The ceiling and roof go on

The 2x8 tongue and groove ceiling in the guest bedroom section of the house. Electrical wiring is ready to be routed in the frame walls once they are in place.


The roof framing above the T&G is sloped 1/4" per foot. An electrical box is visible in the T&G and plumbing for the roof drain is ready for roof decking.


A pony wall is in place to accept the vigas in the great room and the roof is being framed over the kitchen and dining room. The parapet wall is framed around the guest section and ready for siding.


The canales in the garage parapet wall. They are made of cedar and lined with copper.


A closer look at the canale. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing these for your house project.


The membrane roof is almost complete over the garage, kitchen, and dining room. The larger box in the foreground is for the island vent pipe and the box in the background is for the dryer vent. I was concerned about leaks around the duct pipes so we built these structure to move the point where the pipe penetrates the roof above any possible pooling water.


The membrane roof above the master bedroom is close to completion. The fireplace is ready to install the flue pipe. The parapet walls and chimneys will be capped with flagstone.


The great room looking southeast from the dining room. There will be a kiva fireplace in the far corner.


The great room looking south towards the front door.



The site is contoured, almost all the excess soil has been hauled away and we should be ready for seeding in the next couple weeks.

The Roof
We pushed on to get the roof completed before the winter weather hit for real. John and Griffin completed the 2x tongue & groove ceiling in the guest bedroom section of the house and followed the next day with the sloped framing above the T&G. Curt Nelson and I installed electrical boxes and wired the ceiling and the guys followed with the roof decking. The next section was the master bedroom which was done in the same way. I hired two additional natural building craftsman to help speed things along. They worked on the kitchen and dining section. The weather was sunny and warm while we completed these sections and built the parapet walls. Canales (scuppers) I had fabricated earlier were installed in the parapet walls. The roofing crew from T&L Roofing arrived Wednesday November 26th and started laying down 6" of rigid foam and the EDPM membrane roof. We ended the day by covering all the roof sections with 6 mil plastic film to protect our work from the rain and snow promised for Thanksgiving day.

Our friends Arne and Jan Vanderburg spent Thanksgiving with us and Arne helped me shovel and sweep snow off the roofs on Friday. He and Jan headed back to Cedar Crest around 1:00 while Jenny and I returned to the site to complete the snow removal.

Monday, December 1st started with the arrival of a crane to set the last of the vigas over the great room. These were leveled and the T&G was placed the following day. The framing for the sloped roof and electrical wiring was completed by mid day Friday and the roof decking was nailed in place. I completed the drain assemblies on Saturday. The roofing crew had completed all the other roof sections by late Friday. I covered the great room roof with plastic late Sunday in preparation for a snow storm promised for later that night. What a relief to only have one roof section to worry about.

The Site
While all this was going on, Mark Jenkins was installing the water cistern and doing final shaping of the site. He has been hauling off the excess soil to our architects property nearby. Jenny and I will scatter native grass and flower seed in the next couple weeks and cover it with straw.

Stopping to smell the roses
I finally slowed down enough on Sunday to spend time just enjoying the interior of the house. The great room has a ceiling height of 14'-3". It is an amazing space. With all the ceilings in place the structure is really starting to feel like home.

Post, Beams, and Vigas

Posts, Corbels, and one 22 foot 10x12 beam are in place ready for vigas.


John guides a viga into place while giving signals to the crane operator. Griffin positions the other end.


Griffin steadies a viga while it swings into position


Another viga swings into position over what will be the kitchen.


All vigas are in place and ready for leveling in the guest bedroom portion of the house. You can start to get a feel for the space with them in place.


This is a view through the dining and living areas toward the master bedroom, taken from the kitchen area. You can see the posts with corbels holding up the big beams. On Wednesday morning a light cover of snow reminded us that winter is fast approaching.


The Roof Structure Starts to Take Shape

On Tuesday, October 28th, we began working on posts for the interior of the house. I built a jig for cutting the ends of the post square to their axis and then fabricated metal plates for anchoring the post to the floor. They consist of a plate that is lag bolted to the bottom of the post having four sections of angle iron welded to it and another flat plate that is bolted to the floor or, in a couple locations, welded to a piece of rebar protruding from the concrete. John and Griffin cut the posts to length and then attached corbels to their tops. The posts were then positioned and the metal base plates were welded solid. The 10" x 12" beams were prepped and Mark Jenkins lifted them into place with the big excavator. His help made a back-breaking task almost effortless. We ran lag bolts through the beams and down into the corbels to anchor everything together. We were then ready to lift vigas into place.


Jenny and I worked on staining the 2x6 tongue-and-groove fir for the ceiling. We used a product called "Lifetime" http://www.valhalco.com/when.htm which is not really a stain but a chemical/mineral compound that is added to water and causes rough cut wood to turn barn wood gray. We did not get this result with the T&G due to the finished surface. Our wood darkened a slight silver color from its original blond and turned a slight salmon red color. We are happy with the look and also like the idea that "Lifetime" is non-toxic.


Monday November 3rd, we finished up the beam installation and began measuring the ends of the vigas and planning their positions in the rooms. I hired a crane to help us place the vigas on Tuesday. John, Griffin and I placed 33 vigas in 3 hours.

November 4th, election day: a great day for America and the world!


Wednesday morning, November 5th, we awoke to snow. I called John to tell him it was snowing at our house and maybe we should wait out the weather. He replied "Yeah...it's snowing up here on the bond beam as well!" So much for taking a day off for bad weather. I quite my whining and headed to the site. The day was spent leveling the vigas and attaching the metal anchor straps in the guest bedroom section of the house.

The Bond Beam is Completed

The house looking out at the hills to the south. The area in the lower half of the image is open space. There are several earthen dams along the drainage that runs through the center of this space that provide water for wildlife. Deer and Elk migrate south through the openspace from the high mountains to the lowlands along the New Mexico border in the late fall and back again in the spring.




The concrete pumper truck driver getting into the Halloween spirit.





This shot was taken seconds before the front face of this vertical form blew out.

Sarah and John working the concrete. The vertical section to the left started to blow out while I was leveling the concrete. You can see bracing holding the lower portion of this form in place.

The end of block wall celebration and a farewell to Sarah and Thomas. From the left: John, Sarah, Thomas, Griffin, and Lyle.

Raider posing next to the septic tank. The septic system is in and inspected. The Jenkins get the lower portion of the property contoured and ready for native grass and wildflower seed which we will plant in late November.


The framing crew arrived on October 20th and had the garage framed in a couple days. It's no wonder frame structures are so popular.

By the 24th the garage was being sheathed with OSB.

Two truck loads of post, vigas, and beams arrived on October 27th. This marks the beginning of the roof structure phase of construction.

The Final Phase of the Bond Beam
Once the guest bedroom area and the great room block walls reached their full height, forms were assembled and the final section of the bond beam was poured. This part of the bond beam included some vertical sections that tied the lower walls to the taller walls. Some of these vertical sections were over 4 feet high. In addition, there were three lintels that were formed using rough sawn 2x lumber to match the wood lintels used throughout the rest of the house. The inside of these wood facias were lined with Bituthane and 2" foam. Five lengths of #5 rebar were hung in the form for strength. The pour started out rather badly as two of the vertical sections blew out with the force of the concrete being pumped into them. We scrambled and put the forms back together using 2x4 bracing and bar clamps. The rest of the pour went well. The concrete was leveled, straps were positioned to hold the vigas, and anchor bolts were inserted along the inner and outer perimeter of the bond beam for roof framing. The team gathered at the end of the day for a celebration marking the end of the block work and a farewell to Thomas and Sarah. Lyle will stay on until the fireplace butresses are completed. John and Griffin will stay on to help with the roof structure and interior details

The Septic System

Danette Jenkins and her son, Mark, arrived on October 24 to begin work on the septic system. The tank was dropped into place and pipe was routed down to the distribution box. The distribution box was connected to six 100' rows of infiltrators configured as two rows in each of three 6' wide trenches. The system was inspected and approved on the 26th. The system was buried and the ground contoured and ready to start landscape restoration. We will wait until the cold winter weather arrives to scatter seed. We will use a mix of native grass, wildflowers, and native shrubs and trees. We purchased most of the seed but some we have been collecting around the area.

Framing the Garage

Since the block walls took a month longer than planned, I decided to hire a framing crew to put up the garage and master bath tub room. That frees John, Griffin, and me to focus on getting the roof structure for the main portion of the house competed before winter. Frame structures go up amazingly fast and are a relatively cheap construction process. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of lumber which comes from clearcut forest in the pacific northwest and needs to be hauled a long distance to this area. In addition, the frame structure is not a good thermal barrier. Heat within a wood structure finds a path to the outside through the framing.We accepted this method of construction for the garage because we will only be tempering the space to keep things from freezing and because it is a relative small space.

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The Bond Beam- 1st phase

The fall colors continue to amaze us. What a great place to work!

The bond beam form ready to pour (the Simpson straps have not been installed ).

Where the bond beam steps up in elevation.

The pier footers and rebar ready for sonotubes.

The clearstory windows in the great room. Rough-sawn lumber is assembled and set in place ready to complete the rest of the form work. This will be a lintel/bond beam. When the forms are removed the rough sawn lumber will be exposed and give this concrete detail the appearance of being a wood timber lintel.

This is the view through the clearstory window in the west guest bedroom. This window is 9' in width and 2'6" in height. It will be made up of three awning windows.

The 1st level bond beam is poured

The walls in the kitchen/dining area and the master bedroom reached full height in late September. The crew set up forms along the top of the wall to pour the bond beam. We put 2" of blueboard on the outside face of the form, and added rebar. We cut 3' lengths of 22 gauge Simpson strap material which were bent into a "U" shape and tacked to the top of the wall where the vigas will be positioned. Once the concrete is poured, the ends of the straps will protrude out the top of the bond beam and we will wrap them over the top of the vigas and nail them in place. A small piece of bithuthane will be placed between the viga and the concrete bond beam to isolate the wood from the concrete.

On October 3rd the concrete was pumped into the forms and another milestone in the project was reached.

The remaining walls continue upward

The walls in the great room and guest bedrooms continue upward to their final height. While the crew placed blocks, John and Griffin worked on the clearstory window details. With the clearstory window bucks in place, we can see the wonderful view they frame. The length of these openings is too large for a traditional wood lintel so we are creating a concrete lintel that has a fascia of rough sawn 2x material that will give the appearance of a solid wood lintel. John assembled the bottom and sides of the rough sawn material and lined it with bithuthane to minimize the moisture in the concrete contacting the wood which might cause it to warp. This was lifted into position and the balance of the 2nd phase bondbeam was tied into this. I trust the structural engineers (http://www.odiseanet.com/ ) calcs on this, but it looks scary. His design calls for 3 #5 rebar near the bottom of the bond beam, but we will add three more near the middle for my peace of mind. We will brace this detail very securely for the concrete pour.

Portal Piers

When the foundation was poured, the crew talked me into waiting to put in the piers for the portal posts. In hindsight, this was a mistake. Digging holes after power, drains, and other infrastructure have been buried is inviting disaster. Once the piles of blocks thinned out enough to get to the pier locations, I had the Jenkins back to excavate for these. We hit the phone line, main DWV drain and a roof drain in the process. It also required cutting away some of the blueboard at the base of the foundation and cutting french drains. A lesson learned...

The footers were poured on October 9th and the piers were poured the following day. I hope to get the holes backfilled Tuesday. Timbers, Vigas, and Corbels are on order and should arrive in about two weeks. It is raining today (Saturday) which makes it a good day to work in the shop on the canales.

The Lintels Go In

We continue to add perlite to the wall cavity as the structure grows.

Preparing the window sills for concrete.

Concrete is in place and the sills are now ready for flagstone. This will make a great place to sit and read a book.

Andy cutting the 8" x 12" timbers to length for the lintels. The saw has a 16" blade.

John Ford working on details above the great room window. There are a series of four clearstory windows (facing due South) that will span 18' above this window allowing excellent passive solar access.

This is the kitchen entry and window on the west wall. It is ready for the bond beam forms. The blocks of wood are called "gringo blocks" and will be used to fasten the forms for the bond beam. There will be an 11' Portal off the kitchen. A nice place for outside dining.

This is the view from the east we have used throughout the building process to date as a reference. The lintels are in place over the master bedroom french doors and the pass-through to the master bath soaking tub. This side will also have a portal and patio area.

The fall colors have been spreading across the hills at an amazing pace. What a treat to spend my days in such a place.

Perlite

We continue to add perlite to the walls as they go up. It is a dusty material and the particles have sharp edges which often wind up in our eyes. Fortunately, they float out easily on their own as our eyes water. We try to do this work when the crew is not on-site as the dust goes everywhere.

Window sills

We began forming the window sills and pouring concrete. The exterior of each window sill will have a 7" flagstone sill sloped at 5 degrees and the interior will have a 16 inch flagstone window seat which will give us a great place to soak up the winter sun.

Lintels
On September 2nd a truck load of 8" x 12" rough sawn timbers were delivered to the site. I began cutting them to lengths needed to span the top of window and door openings. The lintels are 8" high by 24" wide and extend beyond the openings by a foot on each side. John Ford pinned two lengths of this beam material together using #4 rebar and then capped the ends with half -inch plywood which were glued and screwed in place. The crew then assembled and lifted these monsters into place. With the lintels in place, the mass of the structure is becoming more evident. The views from the windows are now fully framed and the timing couldn't be more perfect. It is now September 24th and the fall colors are the best we have witnessed here in the Gulch. Every day the oaks, willows and cottonwoods become more brilliant. The view changes all day long as the sun moves across the sky. It is hard to stay focused with such a wonderful display across the valley.

The Earth Block walls go up

Jim Hallock of Earth Blocks, LLC sets the first block in position. Only 15,499 blocks left to go!


The crew. Jim Hallock and Rich Gillespie are on the right.

Blocks are staged and ready to start stacking. Window and door bucks are in the foreground ready to be set in place. Metal story poles are set and braced with 2x4s.

Jenny helps feed wire into the conduit. She is standing in what will be the kitchen pantry which will be home for the main breaker panel for all the heated space breakers. There is a main disconnect on the outside of the house, a main breaker panel in the garage, and a subpanel in the mechanical room.

Electrical boxes are 4x4x2.5 inches. They are screwed to a 6 inch block of 2x4 and the block is screwed to the earth block. This box is attached to an interior wall which is made up of two 10" wide block walls so the gap between them is much less than the 7" in the exterior walls.

Since the electrical box is the same height as a block, there are no special cuts required to clear them. Once the wall passes the box, we foamed the cavity behind it.

Here the walls are at the 3' mark. Door bucks have been set in place.

The cleaning crew arrives. Jenny and Raider come over everyday at 5:00pm to help me sweep up brick debris, nails and other items that might damage the concrete floor.

We hit the 6' mark on Labor day weekend!

Jenny shows us a glimpse of the 400 bags of Perlite insulation. The gap between the walls is 7" and the Perlite fill at this width has an insulating value of R22.

A metal structure called Durawall is place across the walls at every fifth course to bridge the inner and outer walls. We had to make up our own custom configuration since it is not available to span a 24" wall. This solution Rich came up with is really strong. At the back of the walls is a piece of OSB that seals off the end of the wall by the door buck. We used metal framing channels to attach it to the blocks. We could have joined the walls at the window and door bucks by turning the blocks, but this would have create a thermal bridge between the inside and outside.

We used yogurt container lids to post notes for the brick layers and to remind myself of activity or features that would occur in the area. The excess mud will be scraped off the walls before the final finish is applied (traditional 3 coat stucco for the exterior and earth plaster for the interior). The small voids between the blocks are purposefully left to provide an anchor for the final finish which is forced into the gaps as it is applied.

Blocks
On August 8th Jim Hallock, Earth Block LLC, set the first block in place. This left 15,499 blocks to be set to complete the walls. A small crew returned on Saturday to lay the first course. These blocks were set in portland cement since they were in contact with the foundation and at slab height. Getting the first course level and straight is critical to making the rest of the wall look good. Eber had spent several days the week before setting story poles in the corners. These are used to attach string lines for getting blocks level, the rows level, and the walls vertical. The full crew arrived the first of the next week to begin setting blocks in earnest. The team was able to place two rows of inner and outer wall blocks per day. All but the first course of blocks are set in a mud slurry about the consistency of a chocolate milk shake. The block surfaces are wetted down before the slurry is applied.

Window and door bucks
I created window and door bucks which were anchored in place. These will be screwed to the block walls as they rise and will be used for attaching the door jambs and window frames. The gap between the inner and outer walls at the door and window openings will be closed off with OSB attached to the blocks using metal framing studs. The gaps are then filled with spray foam. We could have bridged the opening with blocks but this would have created a thermal bridge for sucking heat from the interior.

Electrical
While the crew set bricks I installed the wiring and electrical boxes. Jenny helped pull wire through the conduit under the slab. This was done by first sucking a pull string through the conduit with a shop vacuum. Once this was done, we taped the electrical wire to the string and one of us fed the cable into the conduit while the other pulled on the string. The electrical boxes are 4x4 inches which is the height of an earth block so there is no need to trim block heights to bridge the boxes with the next course. The boxes were set in the wall by first screwing them into a 6 inch piece of 2x4 and then attaching the 2x4 to the block using a couple 3 inch torques head screws. The blocks accept nails and screws but regular gold deck screws will snap of heads. The electrical boxes are firmly anchored and the 2x4 gives a good surface to affix the first wire staple. Once the next course of blocks were placed, the cavity behind the box was filled with insulating foam.

Insulation
When the walls got high enough, we began filling the 7 inch space between the inner and outer wall with Perlite. Perlite is a pumice material that is popped similar to popcorn and is used as insulation and in the nursery business in potting soil. Perlite is nontoxic, low in embodied energy, and the source we got our material from is not too far from Durango. The perlite comes in 4 cubic foot bags and we will use about 400 bags of material to fill the walls. Perlite pours easily but is dusty and very light. It is best to put it in the walls when there is a slight breeze and to use a mask and glasses to keep from breathing the dust or getting it in your eyes. I did this activity over the weekend when the crew was not on site to spare them the dust.

Progress
As of Labor Day weekend, the walls on the lower level are at, or in some places just shy of, 6 feet. It is starting to feel like a house.