A Home in Progress

The months are going by so quickly here and so much has happened!

First, here's an update on the "Turtle House." Since the last post, we completed the foundation, including a a concrete bond beam, a substantial stem wall mortared with cement (the urbanite stacked on top of the bondbeam).

Concrete truck driving away after the pour - there is a bond beam
under the walls, 4 interior & 4 exterior footers for the timberframe

We installed the door bucks, which the framed door will later sit inside and started the cob going up. We also added a 4-6 inch layer of slip straw to the inside of the stem wall to create a thermal break between the urbanite and the interior. It also served to even out the bumpy edge for plastering later.

Stem wall with door bucks installed, cob started and a slip straw thermal break on the stem wall interior

Interns, Alex & Obang, doing the cob dance

Interns, Wayne & Kerry, applying cob to the wall

After mixing a few hundred batches by foot, we graduated to bobcat cob ("Bobcob")

Intern, Matty, chiseling out a mortice for the timberframe

Intern building team brought a bent (one assembled face of the timberframe) into the house to be raised

The raised interior timberframe (there are still a few braces
attached until we raise the second half of the frame)

The joists spreading horizontally across the timberframe is the floor of a loft area.  We are building a spiral staircase to get up there around the round pole. The third door enters from the outside into a self-contained utility room.

The turtle house as it stands today. Notice the trapazoid window grouping in the front!

Intern group at the end of a great week!

Kinsol Trestle

Friday, we took a fieldtrip to see the nearby Kinsol Trestle, which Rob, a teacher on our team, worked on rehabilitating. It is a massive post and beam wooden bridge! Wow! The original construction was completed in 1920. It used to have a train running across it, but now it is for foot traffic only.

We also visited an impressive timberframe house within walking distance of the trestle.  We all received lots of inspiration noticing all the detail and beauty that this natural home included!  Check out the beautiful wavy application of the wooden shingles.

Etzio's House

Nearby clay and sand pit

On our way back, after a picnic and a swim at the lake, we swung by a neighbor's house, where all the sand and clay that we've been using to make our cob for the turtle house has come from. We took some samples and inspected the different layers left by the ancient glacier.

During the last month, we've also had 7 days of plastering and finishing techniques included for the internship.  Ayla, who I worked with to learn tadelakt in the winter, and I taught the different techniques. The overall projects are in varying stages of completeness, but with the exception of the "brown coat," they are all meant to be the final wall treatment.

White clay plaster

Interns, Natasha and Marty applying clay plaster

Yellow Clay Paint

Interns applying an exterior lime plaster to the root cellar with yogurt lids and gloves

Interns painting a lime fresco with earthen pigments

 

Two-tone interior lime plaster

 

Lime plaster over rammed tires & cob shelves

Interns and I making tadelakt "cobjects"

One weekend before Logan left, we went camping and hiking at the beach with a few people. We also harvested and ate a species I had never tried before - gooseneck barnacles.  They are quite good! They look like something from prehistoric times... like eating a little bit of dinosaur... 

Sombrio Beach

Logan left in mid-July to do a bit of hiking before he starts school in Connecticut on August 1.  We finish up here in mid-August.  I decided I will teach a couple of tadelakt workshops in Bandon, Oregon after this (September 14-18). I'm excited to go back to Tammy's and visit Cob Cottage Company again. After that, I'll visit my parents and then head up to Connecticut to join Logan around October 1. I'm hoping to keep doing projects in natural building there and also get involved with some New Haven nonprofits. We'll see what unfolds!