Render finished.

I have been working on this since February so I am a bit relieved!  Some small hairline cracks to address but literally a dozen and I think it's because I made the mix too rich.  I was following a recipe in the Building with  Lime book (2:1.5!) and did the back wall but changed it to 2:1 for the other walls and scoured it more when loads of cracks appeared on the first wall I did.  Not bad for a first attempt though - and hopefully my last attempt as well!

Wind got up last night and tore off all the hessian covering but apart from some small stains from the oak roof timbers, all is well!  I expected to see most of it on the floor this morning but it's held up.  So far.  Next is to cover the end timbers with slate, then dig some drains...

First wall we did.  Note the joins.  Hopefully it will blend in a bit when it cures fully.  Maybe some trellis if it doesn't.

View of the back and side.  The join looks ok - again, I hope it will blend in a bit when cured.  If not, I will paint it all the same colour, but I will have to lime-wash the bottom and Sandtex the cement top so it will still be a bit iffy...

Detail of the corbels on the front sides.  Quite pleased with these.

I wanted an open-grained texture on the walls and settled on a "rag-rub" finish with the idea that a bunched-up ball of hessian would follow the undulations of the wall and give the desired effect.  It kind of worked but I also needed to float it off with a wooden float beforehand to help consolidate the render as it was cracking a lot when it was setting.  A lot of work, so it was.  Cramped hands, so I have.  If I was to do it again, I'd harl all the coats on and just take the big lumps and undulations off with a wooden batten.  I would probably do this:

Harl Method for Lazy Bastards
Coat 1: lime to coarse, gritty sand 1:2
Coat 2: lime to coarse sand with a handful of hair per load 1:2.5, levelled slightly when "green hard"
Coat 3: lime to coarse sand 1:3

Each wall done all at once, finishing about 30cm around each corner of the building to prevent funny edges.

What I did was far too hard for one (occasionally two) person to do who had no previous experience.  Learning on the only and most important job you're likely to do is a wee bit daft.  Do a course and help someone with experience on a couple of other jobs first if you can: an extra month out of nine isn't going to make a lot of difference to the schedule!  Also, ideally you need three people - one to mix, one to render, one to finish.  Everyone works differently and mixing work styles on the same job is asking for variations in the work unless you've worked together for years.

Still, I am looking forward to doing the inside!  Madness!