Happy, simply Left-Overs and Left-To-Do

I’m very sorry I haven’t got any new photos to add since the last blog but I do have new information to pass on… Below are a couple of lists: the practical facts and figures of building the Happy, simply home; what still needs to be done; and a small list of needs and wants to finish it off.

In my next blog I will outline what will become of the Happy, simply home – especially now I have abandoned it and left Australia…

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In practical terms the home took:

• 3 days of deconstruction
• 22 days of construction
• Around $1000 spent on a few materials and other costs –  – the rest was salvaged, donated, gathered from leftovers, bits and pieces from people and more
• Over 30 volunteers and around 10 builders
• Many loaves of bread
• Over 5000 views on the blog and probably similar on Facebook
• Wide reaching support, resources, sponsorship, donations and generosity
• Moved people from a group of people to the status of community!

List of tasks still to be done by anyone still keen to get in, interact and attribute their mark on the project. Plus I know there is very likely to be a solar workshop next weekend or at some stage to put in all the solar features:

• fill gap in wall of toilet and shelter on the east deck
• solar system
• create a fold down desk
• toilet to be built
• paint polycoat on stairs and cedar wall, maybe stain or coat the bed – don’t use gloss finish it will make it too slippery
• ¼ round the edges, door gaps, skirting, etc
• Joining piece for the flooring
• Door handles
• Outside edge flashing if needed / wanted – important bits are done
• Carpet tiles and/or black plastic under the home to stop weeds growing and so it can be used as storage space
• Stabilise each corner of the home so not just resting on the original legs of the caravan – use the two axle stands and maybe get a few more besser blocks?
• Tank stand reinforcement, cleaning and functionality set for human consumption
• Fridge – I have a spare esky at my mum’s home that can be used but any hole dug in the ground covered will do the trick for the next few months
• Fitting fly screens
• Anything else you might want to contribute just check with Beau and Sam from the build and remember simplicity is the key!

List of needs (wants)  for the home:

• Office chair
• Compost bins
• Door handle
• Solar shower
• Gas bottle
• Double mattress under the thin top one we already have
• Mosquito bed net
• Wee container – something not see through and 2L is best with a big opening at the top and a lid
• Fans 12v or small AC fan
• …?

With all these jobs to be done and things needed (wanted) I personally prefer to live in a place and from that REALLY determine what is needed and then see what might be wanted and go from that basis – rather than guessing beforehand what I think will be needed and wanted (rarely the same list). Since I won’t be back at the Happy, simply home in Aldinga till probably Christmas it would be good to at least forecast a few of these things so it can adequately support anyone staying before then…

Happy, simply became a HOME today

Happy, simply became a home today.

Busy watching people work

Still busy watching people

Just standing around

Actually it was for an interview with ABC – first time to stand still for 5 mins in 5 weeks!

Ladder and cupboards in place

Front has a deck

Clouds approaching

Another day another rainbow over Happy, simply

It’s a Happy, simply home

View of cupboard/stairs and ladder

The home is now Happy, simply!

Cladding inside painted, toilet shelter completed, front deck on and most impressively we have custom made steps, ladder and bed rail!!! To see how that was put together have a look at the youtube clip here:

With just a couple of days left before I head off I think the Happy, simply home will be almost 90% done… I plan to stay in it tomorrow night anyway!

See you on Sunday for the open day? https://www.facebook.com/events/1434264183502485

Clad Outside and In!

We have nailed and screwed in the last piece of cladding (probably to be unnailed or screwed later) and it feels like some kind of accomplishment!

Sam putting in the last nail of the inside cladding!!!

In the end the inside is half plasterboard and half western red cedar tongue and groove cladding. I wish I could share with you the smell of the home now that it is half clad in the sweet aromas of cedar like a Swedish sauna – see the photos of the sauna corner…

Now with inside clad and window and door frames done we can plaster, paint, put in the floor and we will almost have a home ready to live in!

We are still lacking a couple of decks with verandas, a toilet room, gutter and water tank, outside edge flashing, solar power set up and a few other things but we are nearly there… Volunteers and builders still welcome!

Only a few more days of doing what we can so come join in or come see what stage we get to by Sunday for the Happy, simply  Open Day: https://www.facebook.com/events/1434264183502485/

Also I must mention Beau’s day of nail-gunning and power-sawing. Having given him mission impossible yesterday to make a box out of ply and awkward L-brackets he was the man of powertools today – not only that but he always prepares lunch, runs around and make countless calls, emails and requests to support the Happy, simply home build – this build would have been totally impossible without him and his two ladies, wife and daughter…

The background glue and no more gaps of the Happy, simply home – Beau!