On Saturday we had the gang back to work on the render of the south and west sides of the house. It was another long day, but the results are excellent!

Perran was on the spray pump. He needed a helper to turn it off and on and at various times that was Monte, Miranda or me. Dennis did the troweling and Jordan, Monte and Craige did the mixing.

Sunday morning saw me scrubbing off the render to smooth it over. I’m really happy with how it’s going to look on our deck area.

In the background of this photo you can see the chook shed and the milking stall behind it. There’s a bit if mess but it will clean up pretty easily. The deck hasn’t been coated yet so a bit of render shouldn’t hurt.

I’m already longing for those long summer days, sitting there, looking put at the view whilst sipping wine in the sunshine! Soon we will plant glory vines and do a backyard blitz to get the garden back into shape.

Lots of render got sprayed onto the windows. I found out that it came off really easily on the second day when it had dried a bit. I used a green scourer to brush it off. The woodwork is looking a bit sad and it needs to be sanded back and given a fresh cost of varnish. Monte stunned me by suggesting we paint all the woodwork blue, like those Greek buildings he loves so much. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. I said no. Although the render will eventually be a lime white, we’ll most likely stick to the timber woodwork.

Out the front we will have paving in a charcoal colour to match our roof and the tiles indoors. I’d like to have some sort of enclosure on the front veranda, whether it be PVC blinds or some sort of louvres or fencing – or even glass.

The render has a lovely texture as you can see in the photos above and below. It is interesting to note the change in colour over time. One day I will post photos of the completed wall and it will be very white.

We do still need to finish parts of the walls, including more scrubbing, scraping and then painting with a lime wash (just lime mixed with water!). We need 2-3 coats of limewash and it is something that will need to be done again every 2-3 years. That reminds me: we might be due to do another coat of limewash indoors too! It’s not such a bad job. It’s not like painting with paint. You use a wide brush and you paint it on quite watery and it dries very white. The good thing about limewash is that it fills some of the gaps that might appear in the render. It also appears to have a texture of its own. The strawbale walls in our house are quite remarkable!

texture of freshly rendered wall

We’ve now been in the house for the same time that we lived in the cabin. It’s such a nice feeling. Soon the house we built will be officially complete. Yay!