December 11, 2009 – 10:00 am
If only building it was as easy as making this mock-up, we’d be done by now…
It’s happening, it’s happening! After what seems like a thousand stops and starts, most notably a) hiccups with the local council regarding various things (don’t even go there), b) the death of a certain piece of essential machinery (still yet to be resurrected – best not go there either), c) the birth of a certain small human, and not forgetting d) our unfortunate need to make a living, it appears that things are truly moving forward on our small dwelling at Milkwood…
The secret behind gaining momentum on this owner-builder adventure seems to be one which many in the same position might be familiar with after a similarly protracted start (has it really been nearly three years?) – and it is this: Get a Builder To Help You. They know stuff. Good stuff, too. Read More »
January 31, 2008 – 10:01 am
Having grand plans is all very fine, but there comes a time when one must make the first, single, decisive gesture towards action.
For us, this meant placing a small wooden peg, painted white, at the southern boundary of Milkwood. And then surveying a contour which continued aaaallllll the way around the hillside at the same height as that first peg, right around to the other boundary of Milkwood on the western side of the ridge. This first contour was important to mark out for a couple of reasons: Read More »
December 1, 2007 – 12:08 pm
Site of Strawbale studio and middle dam, looking southish – the courtyard will be on this side, along with a few prize deciduous trees.
One of the things that always gets me is seeing old photos of how a place used to be. I have a photo of what the headland at Kiama looked like when it was still a windswept farm – before my parents (and everyone else) put up their brick-veneer houses in the 60′s and turned it into prime-real estate, densely packed suburb it is today….
So in light of this, and because we like to document things (incase you hadn’t noticed) , Nick and I have committed to a very long-term project: Milkwood Timelapses. Every morning before sunrise, we will walk the boundary of Milkwood, taking photos from 7 different points. We will do this each morning, every morning that we are here, until such a time as we can walk no more… and by then we will have trained monkeys to do it for us. Or some future solar-powered zero-footprint adsl whizz-bang gadget which requires no maintainence and also makes cheese as a byproduct. Read More »
