Finishing the House - Getting the Walls Done

After having looked at an empty shell of a building plus a lot of rough framing for the past nearly two years, I felt a very strong urge to see the walls go up. However, we also needed to get all the wiring and plumbing infrastructure finished.  While we have had a very dependable person doing the wiring while we've been gone, the plumbing has been a bit of a problem.  We had one plumber who did the work for the rough plumbing before the slab was poured.  Some of those items we put in the wrong place.  They now have to be fixed including busting up some concrete to move a toilet and get the main bath tub plumbing in the right spot.  We arranged to have a plumber come to work and he did some very good work for a couple of days, but very sadly (even though he was a healthy looking 26 year old) had a heart attack and died.  All of us involved in the project were very saddened by this event. We did arrange for a replacement and did all the plumbing relocation.  A this point, I felt that we had worked two hard weeks and were about four weeks behind the schedule I wanted.  It was appearing likely that we wouldn't have a livable house by the end of March.  But I had learned a few valuable lessons:  First - Enjoy each day the best you can, even when things don't go well as you never know which day will be your last.  Second - be very flexible in your approach to the schedule and build in contingencies and alternative approaches as required.  Third - keep a positive attitude and get as much done as you can each day and be happy with whatever you get done.  It was obvious to me that getting this house done will be a marathon - not a sprint.

Here are some pictures of the progress with completing the walls:

We had to leave the big vaulted ceiling in the living room and kitchen open as we had yet to get the foam insulation crew scheduled and given the tightness of the space between the rafters and the roof, we felt it better to leave it open until after foaming.  A few days later, though, the foaming was completed:

The weather during this period was exemplary.  I'd like to take credit for planning the heaviest part of the construction during some of the most pleasant weather of the year, but it was just the way it worked out.  Temperatures during the day were mid-60's to mid-70's and overnight in the low 50's with an occasional low in the 40's.  I noticed, immediately, that the new foam insulation would make a big difference.  Prior to the foam, I would go from the trailer into the house early in the morning to get things ready for the work day and it would be definitely cool (reflecting the cool outside temperature).  The first morning after the foam, I walked into the house and it was noticeably warmer.  It had only dropped 2-3 degrees inside the house overnight (about 10-15 degrees warmer than before).  I was excited about this event as it meant that our house would be very comfortable all year round and that our energy usage would be much lower than had we not done it.

Once the foam was done, we were able to quickly "button up" the ceiling as seen below:

This exercise was not without drama though.  First, I had a worker who spent more time on the phone (while trying to tape and plaster) than most bookies.  Who knows what he was up to but the quality of his work was definitely below par and difficult to correct as he was also very argumentative.  I often felt like I was in an episode of Kitchen Nightmares (Gordon Ramsey show) while working with this guy.  Also, it turned out that the framing work done nearly two years ago had been done poorly and also not well stabilized so that there was rarely a square or plumb wall or joint in the house.  Not only did this cause problems in finishing the wall board, but really put the pressure on the finishing work later on.  The lesson here was never allow a significant piece of work to be done without direct and continuous supervision.  Workers do what you inspect, not what you expect.

Finishing the House - the First Steps

With a very tight time schedule - six weeks to get from rough framing to a livable house, I went quickly to work talking to various sub-contractors previously involved in the project.  I had already paid for a few things in advance - the insulation, sheet rock and texturing and a foam insulation of the inside of the metal building on the envelope around the house.  Getting those scheduled would be the first step.  I was hopeful the insulation, sheet rock and even the foam would have been done prior to my arrival but that wasn't to be. 

Feeling the pressure from the schedule, I wasn't happy with having to do about 2 weeks of work I anticipated would be done before I arrived.  However, I learned a very important lesson - schedules aren't the most important element in a project like this.  Schedules are important because otherwise things don't get completed, but doing things correctly is the most important variable in a project like this.  Also, time to evaluate the work that's been done, what remains to be done and how best to do it is really important.  While waiting for various people to arrange their schedules to get the sheet rock and insulation done, I engaged a subcontractor to do some paving on the property.  As could be seen from some of the earlier blog entries, the soil on our property is exceptionally sandy.  And the clay we used to firm up the roads for bringing in construction equipment and even my and contractors' coming and going could get very sticky in rainy conditions.  Also, we needed concrete pads for the travel trailer (it wouldn't stay permanently inside the garage), the cistern (yet to be required but necessary as part of the water supply system), a driveway area in front of the garages on which to park our vehicles and contractors' vehicles and a large outdoor patio and entertainment area that will provide a vital family gathering area in the future.  Getting these various areas poured would provide some needed "hard scape" on which to park, put the camper when the time comes and put the cistern once we get it on site.  The work on this project also diverts my frustration from not having the insulation and sheet rock done.  More important, the delay allows me time to inspect the wiring (coming along nicely but still needs a few days to finish before sheet rock covers up the walls) and plumbing (very poorly done and in need of a lot of work).  More on these projects in a moment but first, some pictures of the concrete preparation and pouring work.

With the various pads we have now, the infrastructure is well in place for the additional traffic we'll have over the next few weeks.  Also, we have a pad for the camper.  I'll have to get water and electricity up there, but we will have a permanent home and a place for the camper.  We also have a pad for the cistern (which should arrive in a couple of weeks), a new walkway for the front of the house and a very large driveway on which to park our vehicles and where various tradesmen can park their vehicles during construction.  Finally, we a huge (46' diameter circle) beautiful patio among my favorite stand of live oaks.  While this patio will serve little value in the short term, it will provide a very large long term benefit and since we were pouring all the other projects anyway, I felt it a good use of time and money to go ahead and pour that slab now.

Now that we have this concrete project done, we'll get back to finishing the plumbing, electrical and doing the insulation and sheet rock.

Back in Texas - Preparing to Finish the House

We've had nearly ten very enjoyable years in Australia.  The experience broadened our view of the world, enabled us to see and experience things and places we would not have had the chance to do or see otherwise and introduced us to many exceptional people who enriched our lives through their friendship.  I'm not sure we intended to spend ten years in Oz, but it turned out that way.  In late 2012, we made a key decision - trying to finish the homestead via long distance coordination and contractors were not producing the results we wanted.  It was too expensive, difficult to schedule and control and didn't give us the "hands on" experience we wanted.  We decided it was time for me to migrate back to the US, sell our house in Australia and do as much of the work as possible myself - both for control over the finished project and to complete the project within our budget.

With some anxiety and anticipation, I boarded a plane in Melbourne on February 9th and headed home, leaving Julie behind to work on a job transfer and finish up the thousands of details required to make an international relocation.  Fortunately, I had time before leaving to work on the sale of the property, get the cats ready for their long trip to Texas and get all of our household goods into a 40' moving container.  The cats would arrive about 3 days after my arrival.  The furniture and possessions were due to arrive in Texas in late March and figuring a week or two to clear customs and get to our house, I had my key milestone in the schedule - I had about six weeks to go from the following couple of pictures to a finished, livable house:

The last picture is from what will become the master bedroom through the master bath area and into the garage and shop area where we parked the camper trailer.  I would use this camper as my home until the household goods arrive and until the house is ready for the household goods (whichever is later).  Since the last posts in this blog, the framing seen above was also extended by roughing in the electrical wiring and the rough plumbing.  I was hopeful that by the time I arrived, all the electrical wiring in the walls and the rough plumbing would be done and perhaps even the sheet rock would be complete - this would also mean that the insulation would be in the walls.  As you'll see in the next blog, the electrical was close to being ready for insulation and sheet rock but the plumbing required a lot more work.  I was in for quite an adventure over the next couple of months and couldn't have known exactly what I was in for as I boarded the plane in Melbourne.

Julie on the other hand, was staying with friends as our house was sold, the household goods (and cats) were gone and on their way to Texas.  Thank God for good friends as she was able to have a gypsy existence for over two months, including a couple of weeks with no car. while finishing her work in Melbourne.

I Blog for Mother Earth News

If I could figure out how to make this part of my regular template or watermark to the template I'd do it, so if anyone who reads this has a good idea, let me know.

I've done a few blogs for Mother Earth News.  I started reading and enjoying  this publication back near its beginning.  I'm sure I was an avid reader by the late 1970's.  But like many things that were good and useful, I managed to leave it in the background while working hard at a career, having and raising children, getting married again, moving to Australia and just being distracted by other things.

Then we got involved with the property around which this blog is based and while in a Tractor Supply store in a nearby town, spotted a copy of my old "friend".  It was the same, only better and I immediately started up a conversation with various people there and that led to Bryan Welch and various editors on staff.  The notion of someone at my stage in life - retiring after working during five decades in the computer and IT industry - going back to homesteading and developing something (hopefully) special around a piece of property that's never been used previously for growing anything other than whatever grew there naturally, seemed interesting so I've started contributing a small amount of blog material to a blog entitled City to Country, One Step at a Time.  Go to:

www.motherearthnews.com

Click on the blogs tab (left side today when I wrote this) and just click "next" until you see the blog with the above title.  Click on that and you'll find the contributions of more than one blogger on various subjects about making the break from City to Country.

We've made many small steps over the last few years and it seems almost impossible that within the month, I'm going to make the big step - a one-way ticket from Melbourne to San Antonio.  Another hour in the car from there and I'll be on the homestead - this time without the clock ticking loudly in my ear (although I suspect I'll always hear that darned clock) telling me I have only X days left before I have to get things wrapped up and back on an airplane to spend another 6-12 months or so in Australia before I can come back and do it again.

This time, it is for good and I'm delighted.

I think it also means that I'll have a fair amount more time to spend doing things like this - the personal blog and the Mother Earth News Blog.  And I figure there will be a heck of a lot to write about.  Especially as opposed to now where I spend scant little time during each week devoted to the subjects I've really grown to love - sustainable living and growing and raising much of our own food and complimenting that by obtaining the rest of the food from local farms and suppliers as much as possible rather than being constantly tethered to the local supermarket (heck - I'm older than the supermarket concept to show you how new that one is) to bring me food from thousands of miles away.

I'm proud to have some very small association with a group of people I've met only briefly during our October visit to the US but who I believe have an excellent mission of helping all of us live better lives.

If you aren't a subscriber to and fan of Mother Earth News (and its related publications), check them out.  I think you'll find something fun, education, inspiring and entertaining.

One Last Learning Event - Long Table Dinner in Tasmania

We're in the final stages of planning our return to Texas.  After years of planning and working on the property in small burst and slowly through contractors and other via remote control, I will be in Texas from early February for the foreseeable future.  While I'm really happy to be "going home" and essentially going from being involved in the IT industry on a daily basis to working on the homestead and doing projects I've only dreamt of for years, there will be some sadness on leaving Australia.  After all, we've been here ten years this year and that constitutes over half of Julie and my life together.   We have some wonderful friends here and have an exceptional number of memories of fun places, lovely people and business and personal growth and adventures.  We will truly miss Australia but at the same time are incredibly excited about the future and the opportunity to be close to family and friends again in the USA.

As we have evolved our plans and aspirations for the homestead and projects in TX, it has become more and more clear that food is going to be a central theme - learning more about food, growing food, canning and preserving food, and encouraging our friends and family to become more aware of the implications of food and the food chain on our health and well-being.  While here in Australia, one of the people we have come to appreciate (and final meet and know) is Matthew Evans, aka "The Gourmet Farmer" a wonderful program here in Australia on the SBS.  Here's a bit about the Gourmet Farmer and Matthew:

Matthew Evans

Ever wondered what it’d be like to leave a cushy city job and set up a small farm without any experience of rural life? Join Matthew Evans as he adjusts from being a restaurant critic to learning exactly where his food is coming from, on a farmlet in Tasmania’s beautiful Huon Valley.

Matthew Evans was once trained as a chef, before crossing to the dark side of the industry and becoming a restaurant reviewer. After five years and 2,000 restaurant meals as the chief reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, Matthew realised that chefs don’t have the best produce in the land, normal people who live close to the land do. So he moved to Tasmania, to a small patch of earth where he’s raising pigs and sheep, milking a cow and waiting for his chickens to start laying.

The show has been a fun thing for us to watch over the past few years and we become more and more interested in meeting with Matthew and finding out more about what he's doing, how he made the change and what advice he might offer us in our upcoming adventure.

One of the things Matthew has done is a "long table" dinner in his new home town of Cygnet, Tasmania (population about 800 I think).  When we got the email about the upcoming dinner in August (middle of the winter here), we made our reservations right away.  We also decided to make it a long weekend, travel to TAS on the "Spirit of Tasmania" - an overnight ferry from Melbourne to Devonport on the north coast of TAS (Cygnet is on the opposite side about 4 hours away).   We'd see a few things, stop by Hobart and the Salamanca Market (where Matthew and his partner Nick Haddow have a shop called A Common Ground.  Here's a couple of pictures - Salamanca Market, A Common Ground - the store, and Nick Haddow and I in the store.

It's a really wonderful shop where you can get all manner of fresh meats (from Matthew's pigs and other local sources), cheese from Nick's Bruny Island Cheese Company and many others.

From there, we went on down to Cygnet (an hour or so) to stay at the Old Bank B&B.  Not only was this a very nice place to stay, but the long table dinner to be held in a day or two would be at the Orangery connected to the Old Bank B&B so getting home after the event would be easy.  Here's the B&B and Orangery>

Shortly after we checked in and got settled, Matthew Evans himself came by the B&B to check out various things about the setup and to bring in a fair amount of provisions and items to be used at the dinner the following day.  This gave us a great chance to meet Matthew and talk with him for awhile.  Even better, since pork from his farm was on the menu (along with many other seasonal produce products like swedes, turnips, parsnips, etc - remember August is winter here), he was really happy to get our recently produced apple sauce (the jar he's holding) as an additional item to serve with the pork.

This was a nice treat for us and we got to spend a lot more time with Matthew and his wife Sadie not only the evening of the dinner (Matthew was pretty busy cooking and serving) but for breakfast the following  morning.  The only caveat was that I had to help Matthew carry the tables a few doors down to the community centre the morning after the dinner.  Fortunately everything in Cygnet is pretty close by so we didn't have to carry things very far.  

Here are a couple of pictures of the dinner - there are pictures of Julie.  The first is with our host (left) at the B&B and Sadie - Matthew's wife.  The second is with Winsor Dobbin - a wine critic now also residing in Cygnet.  Winsor gets lots of bottles of wine to sample and clearly can't drink all he gets so was happy to bring some of his nice bottles over as part of the dinner.  The beauty of this dinner was that nothing (save the apple sauce we brought from Victoria) was raised or grown and harvested more than about ten miles from where we were eating.  While eating nothing but products grown or raised within ten miles of your house wasn't a new concept when I was a small boy, it's almost unheard of now.  I can tell you that there's something very special about having a meal like this - both in the food and the conversation.  What a delightful evening.

I'll continue this blog with a few nice pictures of some of the scenery around Cygnet taken on an early morning walk the day of the dinner.

The following day we took a nice drive down to Bruny Island and to a number of the other local areas.  In one of the pictures, you'll see a group of sheep being herded on the road from one paddock (field for you in the US) to another.  If you look closely in the upper right of the picture, you'll see a man with his back to you and his somewhat bald head gleaming in the sun.  That fellow is the recently retired Senator Bob Brown from Tasmania and head of the Green Party in Australia.   I guess not that Bob has retired he has a lot more time to spend with agriculture and sheep in Tasmania.

So we fondly and sadly bid farewell to Tasmania, Australia and this huge part of the world called Asia Pacific.  We will miss Australia and our friends while at the same time look forward with anticipation and excitement to the next phase of our lives - friends, family and our homestead in Texas.

October 2012 Progress

We had the chance to be back in Texas for a few days in October.  The primary purpose of our trip was for my college reunion in Kansas, but we certainly wanted to get a few things done at the homestead while we were there.  When we arrived, we found that the recent rains had prompted a huge amount of weeds.

But a good bit of hand work resulted in the front yard area looking like this:

And getting the tractor a new battery and getting things all fired up:

Resulted in our beautiful property being shredded to look like a park again:

Most of the work done was to complete the electrical and enclose the attic upstairs so it'll be cooler, safer and less dusty than it would be just exposed to the rest of the garage.  Here's the before and after shot of the electrical box.  We pulled another 2000' of wire (probably close to 2 miles in the house), installed numerous outlets and boxes, pulled wire for coax and stereo.  These two shots don't show the amount of work, but at least give an indication of the large progress that was made in ten days:

And the framing for the attic went well too:

One of the highlights of our trip was to visit the head office of Ogden Publications - Mother Earth News, Grit and other very useful publications.  We spent time with Bryan Welch, Publisher (sorry Bryan about the antlers):

And got to meet many of the staff of Mother Earth News and talk with them for a good period of time.  As those or you who know me and follow this blog know, the information and advice from the staff at Mother Earth News has been very valuable to me in the pursuit of information while we do our building and will be even more important to me once we're back on the homestead full time:

Hopefully, those still working on the homestead will finish the little bit of plumbing that needs to be done prior to an inspection.  Then, we'll see insulation and dry wall going up which will make the place very suddenly look like a home instead of a bunch of sticks.  Here's a shot of the living room from the kitchen area.  We'll show the similar shot later when we have dry wall.

We look forward to our next trip back and hope that we'll be able to actually live in the house at that point with a completed bedroom and bath.