The joys of a custom build

There are many people that visit us at the block and they are almost always surprised at the quality of the workmanship.  The gentleman builder and I are amateurs when it comes to building.  I was lucky enough to have a very talented father who endured my 'help' on many home DIY projects over the years.  Being a very patient man, the gentleman builder, like my father before him, endures my 'help' on building the shouse too.
The gentleman builder spends many frustrated hours fixing the 'work' I have done with the best of intentions but that does not come up to his exacting standards.  While I have the enthusiasm, I lack in technique.  I love building and find it very rewarding but I am, alas, not as skilled as my husband or my father.  I have a mean hammer arm and I can render with the best of them but there are many things that I am not so skilled at (skew-nailing and accurate saw work are the first two things come to mind).
Nevertheless, my husband has persevered (perhaps as I work to fund the project; or is that too cynical?) and he has created an incredible purpose-built space that is morphing into a home on an almost daily basis now.
While over Christmas we were dreaming of moving in over Easter, that has not eventuated and there is still a long list of things to do before we can get the building inspector in to sign off on "our" build.
One of the joys of building something yourself, that you have designed and laboured over, is that it becomes an extension of your belief system and values.  As a family, we firmly believe in sustainability.  We love our children and spend a great deal of time with them.  We take pride in the work that we do and make conscious decisions when it comes to things we consider important. 
I love to watch padawan and little miss explore our block and take great pride in the things that they do.  Recently, we rendered the second coat on the south wall and, as a result the tarps on that side of the house came down.  This revealed the view to Corner Inlet from the south-facing window.  The children loved it and asked me to move the table and chairs so they could make use of the wide sills and take in the views.

Also, insects love to be on our house.  We regularly find stick insects on the north wall, sunning themselves and generally being happy.  Last week, I found a grasshopper inside.  Taking time out from the heat, no doubt as it was a particularly warm autumn day.

 To me, this indicates that the house is truly non-toxic.  Insects would not ordinarily choose to make home in something that would cause them damage.  I like that we will be living in a home that is safe.  That will not be off-gassing noxious crap to infect our lungs and cause us distress.  I hope that I will have fewer migraines when we are living in the shouse as I am sure that the fumes from the paint that we used in the house that we are in currently contribute to that particular ailment.

We have one structural and one non-structural wall in the shouse as well as the roof downstairs and in the attic that will be painted.  We have been experimenting with natural casein paints as we cannot afford to buy low VOC paints that are commercially available.

We trialled a number of options, from left to right:

1. Straight lime putty which has been rejected because it imparts a powdery residue when you rub it
2. Lime putty with PVA which performed really well but has been rejected because of the smell
3. Lime putty with PVA and pigment (which we made from crushing some rocks from the driveway) - also rejected due to the smell
4. Casein paint - recipe needs refining as the batch we made on the test strip below was too watery
5. Casein paint with pigment - again, the recipe we used for the test strip was too runny

I like the colour of the lime putty and PVA mix but the smell is too offensive in our very inert home.  We're in the process now of trying to perfect a casein paint.