Winter was nearly upon us, but we were determined not to be caught again with an unclad wall. Last winter had been cold enough. Thanks to the assistance of an old friend, we were able to purchase the materials necessary to buy the (recycled) cladding. But before it could be put up, the rest of the insulation we'd salvaged from the tip so many months ago was finally to be used up. It had been sitting in a shrinking pile under an old blue plastic pool liner for the past twelve months, occasionally scattered by the wind or leaked on through stray holes. What a relief to go through it for the last time.

The steps that used to lead up to the old kitchen door look rather pathetically pointless.

 

I hate wearing masks, no matter how good they are for me. Either we didn't have access to a conventional mask, or I was determined to be a bit different since I had to wear one. I can't quite recall. Oh, but I didn't enjoy this. The fiberglass fibers are horrible - they make you itch all over. And then there was the added joy of the insulation being dirty and sometimes wet, depending on where in the stack it had been. As we couldn't put wet bits in the wall (damp was okay), we had to cut those sections out and adjust accordingly. Put it this way: there was a reason we got it for free. (Everyone else has more sense!)

 

 It was painful, but it was worthwhile. Our wall ended up insulated, for nothing more than our time and effort, and a waste product was stored in a useful, invisible way. Our struggles with recycled fiberglass insulation were over.

A couple weeks later we were back to installing windows. The first one was put into the little bedroom.

 

 

 

Of course, the window was recycled, as were the timbers used to frame it. Most of the timber, in fact, was already there; it just had to be rearranged somewhat.

This wall was the last one remaining uninsulated and unclad. As we were heading back into winter, the push was now on to change this situation as soon as possible - as coming posts will show.

On April 11th, we celebrated one year's ownership and development of 'Lizard Rock'.

Llick holds up the cake (probably made by someone other than Mum, judging by the lack of height). We are dining in the area that used to be veranda till we installed the windows, clad the outer and took out the inner sliding doors. The bathroom is still on the other side of the plywood behind Mum. Do you see the stains at the bottom of that wall? Water from the shower on the other side sometimes leaked through and drained away under the window.

And on the same day this photo was taken of the shed/laundry wall, opposite the kitchen. As you can see, not only is it clad, but at some time during the last three or four months Slick has installed a new door and two new windows. But more on this project later.

The renovation had been hard - emotionally, physically and mentally - but it was wonderful to contemplate what we had managed to accomplish, by the grace of God, on an almost non-existent budget. The application of much hard labour, time, initiative and innovation, combined with some skill, to materials from the local dump, various jobs, friends and a unexpected places, gave us results that many people pay much money for. It would have been much easier to take out a loan, but we were determined to use our skills and the materials available and to come out the other side beholden to no-one. We saw this house as our God-given opportunity to work our way further out of morgage debt. Once finished, we planned to sell it and move straight on. As it turns out, two years later, we have not yet arrived at the right time to sell. The house has been on the market, and then been taken off. But I am jumping far ahead of myself. Look out for the upcoming laundry post!

Sorry for the long blogging silence, folks. Here are some photos that were taken a week or so after the time period covered in my last post. (September 7th, 2006.) They serve as a good this-is-where-we're-up-to-at-this-stage portfolio. Obviously the photos only show the outside of the house, but, as almost nothing had been touched inside as yet, these pictures don't miss much.











As can be seen, little or no landscaping has been done out the front or down the sides of the house, at this stage. The western wall of the house is the last wall waiting to be insulated and clad, and the cladding of the garage/workshop/laundry building is obviously incomplete too. However, three walls of our house now have new windows, insulation and cladding - we have light and warmth inside!

Time for the inside of the kitchen wall to be clad with gyprock (bought off the 'Damaged Pile' at bargain price), and for the last sheets of plywood to be fitted on the front face of the house. Both were done on the same day, Beth and I working with the gyprock (not a job I enjoy - somehow gyprock and I don't mix) and Dad outside with the plywood.



Me, looking like Mlick.





Starting with bottom piece... I wonder how many times we had to adjust the fit? I can't remember.



And then the top.



Our scaffolding has been upgraded since, thank goodness. This lot worked, but had its limitations. I guess you could say it was good for getting the heart rate up, though at uneven intervals.





Hurrah! What a relief! What a sense of closure and accomplishment!

Judging by most of these photos, we spent the day standing around. This was the most difficult part - and besides, we didn't start till half-way through the afternoon!

Next day we spent cladding the front of the house, starting with the kitchen end.





First we lined the closed in veranda area with black plastic, and then, oh, the joys of insulating ...

Twenty Ninth of August, 2006, and we were finally round to the kitchen window. Corrugated plastic is definitely a good temporary fix.






Of course, the kitchen being the heart of the home and all that, we had interesting obstacles. Come what may, the bread making Must Go On! (Or else, no lunch.)



Can you see why we were eager to renovate our kitchen?



Wow - there's actually a view out that window? Somehow corrugated plastic seems to limit visibility slightly.




And ... a couple hours later the window was installed and the gyprock gone. Very airy!




These photos are almost like looking at our own version of a Brambly Hedge dwelling! (I love those books.)





Black plastic protected us from the elements that night (remember, it was still winter) and gave us some privacy.

Sounds profound, doesn't it! What it refers to is the tortuous path we took to arrive at the exterior cladding and appearance of the house.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the appearance of the house was wrapped up in the shallow pitch of the roof. Being a romantic and heavily influenced by North American architecture, I prefer a 45 degree pitch most days of the week. This place didn't cut it.



In our original discussions, we planned to ameliorate the pitch by raising the centre third to a second story, with a gable running front to back and the existing roof line remaining to present a barn like structure.


Unfortunately, our resources wouldn't stretch that far. The compromise was a board on batten
effect which would draw the eye upwards on the front and back of the house. On the two shorter sides of the house, we played off a house 3 doors down which had corrugated iron running vertically on two of its walls. (The fact that Steve got a good deal on iron which was second hand - oops, recycled- may have had some influence on the decision as well!)


The colour scheme was the source of much despair. Having traveled through the province of Quebec and seen the wonderful colour schemes of their houses, my greatest desire was to paint the house a deep raspberry colour. We played around with some paint pots but most required a grey undercoat before the red was applied - and all the reds were a bit garish. We then turned to our store of mis-tints and tints we'd inherited or picked up cheaply. The brown and the grey/blue trim are the end results of our playing. I must admit that for me it was second best, but, in hindsight, my dream was probably not suited to the Australian landscape. Besides, I used red inside the house instead.

The end result was quite satisfying on the back of the house where it is level with the ground, but at the front of the house the exposed brickwork of the foundations caused a problem. Visually, there still seemed to be a squat house on high foundations - the house did not look settled into the landscape at the front. Two things eventually improved the situation. The first was the addition of an attic bedroom over the dining room; the 3 diamond pane windows under the eaves draw the eye up. The second was as simple as painting the brickwork a slightly darker brown (which only happened between Christmas and New Year '08). This removed the horizontal line across the house, It is amazing that so much discussion and angst could be summarised in such a short post!



The final efforts to connect the house to its location and provide a transition area between inside and out will be discussed in greater detail when we get to them.