A busy week...

In what was expected to be a wet week with not much getting done on the build, I had initially focused on a few other ideas to be able to provide at least a short update. But true to form, the weather is anything but predictable and and it has ended up being a lot better than expected.

We will come back to the build in a bit, but for now…So what else has been going on?

The shade house is complete (at least the outside).

While not strictly part of the business itself (residing as it does within our home paddock) a rebuild of a shade house has been on the agenda since we moved in two years ago. The old one was starting to look a bit ragged, with a flat roof that sat at about 1.7m high (against my height of 1.85m) it was a real OH&S risk, as evidenced by a number of solid head knocks which I was getting a bit sick of.

So back in January, we tore it down. I took a couple of months to find the time to build a retaining wall, concrete in some uprights (thanks Stu!) and then build the frame. In the past couple of weeks we have finally managed to finish it off with shade cloth and now just need to get the planter boxes back inside and growing things again.

The final result does look impressive, if I say so myself. Had you told me three years ago I would be building something like this, I would have said you were dreaming, but with a little time on my hands and a lot of guidance from you tube - here we are. I suspect this won’t be the last little construction job around the place either.

The shade house will be extremely useful for growing seedlings and other more vulnerable kitchen plants. The output will be used by both us and our guests, with this version likely to be the basis for at least one more, closer to the lodge and the fruit orchard we are looking at establishing up the hill behind the shed.

Decisions, decisions…

Last week I hinted at more to be done on the home front in terms of decision making and that is how it has played out. We have picked the front door, tweaked a few minor elements in the layout and started to focus on the nitty gritty - what tiles to use and where, what floorboards do we want and which way should they run, which electrical appliances will we use in the kitchen, the wine room, the laundry, and more.

Later this week we are off to see the cabinet makers to figure out the look, materials and overall feel for the kitchen, laundry, wine room, bathrooms etc. We still need to firm up detail on taps, sinks, door hardware, and a lot more.

Who knew there were so many moving parts in a simple house

And finally, the build!

Last week ended with the main shed slab having been poured and the main house being close to half framed. This week, the rest of the shed slab (the outside portion) has been laid out and the house itself is starting to really take shape with the framing pretty much complete and the vertical supports for the living room cathedral ceiling going in. It is providing us a much better perspective of the overall size of the place, and it is LARGE!

The shed is really starting to take shape as well - all the concrete has now been poured and the frame is mostly complete. With a pile of trusses already here I suspect it won't be long until it really starts to reveal its full shape.

Over the next week or so I am going to see what can be done to bring these shots to life using some form of time lapse sequence (fingers crossed).

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