Measure Twice. . . 

House building is not for folks with OCD!  When I was taking adobe classes we were taught to make sure all our measurements were as correct as possible from the very beginning because errors made at the foundation stage would just get multiplied as the walls went up.  Sooooo - I measured and measured and measured and then measured again.  Then the wind would come up and all the foam insulation which made up the outside of the foundation would move - so I'd measure and move and stake things again.  Then the gravel went in and I would see that the forms had moved yet again.  So we made sure the strings were in the correct place.  As the house has progressed we continue to be somewhat obsessed with making sure everything is going in the right place.  (It wakes me up at night! <G>)

I have read accounts of home building where the owner/builder gets to the roof and the trusses don't quite fit or the roof is not quite square.  We have a good friend (hi Pat!) who has built somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 houses and I was asking her about tolerances and did she ever have to "fudge" things to get them to work and she just rolled her eyes and said "All the time!!!"  Then we get to the framing stage and notice that well over 30% of our posts are just a tiny bit twisted or bowed - or something - so we have FINALLY taken a deep breath and laughed at ourselves and realized that we are human, the materials we are using are organic and it will all come together somehow in the end!  That's not to say that we are not being as careful as we can possibly be but we're getting better about not letting it keep us awake at night!  I think that's progress.

So - on to framing!

Here we are with all the posts cut, clips attached to the tops and laid in place, ready for instillation.

This is the end of day one.  The south wall with the big adobe section and short trombe wall has been framed and the shorter south wall with the other trombe also got framed.

The inside of the house will have a pitched ceiling and to get an idea of just how tall the ceiling will be, especially in the living space, Rick held a 14' 2x8 upright.  Wow!  It's going to feel like a palace inside!

Day two.

The end of day three.  About 2/3 of the west wall is done.  It's taking us a little longer to do than we anticipated but we're plugging along.  We had some gusty wind during this framing session.  It's a little hairy to be on top of the scaffolding and have a 23mph wind gust come through!  We're being very careful!!!!

Here is Rick eyeing the fruits of our labor in the office.

The end of day three of framing.

Mother Nature Always Wins!

So says a friend of ours.  April 3rd dawned with 5" of very wet snow.  It will be a couple of days before things dry out enough for us to get back to work.

But it is beautiful and we do need the moisture!

Spring Has Arrived!

Since my last post we've had roller coaster weather.  First it would be beautiful and then cold and crappy which made it almost impossible to get out and get any work done.  Oh well, that's late winter, early spring in northern New Mexico.  Then I had to make an unexpected trip back East.  I'm home now, the weather has really warmed up and we've managed to get some work done on the framing. It's going pretty slowly because we're really trying to get this right - neither one of us really has any experience with framing.  Hopefully once we figure these first few steps - such as how high the posts need to be, etc. - it will go faster.

We first had to lay down the tar paper and flashing on the foundation.

Here's a nifty jig that Rick made that sure made bending the flashing a breeze!

All the tar paper and flashing are down.  We've had to put bricks and rocks all around to keep it all from blowing away in our spring winds!

The next thing we had to do is get the bond beam up on the big adobe wall.  We originally planned on putting up 3 - 2" x 10" boards but after some discussion with our adobe friends and realizing that there is a fairly wide span over the center window, we decided to go with 4 of them - giving us, in effect, a 6" by 10" bond beam.

Here's Rick adding mud under the first round of boards.

Second course going on.

Three courses down.

Here's all four courses.  Just adding this bond beam made the wall feel so much more substantial!

Next we decided we needed to get the two big 8 x 8 posts up.  These posts are the ones that will carry the weight of the huge diagonal truss that will span over the living room/dinning room and give us a wonderful open ceiling.

These are the two posts ready for shaping.

Since these are true 8 x 8s we needed to shave off a bit on the bottom so they would fit in the clips.

This post will have the beams from two walls meeting in this notch Rick is cutting out.

One done!

Both posts are shaped and ready for instillation.

Ready to go vertical.

One up!

Both up!  Progress!!

Here you see the section of bond beam that connects the adobe wall to the big corner post.  We had hoped to get more done today but had to stop on account of wind :-(

Late Winter Update

Late Winter Update

It's March 5th and while I know that there is still some cold weather yet to come (we are in northern New Mexico after all) the last few days have been delightful and I have managed to get out and finish the second trombe wall - YEA!!!

Here are the adobe blocks cut and laid out for the first two courses. Thank goodness for the circular saw we got for Christmas with the masonry blade. Made quick work of all the cutting.

First two courses done.

Here's what I managed to get done on the second day. Had to build the buck for the bottom trombe window so didn't get but one course of adobes laid.

End of day three - almost done! Probably would have finished but I ran out of dirt for the mortar. Had to go get more - thanks Ramey - yet again!!!

Weight training tools :-)

Second trombe wall done!! This photo shows the whole house with the big adobe wall and the two trombe walls.

This picture shows the inside of the house. This will be our office. My desk will be on the left and Rick's will be on the right. We will be able to sit, feel the warmth of the trombe wall and look out to the beautiful scenery around us. I can't wait!

NOW we get to start on the framing! I will be going to town tomorrow for tar paper and flashing that will go on the foundation for the bales to rest on. Clips for the posts will go down at the same time. Then the posts! I feel some good momentum building here and hope to keep it going. Maybe it will start looking like a house soon (and not just the remnants of an adobe house!) At least now that the adobes are laid we can actually work in the morning, eat lunch and then work in the afternoon. (We've had to stop work by 2 so the mortar would set up before the freezing night time temps.) And the days are getting longer. Excitement is building again.

Best laid plans . . .

It took us longer to do the first Trombe wall than we anticipated (isn't that always the case?) and the weather turned cold sooner than expected - after all it is winter! But one wall is done!

Here you see the first days work. The first two courses are 1 1/3 adobe blocks wide and are made from semi-stabalized blocks. It took us a couple of hours to do these two courses as there was a lot of cutting involved. Thank goodness for the circular saw we got ourselves for Christmas! With a masonry blade we were able to cut the bricks in about 1/4 of the time it was taking us before.

Here we are at the end of day two. I was able to get about three courses done and the window buck for the lower glass made. A single pane of glass will go in the "window" area below. The adobe bricks will be painted black. The sun will heat the adobes behind the glass, warming them up so that they will radiate warmth into the house once the sun goes down.

Day three and the Trombe wall is done!

A regular double pane window will be framed into the wall above the Trombe wall.

This is the wall from the inside. The top of the wall will create a wonderful place to start seeds in the winter.

It has now been a week and a half since we completed the first Trombe wall and all of a sudden we seem to be having more winter-like weather (thanks to that silly groundhog back east!) I have been itching to get out and put up the second wall but it's been too cold or there's been weather moving through so all I've been able to do is look at what we've done so far. It's probably going to be another week before we get a longer stretch of good weather but winter IS moving toward spring so warmer weather IS just around the bend!

Stay tuned . . .

Back to work at last - for now!

It's been about five weeks since we got our big snow storm. We've had a lot of snow on the ground until maybe a couple of weeks ago (upwards of 10") then we had muck and ice - lots of it. There are still patches of snow here and there but the ground has FINALLY dried up enough for us to get out and get some work done! Yipee!!

So today we set the posts that go on either side of the Trombe walls. For those of you who have never heard of a Trombe wall, Wikipedia defines it as "a sun-facing wall separated from the outdoors by glass and an air space, which absorbs solar energy and releases it selectively towards the interior at night."

We are installing two of them; one in the office and one in the garage. The design we're using comes from Mark Chalom (a friend, neighbor and architect from Santa Fe) and should allow us to stay warm and cosy without using additional heat in the winter - especially in the office. (Rick is really looking forward to this as he's very tired of having cold toes in his current office!) We're putting one in the garage to help keep it warm because that's where our water pressure tank will be and it's the place where we will start a lot of our seeds in coming years.

Here you can see the posts for the Trombe wall for the office on the left

and the one for the garage on the right.

The weather report is for mostly sunny and unseasonably warm weather for the next week (fingers are crossed) so we're hoping to get the adobes laid for both walls. The process should go a lot faster than the full adobe wall we did in the fall as both walls are not as wide and shorter.

I know we're in a drought and we need moisture but I'm really glad it's currently dry enough for us to work. I've been sitting around enough!

We're dreaming of a white Christmas . . .

Cause' that's what we're gonna have. We got 7" of snow from a big storm that blew through here yesterday (we were forecast to get 1 to 3"!) It's probably going to be a couple of months before we see dirt again - and can work on the house. Oh well. I guess I'll rest up!

Update

We had our first significant snow storm on December 3rd with more on the 5th. Not only are things under 4 to 5 inches of snow, it has been insanely cold. Today is the first day in the last 4 or 5 that the temperature has gotten above freezing. At least it's sunny!!! All this has pretty much shut down building operations - however I'm hopeful that it will warm up by the weekend so I can get back to work soon. (I even went out and swept off the foundation in the hopes that it would dry out quicker). This is the first stretch of time since June (other than a trip to NC in September) I've had where I haven't been out working at least a little each day and I'm starting to feel my shoveling/lifting muscles melt away :-( I have gotten pretty used to and addicted to the work !!!

So I'm practicing patience and thinking about the next steps and what we need to get together to proceed so I'll be ready when the weather warms.

Some Thoughts

The many hours I've spent shoveling dirt and gravel and lifting adobes over the last six months have afforded me a lot of time to muse on things. I realize that there are many, many things I've done in my life over the years that have prepared me for and brought me to this point. It's very interesting.

I spent many hours watching my dad and brother build things when I was a kid. Some of my most vivid memories are of building projects that took place at our home or in my dad's workshop. The smell of wet cement and fresh lumber are perfume to me - due in large part, I'm sure, to those wonderful memories. (I now add the smell of wet mud to the list).

I also spent many hours watching my mom sew. She taught me how to sew when I was about 6 (to keep me occupied while I was recovering from chicken pox). For most of my junior high and high school years, I made most of my clothes. I got pretty good at figuring out complex patterns.

Then, five years ago I spent a year taking some wonderful adobe building classes where I learned that I really love slinging mud! AND am pretty good at it!

I've been around building and construction of one sort or another for a good part of my life and I now feel like all the pieces of the puzzle that is me are finally coming together to form a pretty clear picture. I have always loved to make things: jewelry, yarn, clothing, knitwear, etc. But I have now discovered that I LOVE building things!

I'm really enjoying this adventure!!!