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| The foyer lighting |
We have had beautiful weather until today. The days have been sunny while the nights are quite cool. At the beginning of this week our foreman Maurie Cohen returned from his holiday with his family. Now his brother Kevin will have some of the weight taken from his shoulders so he can concentrate on his other jobs.
The fitting out of the priory continues. There are now lights in the foyer (see above), the library and oratory and many of the other rooms. One of the things we have to do is now choose how much light we want.
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| The oratory |
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The oratory floor has been sanded and the first layer of varnish has brought out the colour of the Sydney Blue Gum flooring. It will be sanded against and varnished at least once more. The windows have lovely views out over the fields and no, we do not presently intend to put in stained glass.
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| The first four bedrooms |
The first four bedrooms are now almost ready. The landscaping outside has made a big difference to how complete the rooms feel. The tanks between room collect rainwater for garden use. The seventh and eighth bedrooms are at the back on the right.
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| Looking towards the novitiate from the first bedroom |
This is the view from the balcony of the first room. The roof is that of the old novitiate.
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| looking towards the oratory from the seventh bedroom |
The photo above is the view from the seventh bedroom looking towards the first four bedrooms and the oratory. Note the landscape area on the lower right.
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| Typical bedroom |
This is the layout of a typical bedroom. The floor is not carpet but a product called comcork. It is made of of 70% cork recycled from old wine bottles and 30% rubber from old tyres, I guess. It is a good insulator and quiet and has a bit of give in it. The door to the left of the photo is to the shower and toilet.
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| The common room takes shape |
The brickies have finished the next four bedrooms and are now working on the common room which you can see in above photo. The common room is a recreation and meeting room. You can see the Moreton Bay fig tree on the left. It seems to me to be flourishing. The common room has a has a lovely view out across the property towards St Gregory's College from its verandah.
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| The final part of the priory |
The steel fabricators have been back to put in the framework for the last four bedrooms, the formation rooms, laundry and garages. They had a colourful little crane which was like an oversized Tonka Toy.
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| Priory in landscape setting |
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The new priory is now coming together as a building. To my eye it does not look so vast as once it did. It is lovely to walk through the building and look out over the property. It is also lovely to climb the hill and look down on the site and to see the priory in its landscape setting. One of Alex Coutts big ideas for the building was that it should sit in the landscape and be open to it with views on all sides. We are blessed to have that realised.
Every time I go away some comic will wish me a happy holiday. Br Michael at St Greg's is convinced my whole life is a holiday. As it happens, I am actually going on a real holiday tomorrow and will be back at the beginning of June. There will be much progress on the build to report when I get back and I will update the blog shortly after I return.
