The land is ours... July 2009

Settlement of the land has finally taken place, tho in the meanwhile we have been organising planning permits and dealing with the local council... which has not been an easy or stress-free experience!  Who ever thought that little ol' me would have to prepare a landscape plan to satisfy the town planner?  Lucky we have Fuzzy available to visit the municipal offices on a weekly, sometime daily basis, to bang on the counter and do whatever is necessary to get this project on the road.

While we wait for all the necessary permits, we start on some simple tasks around the block... like taking care of the odd dead tree, plant some new ones and begin minor works like replace an old, ruined retaining wall to support the new shed.

And I suppose we should discuss the actual house.  It's a straw bale house, as we've already established, to be built on a sloping 5 acre block, to fit 3 separate families under the one roof-line (to comply with local building regulations).  And so the fun begins.  MOTH puts his IT skills to the task and creates this enormous masterpiece - 70 squares of house, plus a 4 car garage.   See why we call it the Straw Palace?  It's gonna be massive peoples.  Ultimately, we all get what we want.  AC gets the top floor penthouse suite with the best views.  Nama & Fuzzy get their own 2 bedder retreat.  MOTH, LOTH, K1 & K2 get the family home they've always wished for.  We all get to live happily ever after... the idea being to provide company and support for each other, while at the same time, enjoying independence and personal space.

I should mention here that MOTH and Fuzzy did actually attend a pretty awesome weekend-long workshop to learn HOW to build a straw bale house.  More information about this will be revealed in good time.

At this time, jobs were also established-
Nama busies herself preparing the ground and planting fruit and nut trees;  Fuzzy buys a sad-looking tractor to help with some of the hard labour and attends to a massive amount of investigative work as the "Site Manager";  MOTH does much of the physical hard-yakka at the block while also holding down a full-time job;  LOTH holds the fort at home, plays taxi driver to the youngins (K1 & K2) and manages the group's finances;  AC toils away during the week at the office and endeavours to spend time at the block whenever she can.