If five gyprockers descend on your home – WATCH OUT!!!!

Because they will do this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And More! (Ooh, lookie at the pretty shadows J).  And they will work like mad men in a massive whirlwind of activity and only take 3 hours!! 

Our job was to keep out of their way!

And staple up the wool batt insulation that is in all our internal walls (for noise control and temperature stabilisation):

 

 

 

 

 

Phew, it really was tiring just watching them!  And boy, did they make some mess – but they got on the brooms at the end of the day and cleaned up too J - gotta love that!  (Though I can’t wait to give the house a good vacuum after they are finished).

And meanwhile, Ryan was loving putting the extra 4000+ screws in the roofing, Andy was up and down ladders helping him and us, and Michael was doing his final check of electrics before it was all walled in forever!

We are strawpenters!!

Bale raising has started – and the roof is all baled up – both sides! 

This was 6.42am yesterday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three hours later – now you see them in all their glory (that is our wonderful neighbour who volunteered to help out – Thank you Birgit!!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 …now you don’t (Andy doing the covering in Albany Wool Batts sarking and it is still only morning tea time!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard was here too – re-tying the loose bales so they fitted in some gaps – but somehow he escaped the camera.

The guys then spent time getting the roofing all on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

… so this morning we could do it all again! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 All baled up!!! Yay!!! (By 9am – just amazing!)

One bale too many up there though - I bet it was satisfying throwing it down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now here is a trick question for you – What is the longest distance in my world? 

That would be this 12 horizontal metres and 2.5 vertical metres to get strawbales onto our roof!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My goodness it was a lot of hard work and in between me whinging about how heavy some bales were I did remember to say a prayer of thanks that we are healthy enough for this hard work and that we (will) have a wonderful home to live in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So that has been our Monday and Tuesday so far J.  It is good J.

PS.  And you might notice my joie de vivre has improved (thankfully!) – it is amazing what a little blood, sweat and tears can do for a girl J.  And if I ever thought I was pretty good as an amateur psychologist, I have nothing on Richard Rowell!  Rich reads this blog so he knew of my melancholy and as we chatted about the progress on the home he nailed my concern on the head (which I couldn’t do!) – I was worried about letting the guys down.  We are getting to the point where the bank account is dwindling rapidly and when we run out of money, if it happens when Ryan and Andy still have work to do, it will really feel like we have let them down – I know how much effort they have put into building our home and we appreciate it so, so much!!  (I know we will run out of money, we have to really, otherwise we will just spend forever.  I know that too will happen, but it will have to be after we can say – “This house is finished (for now)”.  So I am madly balancing our budget too – got to make sure we can pay for all the big things that are on the horizon.)

Oh so pretty – we have a patchwork verandah ceiling!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See, I really did do it J - and it is oh so pretty, pretty, pretty.

Of course, will be even prettier when we clean it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guys are always working hard and we have our pantry lined too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This 'dungeon' is looking great but boy do I need that VOC sealer – the chemical fumes from the Liquid Nails is Nasty!  Yuck, and I just looked on the tube – ‘vapours may cause drowsiness and dizziness” – sounds dangerous L.  Another lesson learned – check your products before use!!  Research now tells me it may have been possible to use a low VOC liquid nails.

Other better news though – roof and guttering delivered J

 

 

 

 

 

 

There sure is lots of it and just a bit scary to think how it will look, it is the first real thing that we had to choose a colour that we can’t change if we don’t like it!

Look at our house!  All the roof rafters done, and one gable end started!

 



 








Not a bad week’s work, not at all J!

It’s been a quiet couple of days on the building site – Ryan and Andy were working away as we waited for the roof beams to arrive (delays are all part of the game, eh?...) – but Hubby and I were busy building the brick plinths – and 28 done and finished in 2 and a half days – not bad for amateurs I reckon!

My part of the job was cleaning out the mortar and pointing the brickwork – I am still trying to work out why you spend so much time putting ‘stuff’ into a part of the building, then pulling lots of it out again! 

 

 Now, today, in contrast – was all go again – and the big, boys’ toys were called in for those big beams!!


 
One hour later, 3 out of 3 parts of our ridge beam bolted to the columns J...


 
Then give those blokes another few hours and half a roof is rafted too!!


 
Almost looking like a house now J - and looking big!!