218 Blue Mountains Road

Trish visited  218 on Sunday to see progress - the framing makes the house look enormous. It is amazing to walk through the framing and visualiz each room. The family room looks very small and not sure how functional it will be as is. There is lots of storage space in the house, and then scullery will be great.

It's lovely to be able to take Pop up to follow progress. He is enjoying seeing the progress each week. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm and windless at 218, while Fernwood was sunny but windy.

We wallpapered one bedroom - looks superb. Still working on the garden. The house is not ready for the market yet.

Phil has hired a digger to begin preparing the section for building, and to dig the holes for the septic tank system, and water tanks. He said he was starting today, and on Thursday we will go up and have a look at what has been done.

It has been so windy at Fernwood - the hydroponic system in the cold frame was blown off the deck when we got home after work. The glass was smashed and the frame twisted. It was so disappointing as we were onto our second crop of  lettuce, corriander, and basil. We couldn't even get outside to clean up, as the wind was so strong. It has died down now so clean up can begin tomorrow.

I will rebuild a protective frame system from perspex and wood - it will be much more robust.

We met Phil and Ian at the section on Saturday 5/11/11, and laid out the the footprint of the house - we turned and re-arranged it until we were satisfied that all the aspects were just as we wanted. The garage is now to go at the bottom of the western slope with a path meandering up to the front (which now faces west). We will also be able to drive up to the front steps and around the back to drop things off if necessary. We then went to the Silverspoon for lunch and Trish showed off the plans she had drawn up. Ian saw exactly what we wanted and was able to do his magic and redesign the layout. There will be a place fro my stained glass projects too.

Phil plans to get the digger up to the section and dig out the hole for the septic tank and water tanks. This should start next week.

We spent the evening on the Hikitia watching the fireworks  - it was a beautiful night, and the fireworks display spectacular.

We spoke to the architect today. He should be able to get some drawings to us mid week next week.

The basic plan is have an organic looking roof, with a gull-wing effect. The entrance will be in the middle of the South West facing side, with a curved roof above it, and sloping roofs angled away on each side. The overall effect will be of  looking at an aeroplane profile head on.

The curved roof will be lifted up from the side roofs so that windows can be let in the whole length of the entrance hall. The ends will have some sort of stained glass effect.

I think the photo gives an idea of what we are after.

At Fernwood Court last night we ate the first lettuce from our hydroponics unit. There can't be many things nicer than eating a lettuce leaf right off the plant. You can't get any fresher than that!

It is quite amazing to get a perfect, vibrant healthy plant growing - flourishing - in the middle of winter with only simple equipment and no experience at all.

We now have all sorts of seedlings coming up. They were planted in Jiffy pots and kept in the cold frame, and just that little bit of protection has made all the difference. We have vigorous Sweet Peas ready to transplant, and lupins, cornflowers, cabbages, basil, parsley, oregano and cosmos; plus  some of the heritage vegetable seeds we bought at the Home Show all those months ago when we first started out on this project. Feels like a lifetime ago. We will try some of the heritage lettuce and spinach next in the hydroponics. We are definitely getting more adventurous as we learn more about it.

The Silverstream section is definitely going to have a big hydroponics unit.

And tonight we sit down with the Project Manager and work through the costings. Nail biting stuff.