Build Your Own House

You can't store the images on the forum, but you can post them to a free host like http://www.flickr.com and then link to them from your post. Cut-and-paste the URL of the actual photo into your post, select it and then click on the Img button to surround it with the appropriate tags. Like this:



Does that work? Make sure you set the photo to be public on your host site.

That is our arborial rabbit house btw.

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Bruce
Draftie

Thanks Bruce I think I have a user interface problem with the computer and putting photo's up.

The mobile phone saga has been fixed, well we thought it had, we got the Next G tick system which is especially designed for the country people with you-beaut back up and very little areas that don't have coverage. Well guess what we must be the one area without coverage. Oh it works to our front gate but not up our hill. You would think because we are on a hill it works better. So now we have to go and get a booster aerial, boy this land doesn't like modern technology. So we have to make sure nothing bad happens that may require a phone call before thats all in. I love the fact we have no phone then people can't ring us when were relaxing or working and have to take the punt we are home. It seems the art of dropping by isn't such an art form any more.

We are sourcing the limestone for our floors and have taken all the exact measurments for the walls so now we're looking at getting the strawbales. We are going to go half thickness walls and infill to the posts. I really don't want to cover them up because they are such nice timber posts. The work is finally beginning and it won't take us long to do it all. Easter is set aside for a working bee, we have about 20 people coming down and there are a few engineers amongst them so they will all have their input and the place will spring ahead leaps and bounds.

One of the fellows here at work says he knows how to post photo's so I am going to leave it to him and we'll see what we come up with.

So until then.

Regards

OB1&OB2
Kevin & Inez
Inez & Kevin

Hi to you both
I/we are just starting our Owner/Builder careers [if thats what it can be called!] and just want to say what a huge amount of info you've given us . . . and a few laughs too!
We hope to be building a steel frame with straw bale infill - sounds easy but to date the worst thing has been finding 'the block' to put it on! We keep looking! So much for wanting to have it all done and complete by the end of this year . . . . maybe a few years after that!
Good luck with your home; I look forward to seeing some photos

Well it has been a while. We went down at Easter and it was the proverbial flop. But we are not the sort to be disheartened got in and did as much as we could on our own.
And what we did,
we've put in french doors (they are the ones we lovingly restored) after 2 attempts we got it.
The other OB put the frame up and had them plumb, swinging right and doing a great job. In goes the sides and whilst attaching the surrounding frames the post holding up the door goes over, well you know how things go in slow motion and you can't stop it and sometimes you wish you had the power to freeze things, well I don't have that power and all I could do was watch and go OH expletive.
No use going off the tree, ..it happens and there is nothing else to do but repair and make sure the damn thing is in properly next time. It was amazing but the only damage was the glass broke, and it was such a clean break that until we can get another piece in it's size it's in there sitting pretty for the moment. And a heard of elephants on a rampage wouldn't be able to move them, glued, screwed, braced and fixed solid.

It makes such a difference to have doors that open and close and act like doors are supposed to.

We felt the chill factor starting to set in and as the areas above the windows aren't filled in and plastic deteriorates too quickly we found heaps of perspex that is the perfect size so it has gone up. I'm thinking maybe it might be a good idea to frame it and leave it there permanently.

We have decided because we will have such a large and high area above the void that perspex may be the go there too. Price wise it is working out to be better than toughened glass, I have some shopfitter friends on the hunt for us.

The bathroom now has a window. a fully functional one, plastics gone, glass is in no more breeze and a view.

The area above the beams needs to be sealed up once we get our strawbale walls going. I've seen in an Owner Builder Mag a winery that he has made sausage infill to go above the beams and rendered. I like the idea of it because I don't want to hide the natural timber, so I have got some matting to see how it goes. I have found so much good advice and things we can incorporate from The Owner Builder that they have become a Building Bible. I have been getting them since they first came out all those years ago and have all of them still. I remember certain things I saw and I know I'll find it in one issue or another. I'm thinking of getting the CD set so that I can retire my paperbacks and they can be kept forever.

The walls, well Mr OB has got a job out of Bris for a while and is home on a rotational basis, 9on 5 off, so for the time being it's the weekend he's home that we go go go. We've found a local that has a wacker packer for hire and has a lot of local knowledge. He's lined up for the floors. He's also got a bobcat which will probably come in handy when we have to move cubic metres of crushed limestone.

And the walls we have to wait a while, for the next dry lot of straw, all the weather over Christmas has made for some soggy bales and we want to make sure we get 1st grade material for them. Best to be safe then sorry. The sprayrender rig he's got will do the job nicely when it comes time for that. I notice that this is one of the heartaches most OB's endure so we'll take the easy option on that one.

All in all she's looking pretty good from our initial thoughts of detonate to the stage we are at now we feel pretty proud of what we have achieved. What hasn't killed us has only made us stronger. What hasn't torn us apart has united us. I find to laugh is one of the assets any OB has to posess, if you can't laugh you'll cry yourself to sleep at night and give up a dream you know you can turn into a reality.

So until next time.

Keep going, keep strong keep the dream alive.

Regards

OB1&OB2
Inez & Kevin
Kevin & Inez

Hi OB1 & 2

What an inspiring letter, especially the final paragraph! I was about to give up on the thought of a 'green' type house, having looked at various blocks/houses and practically lived on the net! But, as of a few days ago, I've spent my my savings on a acreage-type block outside Ballarat so now onto 'the house'!
Keep your posts coming and your dream alive!

Hows this for luck change. Took 13 yes 13 windows down over hill and dale and corrugated road (30K) and how many made it in 1 piece you ask. All every one of them. Now that is a feat in itself, I expected 1 or 2 to break but to get there with all in tact made me do a little jig.

We made some steps, the ones Mr OB was making didn't quite pan out so we made some from good old house bricks and planks. They do the job look the part and the dog walks up them no problem, and he won't walk on anything he's not sure about.

The nights down there were quite chilly so the fireplace was put to good use. I can see it getting a lot colder than what it is now so the thermals may get taken out of storage too. We don't seem to get too much frost up on the plateau so that is a good thing for the fruit trees and us I suppose. The wind though, cutting across there can get bitterly cold but as yet we haven't experienced that.


I'm off to put up some blinds in the old kitchen area this weekend. Should be good my first time down there alone, well I'll have the dog with me, so technically i won't be alone. I've got heaps of TOB to re-read and some Grass roots and Earth Garden so thats something to do. I think Mr OB is worried he'll go down next time to a completed house, but my genie blinks aren't working still. I'll do some things but this is a joint project and I want both of us there when we do things and for us both to have input.

So to all have a great Anzac day I'm thinking about going to the dawn service at Tabulam because it's the home of the 1st Light Horse Brigade and have heard the Anzac Ceremony is pretty special there. Being the Daughter of a Rat of Tobruk I try every year to represent my Dad.

Until next time

Keep up the dream.

OB1&Ob2
Inez &Kevin
Kevin& Inez

PS

Thanks Anne for the comments, it's good to know people read. Good luck with your venture and don't ever listen to the Naysayers, they will drive you batty, hold your head high put your shoulder to the grindstone, grit your teeth and push like hell to make your dream your reality. It hurts sometimes but in the end it's like giving birth you forget how much pain it caused at the time and you enjoy it for the rest of it's life.


Bruce I'm still trying to get those pictures up thought I had it last week when I went to the site to download and got all the way through to the posting part and my work computer decided to ACCESS DENIED and give me the big RED hand. So still trying.

Congrats on getting done all that you did - especially trekking over hill and dale - if you weren't in a different state I'd say that you MUST be on my Block/site!

Now that we've decided on a block all we have to do is wait for settlement - during which we finalise the 'house' plans and organise where to get what from - especially the bits and pieces we can get 'recycled'. If only I could put a photo up of the looks I get when I say that I'm planning to use recycled materials! Almost as bad as the looks I got when I/we bought the bush block!!! You have no idea how great it is to find like-minded people who are achieving [or nearly so] their 'green dream'.

Thank you again for your inspiring words and posts . . . . . keep it coming.
Good luck

go for it anne there will always be knockers no matter what you do we arent going green but we have brought a block in a small vic town 800 people and ev1 including the locals think were mad but we dont care i reckon you gotta be mad to sit in the concrete jungles working to get nowhere with interest rates and rents what they are good on yous

Hi and thanks for your reply... . . it was so inspiring to re=read it today. Last weekend we went for another trip to the block and discovered a rather large cleared area, just near the dam [lots of water in it too!!!] more than big enough to put our 'barn' on and leaving lots of room for our resident 'roos!. Mentioned to a neighbor about the block; he wanted to know how much it cost and nearly fell over when I told him - NO way could you get a few acres around here 1. they dont exist any more and 2. the average person wouldnt be able to afford them if they did!!! Made me feel so much better for taking the plunge and signing up for our new tree-change in the bush!
By the way, when I moved to the Dandes, about 20+ years ago everyone thought I was mad for living so far away from the city; now I'm not the only one moving away so that makes me feel better too! Maybe the concrete jungles arent so wonderful after all. . . .
Take care & good luck with your dream

Another month has passed again but with the blink of an eye. Where has this year gone.

Went to the land over Anzac Weekend with my ever Faithful Dog Budd. Got up very early on Anzac day 4am to go to the Dawn service, but heard a 21 gun salute as I was out in the dark heading for the room with the view, so thinking we had missed it, (which we had it wasn't 4.30 am like we thought), we trudged back to bed. We had driven down the night before to miss all the traffic, good move because the amount of cars we heard going up our road over the weekend was a lot more than normal.

After getting up for the second time, I got in and put up the Venetian blinds, easy task completed, set about making a curtain for the door that unceremoniously fell on me whilst opening it the night before, the seals had broken from years of weather and it was only hanging on by the hinges screwed to thin air.

Made a hanging mobile out of some lovely crystals and got into reading a lot of renovating books and grass roots etc that I found around the place. I decided it was time to plant my potatoes out and so got all the tyres from around the place, gave them a brush off and painted them up (lovely cream) filled them with soil and put the potatoe plant in. It's now happily growing at a rate of knots and loves it's position.

The night before on the trip down the Fourby started to sound like a bit of a truck, hmmmm exhaust troubles. The nuts had come out the manifold and by the time I had gone down to give Kevin the Hi I'm Okay Call we had a car that sounded like a Harley on High. Couldn't drive anywhere with it like that without a lot of heads turning. Searched for some bolts, damn, thought I got lucky with an old exhaust from a ford out the back, but no. Tried nearly every bolt in the tool box and kits and no luck whatsoever, so out came the wire, old bushman’s trick, wired it up made it all the way home and then held together until Kevin got it to the repair shop. I think I impress him sometimes that he can leave me alone and I survive quite well and can fix things. Thank goodness for a farm upbringing and being my Fathers shadow around the yard and at the Auction houses, learned a great deal from him and all the relatives.


We had Mothers Day down there with just My Daughter and Grandkids, city kids, but adapt well to their surrounds they had a ball, they haven’t been down for a while and were amazed at how much work we have done and the changes we have made. My Granddaughter even helped me cut and nail corrugated iron so for a 13year old that is good. We had a fun weekend and they are waiting and wanting to start on their humpies and are looking forward to the baling process when it takes place. T wants to make it a party and wants to bring 10 of her best friends with her of course. Kids don’t seem to think of the fact that we have to get them there. And they play the “oh many hands make light work” trump card thinking we were born yesterday and my answer to that “And will that be after you all have been on the walk around the property and discovered the place or before you go for the walk that you’ll help out?” “Oh after, of course Grandma because we’d be too tired to go for the walk if we did all the work before.” Gotta Love her and give her a big tick for trying. Nic has just decided because he is too young to do too much he will use his Tonka front end loader to move all the crushed limestone around, he doesn’t think we need to hire a bobcat or the likes because we’ve got him. So He’s going to be the subbie, we’ll get him a hardhat with foreman on it give him a pile and see what happens.

We have now laid the timber floor in the mezzanine and are about to nail them down, we had to make sure we had enough and get extra if we needed it. Once that’s done we can put the 4 strand stainless wire balustrade in, we have decided to put a spiral staircase up the mezzanine to save space and are using the original slabs from the hut as the treads. My Brother-In-Law made his own set years ago and it looks like he will do ours for us, blessed to have loads of talented and equipped relatives, it makes life a lot easier at times.

So now we leap and bound and do things on a regular basis, always being prepared for the possibility that we may live there sooner than we thought or expected, through choice and design. It’s funny how sometimes you set yourself a goal and think yep I’ll stick to that 5 year plan, for the Gods to look upon you and say “Hey you can now retire and enjoy it before you are too old”

I’m glad there will be work to do down there forever and time to relax and enjoy.

But until next time we toil away and give you all some more to read.

Regards

OB1&2
Inez & Kevin

Hi OB 1 & 2

I have a slight prob that you [or some of the other readers] might be able to help me with. I/we have this idea of using a steel frame [from a barn] and in-filling it with straw bales. Great, until we read an article in Grass Roots about it may not be the best thing to allow contact b/w straw and steel. Has anyone had any probs? Any difficulty with getting it passed by Council? Any info at all would be most appreciated. Apparantly changes in the Building code of Vic will make building this difficult. Apart from that pls keep us updated OB 1/2, I love reading of your progress and hoping that, one day in the near, future we might actually get to that level too!

Good luck & have a great w/e

Firstly sorry Anne for not getting back to you, I have been out of the loop for a little while and not near a computer.

I'm sure by this time that one of the forum has answered your question. You would think that there wouldn't be a problem with using steel & strawbale. Brian Hodge has written a good book on it, might pay to check his works or get in touch with him. I find that if you approach the experts, they are quite human and have no problem helping with answers to questions that may seem inane to us but a part of their lives they live and breathe daily.

So since I last was on we have done so much. We now have double French single-lite doors on the front and I got some single-lite 400mm doors of which we are going to make bi-folds out of up in the mezzanine floor. How did this come about? We went down for a weekend and Kevin said "I would like to see a better view out of this area" with that I sourced doors and got them at an auction brand new for $40 each for the 720's and then had to bid on the 400's because I was in the auction mood. Never let a woman with a desire go to an auction. It can be dangerous. I nearly bought a set that I thought was going to sell for much more for $400, and was worth nearly $2,000. Kicking myself after the final hammer fell but then I could have ended up in a bidding war that took them up & up & up, So I refrained from going there.

So the doors made it down in one piece and then the work began. Mind you, it was brass monkey weather down there so we were in a rush to get them up, but this time we learnt from our past mistakes and made sure we took stock first then built. They look brilliant, give the place a whole new look and another access to an area we haven't used before, which we now use all the time.

The only problem is that the Dog (Budd) has a habit of trying to get through the glass to get the skippy's on the other side and I have a constant smiley on the glass. I keep threatening him that I'm going to put gaffa tape and a tissue on his nose so that he cleans it off. Damn Dog he is the Bain of my existence sometimes.

We now have re-arranged a heap of things and the abode is becoming more and more homely. The weather down there has been minus 2 not as bad as Stanthorpe with their minus 4’s brrrrrrrrrrrrr that must have been cold. We are only 2 hills over. And we have stayed as warm as toast. Kevin found an old two burner gas cooker in the back shed which he’s now resurrected and given a good scrub, coat of paint and pride of place. It works like a charm & I’m amazed to have 2 burners to cook on & 3 if I drag the old stove out. The Rayburn will be fixed 1 day and we will use it but until then we are happy with this.

We have had friends down that haven’t been there for 6 months and they are amazed by the transformation in the place. Everyone who comes down loves what we’ve done and Love the fact they can relax. Occasionally I will ask for some help in lifting heavy things but otherwise I just let them relax and enjoy themselves. We get to spend time there whenever we want, they don’t, so that makes the difference. This is the good thing too, the fact that we can share this wonderful surroundings with our Family & Friends and it not cost the Earth for them or us and they all show the same sort of respect to the land as we do, so having like minded is great.

I am still trying to get some pics up on the posts but still have the user-interface problem. I’ve tried various downloads but they give me a hard time and I end up giving up in frustration. Just lucky I haven’t given up the works that easy. When the time is right they will no doubt go on with ease for all to see and enjoy as much as we.

So until next time

Kind Regards
OB1&OB2
Inez & Kevin
Kevin & Inez

Hi to you both

Great to hear of your exploits again - and how wonderful your house is starting to look - wouldn't I love to go to those auctions but I have nowhere to store the house-type stuff yet so I wait and wait until I do!!!

Just a quick one re putting photos up - have you noticed the Img box on the second line of the bit where you post a reply [message body line]. Sorry but I'm assuming that you haven't/don't know about this. . . . Once you've pressed Img then you put the url of the picture you want to display in your message [assuming your photos are digital and stored on-line]. This should insert your photo into the message. . . .

Good luck, not only with the photos [cant wait!!!] but also with the house

Anne

just aquick note on getting photos on i too had heaps of trouble but finally worked it out.download your photos onto your pc,next open the internet,go to www.photobucket.com , register there,then go to their add pictures page,click browse.now you look for the photos from your pc when youve got them then download to photo bucket.now they are stored there.keep photobucket page open,come back here open page where u want to put pictures, click img button in here,go back to photo bucket,highlight the image http address,click copy,come back here to the page u have img on click paste then check preview and the photo should be there.
ok now that wasnt that quick a note sorry about that it sounds complicated but its very easy when u get the hang of it.hopefully this way works for you.
great project hope it all goes smoothly and we can see some pics soon
cheers shelley

where do we begin



[img][img]http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn385/OB1and2/land/julybackthen.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][img]http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn385/OB1and2/land/DCP_7804.jpg[/img][/img]

from this to

[img][img]http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn385/OB1and2/land/Picture092.jpg[/img]

and the shell


okay i know they aren't perfect and the size is too big, I'm still learning how to use the photobucket. Thanks Bingoshelley for that one. I tried others but that programme is great. I'm attempting to put more pics on the site but at the moment time is short unfortunately so I have to grab the chance when I can.

So enjoy the ones I have put up and hope it shows a bit of what I have written about in my posts.

Until next time

OB1&OB2
Inez & Kevin
Keven & Inez

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