Three walls done! Whoo!

Three walls!  Whoo!

We have reached the three-wall* milestone in the mud shed, thanks to the hard work of visiting buddy GW.  It looks like a very large doll's house, with the front wall missing!

This blog post is pretty well just a report on what we finished off last weekend. We did all the difficult bits we had left until later- the gaps that needed filling, the awkward spaces, the awkward window surround. I'll try and do another post on  how we achieved it, which will probably be called something like "a celebration of dodgy formwork".

East wall done!*

We finished* the East Wall, including the area around the tall thin window, some gaps in the middle panel and the awkward area on top of the big window.  You can't see it because it's in shadow.  But it's there.  We finished at dusk on Saturday. By mid-morning Sunday some blazing winter sunshine had started drying the wall - you can't even see the border of the new material.

View from tall window

This is the view from the inside of the East Wall, looking out.  At least, that's how it looks if you stand in just the right spot to avoid seeing the Termite Shed.  The very elegant tree is a Grey-Box.

The gable - done!

On Sunday we filled in the gable above the South Wall (the triangle above the two main panels).  I miss the view of the tree-tops through the gap.  But in compensation, we have a lovely view through the circular window, which I finally got around to trimming a bit.

Circle window - Long-leaf box

The tree you can see through the window is a Long-leaf Box, a type of rough-barked eucalypt (gum tree) with very blue-grey leaves and a habit of growing in a quirky twisted form.  The branch through the window shows both the plump round juvenile leaves and the long slender adult leaves.

Gemini Corner

The incredible GW also completed* the corner that joins the East Wall to the South Wall, and did a neat job of it, too.  I have named it after her, honouring our "you built it, you own it" policy.

West Wall

We even filled all the gaps** in the West Wall - the gap above the window, and the column next to it.  It's really neat up there above the window - I'll tell you the new technique next time.

* Yeah, when I say "finished" I'm not counting render. This means I get to "finish" each wall four times. Once when the light earth is in place, once each for two coats of render and once for mud-paint.  More champagne!

** Just now, looking at this photo, I noticed there is still a gap above the sodding door.  How did I not notice this yesterday?