29-Jan-2024, Monday – With sore muscles and the exhaustion from yoga handstand workshop last weekend, I am lacking the motivation to do any kind of work today. I have trouble finding my flow but we have a (soft) deadline, so I push through and still manage to do quite a bit of work. While I was away, the team did a little bit of work on the house and made arches for the front and back face. In the morning Made and I are making the two arches for both sides. We fix the arches in place with bamboo pin. We create the arches by bending the bamboo. The bending of the bamboo is done by cutting out wedges on several positions (the exact positions depend on the length and curve of the arch). An experienced builder knows exactly where to cut these wedges just by picturing it in his head. For a beginner like me, it’s a lot of trial and error to get it right. After the wedges are cut out, we apply epoxy and fold the bamboo pole until the wedge(s) are closed again. To keep the bamboo into its new form, while the epoxy dries, a string or rope is used to hold it in place.

In the afternoon we start working on the Plupuh floor (smashed bamboo). Plupuh is basically a big bamboo pool folded open, with many cuts on the inside so it’s easy to lay it down flat, while still maintaining some of its strength. Making one sheet is very labor intensive, I made one just to practice but for our house we decided to buy the bamboo already smashed.  The house has a relatively small floor surface so I was assuming it would be done in a few hours. I was wrong of course. Most of the bamboo sheets need to be (slightly) adjusted with a knife for a snug fit against the previous sheet. Once again this is a lot of manual labor and time consuming. The floor is fixed with hundreds of tiny nails every 30cm, and a compressor.

Tuesday – One layer of the floor down, 1 more layer to go. This time with the good side facing up. A full day of work and we still didn’t finish. The round outer edges require a lot of cutting and working around structural bamboo poles require a lot of precision and customized cutting. As the handyman that I am, it is not very difficult to lay and cut the floor, just a lot of work.

More good news for today; my special ordered knife, with Balinese carvings, has arrived! I am excited to use my own knife now.

Wednesday – In the morning we spend a few more hours working on the floor. Although I really enjoyed doing the floor, I was also happy to have finished it and that we could continue with the roof. Before climbing up, we start on the floor by making Lidi bundles. A Lidi consists of many small and long bamboo rods, which are all tied together. With a Lidi we are able to create a curved, flexible but strong bamboo part. For one Lidi bundle we extend each rod 2 times and we make bundles of 6. Then we need 24 of these bundles of six. This comes down to 2 x 6 x 24 = 288 bamboo rods tied together with a small plastic string. We buckle down and we start tying. With 3 persons it took us two full days to finish make all of this. This is less fun work but it is essential for our building. All the blisters on my hand are proof of the hard work.

And while we were busy tying, Dul had caught a wild chicken and was skinning and cleaning it to grill over the fire for lunch.

Thursday – Still busy creating the Lidi, every now and then we take a break from the tedious work and do something else. The ridge of the roof is called a Langit-langit and we prepare the curved bamboo pole on the ground. We cut ten wedges out of the bamboo, apply the epoxy and fold it back into a large curved bamboo pole. Although it’s a long and large arch, it’s also very light and easily lifted onto the top of the roof. After finding the correct position we drill holes into the structure and permanently fix the Langit-langit with a steel rod and nuts.

Friday – With the primary Langit-Langit in place, we add a secondary (smaller) langit-langit for extra support. Now it’s time to install the bundles of Lidi’s, parallel to the Langit-langit (they act as purlins). The next step is to install the rafters on the roof. The middle section is straight forward, the real challenge arises at the tips, where the rafter’s fan out. You want equal sizes (diameter) of bamboo on both sides (to prevent waves on the roof) and finding the positions at the top and bottom of the rafter poses challenges in itself as well.

The challenge in working with bamboo is they are all different and nothing is straight or symmetrical. You have to learn to work with what you have, which sometimes sparks creativity. It is hard but fun and rewarding at the same time (at least when you finally finish the work after several failed attempts).

Saturday ­– We continue with the rafters of the roof but just after lunch a heavy rainfall sets in and we are forced to go inside. But we do not stop our work; tying more Lidi’s it is! How fun is that! After a couple of hours the rain stops and the bamboo had dried enough so we were able to climb back on to the roof.

With this, it was officially the end of the 3-week course. I cannot believe how quick the time has passed. I learned a lot during these 3 weeks, and it’s remarkable how much we achieved in only two weeks. Yet, there was still a lot of work left to be done. Luckily, I was able to come to an agreement with Natali. She would allow me to come in the next week and let me continue the work on the building.

Sunday ­– Rest and do video editing for this week’s time-lapse video;

~ TO BE CONTINUED ~