Three months

Hard to believe that to achieve all of that only took three months. From the earthworks to tyvek. From a paddock to a (if desperate) habitable shelter. And that three months included a fortnight in Ubud for the Writers' Festival. And running the cafe. I honestly have no idea how it all happened...

Disappointingly I seem to have stopped taking photos for three weeks between late November and a week before xmas 2007.

I wish I had a photo of the old lining boards I got from Tim when they were piled in the carport. I wish I had a photo of them in situ in his yard. He and I spent an hour pulling them out from beneath cobwebbed piles of building detritus, measuring, accepting or rejecting. I know that when you see the photos below that the colours and arrangement will seem completely random, but I had an idea in my head... And some of the colours Tim had didn't match that idea. Some of the boards were beyond re-claiming, others were just too nice...

I brought the lucky ones back to the hill and brushed them down with a wire brush before sanding then fairly roughly to bring out not just the colour, but also the texture. The result is enduringly my favourite part of the house: a feature wall, a sculpture, a rainbow, an opal. Sometimes I stand, mesmerised, wondering at the sights and smells and sounds that those boards would've absorbed since they were felled and milled...

Not so romantic or interesting was the preparation of the bathroom for tiling. The bath/shower and basin surrounds, and laundry sink splashback were all lined with villa board ready for Nick the tiler.

The bifold doors were intended to give this room an outdoor bathroom feeling. To maintain that we chose sandstone-look tiles. As with every aspect of the finishing it was a matter of doing it and hoping the result matched the vision in my head...

The other thing that was going into the bathroom was a basin I'd asked my friend Zak Chalmers to make for me. He and his wife Tanya very generously made this a housewarming gift.

Have a look at Zak's website. You'll see similarities between his studio/gallery and my house. The same architect worked on them both, but it's not just that... It was one very cold night in late 2006 when I was sitting with Zak during one of his long firings and drinking beer and chatting that I told him of my plans for the house on the hill. He said, just do it. I said I have no money. He said, we built the studio for less than $40,000. Just do it. So I just did it.