Now that's a Cathedral - ceiling that is

After all of last week's attention was focused on the shed, the main house felt just a little neglected. This week, all of that has changed, with the roof trusses for the living room finally making an appearance - and what an appearance it is!

The communal living space could be considered on the larger size, especially for a building that is unlikely to often hold more than 8 people (and will more regularly see just 4). At around 10 metres by 10 metres - or approximately 100 square metres using my high school maths - it should give guests plenty of room to move around and relax. The plan is for this to be the centre of action, with a full galley kitchen, a large island bench, dining table and then room to relax. On one side will be a fireplace which can be configured as either a combustion or open fire, on the other side a large screen TV to catch all of the latest sporting action.

This space will have a cathedral ceiling which will measure around 6m high at its peak, and full length windows and sliding doors at the northern end. This will draw visitors' gaze outside to a broad covered deck and views of the dam and practice green below.

This will be the perfect place to relax with a quiet beverage or two, after a round at Barnbougle or adventuring around the Northeast and reflect on the day while watching the sun set over rolling green hills and Bridport beyond. We can't wait!

In terms of the build itself, the main house is now starting to be wrapped, so the cladding and roof can go on in the next week or two. The framework will slowly disappear over this time and the real character of the lodge should start to appear.

This week saw the installation of the septic tank and accompanying waste pipes. Another key element of the build, but one which will hopefully attract little attention and just do its job in the background.

Elsewhere around the property, our Tasmanian native hens (locally known as turbo chickens) have had a clutch of chicks. Over the past year there has been three of these that tend to wander the property together and manage to cover quite some territory. For the past 6 weeks or so there has been only one foraging the slope in front of the house. Last weekend, a second started to be seen again more regularly near the edge of the shrubs around the dam and late in the week the chicks emerged.

These are an unusual looking bird. They are flightless but have remarkable speed across the ground - hence their nickname. They have bright red eyes making them look slightly possessed but are friendly enough. They are typically silent movers but do possess a remarkably shrill call that is reminiscent of a car alarm and can often be heard at night when they are disturbed by other animals (they are preyed upon by quolls, devils and larger birds such as kookaburras and birds of prey). Hopefully this year's brood has a better survival rate than last year's which saw the 4 hatchlings reduced to just one survivor in a matter of weeks. But such is the way of things out here.

Anyway - on with the build. Oh, and another video. The drone is so cool!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/09ca2f_ce7ad00ebadc4f97b5b4099cf9280c72/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

And finally, as always, we hope you are enjoying these updates. If there is anything you would like us to cover, feel free to drop us a line at info@stripeyig.com.au. If you would like to be notified about any updates to the Stripey Pig blog, please join our mailing list on the main Blog page - and don't forget to tick the 'Yes, I agree to receive marketing emails' box to make sure you get your notifications.