Many Hands make light work ... Rose Cottage

So as not to confuse everyone, we have had a name change Rose cottage is now Lavender cottage and the new garden shed/cottage is now and forever known as Nilo and Des's "Rose Cottage" It's all got to do with the purple paint I found that was marked grey on the tin of mismatched paint. Rose Cottage was "supposed to be a garden shed or that's what my poor husband thought" Did I not tell you I had big plans for that wood box. We put it up the friday for our guests instead of a tent, then us girls decided it could have been just a little bigger. "The broomsticks and knockers" (as Des calls it) Grandma's bed which is an antique bed has tiny pink roses on the round bits ... I inherited the bed from a friend as nobody wanted it. George was grumbling as usual for a bit but soon got with it, now the floor plan has doubled, we getting 2 windows and a door, a small deck out the front. The second window and door still need to be bought and roofing still needs to go up. We did use some polycardinate corrogated roofing in the meantime. Red Cedar cladding has been nailed to the outside and next time we will put all the trimmings up. Add lights and all the other stuff to finish it off. Lucky we had so much material just waiting .....
Here's a few pics of our progress so far

On the road again ...

We just about ready to roll out, the borrowed car trailer is loaded and strapped down. Even packed the kitchen sink ...It's going to be a mission getting the wooden base off again tomorrow and it staying put where we take it off. I got one chance and that's it he says! George has gone off to bed about an hour ago. I still got a few things to do before I'm ready to get a little beauty sleep. I made some "Padkos" (food for the road)just a few rolls with roast beef and mustard. I remember the days when Padkos was boiled eggs, sandwiches and chicken drumsticks and a flask of strong coffee. You'd stopped by the roadside, pulled out the picnic basket, everyone hovering around the car hugging a mug of coffee. Do you remember those days?

Our friends Nilo and Des are also coming, It's been a interesting progress with all the help and advice Nilo has been getting on Facebook, baking Aniseed Rusks to take along. Can't wait to try them. See ya there Nilo.
Better go now and finish the packing Have a great weekend
Rina

Paint fumes and garden shed for Lavender Hill

The painter woman's been at it again, this time the "paint" was a mix of bitumen and kerocene, black sticky gunk stirred and thined down with a little kero. I pinched the Blond One's plastic gloves, she only washes dishes when we away in anycase so she would not find out until the weekend. Why paint bitumen, cause it is used by builders as waterproofing on outside walls before they shovel dirt against house/retaining walls. Termites don't like it either. So let's hope it is going to save my new wooden garden shed from being eaten up by termites. A slap of bitumen to the underside of the base/floor, and now it's ready to be transported to the farm. the walls are in large panels (Plywood on 2X4's), them I need to paint a light colour (white) to lighten the inside of the shed. Assembly and clad with weatherboards........add one roof.

If you haven't noticed yet I was born with a paintbrush in one hand and a tin of paint in the other, LOL Don't stand still for to long or ya will get painted!

Now I am sure you going to expect this shed to come out of a box all nicely cut to size with instruction ... my dear husband sure wishes the same thing but no. It's a very large wooden box 2.5 X 3.5 sq mts with a VERY SOLID floor weighing a ton, yep it comes from work totally free, just waiting to be recycled into a shed. I can see it painted a sage green or lavender with a little white accent. Some guttering to attach my fairylights come christmas. I got great plans for that box!

Have you bought any paint lately? if you have you would have noticed how dear it is. But sometimes you can get a bargain by looking in their mismatch section, there they keep tins of paint that haven't come out quite the right colour, normally they paint a little spot on the lid to see the colour. These paints get discounted very cheaply. I found a huge 20ltr tin exterior weathershield paint with a grey marker for $65 same price as a 4 ltr can. But upon closer inspection found it to be lavender after stirring for 5 mins, what a bonus!!!

Maybe by the weekend you will have the first glimps of my "awesome" garden shed (Don't ya love kids expressions it's either cool, sick or awesome that your pick)
We leave Friday morning early for the weekend.
I'll be back with a colour sample soon,
see ya
Rina

Lavender Cottage (we have had a name change)... project in progress

Down to Earth post ... I beg your forgiveness my dear friends, I have neglected you all, but we been at the farm for a bit and we have been flat out at work too.

But first I must tell you all about Lavender cottage, that's going to be my little guest cottage. Finally my dear husband has cottoned on to the idea and we started building it. All out of recycled stuff and maybe a few new bits and pieces. The huge steel bases come from a cnc machine weighing a few ton, brought into Australia via boat from Japan and it sits protected in a metal cage. The cage bit will be turned into another chookhouse or shed later. My job was clean the frames of any rust using an angle grinder and to paint the metal with Grey Rust Guard. I do have a colour scheme in mind but thats for a later post.



(Before this cage was covered in a tarp and everything was neatly stacked inside. Until we got this great idea ... we had to swing the whole thing 45% so the cottage will face east towards the main cottage that we plan to live in. To the left of the pic is another storage cage with a heap of building timbers inside it, when that's gone I plan to plant a few citrus trees there. They should love the afternoon son.)


2 Bases get bolted together, then wooden panels with openings for doors and windows get built, they then get stood up and screwed together forming the walls of the cottage. Cypress wood cladding wil cover the panels, they are seconds we bought at auction. Sliding door and roof trusses comes from Scott's old home before they did renovations. The wooden floor comes from a factory and will need a little sanding and revanishing. Then another base will be the little cypress pine deck with bull nose corrogated iron roofing. I will update pics after the next weekend, we're there.

So what are we going to end up with: a large cubby house with an open plan ... 1 queensized bed, side tables, 1 built in cupboard, a shower and handbasin, laundry with a composting toilet, 2 lounge chairs and corner tv cabinet, smallish kitchen area and a sliding door leading to an outside decked veranda with steps onto a cosy courtyard.

So until nexttime
Rina