Our building is still in hiatus. Another month goes by and I get a little bit better. Meanwhile, the cobwebs grow on site as the field mice grow fat on spilt rice flour from our Great Wall of 'Bogie mortar. I can now see the light but it is a long tunnel indeed. So, to while away some time and stave off the ennui, I've converted some of my digital scribblings into the printed word.
My magazine read of choice over the last quarter of a century has been The Owner Builder (http://www.theownerbuilder.com.au/). Long have I drooled over its fine words and inspiring pictures. Now I'm able to give something back. Issue number 166 (Aug / Sep 2011) features the first of my (many, I hope) articles for this fine rag. I am expanding on, or distilling from, some of the words here on this site but, essentially, it is the printed version of our building process. It has been fun to write and it's always a good ego boost to see your work on display at the newsagents. Speaking of which, get yer-selves down to your local purveyor of glossies and pony up $6.95 for a squiz at my ravings.
I even managed to sneak in a few dodgy haikus on the last page. here's my favorite:
"
when setting out house
be sure to have a compass
true north is correct
"
In the meantime (I can never hear that phrase that without thinking of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgGyX7WPxuQ), we've had the cows back on the property. Grasses are down, poo stocks are up but the trade off has been another thrashing of the nascent loquat tree and a devastated veggie patch that didn't have barbed wire or electrickery to subvert the beasts. Ha-sip / ha-sip (50/50 in Thai!). The dam of the damned continues its damnation - rains over the last few weeks have seen it fill right back up again. We'd been hoping to get a chance to reline it with either more clay or a commercial liner but it doesn't look like that will happen this year. Maybe it's worth another bash at the long polymer DamPlug(tm) that seemed to stem, if not stop, the flow last year.
Finally, here are a few spots that I find it entertaining to stop off regularly at and dribble:
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/
http://www.dezeen.com/
http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/architecture
http://www.lewfrenchstone.com/
http://www.archdaily.com/
http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/
...and last of all (not really my cup of chai but great use of light):
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/14840/bernardo-rodrigues-arquitecto-house-on-the-flight-of-birds.html
until next time...
..
.
