Natural building products

I've mentioned this before but it continually amazes me how hard it is to source natural building products.  The latest is natural paint.  We have tried making our own casein paint with limited success.  The volumes needed, however, have forced us to seek alternatives.

It's relatively easy to find truly natural, zero VOC (volatile organic compound) paint in the UK.  There's  Earth Born, Bioshield and Ecotec Natural Paint.  But we struggled to find suppliers of these paints in Australia and the weight (and wait) involved in shipping from Europe made them an inviable option.

There's the less natural option of  Volvox that is available in Oz but we were firm on the need for paint with no VOCs so kept looking.

There is method behind the madness.  The high vapor pressure of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is caused by a low boiling point, which means that large numbers of molecules evaporate and are discharged into the air at ordinary room temperatures.  One VOC in paint is formaldehyde which is colourless but has a pungent, irritating odour and is a known carcinogen (i.e. it causes cancer).  Now, I am not one to look kindly on deliberately installing products in my home that are likely to cause my family ill health.  Ergo, the need to find paint with no VOCs.

So, we continued on our quest and eventually contacted the lovely staff, Hartmut and Elke, from the Natural Paint Company, based in Port Macquarie New South Wales, and managed to purchase some brilliant natural paint and vega primer from them.

The paint that we purchased is casein marble paint, such as was used by the ancient Egyptians in 1300BC.

The vega undercoat dries clear.

The casein marble paint goes on clear

and dries white.

Best of all, there is no smell. 

The paint comes in powder form and is mixed with a drill bit attachment.  The best bit about the paint is that we made an oil-based version for use in the bathroom and on the roof in the kitchen as it is much more water resistant.  To ensure the paint is still white once the oil has been added (we used tung oil but for a cheaper option safflower oil can be used) we purchased some titanium white pigment to include in the oil paint.  For the walls and roof in the bathroom we used about 30% oil.  We plan to make a richer oil-based paint for the windows.

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.