The Story of Creal's Rest
A Visit to Connect
Our story starts in Far North Queensland, when a german backpacker, me :), met an aussie fisherman, Craig.
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To cut the long story short, after several years of distant relationship and living together in Germany we decided to move back to Australia.
We had a vision, trying to find our perfect place to live.
Starting out with a car, a camper trailer and two bags we travelled from North Queensland down to Tasmania. Looking for a place to live.
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On our way through Tumbarumba everything started to unfold and we fell in love with our property. The feel, the experience and the climate.
This was it!
We've found our perfect place and finally named it "Creal's Rest" which has two meanings for us. Obviously from our name, but since Craig has been a professional line fisherman for 18 years the name is also linked to "creel" which is a wicker basket usually used for carrying fish.
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We are passionate about living simply, being natural and feeling at home. Building a natural and non toxic straw bale home has set us on our path of living naturally.
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We are excited to share with you our love for where we live and are so looking forward to meeting you as a hipcamper soon!
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Much love,
Tatjana, Craig and family
Our Strawbale Home Story
It started with a vision...
Get to Know Our Building Story
A Simply Natural Home
For quite some years we have been passionate about building our dream home.
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Simply, Natural and a home that lets us feeling at Home. Everything took longer and is different to how it might have been planned, but we are proud to be nearly finished... if you can ever finish...?
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Our choices are all based on building as non toxic and natural as possible.
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So we chose Strawbale, Earth and Timber as building materials. Natural paints, oils, fabrics etc. for the interior wherever we could.
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As a husband and wife team we share and come up with ideas of how to design and build. I am the person in the background for design, colours, writing, photos, paperwork, not to forget the children and more.
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And then it is mostly like this:
"How do you want this done?"... "Mmh... Can we have it built like this and this and this?".... "Can you tell me how to structure and build it???"...
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"No, sorry, I just have the idea. Can you work out how to do it??"..."Let me think about it and I might come up with something..."
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And... Craig did come up with a solution for nearly every project we approached!
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So, most times it has been a ONE man project. My amazing husband Craig dedicate his time to learn and gain more skills to work through the mostly custom projects from concrete footing to timberframing, rendering, solar system and SO much more.
His background as a full time professional fisherman and attitude that "you can learn anything if you really want" gifted us with many precise and beautifully finished first time ever projects.
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Today we can confirm, that it has been a challenging, but also the most rewarding journey with the result of not only seeing, but FEELING the difference in living in a highly insulated, natural and non toxic home.
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We truly hope that we can inspire you with our journey, because we can't recommend it more!! WE LOVE IT!!
With much love and a huge thank you to my wonderful husband Craig. We love you and are very proud of your work!!
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We are very happy to share our insights with you if we got your mind ticking.
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The Timberframe
An Old Craft and Art.
Lots of study and time went into building and finally erecting the mortise and tenon joinery timberframe made out of Cypress Pine.
Frame Sections
Handcrafted timber pegs to connect.
The Frame erected
A big relief and major step!
On top of the world
One man on the job most times!
Strawbale Wall Raising
To erect the strawbale walls we chose to organise a workshop with Thomas Frank from Strawtec. Lots of helping hands were needed and very welcome!!
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Fantastic job Thomas and everyone who participated. We couldn't have done it without you all!!
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Earthen Render
Earthen render went on the inside walls. Lime render on the outside for weather protection.
What a muddy experience, but well worth it!!!
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Earthen Floor
Having an earthen floor was a much loved idea. It all looked great and beautifully smooth. Since tung oil has been our preferred choice for many other projects we decided to use it here as well to seal the earthen floor.
A trial looked good, but on the floor it broke the smooth surface and left us a hard, but slightly rough surface. Usable, but a challenge to clean....
How to go about it? Time will show us since we haven't come up with an answer here yet...
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Finishing Touches
From beautifully rendered bullnoses, tung oiled timber bench top to mosaic detail and custom built non toxic furniture.
Beautifully cool in summer, cozy and warm in winter with very little wood heating. We FEEL at HOME and love to hear from you if you have questions.
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Thank you so much for connecting with us and nature!
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