The Nest
The first and biggest project on our property was building our strawbale home. Starting in late 2016, we completed this massive undertaking within a year. Here's what happened along the way....
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Home sweet home
It’s been a while since the last post, and I have very good reasons. 1) Settling in takes some time, and 2) Matty and I got married (on the property)…YAY! Now that the dust has settled (literally), I bring to you our very last post for the build. Nesting life We moved in on Saturday 9th of December 2017; exactly 1 year, 1 month and 1 week since the slab was poured. Our first night sleeping in the house felt like we were in a hotel, we weren’t used to such luxury. We can honestly say that the house has exceeded our expectations. The space was made to suit our functional, aesthetic…
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Make no haste
The last few weeks have been incredibly disheartening, mainly due to making our biggest mistake on the build. To top it off, Mother Nature decided that the spring rains can finally wreak its havoc, and it’s been a bleak weekend. We’re not entirely discouraged though, it is 13 months (to the day) since the slab pour and we are so close to moving in! Ironic that we couldn’t lay the foundations due to the rain last year, and now we can’t move in due to the rain this year. I now understand why the Grand Design peeps always say “It was the worst rain that <insert place> has seen in…
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Tribute
We received our official Certificate of Occupancy yesterday…HOORAAA! I write this today, not as a build related blog post, but rather as a thank you to three aspects surrounding the build. Matt of all trades Matty’s unyielding determination is commendable to say the least (understatement of the millennium); not to mention inspirational. He may not be the master of all trades, but he sure is the Master Accomplisher. He gets things DONE, and has given up most of life’s normalcies in order to do so. He has been a project manager, builder, foundation-layer, carpenter, bricklayer, renderer, plasterer, painter, tiler, sidekick electrician and plumber, landscape architect/ earthworks person, cabinet maker,…
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Permission to occupy
This week has been exhausting, working 15 hours/day on average and even pulling our first midnighter on the build. Thankfully we did work tirelessly as the occupancy inspection got moved 48 hours earlier than expected! It was scheduled for Monday, 9th of October, but we got a call from the inspector this morning asking if he could come today, as he was in the area. He arrived 10 minutes later, did the inspection and….we PASSED!!!! Meaning that we can officially move in! Though we won’t as the house is not yet complete, mainly due to the floor tiles. Before I go into the nitty-gritty of the build, Matty and I…
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And so it continues… on another Spring Equinox
One year. One year since we started this journey, well the idea was conceived before then but practical work started exactly one year ago. Cooinda’s Nest was fertilised. Rightly so, the earth where the house would sit was dug up and the entire place smelt like cow poo. It was fertilised alright! :D :D Fast forward one year, and we are on the brink of completion. The last few weeks have been filled with a variety of tasks; different elements are integrating and turning the building into a livable space. Kitchen makeover The second-hand kitchen we purchased a while back had an orange veneer on it, too reminiscent of the…
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Let there be light
It is Piscean full moon tonight, and I feel like Diwali has come early. The final fix electrical was completed yesterday bar the rangehood and aircon connections…. and now we can see what the interior looks like (in something other than sunlight or spotlights that is). A few months back, Matty said he had a surprise for me. I was curious at the time, but eventually forgot about it (my bad!). Two nights ago I came home from work, to be told that my surprise is ready! He took me into the house and turned on a switch that I wasn’t fully aware of. Three lights slowly started to get brighter…
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Plaster and paint, oh my I might faint…
Since the last coat of render, Cooinda’s Nest has been going through a slow and steady transformation. Who knew painting the plasterboard walls and ceilings could make the house look more like a home? Well I didn’t, but it is my first time building, so let’s excuse my ignorance. Matty and I have to keep reminding ourselves that there is yet more work to be done, till we can truly call it a day… or a year really. Plastering joy Matty used to be a plasterer for about 12 years, so this phase of the project ran pretty smoothly; albeit the frustrations of simply doing it. Within a week, Matty completed…
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Mask up, bog down, render right around…
Exactly a week ago, the third (and final) coat of render took place on the eve of the Leo new moon. Matty and I woke up at 5:40 am on Saturday July 22nd, worried for the upcoming day; little did we know then that we were to be blessed in almost every way. Sipping our morning coffee half an hour later, we spotted a silvery crescent moon sitting atop the house, a position of the moon we had never witnessed whilst living on the property for over a year. To us this was a blessing, and it lifted our spirits to no end. Render prep Matty and I spent a…
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Winter is here
Without trying to sound all negative and stuff, but it is winter.. and I can’t shake the cold off. The time has come for when the world slows down and allows you to recuperate and reenergise, just through simple rest; something that I feel we may have forgotten how to do. Thankfully the build stage agrees with this seasonal change, and gives us a chance to slow it down and go with the flow. The last few months have been a whirlwind of major structural work, and the tasks were all BIG! Now, as winter settles in, the attention goes inwards. The open fireplace One new addition of Cooinda’s Nest…
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It runs in the family
It has been an inspirational and exciting four weeks since the last post, getting so much done and being fortunate enough to receive much-needed (and appreciated) help from family. Matty’s father and his partner, Di flew from New Zealand to give us a hand with cabinetry and other timber related features of the house, like the breakfast bar and the bathroom vanity. Both Matty and Dad got to play their talents whilst spending quality father-son time, which was really what it was all about :) Dad used to be a builder/carpenter back in the day, and Matty had wanted his help even before we bought Cooinda. To top off all the achievements with Dad…
