We awoke early on day four and noted that hot air balloons were rising up from where we used to live in Picton - along Fairleys Road:
After this I needed to drive to the hardware shop, and had the most amazing drive down Old Razorback Road in and out of the mist, and rounding corners to find myself
underneath these balloons.
The morning was spent finishing the top bales, which was quite a slow process requiring the efforts of all on site:
The corner of the house between the two wings needed special treatment - the original frame left us requiring a V-shaped bale, which after few attempts we concluded wasn't really going to happen. So, carpenter Balin stepped in and created a frame which worked like the upright LVLs (we had run out of the actual LVLs). Once this was in, the far simpler task of two smaller bales one either side of this frame remained:
I spent most of my time on the site installing all the conduit and services into the walls. This had to be done once the bales were in but before the render went on. Given both of these were to happen in the one workshop, I didn't have too much time to learn the craft and then get it right before it was all rendered over, never to be seen again. Here we are working on an exterior light box:
Once the bales were all finished to roof level, the final task was amusingly to give them all a haircut with hedge trimmers. This meant that the house had a very clean look:
We were now all ready to start the rendering process. A mix of lime, sand and water was mixed for the exterior:
Then our chief chef for the workshop Liz was given the honour of spray the first render onto our home:
This first spray coat was used on each section of the house, getting the lime render deep into the bales. Afterwards, our team of ever-helpful volunteers smoothed out the render, using more traditional plastering skills: