Yay! We celebrate post #100 with a few exciting details on our progress at Fangorn!

Firstly, the title (“Post”) is quite fitting today as today is the day we’re expecting to raise our first house post! It will be a two-man effort (or at least one man and one woman), with the posts being very tall and solid (like each member of our family, I suppose!) We’re very excited.

Excitement prevails! We have straw! Four hundred bales (actually, 398 bales, as two broke whilst unloading) are being stored down the street, across two of our neighbour’s properties. We are very grateful to Ady, who helped Monte unload the semi-trailer and pack the bales into the sheds. (photos to come)

Other exciting progress is that which occurred on Valentine’s Day (last week). It was an extremely romantic and eventful occasion, which required naught but a few permanent markers. Yes, that’s right, Monte and BJ got down on the slab, marking out each room of the house, each cupboard, each window and door and each place where the posts will be. I cannot express how exciting it was for me, especially, to see the true scale of the house plan in this way. I was able to walk around my ‘home,’ which gave me the opportunity to decide if I want to make any changes before the frame starts being erected. Changes? Moi? I am the queen of change – never for one year does my furniture sit in one spot for fear of boredom or marked floors. Some changes we agreed on were: making our bedroom slightly wider; moving the pantry door off-centre to allow for more kitchen benchspace as well as space for a chest-freezer; building a short, false wall near the hearth so we can house our corner cupboard in the dining/sitting area on the other side; making Matthew’s bedroom slightly deeper because it was made smaller to allow for the laundry (this makes the laundry slightly smaller, but it is still ample space for our machine, benchspace etc).

Measuring the ensuite/WIR internal wall

It was exciting measuring out the rooms, and on one occasion I found myself seated on the floor of what will be the ensuite. I walked through my wardrobe, and thought “This is too much space for clothes; perhaps I can store my wool in here as well” (thus making the space less than ample afterall). You can imagine how happy I was, being a mother/wife whose family lives in a small, restricted place, with most of our belongings in storage (Do we miss those things? No, not really). Getting a feel for my home and its space was uplifting and has given me a new sense of hope as well as checking me into reality: this project will happen soon enough, given time.

And Georgia was excited too, writing her own name on the floor of what will be her bedroom!

You can also imagine my glee when MG told me to start thinking about where I want to put furniture! I hadn’t really dared to start dreaming at that scale before. The reason he wants me to make plans is because when building with straw bales, we will be able to build in shelves and niches as we go along. Monte wants me to think about where we could put built in shelves. I would like shelves in the spare room, so when guests are not staying (which is most of the time) we can have a library, complete with table and bed. The very thought of unpacking decades of collected books gives me tingles. It’s the books I miss the most!

I can’t wait until Monte tells me it’s a good time to start thinking bathroom. I wait for his instructions because if I were to go ahead and make plans and keep dreaming I could very easily end up in a morbid heap, feeling like none of this will come to fruition etc. It is much better to focus on the present task. But the bathroom is one thing I am excited about designing!

Caught red-handed: Matthew was drawing on the slab, but returns the texta to daddy quite happily