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 !   🙂

Focus

Focusing is what counts when life gets big, and there are too many distractions.

Today I got distracted by my own need to keep myself healthy- I went to my Chinese Doctor’s in Melbourne to get acupuncture and herbs for the next  month. I have been doing this for over 15 years. Not that I am always on herbs, but probably 4-6 months out of the year, I make the effort. This keeps my quality of life at a high level, as the herbs build up my mental and physical health.

Tomorrow, my focus is back to doing the things I write on my list the night before. Once I have finished ticking off all the items, I feel really good and am inspired to do more. It’s a great little practice!

Here are a few things on my list:

research bathroom appliances for bathroom one and two

call Mini Digger to start on extending the carport area

talk to plumber

…..

One thing I know is that I will sleep very well tonight ! Acupuncture does that to you…

My Other Business

Today was dominated, as usual on a Saturday, by my other job, which has been feeding me for years : a mobile massage and spa treatments service in Daylesford, Australia !

I work with a few people, some weekends up to 5 other therapists help me do the rounds. In case you don’t know- Daylesford is a small and very pretty town only 1 .5 hrs out of Melbourne. So our main clientele is from close by, and many of our customers appear to come in groups- women at that !

I have been doing this for over 12 years- part time of course, as there is not much work around the weekdays. On weekends, Daylesford swells to double or sometimes triple the amount of people that live here.

Today, I tried to give a 90 min massage and facial treatment to a woman who had her 6 month old baby with her. Of course little Milly woke up as soon as mummy laid on the massage couch to relax and unwind. For the first 25 mins, Milly was just talking to herself and chewing on…anything she could reach in her portable cot. Then, she started to get annoyed at the lack of interest we were showing. For the next almost hour, mum and I kept changing Milly’s (and also mum’s)positions on the massage table, and I flexibly rotated my massaging from the neck to the feet and back again. The facial was done with Milly bouncing on mummy’s stomach. Only in the last 10 minutes of mum’s treatment, the designated baby sitters came back from their leisurely walk around the beautiful, misty lake. By then, I had forgotten what body parts I had missed out on massaging- and it didn’t seem to matter that I did her feet again- she was fast asleep !Bless her.

In case you ever come to Daylesford, please check out my website link

All of our therapists have more than ten years of experience and we are the best in town ! Easily!