This Mud Brick house has been a labor of love over many years (and its still goes on!). But there is something great in having built it yourself (with lots of help!). My house is built over the ruins of an earth house built last century. It is located in a valley with the remains of several earth houses built last century by Cornish slate miners. In the 40+ years I have been engaged in this venture I have planted thousands of trees. Those trees in turn have seeded even more trees, so the valley that in 1980 was essentially bare is now mostly full of trees..

I extended the house using Cob for the walls. I repaired one wall with Cob successfully - so I thought I would go further.

For information on the Willunga Slate quarries (one of which I live near ) look here

 
Pictures of the Mud Brick House being built - click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
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The stacks of bricks made The foundations poured. They were poured over two days, mixed in several concrete mixers.
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Building the frame. The timber was Jarrah and Kauri from and old Wool Store in Port Adelaide Mixing the mud mortar for laying the bricks
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Laying the bricks, which I always thought was the easiest and most fun Extending the roof
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Still working on the roof The house view thru the trees
trees valley.gif (119186 bytes) Looking away from the house into the valley
 
  Building Cob Wall Building the Cob wall to replace the existing Timber framed wall (click on the photo for a larger view)
  Building Scaffold to fix the roofBuilding Scaffold to fix the walls and roof
  Willunga aerial photo 2020The house in the valley taken in 2020