The Alternative Lifestyle Site

Transition Project #3: The House (an update)

Summer has been and gone and we are in the last throws of perfect Autumn weather here in North East Victoria, Australia.  Perfect deck and pergola building weather and that’s exactly what we are up to.

Our building program has proceeded steadily over the past 6 months and we are getting very close to our straw bale home extension being completed.  The render work is all finished (thanks Chris from Australian Render Systems in Beechworth), the gorgeous handmade doors and windows are in (thanks Rob and the crew from Designed By Eye in Stanley)  and the double glazing (thanks Hilton from Indigo Glass – another local business) is working perfectly, the lighting and fans have all been installed as have the solar panels and we are now exporting electricity to the grid.

You can get the same system we purchased (if you live in Australia) from Rezeko – ekoenergy solar, check out their website here.  Wall to wall carpeting was laid in the bedrooms last Monday and of course it was just too much to resist and we have been sleeping in our new bedrooms for about ten days now!  Total bliss.

Now I’m making curtains and the perfection of that process is that we were able to source curtain fabric and lining that is actually manufactured within 40km of our home which ties in beautifully with our ethics of using local people and materials if possible.  What a bonus.    Bruck Textiles is the manufacturing facility located in Wangaratta and the fabric is from the Wilson Fabric range and it’s called Karratha (with is named after a town in Western Australia) just in case you were wondering.

More pictures and videos will follow to bring you visually up to date with how things look and what still has to be done.  The feeling of satisfaction is immense and I can feel a celebration on the front deck (14m x 5m) brewing in the background.  Wish you could join us.

Put your name and email address into the box top right to receive updates, special videos and notifications of exciting happenings here at the Alternative Lifestyle Site Blog.  Glad to have you aboard it’s a great journey.

Video: Adventures In Straw – The Roof

Well it took me a while to unravel the software glitches but at last I did it and can post the video of the roof going on our house. Boy was that a momentous day for us and a relief given the weather we were having. Hope you enjoy!

Transition Projects #3: The House (part 4)

When owner building, the time can seem to simultaneously drag and absolutely speed by. By regular building standards we are taking quite a long time to build our home however this is not an off the shelf house, a breeding box as a friend of mine sarcastically puts it, it is custom made by us, for us and for the planet we all inhabit. So that takes care of the time dragging component but what about the time speeding by? Well, we look back at the end of each month and sometimes marvel at what we’ve managed to accomplish, there are some things that just make such a big impact. Despite beavering away each weekend (and during the longer summer evenings) we can sometimes feel as though no progress has been made. Then, as if by magic, one day something big happens and we marvel at the fact that WE are building a house and it’s beginning to actually look like a house!

To put things into context, neither myself nor my loving partner had ever constructed anything of great consequence. I’d managed to pull together a chook house (looked more like a shanty lean too) and we used to joke that Graham couldn’t even put up a shelf (well, only half joke really) and now we stand back with a nice glass of local red wine in our hands and smile with satisfaction and sometimes surprise at what we’ve managed to create so far.

The difference between our building style and speed was brought home to us recently when we had the roof put on. In our state you are not permitted to put your own roof on (don’t get me started on Industry Lobby Groups) so we engaged a local man to do that for us. During that process we also decided to engage some people to put up the framing for the roof as it was quite tricky and we wanted to get the bales covered before the weather got any worse, rain wise that is. What a LEAP! They were so organised, so fast, so confident. At the end of just a few days we had a roof on!

Now it looks like a real house! We’ve got a lot of prep work to do now to get it ready for its first coat of render but we know that it’s all going to make a big job a lot easier if we can get that done before the render team turn up. So it’s all stops out now to pin the straps to the bales to limit movement (and render cracking), filling up all the gaps in the bales with straw and cob, covering the straps with mud before the render goes on (as the nylon strapping doesn’t like lime apparently) and then hitting the walls with the whipper snipper (brush cutter) so tidy up all the loose ends! Noisy job but fun in a weird power tool kinda way

You know you’ve lost your marbles when this kind of thing is the highlight of your month – I’m looking forward to getting my life back.I got so excited about having a roof on that I made a little video, might as well share it with you – however I’m still struggling with the software…. hmmm, time for a mac?!

I’ll let you know when I finally get to post the video – hopefully not too long. Bye for now.

Transition Projects #3: The House (part 3)

Now, where was I up to with this little project the last time I wrote to you? Ah yes, head down and tail up looking at the bottom of a stump hole. Well you’ll be pleased to hear that things have progressed quite well since then despite a few dramatic events.

The biggest drama was the discovery of not one but TWO old Chinese mine shafts at the bottom of a few of our stump holes! During the gold rush this area was full of hopeful souls from all over the world and the Chinese shafts stand the test of time due to being round, rather than square as the European shafts generally were.

We got the drilling rig in to determin the make up of the hole we had uncovered but they ran out of drill before they reached the bottom of the shaft so the engineers had to come up with a solution before we could proceed. This was duly done and work continued.

We are first time builders and have only the weekends to do our creative construction so progress is fairly slow but there are some days when it seems a milestone has been reached and we get quite excited. Laying those first sheets of flooring was one of those days (well weekends really) and the weather was so hot we just about expired! Having days like this really inspires us to keep on going, despite the heat or the frustration, despite the doubts we might have about our ability to do the task at hand.

Nothing prepared us for the next big event in our lives though and that was the bushfires which ravaged our area last Summer.

Still, once the danger passed and we recovered our spirit, we soldiered on and were elated at the next two big moments in our building adventure. We completed the construction of the internal framed walls and our straw was delivered!

Now it felt very, very real and boy were we excited that day! We arranged for a young man who lives not far from us to help us unload the truck (thanks Kai) and around 560 bales later our carport had become a haystack!

Of course, I began building our first load bearing strawbale wall that very afternoon – I was so attached to it, I felt like it was the most precious thing and had a very emotional afternoon. This had been a dream of mine for around 8 years and to be finally handling the straw that was to become my home just touched my heart in a really big way. I had no idea I would respond that way but I can tell you that the love has remained and we just adore what we are creating here weekend after weekend.

Every now and then, when we have a big task to complete – like constructing and installing a big thing like this recycled timber door frame we call on our friends and neighbours to lend a hand (thanks Charlie, Melissa and Matthew ) This has been a real joy for us and we’ve met some amazing people in our area just because we share something like owner building and strawbale construction as an interest. This was not something we had realised was going to happen and we feel such a bond with those who have helped us create our home. It’s wonderful.

Due to certain local and State regulations there are some things we can’t do ourselves like electrical (thanks Ron), putting up the roof (thanks Shady, Rob and Neil), and stuff we want someone experienced to do like earthmoving (thanks Tim), so we have used local trades people as a matter of principle – this has been an absolute delight and we are now able to make recommendations to others based on our experience. It’s a great feeling to be able to offer a good person to help someone just embarking on a building adventure like we are on.

If you would like to continue reading about our adventures in building, or any of our transition projects just subscribe to our list and you will receive notifications when we add something of interest to the blog. As a bonus, you will also receive the video series on Energy – maybe you will save some money as a result.

Transition Projects #3: The House – part 2

We’ve been working weekends for what seems like a lifetime! Still, it’s all for a great cause – our own home.

We have settled very nicely into our little timber home but we just can’t get past the fact that we just don’t fit in here very well. Add that to our burning desire to live in much more sustainable ways and there is just no putting off the inevitable. We just have to stop talking about it and get things moving.

So plans were drawn up with the help of our trusty strawbale building expert, Brian. A couple of telephone calls, a nice lunch together in the beer garden of the Stanley Pub and we had the makings of a great floor plan. In not too much time we had approval to proceed.

I have to admit that at this very moment I almost lost my nerve. What a task but the sheer opportunity just took over and we began by make a great big mess of our lovely piece of land.

The mess this process made really had a big impact on me. I felt aweful for the amount of damage I was responsible for but I knew that in the long run our property will be better, healthier, more diverse and more productive than it was on that day. I took a big breath and wondered at the deep orange red soil slowly appearing where will I will build my home.

At the beginning of this project we had very lofty ideals about being as eco-friendly as we possibly could. One of my first lessons is that this whole process is one of compromises. We’ve had to take some hard decisions and at times we’ve felt that our choices have been less than we would have wished. We added a few layers to our decision making that have made things a little more difficult for us. A couple of those have been:

• use local tradespeople, businesses and resources where possible.
• shop on merit not price.

This is tough when you don’t live in a major city and you are running to a budget. However, in the main we’ve done a great job and we’ve met some amazing people and built what I hope will be long and strong relationships with people. Those things are priceless. The compromises we’ve accepted and feel happy knowing we’ve done the best we can do on the day.

Eventually we were left with this big, flat dusty space in which to create something fabulous. Did I mention the dust?

Of course, I couldn’t resist putting a garden around the edge of all that moved soil – primarily because I love to create things, love to garden and can’t stand dust!

More importantly though, I didn’t want the Autumn rains to start and cause a lot of erosion around the edge. It also gave me an opportunity to put in some simple steps (made from sleepers and star pickets) and give everything a good mulch and a good water. All those lovely trees you see in the background are our Chestnut orchard. Wonderful things because they are so green all through the hot weather and then lose their leaves in the winter letting in all the lovely sunshine.

But that’s another story

We had to hand dig all the holes that were too close to the existing house for the machinery to dig (there were 40 of those) and then we got our trusty digging friend in with his machinery to dig another 110 holes.

We chose to build on stumps to limit the amount of concrete we use as the production of cement creates a huge amount of green house gases and we just don’t want to be responsible for any more of those than is absolutely necessary.

If you look closely at the last picture you can see one of our lovely Collie dogs, a rooster and a hen. Some animals are so curious they just want to be where all the action is.

More soon.

Transition Projects #3: The House (part 1)

We first saw our home about 5 months before we decided to buy it. We didn’t even bother to take a look inside.

Nope, it wasn’t for us – too small, wrong position and frankly it just didn’t look like something we would even consider. Not that it was awful, it was just that unless we could buy a house that would meet all our eco-friendly ideals OR get some vacant land so that we could build with those ideals in mind, we didn’t want to waste anyones time.

So what changed?

We took a look at it with new eyes.

We decided that the fact that it faced totally the wrong way (for energy efficiency) could actually be an advantage. We decided that the fact that it was a weather board home would make it easier to retrofit. We decided that since it was quite, quite small that it was a reasonable thing to expand and extend it. And so we purchased this little house, facing the wrong way but with so much potential. Buy it and make it a sustainable home that was the plan and slowly, we are taking our steps in that direction.

So, what did we buy?

It’s a little house, sitting on not quite two acres, with some nice native trees on the southern and western boundaries, with 100 or so productive Chestnut trees to the north, twenty neglected fruit trees and lots of long grass.

Really, we would have preferred a couple more acres but properties in our chosen areas cost quite a bit so this was our compromise. Despite all the things that were “wrong” with our chosen purchase, there was so much we could do to make it better and we really started right away.

We did a couple of things initially to mediate against the Sun in Summer – blinds were attached to all the outside verandahs to stop the sun actually shining on the glass of our windows.

If the Sun hits the glass it acts like a radiator inside the house. Not a good idea when the temperatures are heading towards the 35 degree Celcius mark on a Summer day! We roll up the blinds in the winter and they really do a good job of cutting the heat and the glare in the summer.

In the winter we have a wood burning combustion stove, carpets, lined blinds on the windows and so long as the heater is on we are toasty warm. However, we use a lot of wood.

The ceiling and the walls do have insulation in them, but it’s not very thick and we know that to increase the level of insulation will make a lot of difference both in Winter and in Summer. Still (we remind ourselves) this is why we purchased this particular house.

We just knew we could take something at was doing just about everything wrong and turn it into something that does just about everything right! With that in mind, the plans were hatched to build an extension.

An eco-extension, “out the back”, on the western side of the house. We already knew what materials we would use and for us the material that touched our hearts was straw. Now I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in the wheat belt of New South Wales and was surrounded by paddocks and fields of wheat but this product just sets my pulse racing!

So we did a Strawbale Owner Builders course, purchased a book on the subject and we set about designing the changes to our little house.

This series of “Transition” posts will outline our journey and I really hope you will enjoy them. As I sit writing this today, there is a man on the roof putting on the last few sheets of iron that will finally link the extension to the existing house! Time for a bit of a celebration I think as now we have one roof over our plans and dreams and although it’s still a long way from finished, it is at last – one house.

If you would like to ensure you don’t miss out on any of the following “Transition Projects” posts, if you would like to gain access to a whole range of tips and advice on how to save energy (and money in the process) just put your name and email address into the box at the top right of this page. I’ve had so much fun making the videos so I really hope you get some great ideas from them.

Building Green: Guess What I Did This Weekend?

That’s a bit of a trick question really because (weather permiting) it’s what I do most weekends for the past few (many) months and for many more to come. You see, I’m an owner builder and I’m building an eco-friendly, sustainable, green home! Out of straw.

We are up to the really fun bit right now, preparing our walls for rendering and getting stuck into the mud. Enjoy our first video with our new (Vista compatible) camera.

Sorry about all the noise with the whipper snipper but I think my hubby loves it when I use power tools!  However, my poor dog hates it and barks his head off the whole time… he even starts up again when I play the video!

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