A stunning spring day at the beach, people swimming and enjoying nature aotearoa style..

October 2018

On our way down to the beach..

October 2018

The native wood pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) that we hope to attract in great numbers with our native planting programme.. Nga meaning “many” is our aspiration..

Massey University Research On-line

Walking out to Maraetotara Falls, beautiful bush..

October 2018

Just down the road our local swimming pool, stunning..

OMG a box of ready to eat Feijoa’s, food of the gods! A hedge has been planted, can’t wait for it to start cropping….

2018

Entwined, magical Maraetotara Falls reserve

October 2018

How it looked in 2016 before we started planting, dry year…

2016

North.. glorious North

October 2018

Bella…

October 2018

Here we are..

October 2018

Over this ridge-line and its beautiful limestone rock formations is Waimarama Beach..

October 2018

The view from the front of the house North to Te Mata peak and Hawkes bay

October 2018

..an invitation to get sand between your toes and take a plunge.. welcome to the beach

October 2018

Ava and Georgia helping on Labour Day, appropriate :-)

Monday 22nd October 2018

Native plants in first gully and along driveway edge

September 2018

Formwork, installing insulfound, reincorcing, cuploex thermal wrap and pods.. Mike, Simon, Dave, Tim, Shane, Ethan, Bill.. a great team

Thursday 18th October 2018

Kenny helping us with finishing touches on the site loo, otherwise known as “the office”

Wednesday 17th October 2018

No front door, so view from behind is what you see while “in motion”…

Thursday 18th October 2018

End of day of another blue sky day preparing our cupolex floor for concrete..

Thursday 18th October 2018

Cupolex thermal wrap and pods in place and reinforced, Insulfound perimeter insulation installed, plumbing in the ground and site toilet commissioned.

Friday 19th October 2018

Thanks Kenny for a huge day getting it all in the ground with correct falls and inspected - legend!

October 2108

backing it up the driveway was quite a challenge, last step to put it on the pad was relatively easy.. we have our site office thanks Pat!

October 2018

Quick selfie to catch this milestone.. thanks to Bob and Phylis we have moved into our temporary home.. power and water on, awning up and deck chairs ready to go..

October 2018

Container and caravan sites both fully operational

October 2018

Alessandra busy researching how to setup the wormfarm..

October 2018

Monday 5:30am, yes thats the moon.. ready to pour with rain forecast later in the day, no pressure ;-)

October 2018

Black slab nearly poured.. here comes the weather, light showers starting around 3:30pm a little earlier than we would have liked, but no problem, :-)

October 2018

Everyone focused on getting the final measure load poured as the grey clouds roll in

October 2018

Two machines going to get that surface ready for polishing

October 2018

The weather closing in.. great timing we need to keep the new slab wet :-)

October 2018

our new baby, day and night to check on, clean-up and feed it… put up a small dam and filled it with water to minimise cracking as the concrete cures, if only the water would stay on the inside! thinking at 3am of dutch friends Ruud and Peter and the boy with his finger in the dike, ha ha

October 2018

Artistic shot by Aless at sunset of the pooled slab

October 2018

Ethan and Bill are back to get the formwork and profiles cleared away, left the the site tidy as - thanks guys. That’s the insulfound exposed on the side of the slab, we will plaster that next.

November 2018

Beautiful limestone outcrops behind the house

November 2018

Our boundary highlighting what it looked like before June 2017 and how it looks now in November 2018 after planting

November 2018

Looking South West towards the Ruahine Ranges

November 2018

Friendly bunch living just over the fence, genuinely interested in everything we are doing

November 2018

After a week of ponding its soon to be dry and dusty..

November 2018

Starting the grinding of the floor, whew! the guru’s tell us the floor slab is in good shape

November 2018

Trenching in Plumbing and Electrical connections to the house slab while grinding is underway.. mini Maraetotara traffic jam first thing in the morning.. all good, everyone working together well.

November 2018

A beautiful close-up from Alessandra of nature in action in our native trees

November 2018

Kenny and George the Hastings District Council inspector checking out the plumbing

November 2018

A great shot of Kenny, inspection passed

November 2018

Bob and Geoff on-site helping with the build

November 2018

Pat and Andrew pulling off the rebates so the grinding can commence.

November 2018

An early milestone, the floor laid, ground and polished, stormwater, water and power all connected up and the building site ready for us to start framing up the walls.

November 2018

An amazing albatross skimming waves of poppies, so many beautiful sculptures at Sculptures in the Wildflowers in Maraekakaho, a great afternoon exploring with Andrew and Vicky

November 2018

Buck frames for the strawbale walls and wood frames for some of the internal walls stacked, we made them on-site.. next job to Ramset the bottom plate and walls in place with Pat...

November 2018

Bottom plate down and the internal timber frame walls for the back of the house going up, so great to be able to walk through the different rooms.

November 2018

After imagining it for several months.. they look really big in real life

November 2018

That’s the ceiling line at the front wall and it keeps on going at 25 degrees for 2 more metres of eaves beyond that, to be 5.5m from floor to barge board ! The steel will hold the roof on and the exterior joinery in place when it blows.

November 2018

Pat and Andrew are building the floor plates, internal frame walls, straw wall timber buck frames and box beams on-site - this is what we have to show for two weeks work, very happy..

Friday 23rd November 2018

Its green here because we do get weather other than sun.. a reality check for those who were wondering :-)

November 2018

It has been a wet week, building in the showers, hiding from the rain… still fun

November 29th 2018

Alessandra’s favourite time of day, stunning - the days are getting longer

December 2018

A few rain interruptions, but great progress being made. Pat and Andrew had a couple of days framing help from Lars this week, a bonus. Andy from Tumu has already measured up for our roof trusses and we are on track for them to be in place before Christmas 2018

6th December 2018

Great progress, Pat reaching new heights! scaffolds up on the front of the house so we can frame up around the steel.

December 2018

A lot of timber going into framing up this section of the North wall.. we are constructing all of the house framing on-site rather than getting it delivered pre-nailed.

December 2018

With help from Bob the pump shed is up, and Kenny and Ayden have returned to plumb in the rainwater feed, the maelstrom filter, pump, spring water feed and house return, the overflow and the filtration and UV treatment system, big thanks to family and friends for their ongoing support :-)

December 2018

Pre-nailed roof trusses from Tumu Timber being craned into place.. a very important day for us, everything is now delivered on site ready for the roof to go on early in January.

December 2018

Selfie with Alex Greig and Alessandra, Alex our Architect came up from Wellington for a site visit and a Maraetotara BBQ big breakfast :-)

December 2018

Our roof trusses in process of being laid out and secured to the top plate, with the scaffolding team (on-site putting up perimeter scaffolding for the roof to go up) providing a sense of scale for the house

December 2018

The big 1.8 metre front eves and the 5 metre plus height of our North roof line emerge as the trusses are put in place.

December 2018

A great way to go into Christmas, thanks everyone !! and in particular our friend and builder Pat Mawson, Grazie mille!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year everyone, roof shout booked for January!

December 2018

Hot week here.. end of 2019 week 1 and our first day off for the New Year :-) took a quick swim with Michael at Maraetotara Falls, beautiful!

January 2019

Maraetotara Gorge scenic reserve, deep clear pristine cool pools of water

Natural Law #1 : Native plants attract native birds.. a beautiful Tui feeding

December 2018

Plenty of these getting plump in the green green grass of home.. nice shot Alessandra!

December 2018

Impressions on the building site..

Alessandra, January 2019

Happy visitors in song

Alessandra, January 2019

Pat and Michael hard at work on our deck roof on a very hot day

January 2019

The first part of the roof is up, looks awesome!!

January 2019

Captures the beautiful landscape that is Maraetotara Valley at sunset

January 2019

The roof is on, heres how the house sits in the landscape, thanks James @ EcoEye NZ

January 2019

Trick is to remember to trust the netting, at least thats the therory for feeling more confident - glad we had confident help :-)

January 2019

Pat checking the weight/density and the uniformity of our bales in the field, so glad he knows what he’s doing..

January 2019

Aless and John with their first up-cycle, beautiful ex demolition rimu native timber cabinets for the pantry now ready for installation, so into temporary storage they go so we can roll the next set of salvaged native timber cabinets into John and Lesleys garage for up-cycling.

March 2019

A beautiful shot by James

March 2019

Pat and James enjoying a supervision moment during the wall raising

Saturday 2nd March 2019

Straw in the wall, closing it in :-)

After wall raising… :-)

Saturday 2nd March 2019

Another one, all compressed and ready for plastering..

Pat, Aless and Lilley team effort retying a bale

March 2019

Nils Rock with bales going into the wedges, Pat and Nils started with the hard part - stacking and then compressing a straw wall that has a 25 degree pitch on top..

Feb 2019

as the title says lol…

March 2019

Our first brew of fresh clay with some vintage year old clay mixed in.. 

March 2019

Where our clay comes from - Kahuraniki Road, Hawkes Bay

March 2019

Treading clay slurry into loose straw

March 2019

Our very own earth plaster factory open for business..

March 2019

A before and after contrast shot, the first plaster base coat sprayed on and some straw wall yet to be plastered.. just the start, more work to rub in by hand and then another coat and trowel it off…

March 2019

We had a regular visitor on the farm across the road for most of the week, a Fletcher Top Dressing Plane doing low passes and steep turns, maybe some more flying back on the agenda.. aerial inspiration!

March 2019

Cleaning up the straw walls just before final straighten with our big mallets and then plastering..

March 2019

Yep its a beautiful thing a tub of clay slurry ready for a days plastering..

March 2019

Alessandra has been building straw/clay (like cob) mini walls in spots that are too small or fiddly for straw bales, this is curved entry for garage door :-)

March 2019

The base coat on and window and door openings prepared

April 2019

Base built.. Alessandra forming the oven shape with sand before we start plastering the oven to this as a mold..

April 2019

Cob pizza oven still under construction, straw insulation layer going on, followed by final earth plaster coat and some artistic expression in clay, then we fire it up - nearly there…

May 2019

Putting up the ceiling lining in our self contained B&B space. Nils has been working on the battens and insulation and now the ply starts to go up - tight nailing pattern in this part of the house as the ceiling is a structural diaphragm.

May 2019

A perspective on the seasons of life on our drive to and from town…

May 2019

Pat troweling the mesh into our base coat in the self contained B&B, wool can be seen stuffed into some voids in the straw wall where base coat is yet to be applied

April 2019

Pat troweling off the earth plaster base coat in the garage then end of internal plaster base coats for the house.. onto finish coats

May 2019

Pantry wall prepared with bracing, tape and mesh for plastering

April 2019

Aless in the joinery factory making macrocarpa frames for our switchboard, mitres and all!

May 2019

John and Aless making great progress with the kitchenette cabinets for the self contained B&B.

April 2019

Cast brass handles on! a beautiful up-cycled rimu cabinet from our Interior joinery factory in willow drive, taradale Ready to to be installed.

May 2019

Vicki and Aless working at height on our stylised cabbage tree relief

April 2019

The cabbage tree relief sculpted in clay/straw on our wall drying out - base coat so plenty more work ahead and already stunning

April 2019

Lilly supervising for the two hours it took the driver to back an eight wheeler long haul removals truck full of our exterior joinery up the drive. What a driver and loads of encouragement and support from our crew.. we made it up!

April 2019

Delivery of the exterior joinery frames and glass, needed a lot of hands working in unison - the slider frame in the background is the biggest one, unglazed really heavy, glazed it weighs in at more than half a ton.

April 2019

The frames located in the holes, phew.. they fitted, well done Pat!! and Thermadura! 2.8m high sliders still to be glazed on-site, plus taping, flashings, sills etc.. etc..

May 2019

Nils walking past the biggest slider giving some idea of scale. Delivered but not yet installed..

May 2019

Still working at sunset.. Vitali, Nils, Pat and Andrew walking a big pane of double glazing over to the slider frame - with all the glass in that slider unit weighs more than half a ton!

May 2019

Vitali from ThermaDura still working late on Friday night under lights, doing the finishing touches for on-site glazing of the sliding door units

May 2019

The exterior joinery is now all installed and glazed!! and looks amazing :-) Garage door is next then we are fully closed in, another big milestone.

May 2019

Exterior plaster base coat on and exterior joinery installed, winter we are ready for you :-)

Chilly start… blue sky shorts and t-shirt day

May 2019

Nils putting up our ceiling battens and installing the Terralana wool insulation.

May 2019

Up it goes! Nils putting up our Ply ceiling in the self contained B&B, getting it ready for our planned July move in.

May 2019

Water blasting native timber fence pailings to get them ready for the joiners to dress, beautiful matai and rimu timber.

May 2019

5 metre lengths of recycled Matai 6 x 2 native timber, fence railings on their way to conversion into beautiful interior joinery.

May 2019

Byrons team are back to diamond polish and seal the garage, B&B and laundry concrete floors.

May 2019

Polished garage floor, yes its loaded with black oxide.. final buffing when we move in will even it out more, for now its like calm water with spreading ripples catching the light, just beautiful as we had imagined.

May 2019

Our Pizza oven in construction, with small fire each day to dry out the cob plaster.. for more check out the blog :-)

May 2019

Welcome to Martin who has joined us from Slovakia, a master plasterer assisting Pat our resident plaster wizard. Great to have him helping with our plaster finish coats.

May 2019

Vicki and Aless following on from the theme of the house relief art..

May 2019

from the inside out..

June 2019

The first Nga Kereru wood-fired pizza hot from the oven

June 2019

Family enjoying pizza lunch party

June 2019

Georgia stays with us for sleepover in the caravan - time for a hand massage

June 2019

Early surf check.. Alessandra shot of Bare Island

June 2019

Everitt fitting cavity battens on north wall

June 2019

Pat working on plastering in a deep window reveal

June 2019

The front of the house has cavity cladding, its all closed in and inspection passed - so onto final plaster coats!

June 2019

Polished the garage floor, beautiful sunset shot..

June 2019

Pat and I doing a winter dawn surf check at Waimarama - photo Aless

June 2019

Martin is visiting and having built his own strawbale house in Europe and assisted on several others is lending a hand.. we are very grateful.

June 2019

Our beautiful native timber at Parkhill Joinery going into a wall cabinet in our B&B flat kitchenette.

June 2019

Our solid native timber doors at Parkhill Joinery, assembled and nearly ready to oil and fit.

June 2019

A recycled native timber window-sill laminated by Hortop and Sons Joinery, cut and oiled ready to fit..

June 2019

Clearly Pat has a pot of gold stashed in his ute, Maraetotara winter day with a sun shower on its way..

June 2019

5pm’ish…

June 2019

Thanks to James for more amazing drone footage of Nga Kereru under construction….

July 2019

Nils hand-crafting our ply ceilings

July 2019

Beautiful afternoon light

July 2019

Wood fired roast veggies

July 2019

A great day for a Pizza party

July 2019

A beautiful cold winters morning, driving down into the morning mist..

July 2019

Some lovely native plants from a Waipukarau nursery, 2019 planting soon..

July 2019

Pizza oven cover.. old umbrella cover, some 3M spray, toggles and shock-cord, beauty!

July 2019

Nils and Everett putting up the ply ceiling

July 2019

Martin troweling on the final plaster coat, Waimarama clay..

July 2019

Wow, Te Mata peak early morning mist in the river valley - blessed

July 2019

Another transformation, the front of the house is not flat.. cant wait for the plaster..

July 2019

Hard to believe we are not in the tropics, Napier winter sunrise Westshore beach

July 2019

Everett busy lining the living room… doors, lining its taking shape inside

July 2019

Regular visitor - Tui feeding in our flax

Native birds feeding in our flax

Jan 2020