So, let me catch you up to where we are, this Memorial Day Weekend of 2006.
Current projects: Cob cottage is getting tiled on the ground floor. We dreamed of doing adobe-floor but since we live in it Terri decided that it was too difficult to execute. Tiling, we can do bits by bits. It’s about 15% filed, I’d say.
We also have a solar water heater that’s giving us some grief. One of the pumps, a brand new one I must add, is being erratic. My wife took it apart but can’t figure out what’s going on. The solar water heater also needs a batch water tank in order for it to actually do what we want it to do. If anyone has an old water heater that they can give us for free, please let us know! It doesn’t have to work, though it can’t be leaking.
The stawbale house is fully framed and this weekend I worked on closing up one of the gable ends. The north side. The north side the over hang is very short, mainly because it’s designed to have an add-on later to that side. Now we are not sure if we’ll ever build that wing. In any case, I purchased OSBs to close up the gable ends. I also put layers of tar paper so that the water will not go in. I also repaired damges to the tar paper on the roof. The roof is not finished — it has decking and all, just needs roofing. But my wife couldn’t decide whether to do metal roofing or shingles, and we didn’t know where the money is going to come from. So it’s been sitting there just with OSB decking covered by tar paper. Bad news, I know, as tar paper easily rips when strong wind blows. It’s quite a patch work already.
I also took down all the hornets’ nests from the two cottages. All 12 of them! I got stung once. I feel bad for the bees, but my wife is allergic to bee sting. We can’t coexist. Sorry.
We have a loft inside the cob house, and that’s where we all sleep. Since my wife’s pregnant she’s getting uncomfortable sleeping on our futons (which we just lay on our wooden floor, the Japanese style). So last night we hang her secret weapon — her Mayan cotton hammock. Thanks to this hammock, my wife slept soundly all the way to the birth the last time. But I broke one of our drill bits installing it. I can tell you that I am just about most forgetful and clumsy person I’ve seen. It’s really caused quite a lot of frustration both for myself and for my wife. I am banned from ever touching plumbing, for example.
This week, I’m going to stuff extra straw above the strawbale walls. There’s a space of about 3-4 inches from the top of the strawbale walls and the wooden framing right above it where the walls and the ceiling actually meet. I’m going to stable some burlap on the framing and use it to contain loose straw within the wall framing. I’m planning to get up early and do little bits before I have to come to work.
The goal is to have the strawbale house habitable (notice I didn’t say “finished) by the time my wife gives birth, which is planned some time between Christmas and New Year. I’m hopeful that I can reach that goal, as long as we find financing somewhere.
