False economies when buying a second hand door!

So dad came around a couple of months ago from Newcastle and foolishly accepted the challenge of removing at least 80 years of paint from this door that we bought cheap. Dad worked pretty solidly on the door and made a bit of a dent on the paint removal.  At this stage I didn't realise that I would have to work on this door all weekend, weekend after weekend after weekend.  

Well..this is where you get false economies. I could have bought a solid timber door such as this one (perhaps with plain glass rather than coloured glass) for about $1500 dollars.  We spent $500 on this secondhand door and then spent about 80 hours removing the paint, sanding the door and then beeswaxing the door.

I finished the door this weekend with a beeswax.

It does look lovely, however, I am yet to be
convinced that it was worth the hard work.

The Rendering begins

It was a joyous day for Grant and I when the rendering began. After chatting with Dan the Render Man we decided we would start the rendering even though we are still waiting for one door...yes really!! They will work around it and return once the door has been installed. By the way, we have seen pictures from our window makers of the frame so there is movement at the station! Anyway, the render we have used is from Rockcote. The outside consists of two coats of lime plaster base coat, the second coat providing the colour with oxides. We have chosen the lime render because of the breathability requirements of the hemp. There is no point using a concrete or acrylic render. The hempcrete needs to be able to breath so that it can moderate the humidity internally.  

It was a great relief to get the hempcrete covered. I was sick of worrying about it getting damaged. The build is feeling like it is moving on. What a day, what a week! More posts to follow.

20 grams of Mornington brown and a couple of grams of black oxide
per bag of render make up the colour of the extension exterior.

Inside the first 2 coats are a medium earthen render, followed by 2 coats of Otsumigaki (not yet pictured)

The brewery was really a bit of a test colour, this used 80 grams of
Mornington brown and 5 grams of black oxide per back of render.
Although I love this colour we were looking for a paler colour for
the main renovation so it had more of a Japanese colouring and it
would highlight the peppercorn tree better.

The brewery with its first coat of lime render

The link providing a connection between the old house and the new renovated space.