Building our home

Building our home

Posted on 25 May, 2009 14 comments

Peter, if you see this, you might be cross with me, as it is not especially garden, but…..considering we did build this house from our “garden” material, I think I might get away with it. And I promise I will put the pictures here too, so you can all see the garden we build it in and the garden we build around it. But if you think this is not the right place, just wipe it off your hard drive, ok? Deal. No offense taken…



After the plans had been approved we went ahead. Our bricks had been tested for strength ( we had made some samples ) so we could build one story high. But when the first floor was finished we just had enough of all the brick making. We had made roughly 3000 mudbicks and they were 3times the size of ordinary bricks. The consisted of 10% cement and about the same of sand. The rest was just clay which was dug outof the soil on the farm.

The clearing was done and this involved digging into the hill side so we had enough room for the house and a bit of garden in front of it. Also the house had to be one meter away from the actual hill. Drain pipes went in the ground at the back and directly underneath the hill and on the side. These are black plastic pipes with holes in them. We used this 1 meter space to build a cellar behind the house, with a door leading into the house. It had one tiny ventilation window and the cellars remained a constant temperature throughout. It was built along 80% of the back wall of the house, so you can imagine the huge storage space it provided. The sand pas was made, trenches dug for the foundations ( just thick concrete ) on which the walls would stand. The whole area then was covered by black plastic and steel reinforcement, then the plumbing ( drains ) and pipes for the electricity ( underneath ) after which the concrete was poured. We had a house pad! This provided a working area to make our bricks. We had a cement mixer and poured the mix into the forms. When after about an hour the bricks were dry enough to stand by themselves, we took the form off. Just unscrew the wooden planks and partitions. So we made about 300 bricks in a day. It was hard work, but we did it together with our son and sometimes our daughter helped along. I smoothed off the tops of the bricks ( which were going to be visible ) with a spatula.

When the pad was full with bricks, we just started building. To get your corners straight we made a wooden guide. And never lose track of your plumb line! We placed the sliding doors and when reaching the right hight for the windows, they came in. Above all doors and windows lintels had to be placed. The 30×30 cm thick pillars in the centre were anchored and the long beam across came next. This provided the base for the exposed beams, which span all across the depth of the house. We had to find tables for this, which showed how thick a beam had to be to span that distance ( 7.5 meters ). You can imagine how heavy they were, so the tractor once again came in handy. Once all the beams were on it was time to nail on the pine flooring. So we had exposed jarrah beams and the ceiling was made outof pine, which was the floor for the top story. The colour combination looked effective.

By this time we were so fed up with making all those bricks, that we decided to erect the top story from pre fabricated jarrah walls. You just bring your house plan to the factory and their computer does the rest. The sections could be man handled and were lied down first on the floor and then pulled over. A bit tricky, but we managed. When all the sections are screwed and nailed together is gives a lot of strength. Now it was time to construct the roof. It was a bit of a circus act, as in the front it became quite high. The roof joists were put in place at the right pitch and this was quite low. You could not stand in the middle. Once the timber was on, the roofing plumber could come. It is a very hard job to get all the sheets right. Any small mistake in calculations, your roofing line will be out and the iron does not go on in line! So we just helped under the guidance of the roofing plumber. Besides, who would have wanted to walk on the edge, more than 5 meters high? Upstairs were 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a huge “attack”, big wide open space for games room or office.

After the roof was on, it was time for the cladding. This was going to be hardiplank, easy to nail on and paint. The plasterers came nex to fix the plaster board for the walls and ceilings. We only had ceilings in the bed and bath rooms, and the open area once again had exposed beams, But of a smaller kind than below. Until now we only had a hole in the pine floor with a ordinary ladder to access it. So it was time to build a staircase. We build it outof curly jarrah from the very tree that once stood in place of the house. We had felled some trees on the spot where the house had to be some years before, so the timber could dry out.

Of course the electrician comes at several stages. Before and after the plasterers. Now it was time to put in the toilets, baths, the kitchen cupboards, benchtops, sink, mantelpiece downstairs and wardrobes upstairs. The ground floor consisted of a huge open space for living and dining and a wall 2/3 down the length across, behind which were the kitchen and laundry, each seperated by another internal wall. The walls of the house were double brick and 40 cm thick, but the internal walls were single brick. In the laundry downstairs also was a seperate toilet.

The final stages were: the brick paving on the veranda downstairs, the timber floorjoists and floor boards on the veranda’s ( balconies ) upstairs and an adjoining garage for two cars. The garage was built right against the veranda on the side, so you could always stay dry in the wet weather when going into the house. Coming home with the shopping you could go straight into the laundry and kitchen.

The fireplace was a heat form with an ashpan underneath the fireplace. A small door on the outside of the house under the veranda could be opened and in this manner you could empty the ashes with a shovel. You only had to do that once a year as we burnt jarrah wood and it leaves very little ashes. Next to the fireplace was a wood storage cupboard, which had a door on the outside, so you could fill it from there. Of course you had to lock it, otherwise anyone could have gone in through there.

The whole process took 4 years to complete and by 1987 we moved in. A wonderful feeling and a great sense of achievement.

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