Quick look at June 2018

via Quick look at June 2018

Fundamente or foundations and then some…

Here’s my catch up. It’s all been a very fast process. I feel like I’ve got jet-lag or something.

It almost never rains here, only when we want to lay down the concrete for our foundations and floors! So we had to wait and wait… but one fine morning, it happened: the pouring of the slab followed the pouring rain…

This is a very important step to get right, and even though ours ended up 50mm too far west than it should have, all in all it went really well, thanks to the diligent work and co- ordinations by my partner Ian. Proud to say that we got all the services (electrical and plumbing connections into the house) laid correctly and termite proofed prior to concreting day,  had only 2 wheelbarrows full of leftover concrete, and even got the side of the slab insulated with a styrofoam product (which is normally used as insulation to squeeze in between the floor joist spaces under a house on stumps). Genius ! The final layer of concrete is a mochaccino colour, which turns out to look like an earth floor- quite the trendy thing for a straw bale house ! Of course Ian had to be different, contrary and creative and ‘dabble’ with a MASSIVE AMOUNT OF BRIGHT RED OCHRE on the corner of the house where his study room will be- to the absolute shock and shaking of many heads on site. Then we put a sprinkle of bright blue on the edge of the greenhouse (now blue house !) to make it look a bit more like a swimming pool/ wet area. A colourful time was had by all and we avoided the spreading of the firey mass by the spinning polishing machine called a ‘helicopter’- it did however make it into the entry/laundry area and will forever haunt me when I come in the back door! The floor will be finished when all works are completed with 3 coats of a natural bio wax, which will make it look soft, shiny and …wet. sexy, really.

 

Foundations done.

Helicopter thingy.

 

Then we did 9 working days of framing. Nothing much to say, except it rained, and the builder’s got a gun. Bang Bang. Pine Framing.

So, then we got a red roof. All in one day.

A few days after that, the straw arrived and was put into place within about 3 days, with a little help from a couple of Ian’s sons and a couple of friends. Matt, our straw specialist was giving us guidance about what not to do. So we didn’t do that. And now, we have straw walls.

 

These walls will be rendered with their first coat next week.

For more pics please go to the next post.

So far so good, aye?

Building our Home

Looks like we are starting all over again.

We built a house in 2015 and sold it- for me it was meant to be the HOME that I had been WAITING FOR ALL MY LIFE, but, turns out, it wasn’t. There are many reasons for this. None of them are now applicable anymore. The sale was quick and profitable.

At the time of sale, we already were in possession of this parcel of land, which we acquired in April 2013. Situated at the edge of the edge of town, backing onto gold mined state forest, with a 3 bedroom cheapo but comfy residence, a massive horse stable/ shed and almost no vegetation.

Since then, we divided these 2.5 acres into 5 pieces:

the house on just under 800 sqm

the town house block on the road (530 sqm)

the stables block (3000 sqm)

and two blocks that were the horse paddock (3000 sqm each)

You can look at some pictures

here

The financial result was that we owned the stables block outright and had spare funds to build our STRAW BALE HOME. (After all, 3000 sqm is ‘SO ENOUGH’ as our good friend and weekend helper Teeka says.)

Four blocks were sold to lovely neighbours, who we have fairly regular get-togethers with, and who are also in the planning stages of building environmentally conscious homes.

Our intention was to have a cluster of eco homes all around us, and it looks like it’s happening! Our other aim was to grow food here, and with Ian’s creative and ‘musculous’ digging power, we have planted over 60 fruit and nut trees, extensive and wild vegetable gardens including chicken runs, watering and composting systems. We have converted parts of the stables into 2 separate but very basic living spaces comprising of one indoor (winter) and one outdoor (summer) kitchen. And the boys, Rowan [27] and Gabe [19] have experimented on building a tiny home.

Over the past two years, we have absolutely agonised about what and if we are building here, which meant that we had to completely review our relationship’s and business’ and individual life’s purpose(s)- lots of reading mind-expanding books to each other in bed, much time apart, counseling, growing up often physically and emotionally painfully, doing yoga together and apart, talking it through with friends and professionals like spiritual healers, orthobionomists, kinesiologists, TCM practitioners- for me a reconstructive peri menopausal transformation into a young crone and double OMA, thanks to my son Damian and his wife Renee. And so I’m feeling ready to co-create a house with my partner Ian that I can call my home.

On this blog site, I will attempt to recount some of the technical and personal details involving the build of a house that will last for a century (hopefully the house will last that long, not the building of it). A house that is built with a design and materials that we have thoughtfully selected within permaculture principles and our financial health in mind. This house will be warm in winter with minimal heating, cool in summer with minimal cooling, It will be a statement of quiet protest against the Australian building industry and its totally outdated regulations resulting in thousands of wasteful new houses each year. It will be a naturally breathing living house that will keep the many types of bugs and vermin outside. With its greenhouse, we plan to compensate for the short-comings of the local climate- too hot in mid summer for lettuce, too many frosts in winter for ….bananas. It will be my ZUHAUSE which I have lost too many years ago for too many reasons-this home will be SWEET.

Stay tuned. The foundations are under way.

 

Gratitude

I’m BACK !

I woke up this morning, a drizzly Sunday morning, the morning after watching a wonderful play by Shakespeare, performed by local talents including my stepson Gabe, and I thought, ‘it’s time to take up blogging again’. This morning, I have fire in my belly (and in my wood stove)  and I’m “sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad” . So dramatic ….but the life I’m living now is so changed, so different, I hardly recognise my dreams, my skin, or my lover and life companion. (more on all that in the next entry)

 

So I found this, my long lost blog site,  and lo and behold!,  there was a saved draft from December 2013 !!! As follows…..

 

 

Today, I made a vow.

I thought that it is about time to think about how little gratitude I have been feeling. So I’m jolting my memory- remembering the great things in my life. And I’m vowing to be grateful for at least one thing a day !

For a start, all I need to look at is my financial position. Compared to even two years ago, I’m blessed with access to a lot more financial resources, and I’m grateful for that. It’s a great feeling when you actually realise, that you are getting closer to some big goals in life ! What a wonderful mind we have- we have the amazing ability to choose what we want to be, how we want to live, and BANG, as long as we have passion for it, we can make it happen. Well, it doesn’t happen overnight (mostly), but we all know how fast a year or two go by and so while we are working passionately towards a goal, feeling fulfilled in the process, we get to savour what we’ve been aiming for. Two times lucky !

Of course there are set-backs, sometimes a few too many. Sometimes we need to change direction, slightly or dramatically, and we need to listen to the signs all around us. Another blessing !

But the more I look at the magical side of life, consciousness, the brilliant people around me, the adoration of my sweet lil dogs, the massive 4 cm growth  (in one day) that my baby tomato plants in the garden achieved, music, humour, – the list is endless, the more I feel that life is a magical forest in which I get to be a unicorn. If I want to.

Blessings all around !   🙂

Construction

Just recently, I got into drinking dandelion coffee. I know, I’m weird, but you should see me on real coffee !!! Not good. Not nice.

So here I am with a dandy coffee and laptop, and today’s theme is construction.

Renovating 3 houses in a row, including a subdivision each time, has in many ways been a lot simpler than organizing the construction of a very small, very energy efficient house on our block of land.

It seems that even just getting permits to plan and build have been fraught with small and big lessons of how to deal with those desk- people, who continually change faces, and therefore criteria to actually get signed off.

How about the planner, who I paid good money to in order to submit our plans but who failed to make sure that council acknowledged the fact that he submitted them. Six weeks later, when I asked him how the application is proceeding I find out that they have been sitting in reception at the planning department because they wanted one extra bit of paper: proof of title- which is also ridiculous, because they had just issued it!

After that, because of staff issues it took council from May to the very end of October to give permission to plan the building.

(to be fair, one mistake I had made was to ‘forget’ that the land surveyor had said in the beginning that because of an overlay, I would have to have another planning application to the application to subdivide, if I didn’t include the plan of the dwelling initially.)

Next the building permit.

Says one building surveyor: it’s all good, we’ll send you out the permit in the mail after I satisfied lists and lists of documents they needed—next thing you know –he’s left the office that he’s worked in for many years and in his footsteps is some dude who needs more and more information, proof and utter detailed nonsense to actually let me build a structure that’s been built hundreds of times before!

Just today I had to make the building company understand, that I won’t get a building permit if they don’t give me engineering drawings. But they only give them out normally if the initial 25% construction deposit has been paid- which I can only pay once the contract is in place-which they haven’t sent me because I don’t’ have a building permit! AHHHHH…

There are a lot of chicken and egg situations in the building and construction sector.

And you are probably going to ask me: Why isn’t the building company doing the permit? Apparently they are not a registered building company, – and that’s why I had to become an owner-builder. Another 13 different documents and fees to pay.

Even after all this, I’m still confident that once we get the paper work sorted, we will end up with a good product- cost effective and energy efficient- which was my main concern.

Am I going to use the same construction company in our next construction?

Ask me in 6 months. Or could be 6 years. Contingency plan.

Subdivision Heaven

Hi,

Might as well keep on telling the rest of the story 🙂

Thank you for those who actually visited my blog, I feel honoured. Of course I welcome any feed back or questions .

About our new project- 10 000 sqm with a 3 bed house and massive storage shed :

Plans to subdivide into 3 lots as a Stage 1 are being assessed by council as we speak. We are going to sell the existing house with a minor renovation and also sell one of the building blocks (500 sqm) . We are keeping the shed and about 9000 sqm.

Stage 2 may never happen, as sewerage connections could amount to over $100 000 and take more than 12 months, because of the discontinued railway track, which is in between our back block and the sewer point. Of course none of that is a surprise to us -we had all that checked out before we signed up to buy it. That’s called DUE DILIGENCE ! Stage 1 however makes enough profit to warrant the purchase ! (over $60 000 plus mortgage free shed and 9000 sqm)

The house and large land next door is for sale, and if we bought it, we could share/halve subdivision costs for Stage 2 – and that would make it even more attractive. We have not yet decided on that.

That would mean we could have up to 10 blocks for sale, given that we want to keep up the good old country tradition of quarter acre blocks.  (The start of an eco village???) The road, which would be the access to all those blocks, would have to be upgraded at our cost, to cope with the increased traffic.

So far, we have planted over 40  fruit trees and many more other trees, put extensive vegie gardens and also ornamentals in. The big paddock was deep ripped, using a Yeoman’s plough to counteract the compacting of the soil by horses from the previous owner. That was ONE way of renovating the land. A soil test revealed that it was suitable for extensive cropping, especially fruit and nut varieties after applying the right amount of gypsum.

We are only 5 mins walk away from a  primary school, post office, shop and pub, and sports facilities. What a great place to live! Blocks will sell like hot cakes ! Orders taken now 🙂

SOLD !!!

Ok ok,

Yes it’s been more than a year ! But much has happened.

While I was very lazy in the writing department, I have actually accrued more wealth.

The house I started renovations on last year, in my last entry, is sold and settled in July this year. Once my partner came back from his overseas adventures, he got going on the landscaping and fencing and demolishing all sorts of parts of the outside of the property, catching up with me and the tradies- we renewed the kitchen, made a brand new bathroom out of one of the 5 bedrooms, completely rejigged the old bathroom and made it into an on-suite, painted inside and out, insulated the ceiling, fixed up the fireplace, and redecorated ready to sell. Of course we also fixed numerous problems, but left a few things to do for the next owners- people get bored you know !

All in all we took over 600 hours to complete the project- more than 400 was my contribution in physical labour and managing.  (That calculation excludes hours by tradespeople.)

We spent $17 000 on the subdivision, and around $30 000 on the renovation, including landscaping and fencing.

We sold the house for a few thousand dollars more than we spent, including all costs within 3 months and kept the block of land that we cut away from the house. Plans to build a very small, but very eco dwelling  (7.7 star rating) are in the pipeline and we should have that finished by March 2014.

The profit was our best one yet : the building block worth $170 000 plus a few thou.

see the  sale brochure here

In the meantime, we bought our next project, 10 000 sq meters with a 3 bedroom house and massive shed.

More on that later- possibly before the year is out !

Bursts

this renovation happens in bursts. Sometimes, there’s no tradesmen available for 10 days, then all of a sudden there’s 3 ! We have started on the new bathroom, which will be in the centre of the house. Having 5 bedrooms, I thought I could sacrifice one of them. The old bathroom will become the ensuite to the master bedroom.

Jobs include cutting out the wooden boards from walls and floors, and chipping into the sub- frame, fitting layers of waterproofing for the walk in shower and boarding up again.

The plumber will come and do his thing, and the electrician has already moved power points and installed exhaust fan and other electricals.

Thanks to Maureen, I have been able to buy a great vanity that can be installed very easily and will look excellent !

Outside, we have a paint job on the the go, fixing up holes and sanding to prep.

It’s so good to get happening !

Cosmetic Renovations

You might have noticed that I don’t write about my properties everyday. That is because it’s a part time vocation. True, I think about it every day, do a little managing everyday, but the hands-on is fairly limited. I have heard of people renovating a whole house completely in 3 weeks. Cosmetic renovation that is.

Cosmetic renovation is not a word for doing a touch-up job on a rotting medium. The cosmetic renovation I do is about giving a place a new look, painting all walls and ceilings. Renewing all floors and fixtures. Updating bathrooms and kitchens and laundries. Landscaping and cleaning. An attention to detail job outside and in, including and especially the main features of a house. The raw material has to be carefully selected for hidden costs and structural faults.

If a house needs major work that costs thousands, it will not be considered for renovation  unless it’s on a very valuable piece of land. In general I would not spend more than about 5 – 10% of the purchase price on a renovation. And if I did, it would mean that with all the work I put in, the profit would definitely be 10% or more of the purchase price.

Even though I’m still working with our handy men on days they are here, I ‘m aiming to not do so much physically myself in the next project. I enjoy some of it, for example painting (but not too much), wood work, tiling and just holding things up for the tradesmen, fetching tools and equipment etc. At this stage, I still enjoy being involved. So I’ll keep doing that. One day though, I will have a team of people going in for a few weeks and then it’s done.

And by the way, renovation without sub- dividing is almost a useless venture. Subdivision is where the money is, and renovation just adds a bit more. The good thing about renovating is that most people could imagine doing it, whereas sub division is a little daunting at first. A good way to start.

More on sub division next time.

Jinx

Maybe I have jinxed myself in my last blog. I mean, I haven’t posted for a while now, and it’s possibly because I may have been afraid to communicate anything at all !

Well, I’m getting over that now. Right now.

It’s my responsibility after all. The person I’m aiming to be is blaming less, accusing less, maybe even saying less. Speech is one of the harshest things about me- it sometimes gets away and has harmful effects on people around me.

I long to have control over what I say at all times. I would like to be more mindful. Sometimes I need to withdraw into myself to find out, what’s making me tick, or what’s lacking. Finding a centre is important when there are lots of responsibilities. Reducing the suffering in my mind is necessary to make the life I want happen.

So long !