4.5 Acres Cassilis Victoria. Vineyard, Cider Apples and Building the House

[Rickey Herb]

I have previously documented the building of the machinery shed in this thread: http://www.woodworkforums.com/f245/my-machinery-shed-wip-bit-different-156967/ and have been encouraged to start another thread for the building of the house and guest wing (2 separate buildings). We are just about ready to put the roof on the guest wing so although this will be a WIP there is some catching up to do.

We bought the block in January 2009 having found it on the Internet the year before and driving past it. At that time we stayed overnight at Mt Buller (long weekend in January) and went to Cassilis via Bright and Mount Hotham ie. over the top. On that visit the wife thought it was a bit too remote and wasn't really interested.

Back then we owned a holiday house at Loch Sport and intended to retire there. We were looking for a small block in the mountains with a trout stream etc. to build a weekender. After many trips to Loch Sport we realised that we would probably go barmy living there as there wasn't really a lot to do apart from boating and fishing. In a previous life, about 25 years ago we had built a mudbrick house and after a visit to Montsalvat Montsalvat Photos > Buildings & Grounds (http://www.montsalvat.com.au/photo-gallery/BuildingGrounds1.aspx) over Christmas in 2008 we were again inspired and without much discussion agreed that we wanted to build again.

So back to Cassilis for another look, this time through Bairnsdale. The block there was a little run-down and slowly being consumed by blackberries, St John's wort and horehound but did have around 1000 grape vines that had been out of production for a few years.We had arranged to meet the agent on site but she was a hour and a half late. The vendor, Howard, showed us around. He asked how we knew the place was for sale and we told him it was on the Internet. He said; 'How much do they have on it?' I told him it was $85,000, to which he replied, 'I don't want that much!' It was starting to look promising.

After a couple of hours having a look around we went down to the tasting room at Howard's winery (Mt Markey). I asked him directly how much did he want and he said he would be happy with $65,000. We went back home to Geelong, where we were living, and rang him the next evening and said we would take it at that price.

Some photos of what we bought.

Howard leading the way showing me around (note the old canes still on the trellis);

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The state of the vineyard:

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Looking from the North West corner over the future house site. Remains of old trellising and elder bushes visible:
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Looking to the North East corner, This shows more clearly the slope on the site. The mud brick cottage was built by Howard's son but was actually built on crown land (even with a building permit). Not sure what will happen with it but we use it to store the nets for the vineyard. We would like to buy the crown land later on if finances permit but we will have to wait and see.

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Another view looking the South. Elder bushes and black berries abound.
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[Rickey Herb]

We were still living in Geelong at this stage so our only visits were long weekends and holidays. Debra (wife) is a primary school principal and around June 2009 the principal's job at Bairnsdale was advertised and she was successful in winning the position. I was working at Centrelink but doing IT for for Canberra outposted. It really didn't matter where I worked from so I arranged a desk at Bairnsdale office and by the end of the year we made the shift. It was all falling into place. The major hurdle was Debra getting a job and we had cleared that.

By the end of year we were starting to get the place tidied up. Howard had put his 10 sheep in and it was looking less like a jungle.

Camping at Easter 2009. It's probably the driest time of year up there.
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After the sheep had been in cleaning up was a lot easier.
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By contrast, this is a view of Howard's vineyard. Still a couple weeks away from picking grapes.
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At this stage we didn't have a tractor or slasher so we mowed the entire vineyard using the hand mower. This was in December and the vines had recovered from the sheep.
We were overseas on holidays during pruning time so paid someone to come in and prune for us. Best $10 a hour we ever spent.
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The view from the driveway. All done with the hand mower. The area to the right was still a jungle.
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After mowing and trimming of the vines it was starting to look respectable.
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Rickey

[old1955]

Glad to see the new thread up and running Rickey.

[Rickey Herb]

Now that we were living in Bairnsdale (renting in town at this stage) we were up the 'Estate' (as we like to call it) virtually every weekend.

The vineyard was now back into a productive state and we were looking forward to our first harvest in early April. Howard (the vendor) and us had reached an agreement where he would make the wine and store it until bottling and we would go halves in what we got. We really had no idea about wine making (and 3 years later have marginally more). We were looking at around 1000 bottles of wine - 500 each. Just enough for our own consumption. We have a mixture of grape varieties as Howard used this block to experiment with different varieties. Bulk of the plantings are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We have a couple of rows of Traminer with Pinot Gris on the end where the scions got mixed up at planting time. A row of Pinot Meunier that had been cut off at ground level - Howard was going to replant but never got around to it. These were still growing with canes going in all directions along the ground. We chose the strongest and put in onto the trellis and cut the rest off. There was one short row of Sauvignon Blanc which was extremely vigorous but didn't appear to have much fruit set. There were also 4 rows of Pinot Gris that had been cut off at ground level and poisoned but at least three quarters of them were still growing. Will applied the same treatment as the Meunier.

The rest of the block was still a jungle but in February we made a start in preparation for planting apples. Our intention is to make cider commercially in our retirement. On the top half of the block there were the remains of trellising which we wanted to re-use for the apples so we started by winding up all the wire and removing the trellis posts.

When we bought the block one of the conditions of sale was that we wanted the block surveyed. It is on 3 titles and forms part of the old Cassilis township. We agreed to go halves with Howard in the cost of the survey. Not surprisingly the previous survey was done in 1895 and lo and behold, not one boundary fence was in the right spot. The North boundary fence as the closest being only a metre out but the rest were all over the shop. The top quarter of the Sauv Blanc and half the Chardonnay are on Crown land. One of the 3 blocks actually goes across the road. Apparently in the 1950's there was a road realignment and they never bothered to acquire the land or change the titles. So, when we started preparation for the apples we wanted to make sure that we planted them on our land ;-)

Some photos from February/March 2010.

Traminer grapes ripening:
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Looking up towards the eventual house site. Hops growing in the foreground. There is a large dam situated at the very top of the block. More on that later.
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Nets on the vineyard to try and keep the birds and deer out.
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The area where we are going to plant apples. Removing the wire from the trellising for future use.
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Brother Larry helping. Check out his socks. Horehound seeds. Terrible stuff.
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Hops growing.
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Another view of the apple orchard showing the weed and the remains of Elder bushes
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Still no machinery so we used the 4wd to pull out the Elders.
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Slowly getting the place tidied up. Next instalment: - our first grape harvest and more on the orchard.


Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

The 3 months from March 2010 to June 2010 were exciting times for us.

In March we had our first vintage in the vineyard. There was a good crop of chardonnay and pinot noir but about 2 weeks before the pinot was due to be picked we got hit with brown rot. We ended up loosing around 75% of the crop. It was very disappointing after all our hard work but could have been worse; at least we weren't doing it for a living.

In May I had some great news. After lobbying my general manager at work I was offered voluntary redundancy. After 31 years in the public service I was ready to go. A redundancy meant a lump-sum payment but more importantly meant I could start drawing my superannuation pension immediately and not have to wait until I was 55. (I was 52 at the time). So I accepted the offer and was out of there.

This gave us some cash so we could buy a tractor, slasher, rotary hoe etc.

In June we started talking to an architect I had found on the Internet. Alvyn Williams from Soft Loud House Architects and he visited the site in June.

Also, we finally had the orchard ready for planting and ordered the apple trees. 120 trees in all due to be picked up in July.

Picking the chardonnay:
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Some of the pinot noir
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The orchard mowed. We actually mowed half of it by hand using the lawn mower before Howard, our neighbour felt sorry for us and mowed the top half with his tractor and slasher
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Looking down from the top dam
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A bit of low cloud for the architect's visit
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Me ripping the orchard with the new tractor
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Orchard ripped in both directions
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Debra straining the wires for the trellis (all materials were recycled from what was there)
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Hope you are OK with this. I will try to get you up to where we are now as quickly as I can and then you can start following the build of our house.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

With our new tractor and slasher we finally were able to mow the top part of the block. The bits below each of the dams were still jungle as they were too steep to mow with the tractor.

We went to Beaufort on the long weekend in June to pick up our apple trees from Heritage Fruit Trees Heritage Fruit Trees: Your home for fruit trees the way you remember (http://www.heritagefruittrees.com.au/) We are wanting to be able to net them to protect them from deer and birds so we arranged for them to be grafted onto dwarf root stock. We planted the trees at the end of July.

Alvyn, our architect asked us to go to Warburton to meet him and he presented us with 3 different concepts for the build. We hadn't really anticipated it, but he had actually developed a masterplan for the 'estate' (as we like to call our 4.5 acres) which we were very impressed with. When he came and spent time with us we talked about how inspiring we found Montsalvat in Eltham. We love the different buildings and wandering down the paths between them. (check out Montsalvat Photos > Buildings & Grounds (http://www.montsalvat.com.au/photo-gallery/BuildingGrounds1.aspx) if you have never been there). Alvyn also loves Montsalvat. So, the masterplan is an attempt to replicate that feel. It is also an attempt to create a hamlet such as may existed during the gold rush days. (Cassilis is an old gold mining town). Time we will as to whether these attempts are successful.


Looking down the Cassilis Valley towards Swifts Creek. Our vineyard can be seen in the mid-foreground. This was taken from about half way up Mt Markey. We still haven't made it to the top.
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One of the apple trees. $22.50 worth. 3 years later we are very happy with how they have gone but more on that later.
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A view of the orchard. Apples are a bit hard to see. Guards around them to prevent rabbits ring-barking the trees.
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We have gone for the 'Knees, navel, nipples and nose' method of espalier.
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We have 120 apple trees consisting of 12 different varieties. We plan to make traditional cider commercially in a few years time and have planted a mix of traditional cider apples and dessert apples.
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Concept Plan A with comments by the architect
'This has the house in the lowest position on the site, meaning that the vertical distance from the drive and workshop areas is less (ie not so much exercise to get from the car to the house) it moves the house farthest from the dam wall, with a series of naturalistic terraces above the house. It creates a one-sided village streetscape, with the landscape and planting forming framed landscape views to the other side of the valley. A more organic layout (there is a 15m straight line you will be able to swim in the middle of the bent lap pool by the way)'
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Concept Plan B with comments by the architect
'This lifts the house area about 2 – 3m above the farmyard level, allowing more opportunity for expanded flat areas to the north of the house. By facing the house a bit to the east – preferencing morning sun – the impact of the dam wall can be toned down a bit... The workshop area is a drive-through building – there is one at monsalvat like this which would beautifully frame the distant view. The woodshed – i have this idea for a tall funky little structure – perhaps like a folk-clocktower where wood and garden tools can be stored on two levels. You would walk around this structure a lot when passing between the levels... this layout is more like a village that has grown over time than the other options'
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Concept Plan C with comments by the architect
'This is my response to appeasing Rickey’s sense of order, but shows you how a more formal layout can still address the site. Wide terraced gardens and entertainment areas with broad steps (a bit classical Italian maybe) with buildings being in alignment with each other...trickier with solar design,but not impossible and you might be horrified with what i have done with the espaliered orchard (rotated the rows) all in the name of order, but it has a distinctive effect on the site which is not unpleasant in my opinion'
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So, which option did we go for? Well you will just have to wait and see. I'm interested in your thoughts though.

Regards

Rickey

[old1955]

There is nothing wrong with order. Especially as you will be the folk living there.

[issatree]

Hi all,
See your Brother rolling up the Barb Wire, & wood like to think you were getting rid of it.
Used that stuff, many years ago, & the Angus Cattle wood always go through it.
I told my Dad I was going to use Plain Wire, never had another problem.
Not sure why it worked, but it surely saved me of lot of work.

[Rickey Herb]

I can see why you think it is barbed wire issatree but it's actually plain wire. The spikes on it are tendrils from the old grape vines. I'm with you on barbed wire. The old man got a new mob of steers once. They broke down the cattle yards and went through about 5 fences - all barbed wire before they stopped in the neighbours place.

I have put a single strand of barbed wire at the very bottom of my rabbit proof fencing in an attempt to stop wombats and beagles. Hard to know if it has worked but there are no burrows under the fence from either.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

Well, we went with Concept Plan B and over the next few months worked iteratively with the architect on the development of the design. This was a great process and we really enjoyed it. It was good to have the time to think things through. In December 2010 we lodged our application for Planning Permission for the build. We were in a farming zone with a Wildfire Management overlay and an Erosion overlay. It took 6 months but in May 2011 we were granted planning permission.

On the 1st of April 2011 we had a minor setback. I was loading the truck to head up to Cassilis on Friday night. Had the dog on the back and all the gear and was intending to pick up Deb from work and head on up. We had also arranged with our neighbours to meet them up there. They had gone up earlier in the day and were camping the weekend. The first of the grapes were ripe and we were going to start picking. Well, when I was putting the hand mower on the truck I thought I would use an occy strap to tie it down. You guessed it; it came undone and flicked back and got me in the eye. Initially it wasn't too bad - I quickly went inside and had a look in the mirror. No apparent damage, but my vision was blurred. So I drove into town (15 minutes) to pick up Deb. By the time I got there I had no vision in the eye. I suggested to Deb that we might just duck into emergency at the hospital before heading up. As it turned out, Deb had to drive home, unload all the gear, organise for the dog to be looked after and then we drove to the Eye and Ear Hospital. On the way we rang Howard, our neighbour at Cassilis and asked him to tell our campers that we weren't going to make it.

At the Eye and Ear Hospital there were around 60 people waiting in Emergency. We got seen within 5 minutes which made me a bit worried - this might be serious. The major issue was that the mechanism that drains the eye was damaged and pressure was very high. First operation was to insert a stent to relieve the pressure. The second operation was to remove the scar tissue around the stent - it was restricting the flow. They also 'needled' the eye and injected steroids. (This operation was under a local anaesthetic and took longer than expected. I could certainly feel the steroids going in!) The last operation was to replace the lens. During this operation the lens capsule collapsed and fell off - this is a existing sack that they normally put the new lens into. So, they had to stitch the new lens to the outside of the eye. Anyway, to cut a long story short, after 3 operations and 27 visits to the Eye and Ear Hospital, all is good. Vision is not 100% but it doesn't worry me at all. Take care with those straps people!

As a result, I was unable to do anything manual work or lifting for 3 months. Our neighbours and Howard picked the first lot of grapes that fateful weekend and the rest of the crop was brought in by good friends under my supervision ;-)

In October 2011 we had out building permit to build the machinery shed. The thread detailing this build can be seen here http://www.woodworkforums.com/f245/my-machinery-shed-wip-bit-different-156967/

Next time, I will actually start on the building of the guest wing and show details of the final design.

Regards
Rickey

The view across the lavender patch (on crown land) towards the future house sit
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Brian on the excavator digging the holes for the shed and the tank
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The hole for the shed - top job on the excavator
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Hole for the tank to the right and shed to the left
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The 25,000 gallon tank was installed on Australia Day 2012. Starting to peg out the shed
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We tried grafting onto the Pinot Gris that had been cut off at ground level but were still growing. Had at least 95% success rate. Sauvignon Blanc onto Pinot Gris
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[old1955]

G'day Rickey,

You were lucky with the eye. I managed to get a hole right through my left one from a car accident years ago. Plenty of dr's visits and operations. Its amazing what they can do. Looking forward to more WIP.

Ross

[Timless Timber]

If you have had a building on crown land for a certain period of time (with building approval) then as I understand it you can apply to claim ownership of said land under "adverse possession", i.e. if the owner (the crown) hasn't written to you and stated that you have occupied their land without their possession and asked you to remove all buildings and infrastructure etc and fence your land separate to theirs, for a minimum period of time (2 years but can vary) then the occupier can make claim on the land at court under adverse possession and be granted title to that land.
Sometimes a valuers generals valuation (around 50% market value) is applied to the parcel and you have to pay that to have the land added to your existing title deed.

I'm assuming you don't maybe have a long term leasehold arrangement over the parcel for say grazing rights to keep fuel loadings down etc - in which case the lease agreement with the crown will often protect the rights against adverse possession and might explain how a building approval was obtained for a construction related to the grazing activity designed to control fuel loadings.

You could just aska lawyer to look into it for you would be easier way to do it.

If the managing authority find out your occupying it illegally (without lease agreement etc) or that your planning to take adverse possession action they will write to protect their interests at which point, your ability to invoke adverse possession action is severely diminished.

I'm not a lawyer - but have been a professional land manager for state govt here (WA) (Consv Dept) - and have dealt with an adverse possession situation - where a neighboring farmer over a 50 year period had surreptitiously taken forest trees from our crown land (State forest) along his private property boundary (firebreak width) - then moved his fence over by the width of the break on our side of the fence using the trees for split posts to make the fence.

Over periods of a decade at a time for 50 years (going by old aerial photos) he had managed to get hold of about 50 acres all told.

Luckily for us (Govt / Crown) it was noticed and we had the boundary surveyed by licensed surveyors and he was written too claiming our rights to the land and was forced to move his fence back to the surveyed boundary and also to pay rehabilitation costs to return it to state forested condition.

Had he made an adverse posession claim at any time in that period - the crown solicitors advice was that we would likely have lost title to that 50 acres.

He thankfully knew how to knock off state forest land for his own use using our trees for his fence posts - but thankfully didn't know his legal rights in time to make a successful adverse possession claim.

It really is a question of who gets in first!

[Rickey Herb]

Unfortunately, in Victoria, Crown Land cannot be acquired through adverse possession. Adverse possession (http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/property-titles-and-maps/land-titles-home/dealing-with-titles/adverse-possession)

'Adverse possession claims are complex to prepare and cannot be made against Crown land or council-owned land.'

The neighbour has a 99 year grazing lease on the crown land and has said that DSE have agreed verbally in principle to sell him the land. We will see how we are going for money when we finish building. We would like to acquire the land if we could.

Rickey

[Timless Timber]

Cool - it looks like your outta luck with Adverse Possession then. :)

[Rickey Herb]

Floor plans and elevations for the guest wing and main house.

Main House:
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Guest Wing:
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Site Plan:
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Regards
Rickey

[old1955]

That looks really nice. It will be a great WIP and with the pic's it should create a great deal of interest.
Ross

[old1955]

G'day Ricky,

Are you still in the land of the living, or have you finished the build?:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[issatree]

Hi Rickey,
A friend long gone, had a small Veggie Garden, & he liked to put netting all over.
His Wooden Pickets to hold the netting, wood catch on the top of the Picket.
So he collected some Allum Drink Cans, stuck them over the top of the picket, & so the Netting never got caught again. You wood think it was running on roller bearings.
I see you had heaps on net to run, & just thought it may help.
Either that or I'm trying to teach you to suck eggs.
Really Works.

[Rickey Herb]

Hello again. Sorry but have got sidetracked with the building rather than documenting the build. Still moving forward. Just finished framing the roof on the guest wing this morning and passed inspection. So roof on in a couple of weeks I reckon. I will get back to this on Monday and see if I can get it up to where we are now. Might need to jump ahead a bit.

Rickey

[rod1949]

.... We had arranged to meet the agent on site but she was a hour and a half late. The vendor, Howard, showed us around. He asked how we knew the place was for sale and we told him it was on the Internet. He said; 'How much do they have on it?' I told him it was $85,000, to which he replied, 'I don't want that much!' It was starting to look promising.

After a couple of hours having a look around we went down to the tasting room at Howard's winery (Mt Markey). I asked him directly how much did he want and he said he would be happy with $65,000. We went back home to Geelong, where we were living, and rang him the next evening and said we would take it at that price.[/QUOTE]

So who was going pocket the $20,000?

[Rickey Herb]

I think what had happened Rod was that it had been on the market that long that Howard had actually forgotten what they had put on it in the first place. Very honest people in the country; ;-)

[Uncle Al]

His Wooden Pickets to hold the netting, wood catch on the top of the Picket.
So he collected some Allum Drink Cans, stuck them over the top of the picket, & so the Netting never got caught again. You wood think it was running on roller bearings.


That is a darn good idea. Another way of recycling. I don't suppose it makes any difference if you mix Coke cans and VB cans on the same netting area?:D

Alan...

[Rickey Herb]

Yes, a good idea on the cans. We ending up buying some purpose made caps for the orchard to see how the went. They make putting the nets on a lot easier but are finding that they fall off just as easy. A lot less wear and tear on the nets though. Might have to collect some beer cans and try them in the vineyard.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

I'll fast-forward a bit to try and get up to date.

In March 2013 we roughly pegged out the site of the guest wing;
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As you can see it will be nestled into the hill beneath the dam bank. Some relatively major excavations were required;

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Only a small excavator but he really does know how to use it;

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The rear wall of the guest wing will be 5 metres high with 3.5 metres of that being below ground level.
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Now to set out the guest wing. We had a couple goes at it. Due to the irregular shape and the cut into the side of the hill it was difficult to set out using the details supplied by the architect. He had basically laid it out using an exterior rectangle of 'hurdles' and then gave us offset dimensions for the wall. This was fine in theory but we couldn't set out the exterior rectangle with a hill in the way! In the end I remembered an episode on Grand Designs where they actually constructed the foot print of the building using timber. We did this and got an end result that was a bit closer to the plans! The plans are only a guide after all. I wasn't too fussed about getting it millimetre perfect and as there are no right angles in the basic structure we didn't have to worry about getting that right.

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Next episode: pouring the slab.

Hope you find this interesting.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

So, we got Brian back with the excavator to dig the trenches for the slab perimeters.

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Got the local plumber in for the under slab plumbing. I noticed one minor issue the day before the pour. He had the vent coming up through the floor of the entrance! Got him back on the Sunday and fixed it.
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I met the concretors on site. They insisted they were fine without my help so I left them to it. Photos of the pour are as supplied by them. Did all the prep day 1, Inspected early day 2 and had it finished and the formwork off by the end of the day. They certainly know their stuff. Will get them back for the house slabs.
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Had to get them back the day after the pour. The rebate on the back wall was actually stepped out to match the wider rebate in the foreground. This photo shows what they should have done and after they fixed it. Next time I'm going to hang around while they do the pour.
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The finished slab - very happy with the standard of work. Notice all the starter bars for the back wall.
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At this stage I started finishing the doors and windows off. These we made by Neate Windows in Bairnsdale and comply with our BAL29 rating.
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Next episode; The block work.

Rickey

[old1955]

Ricky,

Must feel great getting into it and seeing some results.

Ross

[Rickey Herb]

So, I got a quote for the blocks and organised delivery - 2 semi-loads. Drivers were brilliant and made it through the gate and up the drive without any problems
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The blocks stacked on the slab. Another 4 pallets but we didn't have room on the slab
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Pretty sure we had a frost overnight
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Wall bars now in place and braced. 400mm apart at the highest part of the wall and 800mm elsewhere
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Got the brickie on site in July and we started laying blocks. The back wall is 290mm thick for the first metre and then 190mm thick.
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Also got a few bags of cement delivered - we will be mixing the concrete to fill the blocks ourselves. We got the brickie to do around a metre high and then we filled with concrete before getting him back to do another metre. The concrete had to be compacted very well so there were no voids. Did investigate getting readymix and a concrete pump but still would have had to do it in stages and worked out to be too costly.
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Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

Some progress shots of the block work.

305360305361305362305363

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

Another jump forward to get us nearly up to date. Got a chippy in to help with the roof framing. Front wall is a standard stud wall but will be clad with compressed earth blocks on each side to give a total wall thickness of 300mm. Yes, I know the roof has a twist in it ;-)


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Rickey

[DJ’s Timber]

Coming along nicely Rickey :2tsup:

[old1955]

Looking good Rickey.

[Rickey Herb]

And last week the roof went on! So now we are up to date. Plan now is to start on the house whilst at the same time work on the Guest Wing. Builder coming up next week to hang the doors and set up profiles for the house. I will start doing the block work. Compressed earth blocks on their edge on both sides of the stud wall. Looking forward to it. We have enough bricks made already.

Our plan is to get the house to the same stage by the end of the year. Sounds easy but it is not a straight forward build.

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Will keep you posted.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

Howdy, apologies. I know it's been a while but I have been busy. We are now well under way on the house and hopefully will be up to ground level soon. More on that another time.

Work has stalled on the guest wing whilst we concentrate on the house but a few more up to date photos:

The guest wing from the drive way. The concrete blocks and the compressed earth blocks will be rendered at a later date. Doors and windows are now in and we are very happy with them.
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The view along the verandah. Temporary props under the lintels until the block work is complete.

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Our son Matthew digging the trenches for the storm water. This was in April and as hard as a rock. Down pipes have since been completed,
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Regards

Rickey

[old1955]

Good to see your back Rickey. There's been a lot of progress made. Build is looking great.

Ross

[old1955]

How's the building going Rickey?

Ross

[Rickey Herb]

Hi Ross, yep I've been a bit busy but slowly getting there. Hopeful of having the footings poured for the house before Christmas ready for the slab early in the new year.

Guest Wing is nearly at 'lockup'. Just need to build the wall between the Games room and the Outdoor Kitchen.

Still enjoying the process and at this stage plan to move up there permanently around the middle of next year.

A few photos. More can be found at

https://plus.google.com/photos/117344462883640378925/albums/6017128285390619665 for the house

and

https://plus.google.com/photos/117344462883640378925/albums/5851683444382910273 for the Guest Wing


The steel frame in place around the door between the games room and the outdoor kitchen. Mudbrick will hide all the steel work.
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The view of the site from Jacks Road.
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A view of the house site overlooking the Guest Wing.
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In the cellar looking out.
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Stone work completed at the front of the house. This is below the verandah. We got a stone mason in to do this using local stone. Love it!
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Will try to update a bit more often if there are people interested.

Regards
Rickey

[old1955]

Ricky you won't know yourselves when you get to live there. It looks absolutely beautiful up there. The building is a credit to you.

Ross

[Rickey Herb]

Thanks Ross. We are really looking forward to living there full-time. My wife retires at the end of June next year so that is the timeframe I'm working to. House won't be anywhere near finished but the Guest Wing will be pretty comfortable.

Rickey

[Rickey Herb]

Well it's been a big 12 months. I know I've been very slack with the updates.

We hope to have the power on with a fortnight and a flushing toilet! Family Christmas will be in the house (25 coming) so the next 4 weeks will be pretty big. The house will be at lock-up (if you count builder's paper as lock-up) by the end of next week.

Will post some more photos of the journey when I get the chance.

Rickey
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[old1955]

You have been busy Rickey looks great.