Whoop-ds, Schwoop-d, and farewell Alyssa.
Before we begin our final interior plasters, we must first sob in our mixing buckets because our fellow intern Alyssa had to part with us a couple of weeks early to jump into a Montana trail crew program. If I could see the computer screen well enough through my tears, I’d wish her well. Sniffle. … Read more
Mud, mud, mud. Hint of lime.
Our interior and exterior walls each receive three coats of earthen plaster. In the past couple of weeks we have learned how to apply the second coats, which are applied with hawk and trowel. In one hand (usually the left) you hold the hawk, which has a pancake’s worth of plaster balanced atop it. In … Read more
Dirty Dancing
Hey folks! I’m guest posting with Lauren this week to fill you in on all of our dirty (or as we all like to say, “dare-tee”) work since Spring Break. Our fist day back we installed windows, tied up some loose end projects, and prepared for our initial coat of exterior mud. Within a few … Read more
Glazing
In the same week that we learned about solar pv panels, we installed our windows, also known as glazing. The amount of glazing determines how much sunlight will penetrate the house and provide heat input. Our house is designed with the majority of its glazing facing south to gain solar radiation. The energy is absorbed … Read more
Hot Spots are Bad
Jeff Tobe from Solar Energy International did it again! Welcome back, Jeff! Thanks for making the trip from Paonia to again share your knowledge of the sun’s power. In the morning we received our dose of Electricity 101 – ranging from AmpsxVolts=Watts to why inverters are so cool. In the afternoon Jeff led us through … Read more
Drywall, plaster, sun tubes, gable vents.
In the past couple of weeks, we have been tying up several smaller projects. The was parted into small groups or pairs: affixing the last pieces of roofing onto the eyebrows, drilling through the roof to add sun tubes into the bathrooms, screwing drywall to the ceiling and some walls, lath stapled onto other walls, … Read more
Interior framing and learning about cob.
Gotta get caught up… Two weeks ago, after trimming and setting our bales, we started framing our interior walls. We learned about standard (16″ on center) and advanced (24″ on center) framing. Then we began framing our interior walls, paying special attention to which walls would be lath and plaster and which walls would be … Read more
A beginners guide to bale terms.
Straw bale: a rectangular block of compressed straw (in our case, wheat straw), bound with two cords, these comprise the majority of our straw bale house walls Mini bale: a small bale that has been created by separating a straw bale into smaller portions, often placed between regular sized bales Micro bale: the even smaller cousin … Read more
Our first clay mix on site!
Tuesday morning Kelly Ray, Eric, and a dumptruck met us on site. The dumptruck contained a few cubic yards of clay-sand to mix for our adobe floor. We started by adding soil from the site onto the foamboard and radiant tubing base. We ensured the tubing was supported and covered, then tamped it to compact … Read more
