Here is a photo as promised from last week’s blog entry that gives people an idea of the volume of sand that would be required for the job. This is our second load of sand and should just see out the job of roughly 300 sq metres.
Hello again,
Top coat has started on our current job at Mansfield, and it looks fantastic. At this point I’d like to say that Mansfield has turned out to be one of the friendliest and welcoming towns I’ve ever worked in, although I’ve got to admit that the vast majority of smallish country towns we’ve worked in have been full of really lovely people. It truly is a pleasure to travel around our beautiful state and meet so many fantastic people.
Many people believe that strawbale is rough and rustic by its very nature, but that’s not necessarily the case. Unfortunately, some of the people that look at our jobs think that super flat and neat is the only way we render strawbale but we’re quite happy to do ‘rustic’ if that’s what our client wants – it’s our job to give our client what they want, not what we think the building should look like.
Our current clients, Stephen and Fiona, were a classic potential strawbale couple – Fiona wanted a strawbale house come hell or high water, because of it’s ecologically friendly nature, but Stephen was pretty hesitant, because the only finished buildings he’d seen looked pretty rough, poorly finished, and didn’t mesh well with the other components of the project. As soon as Stephen saw the finished product at our previous job at Barwite, he was visibly relieved and very pleased that he’d followed his ‘green’ sensibilities and opted for strawbale. Not only had he followed his instincts and opted for the green alternative, but he suddenly realized he could have a pretty slick, professional looking job into the bargain.
Similarly we had a couple last week who drove up to Mansfield from the Upper Yarra Valley, one of whom was a dedicated strawbale convert, and the other was pretty sceptical. By the time they’d had a good look around and asked all the relevant questions, they were both well on their way to starting their dream strawbale home. Good luck to them!
The top coat on the job is being done fairly neat and accurate, not only because the owners like the look but also because it suits the look of the building.
One of the principal motivating factors in doing “the strawbale thing” is giving our clients exactly what they want, and seeing the ‘light bulb moment’ when they see their dream coming together, better than even they could have imagined. That’s job satisfaction!
Until next week,
Hooroo
