Wednesday, January 05, 2005
weather map
Dave has become transfixed by this map. Every time I use the computer after him I find it's one of the windows open. It shows the rainfall patterns across Victoria live... Talbot and Amherst aren't marked but Avoca and Maryborough are and it's kind of inbetween them. Sadly it's not raining at the moment though. We need lots of rain to fill up the tanks inbetween waterings 128km Melbourne Radar
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
da-da.. (drumroll)...
Stop press... I kept hearing about RSS feeds etc in the tech press and even though I knew roughly what they were, there's no substitute for experience. So I decided to add my own for this blog as a way to learn, and in case anyone reading out there is interested in getting alerted when I add things. Amazingly, it only took half an hour to do, such are the joys of blogger. Anyway, there's a button now on the right hand side of the screen underneath the "Archives". If you click you can subscribe via this cool service called Bloglines (which is free and easy to use).
I've also managed to get the archives into the much more user-friendly format of a clickable menu, and added a whole bunch of links to other people crazy enough to be building or renovating houses and blogging about the experience
I've also managed to get the archives into the much more user-friendly format of a clickable menu, and added a whole bunch of links to other people crazy enough to be building or renovating houses and blogging about the experience
Monday, January 03, 2005
at last! the house design brief is done
Yay yay yay!!!! I have *at last* finished our brief for the architect on what we want in a house. I started working on it when we got back from Australia in November, doing an hour or so a night, and then pulled it all together over the Christmas break. I reckon I spent about 4 solid days on it this period alone. It was a marathon effort not just to get done, but also because before I could get it done we had to get our own thoughts in order. Or, I should say, I had to do it and then convince Dave to read it and tell me anything he disagreed with or wanted to add. He made a couple of comments and I know he's looked through it as I sat with him and checked he looked at each page, so I can't do anything more than that. I hope that he really does like it and agree because otherwise we'll be misdirecting... but I think he does.
As part of the process I read lots of books, scanned lots of photos (Dave did the scanning but I picked what to scan), wrote half a notebook full of scribbled ideas, and went through all the videos I'd archived of interesting ideas from the past 3 years of TV design programmes. It's now all come together in 107 pages of text and photos which you can view below:
Brief for House Design
I'm sure it'll evolve as we get new ideas and things but this is the foundation anyway. Yay yay yay!!!
As part of the process I read lots of books, scanned lots of photos (Dave did the scanning but I picked what to scan), wrote half a notebook full of scribbled ideas, and went through all the videos I'd archived of interesting ideas from the past 3 years of TV design programmes. It's now all come together in 107 pages of text and photos which you can view below:
Brief for House Design
I'm sure it'll evolve as we get new ideas and things but this is the foundation anyway. Yay yay yay!!!
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Caravan at Amherst and update on trees
Email from Mum - 1st Jan
During the week, when Dad was at Amherst (I think it was Christmas night or maybe Boxing Day), he saw a caravan and annex for sale in the Talbot general store (read milkbar with a limited range of other stuff) window. 20ft it said for $2200. As the little 10 and 12 footers are now selling for $5000 secondhand, he was interested to say the least. Rang the guy.. went and saw it and gave a deposit, paid it off and got it Friday. the guy towed it up with his four wheel drive and installed it. For $2200 plus $100 for other bits and pieces they put in nad the towing etc etc it was dirt cheap. I saw it yesterday - it is round where the hobbit hole will be, so out of sight fromt he house. the van is all clean, and the lady who used to own it left in a set of cutlery, a dinner set, a doona, cover, two pillows and some pillowcases. It has a new electric wall panel heather, a gas stove with four burners and oven (which has not been used for a while, not this last set of owners) and a frig almost the size of yours. there are assorted shelves and hooks and towelk rails and mirrors on wall and a tv bracket on wall that can be seen from the main bedroom or swivelled through to the kitchen area. The van has served three families to live in whilst they built their homes.. walk in the door, slightly on left is the bunks with small cupboard like a bedside talbe at end and wadrobe at foot, then turn right a little and you are int he kitchen dinetter area, and keep going and you come to a double bed with robes and tiny bedside table. all walled off from each other, and there are curtains to hand=g to make it oprivate if you wish. good curtains on widows all mathcing - windows are louvre sorts, with fly screens - open them and there was a lovely cross breeze. good views.. and the annex is up. they put shade cloth over it too so the van stays cooler, no sun on it, and under those trees - it is where Dad had tried to dig out for the hobbit hole with a far too small machine. the bit he did is JUST the right size for the van and annex, JUST. I was tired, so lay on the double bed and read and snoozed whilst Dad watered the olive trees and the few others he had not watered earlier in the week. then I drove home whilst he slept. This morning we will go to visit Gran.
Dad says you have lost both apricots and a chestnut, and one olive has been eaten to a tiny stalk, but has put out a new leaf and has others forming, so he sealed the wire up again and watered it. The gums are looking really healthy and bushing out, as well as growing taller. But they look established now. all comment on them, how healthy they are. Olives too - the fruit trees though are still I think settling in. We will have to water more often than three weekly - so it will be two weekly, with Jess and Tony doing the next water. Dad has been up there enough on other missions so far that they have not had to go up more than that once when it was the market so was dual purpose trip. We went too that time.
There has been a little rain here and there - one deluge which helped though it was so heavy the water just could not get into the tanks fast enough, so we only got a small part of what fell. We got up there in the morning after it bucketed down up there and the gums were sitting in water filled holes! but generally there has been some rain between each trip, and it has almost replaced the water from the last watering session in the tanks each time.
During the week, when Dad was at Amherst (I think it was Christmas night or maybe Boxing Day), he saw a caravan and annex for sale in the Talbot general store (read milkbar with a limited range of other stuff) window. 20ft it said for $2200. As the little 10 and 12 footers are now selling for $5000 secondhand, he was interested to say the least. Rang the guy.. went and saw it and gave a deposit, paid it off and got it Friday. the guy towed it up with his four wheel drive and installed it. For $2200 plus $100 for other bits and pieces they put in nad the towing etc etc it was dirt cheap. I saw it yesterday - it is round where the hobbit hole will be, so out of sight fromt he house. the van is all clean, and the lady who used to own it left in a set of cutlery, a dinner set, a doona, cover, two pillows and some pillowcases. It has a new electric wall panel heather, a gas stove with four burners and oven (which has not been used for a while, not this last set of owners) and a frig almost the size of yours. there are assorted shelves and hooks and towelk rails and mirrors on wall and a tv bracket on wall that can be seen from the main bedroom or swivelled through to the kitchen area. The van has served three families to live in whilst they built their homes.. walk in the door, slightly on left is the bunks with small cupboard like a bedside talbe at end and wadrobe at foot, then turn right a little and you are int he kitchen dinetter area, and keep going and you come to a double bed with robes and tiny bedside table. all walled off from each other, and there are curtains to hand=g to make it oprivate if you wish. good curtains on widows all mathcing - windows are louvre sorts, with fly screens - open them and there was a lovely cross breeze. good views.. and the annex is up. they put shade cloth over it too so the van stays cooler, no sun on it, and under those trees - it is where Dad had tried to dig out for the hobbit hole with a far too small machine. the bit he did is JUST the right size for the van and annex, JUST. I was tired, so lay on the double bed and read and snoozed whilst Dad watered the olive trees and the few others he had not watered earlier in the week. then I drove home whilst he slept. This morning we will go to visit Gran.
Dad says you have lost both apricots and a chestnut, and one olive has been eaten to a tiny stalk, but has put out a new leaf and has others forming, so he sealed the wire up again and watered it. The gums are looking really healthy and bushing out, as well as growing taller. But they look established now. all comment on them, how healthy they are. Olives too - the fruit trees though are still I think settling in. We will have to water more often than three weekly - so it will be two weekly, with Jess and Tony doing the next water. Dad has been up there enough on other missions so far that they have not had to go up more than that once when it was the market so was dual purpose trip. We went too that time.
There has been a little rain here and there - one deluge which helped though it was so heavy the water just could not get into the tanks fast enough, so we only got a small part of what fell. We got up there in the morning after it bucketed down up there and the gums were sitting in water filled holes! but generally there has been some rain between each trip, and it has almost replaced the water from the last watering session in the tanks each time.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems
This is only tangentially related to Amherst, it must be said, but it was something that Dave talked about in passing a few days ago. In the sense that he said first he wanted a car that ran on diesel because it'd be cheaper to run (and of course we'll have to worry about that when we live there, no public transport, lots of driving). And then jokingly said maybe we can even make it run on vegetable oil... but turns out, it's no joke, it is actually possible! Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems
I wasn't looking for this by the way, it just turned up in another site I was reading
I wasn't looking for this by the way, it just turned up in another site I was reading
Friday, December 17, 2004
starting work on the cottage
Dad has decided to make a start on the cottage aka "hobbit hole".
Email from Mum - 16th Dec
Dad has gone up to Amherst. Rang me in a rush at work yesterday afternoon to tell me. He is planning on Friday, today, to do the excavations for hobbit hole which has grown to be two storey suddenly, carport, and garage; Saturday to pour slabs for all three AND get council to inspect. I think he is dreaming but.. reason for all this activity is to give Peter some work to do, stonework / bricklaying whilst he is getting himself sorted out.
My reply - 17th Dec
In terms of the garage / carport, I guess we just have to wait and see what he's planning. I'm not overly enthusiastic about them, mostly because garages/carports are often ugly metal structures! Also, ultimately there most probably won't be a driveway to the cottage itself, the access will be via a walking path only (or cross country across paddocks), so tell Dad not to get too carried away on building places for cars next to the cottage. But I'm guessing anything Dad does could be converted to other uses, so it'll be OK. The reason that I don't want to have a driveway to the cottage is because it will cut right across the main view, not to mention getting in the way of the garden ... Prue was talking about having a wonderful series of cascading ponds etc on that gentle slope down towards the natural hollow. Maybe we will end up planning one in, but at this stage I don't want to insist on it because it might constrain what we can do.
The one big thing is that I don't want any slabs laid in the vicinity of the existing old house so I hope he hasn't done that (although if he has it's not the end of the world, we can always rip it up if it turns out to be in the wrong spot, so don't get angry with him). This is because we're still working with the architect and so I don't want to build anything more that can't be easily moved in the vicinity of (or indeed even in sight of) the house until we have gotten a lot
further in the plans and know what we're doing. We're deliberately not rushing the architect discussions because we want to make sure we think through all the details; also I'm enjoying the planning and dreaming stage so want to allow time to savour it and not rush when there's no need.
Mum's reply - 17th Dec
The carport / garage is near hobbithole but upstream I think, to get water for gravity feed.... and I at least am well awaure it has to be tucked away out of sight, and Dad too I am pretty sure. Carport is for working in in wet weather and garage is for storage I think - Dad has said once that it would be walk only to hobbit hole, no car, so he knows,or knew, that; just that you know how he gets so excited and forgets things. Dad is collecting all the stones and stcking them as it is them Pete will be laying.
We saw a straw bale house on the Q'cliff/Port road last weekend - Dad went to have a look as he was sure I was wrong when I said it was straw bale. Owners lived next door and whippec over to make sure no-one was stealing anything - and they chatted and were nice. Now Dad says the front face (ie out of ground bit) of hobbit hole will be straw bale. Well, it will be well insulated anyway. I had thought the front facade would be stone from local area to blend in, but Dad is putting the stone as the feature wall inside, at the back, up against the earth where it is dug in.
I like the idea of two storey, always have, and your block is steep enough there to do as I always thought - walk into upstairs froim outside ie ground level, and also walk in downstairs at ground level. Stairs of course connect, or a ladder, but if you can't manage them then you just walk around. I have said why make it a straight rectangle. the hill curves round, why can't the house follow the curve too and Dad said no reason at all. so I hope it will turn out to be a portion of an annulus so to speak. Probably not curved at the front but perhaps four or six flat bits like
sides of a polygon. It may be hard to draw the thing up for a plan for the council and permit but I bet it may well be easier to build like that, as the site dictates, than to get every angle and measurement worked out first. For a hobbit hole, that is; not for a mansion or office block or something. I suspect it would have been done like that centuries ago. Just build what you wanted where you wanted.
Email from Mum - 16th Dec
Dad has gone up to Amherst. Rang me in a rush at work yesterday afternoon to tell me. He is planning on Friday, today, to do the excavations for hobbit hole which has grown to be two storey suddenly, carport, and garage; Saturday to pour slabs for all three AND get council to inspect. I think he is dreaming but.. reason for all this activity is to give Peter some work to do, stonework / bricklaying whilst he is getting himself sorted out.
My reply - 17th Dec
In terms of the garage / carport, I guess we just have to wait and see what he's planning. I'm not overly enthusiastic about them, mostly because garages/carports are often ugly metal structures! Also, ultimately there most probably won't be a driveway to the cottage itself, the access will be via a walking path only (or cross country across paddocks), so tell Dad not to get too carried away on building places for cars next to the cottage. But I'm guessing anything Dad does could be converted to other uses, so it'll be OK. The reason that I don't want to have a driveway to the cottage is because it will cut right across the main view, not to mention getting in the way of the garden ... Prue was talking about having a wonderful series of cascading ponds etc on that gentle slope down towards the natural hollow. Maybe we will end up planning one in, but at this stage I don't want to insist on it because it might constrain what we can do.
The one big thing is that I don't want any slabs laid in the vicinity of the existing old house so I hope he hasn't done that (although if he has it's not the end of the world, we can always rip it up if it turns out to be in the wrong spot, so don't get angry with him). This is because we're still working with the architect and so I don't want to build anything more that can't be easily moved in the vicinity of (or indeed even in sight of) the house until we have gotten a lot
further in the plans and know what we're doing. We're deliberately not rushing the architect discussions because we want to make sure we think through all the details; also I'm enjoying the planning and dreaming stage so want to allow time to savour it and not rush when there's no need.
Mum's reply - 17th Dec
The carport / garage is near hobbithole but upstream I think, to get water for gravity feed.... and I at least am well awaure it has to be tucked away out of sight, and Dad too I am pretty sure. Carport is for working in in wet weather and garage is for storage I think - Dad has said once that it would be walk only to hobbit hole, no car, so he knows,or knew, that; just that you know how he gets so excited and forgets things. Dad is collecting all the stones and stcking them as it is them Pete will be laying.
We saw a straw bale house on the Q'cliff/Port road last weekend - Dad went to have a look as he was sure I was wrong when I said it was straw bale. Owners lived next door and whippec over to make sure no-one was stealing anything - and they chatted and were nice. Now Dad says the front face (ie out of ground bit) of hobbit hole will be straw bale. Well, it will be well insulated anyway. I had thought the front facade would be stone from local area to blend in, but Dad is putting the stone as the feature wall inside, at the back, up against the earth where it is dug in.
I like the idea of two storey, always have, and your block is steep enough there to do as I always thought - walk into upstairs froim outside ie ground level, and also walk in downstairs at ground level. Stairs of course connect, or a ladder, but if you can't manage them then you just walk around. I have said why make it a straight rectangle. the hill curves round, why can't the house follow the curve too and Dad said no reason at all. so I hope it will turn out to be a portion of an annulus so to speak. Probably not curved at the front but perhaps four or six flat bits like
sides of a polygon. It may be hard to draw the thing up for a plan for the council and permit but I bet it may well be easier to build like that, as the site dictates, than to get every angle and measurement worked out first. For a hobbit hole, that is; not for a mansion or office block or something. I suspect it would have been done like that centuries ago. Just build what you wanted where you wanted.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Ebay win: oak rails with copper and wrought iron
This was a bit of a splurge but we decided it was too good to pass up. We're going to have to get creative on storing it though, hiding it behind sofas etc as I fear it'll be really expensive to ship home on its own. We were the only bidders so got it for the starting price of £475.
"This auction is for the most beautiful set of art nouveau crafts railing over 36ft of totally original craftsmanship, these date c1910. The most gorgeous oak, copper and iron work all totally original and undamaged. All oak is perfect as is hand made iron and copper work, no damage or restorations. This lot has 4 sections, that when joined together create 2 complete rails, one straight one curved, the straight one measures an overall size of-18ft and the curved one an overall size of-18ft. The 4 large metalwork sections measures an overall 75 x 37 x 3cm thick and the 4 smaller ones measure 51.5 x 36.5 x 3 cm. The oak rails measure 9 x 5.5 cm ends are obviously larger with the scroll. These could be used for a variety of things, and could be used in part or whole, bannister uprights and rails, balcony, wonderful table bases, window wall grills, all sorts, these are from a church and were communion rests, rails. This is all magnificent craftsmanship, these all slot together and fix with an internal screwing mechanism and are concealed by oak pegs. The scrolled oak ends are removeable. This is all too wonderful to look at, absolutely love these".
"This auction is for the most beautiful set of art nouveau crafts railing over 36ft of totally original craftsmanship, these date c1910. The most gorgeous oak, copper and iron work all totally original and undamaged. All oak is perfect as is hand made iron and copper work, no damage or restorations. This lot has 4 sections, that when joined together create 2 complete rails, one straight one curved, the straight one measures an overall size of-18ft and the curved one an overall size of-18ft. The 4 large metalwork sections measures an overall 75 x 37 x 3cm thick and the 4 smaller ones measure 51.5 x 36.5 x 3 cm. The oak rails measure 9 x 5.5 cm ends are obviously larger with the scroll. These could be used for a variety of things, and could be used in part or whole, bannister uprights and rails, balcony, wonderful table bases, window wall grills, all sorts, these are from a church and were communion rests, rails. This is all magnificent craftsmanship, these all slot together and fix with an internal screwing mechanism and are concealed by oak pegs. The scrolled oak ends are removeable. This is all too wonderful to look at, absolutely love these".
Thursday, December 02, 2004
quartz mountain
I wonder if our land is actually adjoining part of this mountain...
"Quartz Mountain at Amherst, 20km from Maryborough, and just a short distance from Talbot, is the largest expanse of quartz rock known to exist in the Southern hemisphere. The site of a massive goldrush in the 1850's, the rocky outcrop remains the visitor of the harsh reality of the diggings fields".
http://www.finders.com.au/centshire.htm
It's pretty likely considering "The "Big Reef" is a massive quartz outcrop in State Forest and private property between Amherst and Lillicur, to the west" (from Goldnet magazine article posted in March)
Next time we're back we'll have to try and find it
"Quartz Mountain at Amherst, 20km from Maryborough, and just a short distance from Talbot, is the largest expanse of quartz rock known to exist in the Southern hemisphere. The site of a massive goldrush in the 1850's, the rocky outcrop remains the visitor of the harsh reality of the diggings fields".
http://www.finders.com.au/centshire.htm
It's pretty likely considering "The "Big Reef" is a massive quartz outcrop in State Forest and private property between Amherst and Lillicur, to the west" (from Goldnet magazine article posted in March)
Next time we're back we'll have to try and find it
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