Blog 46: Home stretch

As August becomes September and Winter has become Spring, we have entered the home stretch with the finish line for the house build clearly in sight.

Of course there is still plenty of finishing work to complete, so all the chickens are not across the road yet.. Here’s a catchup, consisting mainly photos of the many chickens that have made it across safely and been counted over the last month…

Preparing the non-straw walls for lime plaster was a much bigger job than I had expected, layer upon layer of paper, battens, mesh, flashings and council inspections (yes plural).. Our team got stuck in though, completing preparations and inspections and then straight onto getting the lime scratch coat on.

Layer on layer, ply, paper, battens, paper, mesh…

Outside we are working to the weather, as curing of the lime plaster is very important. On the east wall we put up tarps to keep the sun off and moisture in. Doing the same for the front (North) of the house is not our preference though (she’s a big job) ;-) so we did the scratch coat there in a patch of perfect cloudy damp days and we will try to do the same for the final coat.. weather permitting :-)

A step beyond getting my hands dirty.. a quick selfie spraying on the lime scratch coat with Pat

Lime going onto the clay plastered strawbale walls…

After applying lime scratch coat, Tarps on the east side billowing in the breeze of a spring day

Lime plaster scratch coat on the front wall

Everett troweling off our concrete garage ramp

You will note from the above pictures that our soffits (underside of the eaves) are still open, and we plan to leave them that way until we have completed the exterior lime plastering to minimise masking and issues with over spray.

Meanwhile, inside the house there is also plenty of action…

Bob and Geoff have continued the electrical testing and fit-off, and now there are only a couple of powerpoints left to fit into the kitchen island when it arrives on-site for finishing and installation.

Kenny has installed our freestanding fireplace, flue etc..

Nils has built the bath cradle and shelves for our main bathroom for Pat to plaster it in with a Tadelakt finish

Nils making a wall-mirror cabinet for our main bathroom

Everett fitting cavity slider handles and privacy locks..

Nils has also installed our garage cabinets and benches. The up-cycled rimu cabinets came out of Elaines kitchen renovation and the wood for Macrocarpa bench tops came from Mark

Rimu skirtings on in the garage ready for final plaster coat

The interior plaster finish coat also has several steps, with.. masking, plastering, sponging for the final finish, clear glazing to protect high traffic area’s from scuffs and bangs, oiling along the floor edge to create a hardened plaster skirting and also oiling for our splash backs in the kitchens and pantry so we have waterproof/easy to clean walls around our work surfaces.

Martin troweling on the clay plaster finish coat in the living room

Living room clay interior plaster finish coat done :-)

Pat sponging off the finish coat in our pantry, this needs to be done at the right moment in the drying process

Martin applying the clay finish coat in the master bedroom

Masking line for oiling the kitchen splash back

Blending in the plaster finish coat with Aless Kereru artwork

We are still enjoying every minute of living in the B&B area of the house, so heres some more shots of our favourite room...

Our B&B flat bathroom now has a beautiful toilet roll holder - simple pleasures…

So great to have a proper shower.. and Pat’s Tadelkt finish is awesome.

And as we are moved into the house, it’s time to send the caravan and its awning in for a service before we return them to Bob and Phyliss. Our home since October last year, we are very grateful for the use of the Caravan as it made being on-site throughout the build possible.

Bob and Geoff helping dismantle the caravan awning

End of an era selfie with Bob, away she goes…

The caravan site, vacant and ready for a final clean-up..

So marking the end of an era, we towed it off for a service this week and have started having our smoko and lunch breaks up at the house site, the inevitable winds of change.. its not too bad up there :-)