 21st May 2017

The remade old window
for the Mud Room Door

The 2nd of two highlight windows for above sliding doors

An old light being used as the beginning
of a design for the wheel between
the main bedroom and the kitchen

I spent all day yesterday in the glass shed at home cutting and foiling glass for the 2nd of two highlight windows that will sit above the sliding doors onto the verandah. I also cut fresh glass and foiled it to repair a window I made over three years ago for the external bathroom door. At that time, after finishing it, I sat it up by an open window to admire, and a puff of wind blew it down. Shit damn and blast I exclaimed.

I have had to order a new soldering tip for my iron because the existing one has died. The new tip should arrive by next weekend. But I think it will be another week before I get to soldering all those prepped stained glass windows.
Catch you all soon. Thanks again for your interest. D xx