All articles on: Our home building journey
How to create a passive solar house

How to create a passive solar house

This article was first published by Pip Magazine By understanding the principles that underpin passive heating design the building you create or retrofit will allow you to thrive, not just in the first few years but indefinitely. The most important principles are...

Passive Solar & Summer Harvest

Passive Solar & Summer Harvest

There is so much work being done. My motivation levels continue to be high. My energy levels rise and then fall. This is a brilliant time of the year, summer is so bountiful I want to make the most of it. I take enormous pleasure from using ingredients growing free...

kitchen garden

kitchen garden

Ralf and I, Artemisia and Ahlia. September this year we completed two years in our new home. We are trying to balance family life with building, landscaping, tree planting, and establishing a new garden. However, I think I could do a little more to spend time with my...

Now

Now

These past few months we have been preserving, landscaping, installing subsurface irrigation, watering, and relocating our salvaged wood. I have been building relationships with nearby trees. Locating them, wishing them thanks as I harvest their fruit. In fact, I...

For Now

For Now

Our move to Daylesford was made in September last year. We nestled into our guest house accommodation and decorated its floors with boxes upon boxes full of our belongings. The shed too was filled with fridge and couch and bedding frames. Since then we have been at...

for kirti

for kirti

For Kirti who has been kind, for kirti who has jet black hair, for kirti who sings melodiously, for kirti who writes to me. For kirti who is mother, for kirti who bakes, for kirti who teaches songs and tunes and draws lines of colour. Dear Kirti these pictures are for...

Blue Paint

Blue Paint

Blue for Artemisia, Green for Ahlia and Yellow for Ralf and I. Our bedrooms have colour. The loft floor is getting brighter in every way. I was worried that the bedrooms would look too dark at one stage. Before the render received its limewash coating, the brown clay,...

render and skylights

render and skylights

Skylights are in and what a glorious view they offer us. Into the village piazza we can clearly see, the barn, the farm guests and a garden soon to be. A tall window frames our only tree and provides a view to the west along the upstairs corridor. A final render is...

In Daylesford we are…

In Daylesford we are…

With long service leave in place Ralf has more time for building. We are hoping that before winter sets in, the walls will be rendered with a final coat. So far we are able to enjoy our small disasters by calling them  "grand design moments!". The frame work for the...

Working Bee

Working Bee

Euphoric and tired I was after our five day working bee. Our dear friends from Riverton, SA came, and friends from Warnanbool, Ballarat and Melbourne drifted in over the five days to lend a hand. Building light earth walls is easy, messy and tiring, but easy. So...

Along Morgantis Rd

Along Morgantis Rd

On the way to our farm you will travel along Morgantis rd where the 1860s double storey brick home built by Maurizio Morganti takes you back to a time when Italians from all over Europe were migrating to Australia searching for a better life and an escape...

fine straw for wall rendering

fine straw for wall rendering

Ralf has been sifting straw. To finish rendering the light-earth walls, the very fine straw husks are chosen and added to a clay slurry to give a smooth and lightly textured finish.

In Daylesford we are…

In Daylesford we are…

We are building our home and planning our permaculture garden. A trip to Italy and Germany three years ago has been the inspiration for our build. Ralf and I visited Italian and German farms dating back to the 1400's. One of the common themes with many of the...

Temporary Internal Garden

Temporary Internal Garden

The straw walls are damp still, but slowly drying. In their damp state thy make great habitat for fungi and so at present we have beautiful mushrooms growing and a mini internal garden to admire. With the warmer weather all the spores will die and slowly all life will...

At dusk

At dusk

Light earth internal walls are being made and rendered. The tractor helps with heavy lifting. The wetland is filling from the winter rains. At dusk, the beauty, I can't believe is ours to enjoy.  

The New Garden

The New Garden

To Daylesford we will move. Perhaps in January 2015, and there in our new home, a new garden will be made. The amount of space we have sometimes overwhelms me (15 acres) and at other times excites me. The choice of plants, will be tricky. I desire a very native garden...