More solar panels structures on the making

 David is giving everything to make this happen!

Today he went out to buy the metal structures and he is spending the afternoon putting them together.

This is so important before the rain and the cold weather come strongly. We want to make sure that we have all the power that we need for short days coming.

One panel is up!

A Portuguese podcast about our tiny house

 I was interviewed by the lovely Catarina for her podcast and she asked all amazing questions about the tiny house.

It’s in Portuguese and I loved it!

How is the building going?

Olá everyone!

We haven't been writing that much, because we stopped the construction already for almost a month.
As you know, we live in Quinta da Mizarela (Awakened Life Project), and our season started at the beginning of May. Since then, our attention has been fully focused in the volunteers and the work at the Quinta, including our course - it was a success!

It has been fantastic!

Stay tuned, because the construction re-started a while ago with the help of volunteers. Slowly, bit by bit! We are going to show everything!

For now...

A friend from Benfeita, dear Alice, gave us some old typical Portuguese tiles. We were so happy with them. They are beautiful and we are looking forward to see the result either in the bathroom or in the kitchen. David and me were bringing the wood inside so it can dry properly.

 The wood treatment (pine tar resin) arrived from Germany.

See you soon!

With love,

Raquel & David

Window frames and cladding

Raquel sanding the exterior wall boards. We tried experimenting by de-barking some of the cladding to see what we preferred. As the house is already quite modern looking, we both decided that we like the rustic look of the boards still with the bark on.

 We just put 2 boards together on a wall to see how it works. It looks beautiful! We loved it!

We went again to the store in Tabua to see if they had more second hand windows, since we enlarged one of the window holes in the frame, and we were hoping to find some glass to fit.

 Scrap wood that we use in our wood burner in the BUS. We don't waste anything!

Adam, looking like he is just about to knock Katja over the head. Working together isn't that bad really.

 Katja and Adam helping us with some wood cutting.

 Little glass window on the step area is on!

 Windows waiting to be put into place.

Look at the frame that David created! It looks very beautiful. 

 Writing the measurements to cut the wood while David experiments some finishing treatments on the  outside wood.

This one is a special one for our sister Laura. Happy bEErthday dear Laura!

Starting the exterior cladding

A general view from the house as it is before the cladding.

While waiting for our pine tar resin to come, we borrowed some from our local neighbor wood dweller,  Marko.

Look at the effect on the wood / better than we were expecting! We love it!

Us at lunch, looking at the house and having fun!

Trying out the resin mixture and most importantly treating the end grains of the boards before we fitted them.

This image reminds me of the forest sprits and allows me to get in touch with the sacredness of trees and how grateful we are for the wood that we are building the house with.

Adam and Katja helped us Sunday afternoon, just before the rain and the cold comes again. We are again running with time because of the weather!

Board by board the wall grows! And you can see the difference between the wood that was treated and the boards that have no treatment at all.

This video shows how powerful is the nail gun. It was the last nail of this wall!

Finishing the frame

We are just finishing some details on the frame before we add the breather membrane.

I am really looking forward to attach the breather membrane and the to start adding the cladding. 

Just waiting for a break in the rain so that the frame can dry out and we can apply the last coat of timber treatment. We are using borax for that, which is a natural mineral compound that you mix with water. It is good for deterring the insects that would like to eat it.

I think we are in luck! The weather forecast is good for the next week!! woohoo

 I added a few brackets in the corners of the frame, just as a little extra strengthening.

The Frame is bolted through the chassis, it aint going nowhere!!

On the last day of the month

With the help of Katja and Adam we moved the wood boards that we are going to use on the outside walls, closer to the house, so we can work a little bit faster. And we are testing some treatments on the wood. But we will tell you later what it is!

Where have we been?

 image from here

 

Sometimes here, other times not here!

We have been building a lot though! Which makes us very happy, but before that a lot happened and we didn't build!

First things first.
After getting the last wood, the weather started to be very wet. It rained a lot, so we thought that the best thing was not to put the frame up and not to continue to build the rest of the frame. If the frame was up, we wouldn't have big enough tarps to cover it and it would be a waste of money. Because the wood is dry.

We didn't work on the house for 3 weeks after that because we had our year Sangha retreat, we visited the UK family and we worked in our house in Porto, so we can rent it. And while we were doing this, we are preparing our events here at Mizarela.

(group photo from the Sangha retreat)

 amazing forests in the UK

Decorating the house in Porto

rented van with the wood

wood that we bought for the inside walls in Leroy Lerlin

When we were in Porto, we took advantage of our huge rented van to buy the wood for the inside walls and to bring more wood from the wood yard.

When we came back, we started to work right away on the house, and since then, the development has been fantastic!

Last week, we had our roof delivered and the wood for the outside as well.

 This is called chapa sanduiche. "O Painel Sandwich é composto por um conjunto de duas chapas de aço perfiladas intercaladas por uma camada de espuma rígida de poliuretano, proporcionando uma elevada resistência mecânica e um excelente isolamento térmico. Este tipo de painel permite a execução de fachadas ou coberturas de forma fácil, rápida e eficaz."

Pine wood boards for the outside walls

These were the first days building the frame:

A lot is/was happening and we are very grateful for that.
With love,
David&Raquel