Roof on, Oranges leave!

Its been a funny old month, Simon returned for a week to do more wood work, the roof went on and most of my winter "Oranges" left :-(

Simon worked hard on making a support for what I call the umbrella ceiling. A great big giant timber support that will help to spread the weight of the beams on the internal brick wall. I will sand down a tad and give it a coat of teak oil to match the roof ones!

The wood will change colour as I am not keen on the swiss chalet look, I can't decide to go dark or light so I am about to start doing some test sections in the larder as that ceiling will be covered so I can play as much as I like till I find a stain/shade I want.

I love this feature!

Simon also took some old doors that I had removed from The Orange House years ago and kept for this house, we knew we had them to use so the frame had already been made to fit them!

Kitchen sink, a tad heavy!

I am very excited when I show people around the house and am able to tell them what we are using to save money. 

7 Windows 400 euros taken from a house up the coast saving us a small fortune. 

6 internal solid wood doors bought second hand paid 100 euros for the lot! bargain or what!

Brick floor tiles for the larder, free from a ruin around the corner!

External door free from Orange House

Bath free taken from Orange House

Glass shower panel, found in the bins, amazing!

Plasterboard needed for internal walls, yes the bins again!

Sink from Sella house left in the garden

Larder sink

Kitchen sink second hand 10 euros!
Tiles for the bathroom taken from a skip as display boards, some of the tiles cost 58 euros each!

Kitchen tiles free from a skip!

I will do a complete list of costings when the house is finished, I have nothing to hide and am very proud of the money saved. The more money we have the more mouths we can feed as this week we said welcome to 6 baby turkies and 2 baby budgies!

We had our first party at the house to say goodbye to James, Sam, Ed and Rob. To say thanks to Mel, Sean, Juan Carlos and Simon for all the help with this project.

 I do feel blessed actually that we have had some many amazing people all help us. This next bit is a bit hippy but I do feel that the house has a special feel and that is due to the love and kindness that has gone into the build process. Even a good friend who is soooooo NOT in touch with his "special side" said he also felt a calmness, I better not name him as his dog will think he has gone soft! 

Hmm fire in a strawbale house!

Grandad Richard!

The long term plan for the roof is the tongue and groove as the base layer, this is what is exposed when you look up on the inside. Then on top the next layer is 100% natural wood fibreboard. This is not cheap and not that easy to source. Then EPDM which is a natural waterproof membrane, again this is not cheap but we know that we can buy this locally. Then bags filled with topsoil from the land third filled and layed flat. The bags are made from Jute and in time with will degrade and the seeds in the soil will start to grow.

Well that was the plan, but life being life, we have to change it for a while as we have ran out of money. As you can see on the photo below we have a fast and easy solution to get us through the summer and until we can get some more money into the pot!

We have used loads of plastic sheeting fastened to the timber and then all the gravel that we bought already for the floor has gone on top. This has already made a difference inside the house and made it feel cooler. 

We put the plastic down to help stop any water of course, but the main concern we had was the sun and heat damaging the tongue and groove. As the gravel is white it should reflect the sun back up and keep the wood protected. Keep your fingers crossed folks and remind me when we get close to Gota Fria time that we need to get it all sorted properly!

After Simon left Rich was excited to be given permission from me to put the last of the bales in the walls. Now it does mean that I should be spending all my spare time covering the straw with mud but I never seem to get a minute to do anything! It also means that we can measure the glass and get it in! Now that bit will be mega exciting as the house will then be watertight.

Kitchen walls with wires on show for now!

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Kitchen wall end

As I was down taking these photos today the horses came up for a drink of water. I am so pleased that we will be able to sit and enjoy them coming so close to the house.

Yes they are close, just the way we want it!

WOW, I have not posted for a month!

I really cant believe I have not posted anything for over a month, where the heck does the time go?

What shall I start with I wonder, OK right more straw in the walls, we have planned on the large truck coming to the land and we expected to unload quick at the bottom! Change of plan as we really don´t have a safe place for the truck to stop so we decided to get all the straw we needed from Tito our animal food guy down in La Vila. At least that we don´t have to worry about keeping too much under cover or away from the mice etc!

side wall, bathroom and bedroom window

The green you can see in the photo is the plastic netting that is on the wood, this helps the mud to stick!

The caravans are now at the top of the hill to be closer to the build, Rich did not want to move so he went climbing and I had the help from loads of "oranges" to get them higher! The whole horrible event was filmed by Mel so I will not say much more, apart from the fact that I cried from relief when it was all over!

Inside bathroom

The back wall all covered

The back wall was completely mudded! We have been testing various methods to stop the mud from cracking. Cross hatching seems to work well. We then covered with blankets to keep the sun off late afternoon.

A taste of Morocco!

Straw filled nice round corner!

View from Lounge window again!

Here is a few buckets of the clay we use with the same amount of sand to make the adobe mix. This is taken from the hill right next to the house, how lucky are we!

Clay mix

 Here is the quarry that is right at the back of the house, the boys dig it out and we make it as small as possible and pass it through a 5mm sieve.  Horrible hard work but I am sure the "oranges" love it really!  

Late night visitors right above the house!