At long last another update. We've moved in just over a year ago but still have quite a bit of work to do.
I am currently working on my office so that I can actually move into it. For the last few days I have been installing the wooden floor …
Today I started with the balustrade on the front of the deck. I am using recycled hardwood that we picked up yesterday from a demolition yard.
As you can see we are already using the deck as our "camping" kitchen.
Awesome community-minded people turned up to do the workshop. The picture below shows the Saturday group. Some of these also came for Sunday's session and some new people turned up on Sunday as well. Nick gave a great teaching session about clay and the formulas required for the different coats …
Our house will have a lime render outside and a clay render inside. We have been busy filling the gaps between bales and between the window frames and the bales with cob. The process is a slurry coat which is just clay and water like a thick shake applied to …
The straw bale wall raising weekend was an unqualified success. All the bales, except for the last row, were in place at the end of the weekend. Our bedroom wall was one exception with the determined Andy smacking in the last row on Saturday afternoon (video to come). Perry and …
Here is a guided tour of our house on the first of the wall raising working bee.
[Video: Guided Tour of Our Strawbale House — no longer available]
Nick and Roger are amazing. In the last 4 weeks they have managed to do the deck, have the roof completed so the roofer can start and all internal walls are up as well. If you are ever considering building a straw bale house these are the guys to get …
Just before Christmas, a wild storm swept through Conondale. I arrived just after it had ended. I hadn't seen the carpenters' progress for over a week so I went around marvelling at the progress they had made. En-suite, walk-in-robe and the rafters though half the house. It was amazing what …
I found an Australian certified organic paint that doesn't cost the earth. The straw bale walls will be rendered up to the pitching beams (far left). So Roger suggested I oil/paint them now as it would be easier than later. So at the Green Paint shop in West End …
Nick and Roger are making great progress with the framing (left). Lovely straight posts adorn our slab and define where our straw bale walls will be. The Kurilpa bridge (right) is a pedestrian bridge in Brisbane that looks like a steel spider web with twigs in it. Interesting engineering!
It's …
In the wet areas and as thermal mass, it was decided to use timbercrete: waste sawdust, cement and sand which is formed into blocks/bricks and air dried. The beauty of this product is that it can be nailed into and cut like wood, it is lighter weight than similar …
We now have a slab with rods sticking our where the bales will go. Next week (from 9/11/09) we are going to start putting the frame up with the assistance of a local carpenter, Johan.
Timbercrete blocks (for wet areas and feature walls) have arrived and need a …
We have got our plans approved and we have now started building.
We have found a great concreter and block layer (Mike Pascoe from Witta) that is doing the foundations work for us. Once Mike set out where the concrete pad will go we realised that the one retaining block …