Building with Straw in Flagstaff

Last Interior Wall

2010-01-24T18:26:00.000-08:00

Adam finished the last of the interior walls today...the upstairs (guest) bedroom and bathroom walls.

He spent most of the weekend shoveling snow after our 54" snow fall this week (series of storms from Tuesday through Friday).

Adam also firmed up the support under the stairway (SOO much nicer than the ladder we've had for so many months)!

AND we were very glad to welcome Adam's mentor, Andy Wheeler, back for an afternoon last weekend. He is feeling better these days, and he came to finish the front door installation that he had helped with over the summer. It never did close quite right, but it does now! With any luck we'll see more of him this winter.

Interior Stairway almost done!

2010-01-10T20:32:00.001-08:00

Adam has spent the past month putting the finishing touches on an upstairs window (straw support over the window), and scoping out necessities for plumbing and electrical. He ordered and picked up our super-efficient hot water heater, which will provide both the domestic hot water and the hot water for our radiant floor heating. He also ordered and took delivery of the remaining items for putting in the floor heating (pumps and such).

Finally, the past two weeks he's been working on designing a stairway for the inside of the house, replacing the ladder that's been in place throughout construction. He researched various stair construction methods and decided on a "box" design whereby he builds several boxes under the stairs for support, and then makes the risers out of wood.

As you can see, he made quite a bit of progress all by his lonesome this weekend (while Therese and the kids did various things around town). Aiken did help quite a bit last weekend with the prep work.

Plastering Done!

2009-12-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

We finished the last of the first coat of plaster on Saturday, with a little help from John D. (one of Adam's co-workers at ADOT who has selflessly come out at least four times to help with this process. winning the "most frequent and BEST helper" award)!

It was a cold and blustery day, and we were glad to see John's smiling face in our doorway, as it meant we were able to complete the last 24 feet of the 2nd story in just about four hours total!

We were able to stand on the deck roof to do this portion, so we fortunately only needed the scaffolding to come and go, and haul the mud buckets up.

We were cold when we finished, and the plaster was crystallizing in the cold wind as it dried but it is done and so far, is sticking to all walls!

The house is (very nearly) officially closed in now, just in time for our first big snow storm of the season (expected to start tomorrow mid-day with a total accumulation of 12-18 inches). We do still have both ridge caps to place, as well as a tiny portion of this last wall, over the window, to finish. There are also some gaps in the rafters to seal, on the east-facing first story but these are well protected by the roof over the covered deck, so we hope we won't have too much snow infiltration to worry about.

Next steps: place the ridge caps (once the roof is free of snow again), seal up the last of the holes, insulate the ceilings (including placing the tongue and groove finished ceiling in the living area), finish the radiant floor heating (including the hot water heater installation), then plumbing and electrical.

Not to mention plastering the INSIDE of the house.

The list is endless, but at least we'll be out of the weather for the rest of the winter. Yahoo.

Thank you everyone who helped with the plastering...only two months from start to finish(!) Whew!

Second Story Mudding!

2009-11-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

Since we last posted to the blog, Adam spent three laborious weekends placing bales in the second story, a process which was time consuming and frustrating due to the poor condition of the bales and the need to trim many as well as replace quite a few with fresh bales stored in the barn. No pictures of this painstaking process, sorry.

(before, west facing)

(before, east and north walls)

We set our sights on closing the building in this past Thanksgiving weekend, with four days to work. Unfortunately, sickness slowed Adam down and the weather interfered on Sunday (just an inch of snow but enough to give us a very late start waiting for snow to melt off the three story scaffolding necessary to do the second story of the house).

We did manage to get one side done each day Friday (west facing 2nd story wall)

and Saturday (north facing second story wall)

but the third (East facing) is the longest and Sunday was the day we got the latest start due to snow overnight. We also had to put the ***FINAL*** window in before we started...notice the difference between the pics above and those below...on the east facing wall, closest to the north corner...no gaping hole anymore!

It was exciting and back-breaking to be working on 2 - 3 stories of scaffolding to get the process done; we had considered rigging up some sort of a pulley system for the 50 lb (plus) buckets of plaster but in the end Adam just muscled them up every time we ran out. Between that and physically pushing the intact scaffolding around whenever it needed to be moved, his back got quite the workout!

We appreciated all the friends who have been out for all the other mudding weekends to this point, in their absence we found ourselves moving much more slowly, especially when the extra height was taken into account!

We have set our sights on finishing up next weekend, December 5 (if anyone local happens to check this blog and wants to come out to help complete the project...this portion anyway)!

Last first floor wall plastered!

2009-11-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

Exterior, that is!

This view is from the roof of the trailer, a new vantage point! (That's what the shingles in the foreground are.)

We had friends John D. (again), and Michelle G. and kids out on Saturday to get us started on the last section of first floor wall. We got a late start because we had all the prep work (tar paper and expanded metal to apply to the posts) to do, as well as some additional work with bamboo to set up a frame for the interior kitchen cabinets (at some point in the future). Though our helpers showed up by noon, it was well after 2:00 when we started plastering.

this is a "prep shot" for inspection purposes

We got most of the way through it but Halloween interfered, and we had to knock off early for a stellar party at a fellow PF 4th grade family's home in Boulder Pointe.

We finished it up (just Adam and me) on Sunday, and we'll see if the freeze/thaw cycle affects it much. It hadn't dried out much by Sunday afternoon (even the part done Saturday afternoon), and it is definitely freezing every night now (though up near 60 during the days...don't you love the temp. range here?)

We also managed to get a couple more windows installed on the second story, and used up the last of the mud on that section.

We (read "Adam") still have a lot of bales to place upstairs, so look for the next mudding update to be around Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, we'll have pictures as the bales and windows get placed.

Another great weekend

2009-10-18T20:46:00.001-07:00

And another wall with a first coat of plaster to show for it! This time the northernmost portion of the east-facing wall, which is the northern part of the entryway (laundry room and half-bath on the inside).

We got a late start Saturday morning, as Adam spent his weekday evenings studying instead of prepping the remaining ground-floor walls (he takes his Professional Engineering exam on Friday, October 24 in Phoenix).

But help from Dahna C. and Christian and Alister, as well as John D. (again) and Ron D. meant we got as much done as we possibly could.

We didn't take a "pre" picture, or pictures during, but here's the finished product, taken in the rays of the rising sun on Sunday AM.

With the remainer of Sunday, we put the eating area window in place, and Adam stacked bales leading from the entry way to the kitchen, and got a long ways toward finishing it.

After Adam returns from Phoenix on Saturday, we'll finish this wall and hopefully be ready by Sunday for more mudding with friends!

Three more walls plastered!

2009-10-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

We made great progress this weekend, with a lot of help from friends!

This is how we started, with the north wall with Adam's prep from the weekday evenings.

The Webelos II from Sechrist, along with good friend, Dahna C., came out and helped on Saturday...

Several of Adam's friends, John D., Aaron and Max B., Tobin and Dwight came out as well.

The finished north wall (kids' bedrooms)...first coat!

On Sunday we had friends from Pine Forest, Jan and Fuller B. and kids, as well as Chuck G. and son, come out and we got the second west-facing first story done, as well as the other north-facing first story...we tried chicken wire on these walls, as opposed to putting the plaster straight on the straw. We'll see if this method ends up with less cracking.

This is the wall we started with on Sunday, the first wall with chicken wire on top of the straw (though it's hard to see here).

We left the scaffold-climbing to the adults, and Chuck and Fuller rose to the occasion!

We are thrilled by the progress, and surprised by how much fun we can have when we have a little help from our friends!

A great time was had by all on both days. We couldn't have made this much progress without all the help, as well as the great weather!

Hopefully we've got a few more weekends of helpers and weather to last us for the four additional exterior walls!

Status Report - First Full Wall Mudded!

2009-10-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I may have neglected to mention that Adam had knee surgery on Sept. 8 (or thereabouts) and that, combined with his trips to Phoenix for PE review, have slowed down progress on the house somewhat (read A LOT).

However, we did manage to get a volunteer crew of about 15 folks out here this past weekend to help us put mud (clay plaster) on our first official wall.

Thanks to friends from Southwest Windpower: Rob V., George T., Chris and Kathie R., Donaig and Steve, and Pine Forest friends Terry S., and Kristi B.!!

Before: the straw was pre-treated with a thin mixture of water and clay (shot out of a drywall texturing gun); and the wood posts and wood around each window were papered and covered with expanded metal so the clay plaster would adhere.

We made a first batch of about 1 part powdered clay to 2 parts sand to enough water to make it a good consistency.

As the day wore on, we lost a few volunteers but we made GREAT progress!

The next day, Adam and Therese touched up a few bare spots and repaired some cracks that had formed, experimenting with a little lime in the plaster mixture, for extra stickiness and stability.

We also put some more windows in on Sunday, in preparation for doing some more mudding throughout the month of October.

One finished wall (first coat)...two more coats to follow.

Here's hoping for good fall weather and still-genereous friends!

Entry Way Bales

2009-09-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

Adam got the holiday weekend "off" from traveling to Phoenix for his class, and he took advantage by almost finishing stacking bales in the entry way.

This is the view from the driveway. Paul Rauch will appreciate the full disclosure as we show folks how far along the walls REALLY are (quite a bit further than when he was here visiting)

The entry way view from the main door...with part of the half bath in the picture.

Utility room window

Therese wasn't much help this weekend as she was busy taking the kids to the County Fair and doing her first month of billing for the aftercare program at the kids' school.

This is a view of the "ladders" that Adam builds over each window to support the bales above them.

More bales stacked!

2009-08-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Adam had another weekend of classes in Phoenix to study for his PE, but he did take a coupla days off last week and managed to all but finish stacking bales in the kids' rooms...

Aiken's room...

Aurelia's room...

Amelie's room...

The outside

Adam's Break from Building

2009-08-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

Adam recently got approval to sit for the PE (Professional Engineering) exam in October, and his office arranged for him to take a PE review course in Phoenix, so starting this past weekend, he'll be spending the next five weekends (except Labor Day weekend) in Phoenix brushing up on his engineering formulae...

He will still get some work done on the house during the week.

This past week he and Aiken put some strapping up...

He stacked some bales in Amelie's room....

And we put a few more Hardie planks up on the west wall...

So we'll be moving at a little slower pace the next coupla months but hopefully by the end of October, Adam will have his PE (which will seriously open some professional doors for him) and we'll be moving forward on the house again.

This and That

2009-08-16T20:48:00.001-07:00

We had a bit of an "unfocused" week and weekend, but we did get a few things done on various fronts.

Adam spent the early part of the weekday evenings moving scaffolding up to the 1:12 roof to commence installing the soffet there, so we can finish the Hardie plank. We got most of the soffet installed later in the week in the evenings.

Adam also negotiated for a front door with a local door shop (In and Out Doors in Flagstaff) and we ended up deciding on an 8 foot knotty alder door that had already been built for someone else (and then not taken). The owner, Cecilio Tapia, took our order on Tuesday and said he would have it ready to go (pre-hung, threshold, etc.) by the following Monday but it was ready on Friday.

Paul Rauch, a friend from Nome, now of Homer (AK), came to town for the weekend and was out to the house Friday afternoon to help Adam unload the door and get it inside. Then today, Sunday, Andy Wheeler made a brief appearance to help us install it. Thanks to all for the help! (Sorry, no pictures of the helpers.)

Paul also mentioned he thought we were "deceiving" blog watchers by taking pictures only of the finished west side to make folks think the other sides were finished as well, so let this information be known: none of the other walls are fully baled yet!

Adam has been staining the new door with a fruitwood stain that looks really nice, and spent the rest of today building the bale walls in the entryway up to the door (he's been waiting to have a door installed to know how far the bales can come.)

Yesterday, Saturday, we did get a few rows of Hardie plank and once piece of soffet installed on the west side of the buildings. It's quite a reach...we'll have to rig up something a little higher to extend our reach.

Aiken wanted folks to see where I stand when I take the "standard"view of the west side of the house, so he took this picture of my spot in the forest.

Adam only has three days this week to work, and then heads to Phoenix Thursday through Sunday to start his review course for the Professional Engineer's exam, which will take place in October. He'll have a few days off next week to make up for the lost time.

Siding on the Clerestory!

2009-08-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, almost finished installing the Hardie plank on the Clerestory, in just one week! Adam worked hard all week getting the east end done...lots of trim to place (each with a little groove cut out of it so it would lay flush) and special cuts for the planks going around the windows...very time consuming stuff!

Then he jammed Saturday and Sunday with the longer pieces (putting most up by himself while Therese rushed to get enough planks painted).

As we were placing the last of the long pieces on the top level, Sunday night before dinner, the drill (Adam is screwing the planks in place instead of nailing them) ran out of juice...we're down to just one battery at the moment (try building a house with just ONE battery...that means every time you run out of juice you have to WAIT for it to charge up!) So we put the battery on the charger, waited about 30 minutes until it had enough of a charge to finish the job, and got the last layer in place. Actually, there are two more layers under the eyebrow that you can't see in this picture, plus the soffet above that...so that'll keep Adam busy the rest of this week, but at least we got a...

Nice picture to show for his work!

After that Adam and Aiken snapped the line for the Hardie plank that will go on the west wall of the house, and that will be it for the Hardie plank, yahoo!

Bits and Pieces

2009-08-02T20:57:00.000-07:00

We finished the lower level of the South side (pretty much)! The soffet was installed, the last line of Hardie plank placed, and the trim painted and installed! It is nice to be more or less finished with one small part of the house! (We just need to touch up some paint and paint over the screws/nails there).

Adam also started the Hardie plank window trim on the upstairs south side...the clerestory (until the table saw burned up), and put in the last two natural wood posts on the upstairs corners. Here he's cutting the core out of the log to make the natural post (decorative only, of course!)

Here the post is bolted and in place!

Therese painted the soffet, Hardie plank and trim as time allowed, Aiken helped a lot with the Hardie plank (until he could no longer reach high enough) and the girls played, played, played (and also combed the male Siberian Husky, Hoss, each day...their chore).

Weekend Post (late)

2009-07-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

It was more Hardie plank this weekend, and one new corner log!

(note the clear space in front of the sliding glass doors...moved to make way for the ceiling material...pine tongue-in-groove)

Some new stuff!

2009-07-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Therese took a quick trip to New York this week to visit for a few days and drop the kids off to spend some time with her parents, but Adam stayed busy on the house and has some progress to show!

Adam finished the Tyvek process on the first floor south-facing wall, which consisted of the strip at the top of the wall. This was in final preparation for installation of the Hardie plank. Today, he made it about half way through one side of that wall with the Hardie plank, most of which he did by himself with the assistance of some little hanger tools that are very cool (hold the plank at the right level for the overlap until he's able to screw it in place).

Therese spent the day helping Adam (nominally) with the Hardie plank and putting in a bale wall up against the forest to use up some of the "ruined" bales. We hope they're up to the job, at least for a few years. The bales in the wall will be covered with stucco (at some point) to preserve them at least somewhat.

Earlier in the week, Adam also managed to Tyvek the second story, west-facing wall (very tricky on ladders and planks) as well as to install the small window up there (Aiken's loft window). This will all be covered with Hardie plank eventually.

Additionally, Adam trimmed all the windows on the southern-facing first floor with the Hardie plank trim, prior to putting up the planks.

We'll be busy this week finishing with the Hardie plank and finishing the third tier of the bale wall (also known as the "wall of shame" for all the bales that went bad due to bad luck with the weather and inexperience)! With the kids in Rochester all week, we have no excuses not to work!

July 12 Update

2009-07-12T22:17:00.001-07:00

Some significant progress this week, though only one picture to show...

The roof is finally really close to being COMPLETELY finished, just a few ridge caps remaining...but all the little pieces of metal for the second story roof went up on Thursday and Friday evenings...

Saturday, Adam and Kyle put Tyvek on the clerestory wall and put the windows in up there, and then did the sheathing of the second story portion of the in Aiken's room (northwest corner).

Today, Adam worked on cutting out a small window in Aiken's second story (west-facing) and putting up trim around the downstairs south windows (Hardie plank) as well as trimming some of the metal on the 1:12 pitch roof to ready it for the final flashing. These don't show in the picture as it was taken this morning before working.

The "wall of bales" you see in the foreground of this picture is our "wall of shame"...all the bales that went bad due to moisture over the winter and even in what is normally our dry spring. We now have (what we hope is) all the bales we need stored under roof, either in the house itself or in the barn. Good thing too as we have started our real "monsoon" season, when it can rain just about every afternoon. We had a good downpour today for most of the afternoon and if you read last week's update, you'll know we had huge rainfalls both Saturday and Sunday (though most of the weekdays were dry this week).

We took delivery of quite a few materials on Friday as well. After much deliberation about what to put on the outside walls where there will not be plaster (wherever the walls had to be sheathed) we decided on Hardie plank instead of cement stucco. Hardie plank is a cement plank with faux wood grain on it that is very tough and so fire-retardant that it usually carries the benefit of a reduction on your insurance bill. They come in a cement gray, so they will be painted. This will basically be for both south-facing walls (lower and upper) and Aiken's second story portion. That arrived and we picked out some FREE paint at the dump with which to paint it. We were thrilled to time it just right and Adam made it to the dump on Friday before their fresh supply of newly mixed paint was gone... We had a choice between brown and grayish green and decided the grayish green will look better with the windows and roofing. Therese spent the weekend painting...stay tuned for some pictures of that maybe next weekend. We also got the soffett material for all the eves. We ordered the ceiling wood, pine panels, but it will take a couple more weeks to arrive. We also got all the clay we will need for the first coat of clay plaster. The latest plan is to do clay plaster for the "scratch" coat and lime plaster for the second and third coats (more expensive but a better final product). When the lime hardens it is more waterproof and will act like a rock exterior on the house whereas clay plaster would degrade with moisture and time.

I think that's about it for now! Just trying to keep to a regular update schedule here!

Retaining Wall

2009-07-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

(Beginning trench on Friday.)

(Mostly finished wall on Sunday afternoon.)

Adam and Kyle spent a sometimes very frustrating three-day weekend building a retaining wall under the patio/next to the deck on the south side of the house this holiday!

Happy Fourth of July!!

The frustration came from the torrential downpours that occurred on Friday and Saturday at just the wrong times and just about ruined the wall.

In addition to Kyle's and Adam's hard work, we would like to thank Dwight for delivering some excess gravel from the DOT to us on Friday morning (the official holiday).

Adam rented a cement mixer from Total Grand Rental (no thanks to Home Depot rental unit), and got the sand from The Landscape Connection here in Flagstaff.

June update

2009-06-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, by now summer is in full swing (finally some hot and sort of dry weather here), Aurelia's badly broken arm from an accident in late May is healing well, and we have made a little more progress on the house:

Here's a pictorial review of the past six weeks...

These are in order from most recent to least recent (or so).

This shows the finished roof at the far end of the steep roof and the 4:1 second story roof. The last piece of metal on the steep part of the roof (closest to the second story) had to be custom cut and Adam had run out of time to get it done with Andy last fall...so it sat uncovered all winter and allowed a significant amount of water to flow into the building in that corner...ruining some bales Adam had placed back in April. Good to have that covered!

This just happened this past weekend, 6/27.

Read this series of pictures below from the bottom up:
Shows the replaced metal that was ruined by wind in December 2008.

Final picture of replaced roof metal.

Lifting up to roof from bale pyramid.

Transitioning metal piece from ground to bale pyramid.

Picking up metal off ground.

Placing adhesive strip on leading edge for next piece of metal.

6/28/09

This was a picture from December showing the damaged metal.

See above for the process of replacing these.

Metal replaced on roof!

Bales three deep in the kitchen

(east wall). This has been in process the last couple of weekends with Adam and Kyle, a new helper! 6/20 - 6/25 or so.

Getting ready for bale string to appear for bamboo reinforcement in Aiken's room. This process took place in early - mid June.

Adam feeds the bale string through from one side while standing on bales stacked in truck (portable scaffolding); Therese grabs string on other side. Bamboo gets placed on inside of bales.

Aurelia's one-armed shot of Adam's portable scaffolding. Used to finish stacking bales in the loft area of Aiken's bedroom and to install bamboo backing for the bales, used to keep the bales straight and in line.

Window after the opening was lowered and wrapped.

Southeast window opening after window removed.

Therese and Adam removed the first window alone (6 x 9 foot window).

Adam got help for the second window: Tobin and Aaron came out. This happened the weekends of 6/13 and 6/20.

Adam decided to lower the picture windows on the south side of the house to accommodate one bale height, allowing window seats to be built more conveniently.

Window was removed and strapped to side of building while window opening was lowered.

Full bale wall on west side of house. Taken 6/13.

Still no significant plastering to speak of...in the process of re-thinking the make-up of the plaster. Clay or lime?

Update, really!

2009-05-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, my apologies to all the faithful blog checkers who have been checking and seen NO progress here.

Of course, there HAS been progress, but life gets in the way of the updates, you know! Since I last updated, Aurelia has made her first communion AND confirmation (triggering a visit by my parents), Aiken had his 11th birthday, Amelie had her 7th birthday, and now it's Mother's Day! (Happy Mother's Day!)

Gosh, since March 29...Adam has finished placing bales in most of one wall (facing west) and at least half of another wall (facing north). Unfortunately, this is the only slightly updated picture and it's hard to see...also from when we still had snow in mid-April.

Prior to continuing with the bales, however, we had to take delivery of a full load of straw bales...though we only needed about half a load to complete the house, according to Adam's calculations. These were needed to replace the bales ruined by mold as well as supplement the original shipment.

Work has been slow as he's been totally on his own except for some help from Jonathan the first week of April or so. Jonathan has since relocated to Phoenix and now Adam is completely alone.

The bale placing process, as described previously, is very labor intensive and slow. Just about every bale has to be somehow modified before it can be placed in the wall.

One other very labor intensive project was placing the remaining corner posts on the north facing wall (the corners of the entryway). Adam had arranged for a friend with a tractor to come and help him lift up the trimmed logs into place, as he was dealing with an eight foot jump to floor level on those corners. The tractor owner was late in arriving however, and Adam managed to get both massive posts up and in place completely by himself with the use of cinder blocks, a handy man jack and strapping. Very impressive!

Adam also cut out all four of the windows in the clerestory portion of the building, to prepare for putting those large windows in. Pictures to follow.

Since we did have to take the full load of straw, Adam has since had a break through in thinking about the ceiling insulation, he has decided to use bales in the steep portion of the roof rather than the expensive blow-in foam insulation he was planning to use. He has a method for getting the bales up into the rafters, and it sounds like the best use of materials yet!

The kids have fun in the waste straw!

We have had really nice weather the past few days but we had several late snow storms through April and LOTS of wind...so it feels nice to finally have some warm weather on the way!

Three Weeks to Update

2009-03-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I knew it had been at least two weeks since I've updated, but I didn't realize it had been three!!!

A lot of progress, actually.

In these pictures, the one on top is March 8 and the one on bottom is today, March 29. They are the same corner of the house, the southwest corner.

This is a wider version of the way it looks today

Adam has spent a lot of time on his own in the ever-growing evening light notching and stacking bales to the end that almost the entire west wall is now baled.

It is extremely time-consuming and back-breaking work for him.

This is a window on the west wall (in the master bedroom) that illustrates the technique Adam will be using on all the windows to flare the bales allowing more light through.

Most of the pictures above and to the right were taken on March 15.

Last weekend, the weekend of March 21, Adam got three friends (Aaron, Dwight and Slim) plus Andy out here to place the three big south-facing windows. It was quite a project, as Aurelia's pictures will attest.

On March 22 we had the strongest winds we have experienced since we moved to Flagstaff..with gusts as high as 75 mph. Spring is always windy here, but this is extreme!

We were very worried about the new windows! Fortunately, no debris came flying into them and they are still intact.

However, the kids' trampoline was the main casualty...taking a big bend in the face as well as the uprights.

In this picture, Aiken has climbed the tree to remove one of the net braces which got stuck there when the wind picked up the whole set-up and nearly tossed it into the trailer. (Adam and Aiken managed to fix the trampoline to the extent possible before this picture was taken.)

One of the reasons for the delay in updating the blog was due to Adam's wish to finish sheathing the wall around the new windows so it looked more "presentable".

Which brings us to this weekend, March 28 & 29. We hired a new assistant this week, Jonathan, who is very helpful and knowledgable. He helped Adam finish the clean up around the outside so some decent pictures could be taken.

They had to move at least 22 rotten bales out of the way, not to mention railroad ties, the remaining metal roofing (hips and ridgecaps, mostly). There are still many more non-usable bales still to moved. We will probably replace as many as 1/4 to 1/3 of the bales we had delivered last fall due to mold.

The upside is that Aiken has a really big new archery target to aim at, a wall of bales!

Corner Logs

2009-03-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

Adam was all alone this weekend but he managed to get some massive logs moved into place in two corners.

We have decided to go with natural logs notched to fit the corner posts as the finished look on the corners. We didn't want to put earthen plaster on the posts directly and weren't sure how to finish them but Adam's helper, Andy, saw a show on television that recommended this method so we decided to give it a try.

In the picture at right, you can see the stucco/plaster that the 3rd graders put up several months ago when they came out on a field trip. It's still there!

Adam had to use a series of "alternative" methods with "bearings" (aspen rounds) to roll the huge logs into place and then a come-along and strap to lift them into place. Techniques he learned while watching Brian Blandford build our first home in Alaska!

He also put up a temporary railing in the lofts but didn't take pictures of it (not permanent, just to stop exuberant kids from falling down) and moved the window frame from the "right hand" window pictured in the last update up a bit to fit with the top of the bales.

All in all, a very productive (and tiring) weekend for Adam, considering that it was supposed to bring a new round of wet weather (fortunately it was limited to some snow flurries for about an hour Saturday morning and that was it)! There's some rain in the forecast this week, but hopefully it will miss us again.

In case you're wondering, Therese spent Saturday at a First Communion/Confirmation retreat with Aurelia (who will make her first communion AND confirmation in late April) and Sunday at a CAbi show (one of her part-time jobs).

Back to Work!

2009-03-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

GOOD NEWS!

The weather finally cooperated enough to melt all the snow on the slab and dry up the standing water, so Adam and Andy were able to get some work done. It's been positively spring-like here this past week.

They got back to work this past weekend. They built some more interior walls (we should be down to less than ten walls remaining) and put a couple windows in.

These walls are upstairs in the loft area of the kids' bedrooms. Some folks thought the lofts were all going to be connected, now we can clearly see that the walls will separate them from each other.

Next they'll put in a temporary railing for the lofts so it's not so scary to have the kids up there playing around!

The windows were a bonus, and exciting to see! These are facing west, they kind of look like they're floating there, but they are secured in place. We'll have to move the southern-most one here up a little (the one on the right) because it's a little too low for the top of the second bale as it sits here.

Happy Day!

New Pictures

2009-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, no progress, but at least some new pictures of the new construction!

You need to enlarge these (click on the small image showing here) to see what we're talking about.

This first one is a view of the south side of the house, with the big windows facing the forest and the prevalent sunshine!

In this one, the pine trees are hiding the trailer in front (to the east) of the new construction. This is a view from the east. Ours is the big one with the green roof!

Our friend, Dawn Kurtz (formerly known as Dawn Arszyla to those in Nome who remember her), took these aerial pictures while flying over our house yesterday.

Now, those of you who live in AK think that small planes are an every day occurrence BUT in areas of this altitude, it is actually pretty rare to have small planes buzzing around.

This is also from the east, a little closer.

We were VERY excited to get these pictures!

Also, I never did an update to deliver MORE bad news, but we did discover, about three weeks ago, that about 1/4 to 1/2 of our bales had been compromised by MOLD and MICE over the period of damp weather and inactivity.

We'll replace them when we know how many we need.

One of these weekends, the slab will be dry enough to actually start placing some bales again.

Also in the meantime (also more bad news but with a silver lining, we hope), Adam found out he will have one mandatory furlough day every pay period. He will plan to take them on Fridays when possible, meaning he will have a three day weekend every other week to spend building!

Now we just have to come up with some money to buy more materials (and replace those that have been damaged).

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Just a brief update for the beginning of 2009. No new progress on the house to report, due mostly to the weather here in Flagstaff. We started getting snow about two weeks before Christmas and we've had fresh stuff every week or so since then. It is unusual in Flag for the snow to stick around for any extended period because it warms up so much in the afternoons when the sun is out. However, because storms have been regular and frequent for the past month or so, lots of the snow is still around. We are anxious to start placing more bales but cannot do so when there is snow and ice on the slab. We need to have a good thaw and then enough time to squeegee the moisture off the slab in order to start placing more bales. The weather folks just "canceled" a storm advisory for this weekend, so we're hoping we might be able to get a little done at that time.

In the meantime, Therese has taken a new job. She will be working in customer service at Southwest Windpower, a manufacturer of wind generators based here in Flagstaff. She'll start full time on January 12.

We've also acquired two new dogs (stay tuned for pictures at a later date). They are eleven year old Siberian Huskies, previously owned by David, who recently passed away from cancer. Adam got a call from David's ex-wife last Friday asking us to consider taking the dogs because it was literally David's last wish that his dogs be well taken care of and that they stay together. Apparently, Adam's reputation as a former sled dog owner in Alaska precedes him. Adam had met David on a couple of occasions through a mutual friend, Dwight, with whom Adam went to school at Northern Arizona University, here in Flagstaff, in the 1970's (Adam and Dwight have stayed in touch after we relocated here in 2004). Adam called Tammy (David's ex-wife) back on Saturday morning to tell her we would take the dogs and she asked if he could come to the hospital right away to tell David in person that he was willing to take the dogs, because David was waiting to be "unplugged" until he saw Adam in person. Adam did so and the doctors literally removed life support from David immediately thereafter. Adam went out and got the dogs the same day and they've quickly become welcome additions to the family. It helps that they are strictly outdoor dogs, as we have very little room in the doublewide trailer for two additional beings of any size. Hoss, the male, is a 70 pound Siberian and his sister, Sobaka, is about 45 pounds. Sobaka means "dog" in Russian, so that was a quick route to Therese's heart. They are a little skittish of the kids, having never been around kids previously. But they are clearly good-natured dogs and in the two times they have escaped their pen since coming to live here (with the help of Lola and Rojo, the two long term canine members of the family), they have willingly stuck around the neighborhood. Adam and the kids hope to harness them and hook them up to the sled(s) that came with them this weekend, so that will be when the pictures will apply. Stay tuned! In the absence of news on the construction project, this may just become our family website!

Snow, snow, snow!

2008-12-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

We're on our third "snow day" in a row here. The house is taking it rather well even though there are very few bales in place. Just a dusting of snow on the slab in most places.

Take a look!

The one on top has the kids throwing snowballs at each other in the foreground.

The snow is supposed to taper off today and we'll hopefully get some work done this weekend.

Setback on the Roof!

2008-12-14T17:22:00.000-08:00

Not much to report this week except some backwards progress. We had a big windstorm Friday night/Saturday morning and lost about six sheets of metal off the flat part of the roof as a result. Apparently, one of the sheets did not have the adhesive on the overlapping portion exposed when it was installed about ten days ago (you have to remove a strip of paper from the top of the adhesive strip to expose it so it will stick to the piece that is being placed on top of it in sequence). Additionally, all the screws were not installed so when it started to go, the wind only had to rip up about four screws per sheet and away it went!

We had heard some metal-ish noise early on Saturday morning on the roof but upon inspection (by Aiken and Adam), they couldn't find anything wrong. Of course, it wouldn't have been obvious if the wind wasn't actually lifting the un-adhered edge at the moment one was inspecting it.

Later in the day, as the wind continued to blow at sustained speeds of 50 mph, Amelie and I were headed out to run some errands. As we were getting in the car, I heard a sound of ripping metal. I looked up and saw several sheets of metal coming over the top of the doublewide. By the time I ran around to the building site, Adam was already on the roof of the doublewide grabbing the errant sheets of metal and feeding them to Andy who was pulling them back up on the roof. Aiken also had heard the noise from inside the trailer and came running out to help.

We spent the next hour trying to get the mangled metal back in place where it will have to stay until we can afford to replace it (it is a special order color at about $100 per sheet). As we were positioning the first piece, the wind again tore it out of our hands. Adam and Andy lost it completely and almost lost their thumbs in the process. The edges of the metal are very sharp. I was able to hold on to it as it flipped over me and crumpled on the ground below. Adam grabbed the other side and we quickly pulled it back up on the roof but it was mangled even worse than before. Adam and Andy were able to get it all screwed back in but it doesn't look pretty.

It's kind of hard to tell from these pictures but take our word for it, it doesn't look good! The darkish patches are bloodstains.

Also, the weather forecast calls for anywhere from 5 - 15 inches of snow for the next two days, so with any luck it'll start to melt by next weekend and maybe we can get the rooves finished once and for all.

Metal on Steep Roof

2008-12-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

We finally got most of the metal on the steep portion of the roof, over the kids' bedrooms and lofts. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see Adam up there screwing the last piece into place!

We did not make a lot of progress over the Thanksgiving weekend, due to rain and Adam just needing a bit of a break.

We did get the first piece of metal up LAST Sunday afternoon, just Adam and Therese.

Adam had originally intended to rig up some sort of rope and pulley system to make sure the person on the roof holding the metal and positioning it, then screwing it into place (read "Adam"), would be held securely. Instead, he went with free climbing and hoping for the best!

Each night last week we put up one - two pieces of metal. Bear in mind these pieces are 38 inches wide by 30 feet long. They are quite the piece of work to get up onto that steep roof without bending or tweaking it.

Aiken and Aurelia occasionally helped out walking the end of the piece up the roof (yes, they scaled that steep roof with the aid of the "stickers" nailed into the roof just shy of where the metal was going) so it didn't catch on the tar paper seams. Here you can see the "stickers" before any of the metal was applied.

We finally finished with the full pieces today, after cutting the third-to-last one with a hole for the stove pipe that will have to come up through it. Here you can see some stickers nailed through the metal around the stove pipe opening, to prepare for the time when the box (that will go around the stove pipe) will be put into place.

Adam wanted this picture of the lines of screws traveling across the pieces of metal. You might be able to pick out the screws if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

It took up a lot of time between pieces, to put all the screws in place, the peel up the previous layer of "stickers" in order to make a place for the next piece of metal.

Next step will be to cut the last piece so it will fit into the wall where it joins the second story.

Steep roof is felted!

2008-11-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well, Adam and Andy managed to get the felt on the steep roof before the back-to-back storms predicted over the holiday weekend coming up. Yahoo!

Therese spent some time over the past two days moving the stack of bales that we had dug into for our first walls (upstairs, see the post from 11/9)

Notice in this new picture, no bales in front of the sliding glass doors anymore!

Unfortunately, this stack of bales had no pallets underneath them so the biggest challenge was in moving the bottom layer and scraping the bugs and mold off the bottom, then finding a place to store them under the roof where the wet surface could be exposed and dry out. To her great surprise, under the last bale she discovered a nest of cute little mice. Boy, did they scatter quickly (in all directions, while Therese screamed) when that last bale was upturned.

Stay tuned for pictures of the house in the snow if this storm produces what it's forecast to do!

More roof metal

2008-11-23T21:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Adam, Andy and Therese managed to move the rest of the 31 foot metal roofing panels from the ground to the flat roof; and Adam and Andy put them in place. It was a little breezy, causing some anxious moments as we moved the long panels, but the move was done with only one slight crinkle.

With that roof done, the next move is to get the roofing felt applied to the steep roof before an expected storm hits later this week. Adam and Andy made good progress toward that end today, getting about half the roof felted. This is the most difficult surface to work on due to the steep pitch. Getting the long pieces of metal on that roof will also be quite interesting when it comes time.

We'll also be trying to get some of the bales from the partially used stacks moved inside the building to protect them from the weather, and the bales that have been placed in the walls covered so they don't get too wet either.

With winter well on its way, it will now be a constant struggle to continue forward and prevent the weather from impeding our progress.

Mud!

2008-11-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

We had the third grade out to help with our very first mudding experience today.

We were a little worried because we aren't really ready for putting mud on the few bales we have in place, but Adam rose to the occasion and got the outside of one corner of Aiken's room ready.

They had a ball!

The clay is made up of powdered clay (Amador brand) that we are getting in bags from Home Depot, native sand sifted from shovelfuls of dirt on our property, water and loose straw. The recipe Adam used today was 6 parts sand, 3 parts clay, 2 parts water and 20 handfuls of straw. It will no doubt be slowly refined as we go. A lot of it ended up on the ground today because it was not adhering well to the straw. Still, a lot of it stuck as well!

Aiken's room as seen from the inside.

The kids also enjoyed climbing on the fallen tree in the front yard.

To mix the mud, we are using a mortar mixer we picked up with the help of Adam's friend, Ben, who lives in Tucson, in spring of 2006. It's nice to finally put it to some use!

Backing up a bit, last weekend Adam and Andy (yes, Andy's been back in the picture for about nine or ten days now, thankfully!) spent most of the time building interior walls. Almost all of them are now complete. (The thinking was that the interior walls had to be up before the straw placement can begin in earnest.)

The master bedroom and part of the closet, as seen from the living room.

The kitchen (eating area), as seen from the living room.

The pantry closet (as seen from the living room side).

The girls' rooms (as seen through Aurelia's closet and the shared bath).

First Bale is Stacked!

2008-11-09T20:12:00.001-08:00

I see it's been two weeks since my last post. We hoped to be a little further along by now but we have made some progress.

Last weekend, November 1 & 2, Adam's friend, Tobin, came out to help. Their main project was the second story roof metal. There was a lot of finesse work to be done in cutting the metal pieces and getting them in place, then screwing them down.

Getting the metal on the roof is definitely a two person job at a minimum, and Adam's former helper, Andy, seems to have moved on to other pursuits as he is never available to come out and help anymore. Adam misses his expertise but is resigned to continuing without his help. We were very appreciative of Tobin's help last weekend.

Tobin was out of town this weekend, November 8 & 9, however, so the job of Adam's main helper fell to Therese. We managed to almost finish the second story roof on Saturday before Therese had to run off to a previous commitment in the afternoon. Fortunately, Aiken stepped in and provided the extra set of hands (high in the air) to get that part of the roof finished. (That's Aiken's shadow in the accompanying pic.)

In the second picture, Aiken is standing on the second story roof he helped finish, peeking over the clerestory roof to the flat roof where I am standing below. You can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them in your browser.

Today, Adam had planned to put metal on the flat section of the first story roof, but the wind had different ideas. After we had finished prepping the roof with the black felt, and got just one piece of metal in place (each piece is 30+ feet in this section, just 38 inches wide), again with Aiken's help, the wind picked up to the point where Adam felt we would risk bending the metal while trying to get it in place.

So instead we braced the felt that was in place so it wouldn't blow away, and concentrated on moving some of the straw bales under roof to keep them out of the weather (rain and snow) that was predicted this evening.

We managed to get the first few bales in place on the second story (guest bedroom) and move a bunch more bales under roof before the rain and snow started to come down around 5 pm. We had to quickly move the bales that were exposed, and re-cover those that we didn't have time to move.

Here the kids are sitting on the "first bale" to be placed. Aurelia's face is in shadow but if you click for the enlargement, you can still see her beautiful smile!

There's a shot of the first bale by itself.

Placing the bales turns out to be pretty user-friendly and fun. Adam has a small electric chain saw that he uses to cut out notches in the bales where they have to fit around the posts and other parts of the frame that are "in the way". We will use loose straw to pack in to any voids created by imperfections in the bales or places where the notches are a little roomy.

It was exciting to see the first few bales lined up and in place!

We're hoping the roof isn't leaking where it just has the felt on it, as it's been snowing outside for the past several hours now! There isn't supposed to be any accumulation on this first snowfall, but we'll have to see what it looks like in the morning!

Successful Inspection and More Roof Color

2008-10-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

We received a successful "nailing inspection" last Monday, October 20 before Adam went on a three day business trip to Phoenix last week. This was good news as it meant we could commence with putting the metal on the roof and start stacking bales for the walls.

So although we didn't make any progress during the week due to Adam's absence, we did manage to get some felt on the second story roof this weekend, as well as a bit of metal on the eyebrow of the clerestory roof.

It was nice on Saturday, calm and warm, perfect for putting up the felt.

But Sunday was breezy, which was not ideal for putting the metal on, unfortunately. That slowed Adam and Andy down a bit.

With the waning light in the evenings, we are down to a weekend only operation at this point, I'm afraid.

Roof Color and soon Metal!

2008-10-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Adam and Andy spent last weekend (October 11 & 12) constructing the "eyebrow" for the clerestory roof, a labor intensive project. In the picture at right, this is the part of the roof that comes off the vertical wall that hangs over the lower roof. Many homes with a clerestory wall (the vertical upper story wall that faces south, allowing light into the north side rooms) have no eyebrow and simply join the attached roof with a flush corner. However, since much of our weather comes out of the southwest, Adam found it prudent to put this extra protection on that roof, to keep wind and rain from penetrating that wall.

You can also see the eyebrow in this picture, defined by the green painted fascia coming off the upper roof.

This weekend, Adam and Andy finished preparing the roof of the entire structure for a "nailing inspection" that is scheduled for tomorrow, October 20.

Therese spent the weekend painting (some of) the fascia or trim under the roof so it will be ready when the metal is put in place (as it will be hard to paint after the metal is on).

Aurelia helped with the painting quite a bit.

After the nailing inspection tomorrow, assuming all goes well, we should be putting metal on by next weekend.

Roofing Update & Third Grade Field Trip!

2008-10-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

We had a nice break midweek when the Third Grade class from Pine Forest Charter School came out for a visit to fulfill their "construction site" field trip requirement.

Well, Adam has continued to make progress on the roof.

We did have about ten days without rain where the work went quickly on the steep roof.

After that was done, Adam and Andy had to "overframe" the portion where the roof of the second story meets the steep part of the roof over the lofts.

This was a labor intensive project, taking up most of last weekend, the final weekend of September.

This past weekend we had rain again and snow at the higher elevations. Adam managed to get the second story underlayment of plywood on.

The next steps will be to make the "eyebrow" on the clerestory and finish sheathing the clerestory wall.

Roof Progress!

2008-09-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

Although we haven't had quite the beautiful September weather we were hoping for (lots of lingering thunderstorms in the afternoons), Adam has managed to complete construction of the underlayment of the shed roof over the main portion of the house!

The "underlayment" is plywood in this case, which will be covered with felt and then our light green metal roof will go on top of that.

The fascia board is the hardest part to put up, as it is awkward to hold in place as it's being nailed, and one is often high in the air while doing this. Adam and Andy have done a great job of getting it in place and perfect, though Andy hasn't been available as much as Adam had hoped.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-04T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, summer went out like it came in, very stormy and blustery.

Andy was out of town, so Adam took the kids to the fair on Saturday where they met up with some friends from school.

He got a little bit done on Sunday amid the thunderstorms.

Therese worked at the country club all weekend (again).

September should be a really nice month, weather-wise, so we're hoping for more progress later in the month.

Final Exterior Wall and more Trusses!

2008-08-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we seem to have gotten a break from the rain...we had about four days last week without rain (then it rained on the weekend) and now we've only had isolated sprinkles around town the last couple of days.

(Aurelia took this picture, she really likes the way the project looks from the road.)

Adam and Andy managed to get the last of the exterior walls up on the second story,

as well as some of the roofing on the covered portion of the deck (directly off the second story floor)

I really like this view.

AND the trusses over the second story.

Great progress!

This is the view from one of the windows in the guest bedroom!

We should be ready for visitors in about a year!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2008-08-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Boy oh boy, has it been raining!

We have been deluged by daily (and then some) thunderstorms that have brought many inches of water to our uncovered new house construction.

The forests love it but we could do with a little less!

The rain has made the wildflowers prolific

(along with the wild pollen count!)

Adam did manage to make some hard-to-see progress this weekend on the second floor, in Andy's absence.

Rafters Up!

2008-08-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

Much to my chagrin, Adam and Andy spent all of this past weekend working as volunteers (by themselves) on a school project at Pine Forest, and were unable to work on the house at all. It is to their credit that they took this school project on, as it was something other people had started but failed to finish. They stepped in on a very rainy, blustery weekend and put in a total of 36 hours trying to finish it while also watching all three kids. Enough said.

However, they made a lot of progress Monday afternoon, putting up the rafters over the loft section where the kids' rooms will be.

The TJI's that form the rafters are very heavy and it was a touchy process for Adam to lift one up to Andy where he would barely get a hold on it (while standing on the scaffolding and reaching out to grab it).

Once Andy had a hold, Adam would climb the ladder and grab the TJI again, at which point they would slide it into place and nail it in.

While I was photographing, Adam tripped while trying to lift the heavy TJI and dropped it.

He curled up on the ground to get out of the way of the falling lumber. It still managed to get him in the leg and he ended up with a scrape.

I was screaming and running over to him, and the only thing he had to say was "did you get it on film?" (I didn't.)

They completed placing all the rafters after these pictures were taken, and now on to the next part of the project (finishing the 2nd story floor and putting up the remaining posts and trusses over the rest of the 2nd story).

Second Story Walls Up!

2008-08-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

A big step forward came with the construction and placement of the second story walls, which will form the "lofts"of the kids' rooms (on the right side of the picture at right) and the office/spare bedroom (directly above the kitchen and entryway, on the left side of this picture). The wall pictured at right, with four windows, is made up of five sections. This wall is also known as the clerestory because it will allow southern exposure to the bedrooms on the north side of the building. I think I finally found a way to get a sketch of the house layout loaded here, see below. If you click on the image, your browser should enlarge it for you so you can see what I'm talking about.

Adam and Andy Wheeler constructed the wall sections in the only large portion of the second story floor (above the entryway) then had to find a way to tip them up and walk them down the length of the lofts. They tried on their own but couldn't quite make the walls go vertical, due to the size and weight of the wall sections.

Adam made several calls to friends for some quick help, all of whom were unavailable. Fortunately, Therese had a break from work at just the right time and managed to add her brawn to the task, which was accomplished with only a healthy amount of fright at the consequences of one of those wall sections tipping over while being walked to the correct placement site. After we tipped each one up to vertical, we held on tight and lifted it onto four pieces of 3 inch PVC to "roll" the walls to the proper position. It was harrowing to say the least, rolling a very heavy wall along, fearing at any moment it could fall to the ground and take us with it!

After placing all the wall sections, Adam and Andy then had to brace them which required Adam to perch on the existing trusses (with little support). Andy was perched on scaffolding on the second story floor, and Aiken provided the mobility Andy needed, by pushing the wheeled scaffolding along as each new brace was placed. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see more detail! The straw bales under tarps in this picture are stacked around the outside of the south and west first floor walls, making them impossible to see.

Next step is putting the roof trusses up for the second story. This may happen next weekend.

We are making much better progress now that Adam has reliable help in the form of Andy, who has lots of experience at framing houses (just what we needed at this juncture)!

Stay tuned, we'll be placing those bales by the end of August at this rate!

BALES ARRIVE!!!

2008-07-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

448 straw bales arrived today, one day early, taking Adam by surprise

and necessitating a mad scramble

for three hours to get all the lumber out of

the way where they needed to be stacked.

The transport company brought a "squeeze" to unload the bales,
a key piece of equipment. In fact we ended up switching suppliers for the straw at the last minute because the first supplier we were working with did not have access to a squeeze, and the 448 bales would have had to be unloaded by hand!

The squeeze made things much easier.

They are here and unloaded and they look great!

They add a whole new character to the construction site.

A little help goes a long way

2008-07-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

We had a very constructive weekend, placing the huge trusses on top of the house, with a little help from friends. Instead of renting a crane, Adam succeeded in getting five guys out here to help with the heavy lifting. Tobin, Aaron, Mike, Andy and Tom came out here on Saturday morning and lifted five 58 foot trusses
(with 2 x 6 bottom and top chords) that will span the entire
width of the house over the east deck.

Aiken took the pictures and helped watch the younger kids. Many thanks to those who helped!

Adam and Andy also got a lot of work done on Sunday putting flooring up in the kids' bedrooms where their lofts will be.

This progress comes in spite of the daily thunder storms (called "monsoons" in this part of the country) that are routinely lasting several hours. They seem to be starting earlier and lasting longer each successive day! Though the region needs the moisture, we can't say we're thrilled to have had such a wet winter and now what is turning into a relatively wet summer THIS particular year.

This week should finally see delivery of the straw bales, after which the family will depart for a week's vacation on the east coast. We may not have a lot of progress to show for the next couple of weeks.

All trusses up!

2008-07-06T19:41:00.003-07:00

It's beginning to look like a house!

Adam finished gettting the trusses over the main part of the house up today. He had a little help on Friday (Happy 4th of July!) from Andy and Ralph, two new acquaintances. Andy's experience provided several tips for how to secure the trusses, making Adam more comfortable with the finished product. He had lots of help along the way from Aiken (as usual) and some help from Aurelia and Amelie. Therese continued to work at her full time (plus) job, which was very busy for the holiday, so wasn't any help at all.

The kids have set up their own little play area under the deck of the new construction, where they have a "hospital" going.

Trusses Go Up!

2008-06-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

Adam and Aiken got 11 trusses up in the air yesterday. Yahoo! It's starting to look like a house.

They span the master bedroom and part of the family room. It was a feat of determination and perseverance, as Adam had expected two guys to come and help but once again, no one came through (and this was for pay!)

So, instead of human help, they did it with the assistance of scaffolding at either end and the faithful genie lift in the center. It is likely most of the trusses will go up in this manner (19 more to go in this section of the house) except for the biggest ones, which will require a crane to lift.

Trusses Arrive!

2008-06-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

We received delivery of our trusses yesterday. Adam needs to do a few more things to complete the frame before we can put them up, but just having them is a step in the right direction! We will most likely need a crane's help to place the trusses, so stay tuned for more pictures with the crane (in a couple of weeks?)

Beam us up!

2008-06-02T22:48:00.001-07:00

Beams, beams, beams. It's all about beams! And a few interior walls. Adam is still busy putting up the beams to hold up the roof. Some with pure manual labor and some with the help of the genie lift, but all precarious on the way up and impressive once fixed! At least the weather has improved a bit. No recent snow storms and not quite as much wind, though still ever present.

Just when we thought it was over!

2008-05-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

We got nine more inches of snow last Tuesday! It melted by the next day, but it was a fitting end for Father Winter this year! We're still waiting for some really nice weather to kick in. We had some rain and thunderstorms today.

We ordered the trusses for the roof and the metal for the roof this week. That's the next step! Stay tuned!

Now wind

2008-05-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so another 2 1/2 months have gone by and not a post to show! Not that there hasn't been progress, just lots of other activities getting in the way of actually putting pen to paper!

After the snowy winter came a very windy spring...one we are still enduring. The few walls Adam was able to put up in his spare time came back down in the wind, more than once.

This wall to the right blew down in heavy wind about three weeks ago. Adam put the wall back up shortly after it blew down but just placed the beam on top of it today and tied it to the interior wall you see coming out at a right angle.

In spite of the wind, he now has almost all the exterior walls up as well as the base of the decking. The beams have proven to be the biggest problem, as he is working totally alone except for my occasional and fleeting help in between work, my various classes, and kids' activities. He has had a few offers of help from friends which never seem to materialize when it comes down to actually helping.

This is the big beam for the deck that Adam and I inched into place last Sunday morning.

He was contemplating hiring a crane operator to come out and put some of the heaviest beams in place but he found out about a piece of rental equipment called a genie lift that took most of the lifting off his shoulders. Working alone he managed to place five huge beams while the kids and I were at soccer games this afternoon.

Adam put these two beams in place by himself with the help of the genie lift this afternoon.

Now he can order the trusses, finish some of the interior walls and we'll be putting the roof on before we know it!

To the right is the south wall with a 16 foot wide opening for glass doors. The header is a monster!

Still snowing, still slow going!

2008-02-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well, a new snow storm every week to ten days has kept progress slow the past several weeks. The kids are now three days over their snow day allotment at school (meaning three days to make up at the end of the year) and we are further than that behind schedule on the house.

Adam almost made it all the way around the perimeter with the post structure, until the last storm blew two of the beams back down (see right, third picture from top).

He will most likely spend most of this coming weekend shoveling off the slab AGAIN to give himself someplace to build the remaining structural walls.

IN the meantime, Aurelia celebrated her eighth birthday on February 3, right in the middle of a storm as well! We had to postpone her cross-country ski party until this coming Monday, February 18 (President's Day)!

Stay tuned and stay warm!

Slow in the snow

2008-01-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

A big snowfall in early January has slowed us down somewhat (or has slowed Adam down). Also at fault is Adam's new full time job at the State of Arizona, Dept. of Transportation. Just not enough light after work to get anything done! He did spend most of last weekend clearing snow off the slab so he can begin building more walls this weekend (thankfully we haven't had any additional snow yet). With a three day weekend looming, look for an update as early as next week!

YIKES

2007-12-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, time to update the blog or forget about it altogether. Actually, it was probably time to update it or forget about it altogether back in October sometime, but we have kept the idea of updating it alive all these months, so maybe I'll finally take the time to act on it now that we've made a little more progress.

So Adam quit his job back in late August and has been concentrating on construction for the past four months, in addition to looking for a new full time (income producing) job. Therese has been working more or less full time since then, at a couple different jobs, trying to bring some income in.

When we left you in mid August Adam was filling in the foundation and preparing the ground underneath the slab. Finalizing that process took many, many hours and much hard labor. He compacted every ten inch lift, either with a rented rolling compactor or the hand compactor (jumping jack) depending on how tight the spot was. When he got to the "third" cell, he had to do it all with the hand compactor because it was too deep and difficult to get the rolling compactor into place.

As he was backfilling he'd also been placing the plumbing. After the fill was all in place, he finalized the plumbing. Then came the final layer of gravel and the final compaction. Then came three inches of blueboard insulation. Adam's friend, Ben, came up from Tucson with his grandson one weekend and helped with that process. The insulation is there to stop the floor heat from sinking into the ground, encouraging it to rise instead.

On top of the insulation came a 6-inch wire grid, then the radiant floor tubing (tied to the wire to keep it in place). A rebar grid was laid out over the tubing to keep it from floating during concrete placement. After all the tubing was pressure tested and inspected (requisite inspections had been taking place all along, of course), it was finally time to call in the concrete team to lay the slab!

We hired Brandon from Northern Concrete to pour the slab, with a pump truck from Marco Crane. The concrete itself came from Flagstaff Concrete. We wanted a four inch slab but ended up with about 3.5 inches (about 7 yards of concrete that we paid for disappeared altogether, we're still not sure where). We had most of it poured plain gray, but decided to have the entryway section dyed "terra cotta" red and scored on the diagonal in 24 inch squares to make it look like tiles. The rest of the floor will eventually be finished with flagstone (kitchen and living room) or saltillo tiles (bedrooms).

After the slab was poured, it was time to make the framing lumber order and finalize the window order. This took several weeks, as Adam tried to negotiate the intracacies of the framing process and make final window selections. Ken Shively, a structural engineer and friend, went over the construction plans for us one more time after several changes to the plans. We decided to go with Home Depot for the lumber, after much consideration. Key to this decision was the willingness of the Home Depot staff to negotiate with us, and the fact that they just opened a huge new store on OUR side of town, making the thousands of trips we'll have to make over the course of the project MUCH less time consuming than the full hour (round trip) it used to take to get to any hardware store at all.

For the windows we went with Sierra Pacific Windows because of their environmentally friendly tendencies and the willingness of the representative, Scott Wachowski, to work with us through several sets of changes.

The first load of lumber was scheduled to be delivered on December 10 but we had our first big snowfall that day, followed by two additional days of snow. We thought we'd be ready for the lumber by December 15 due to the fact that snow doesn't usually stick around long here (high temperatures in the 40's are the norm in December) but unusually cold and cloudy weather delayed the delivery even further.

We finally had to hire an equipment operator to come in and clear some of the snow for us so we could take our first lumber delivery on December 18. The kids were out of school for the Christmas holiday on December 19 and Adam has been struggling to get some walls built while watching three small kids full time and getting over a nasty cold, ever since! As you can see, we have managed to get a few wall portions up, cause for great celebration! This is a view from the south, with the large gaps you can see here representing windows. The wall section that seems to be missing on this side is actually a 16 foot window section, where there will be two 4 foot sliding glass doors with two 4 foot plate glass windows on either side. This is where we'll get most of our passive solar heat from!

Stay tuned, we really will try to be better about updating this blog in the future!

Filling the third cell

2007-08-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

Adam worked hard on filling the last cell of the foundation this past weekend. It's in the "deep fill" section and he can't get in there with a rolling compactor or the bobcat so he's doing it all by hand and with the jumping jack compactor. Very time consuming and lots of work!

We did receive our base course fill for the last layer under the slab, it is waiting patiently for us to be ready!

Foundation 2/3 done!

2007-08-07T08:55:00.001-07:00

Adam finished filling two of the three "cells" of the house this past weekend, all by himself! (With the help of the rental equipment.)

One more to go!

We are preparing to welcome our straw bales one of these weeks. Here is the spot we have cleared for the eight "squeezes" of straw we have ordered. We have pushed back the delivery date a number of times because we are not in any hurry to receive it and also because it has been a VERY rainy July and August here and we'd just as soon let it stay in sunny southern Arizona as long as possible.

Keep on Filling!

2007-07-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Aided by consistent daily rains (making constant watering of the fill less necessary, thereby saving us time and water) and the delivery of more fill while we were in Santa Fe last week, as well as the use of the rental bobcat and compactor again this weekend, we made significant progress. We were able to do three lifts in the back bedrooms and finish the front rooms to the point where we are now ready for base course in the front section of the house. Of course we still have to finish filling the back bedrooms and pretty much start from scratch in the entry way section, so we still have lots of work to do before we're ready to pour the slab!

It was definitely a family affair this weekend!

More progress!

2007-07-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

With the help of some rental equipment (a bobcat and a rolling compactor) and two friends (thank you to Dwight and Ken), we made significant progress on filling the foundation and taking down the loads of "dirty cinders" this weekend. In fact, all 14 loads of cinders are now in the foundation (mostly in the living area) and compacted; we ordered more to be delivered this week.

This is the living area pictured above right (kitchen at far end, living room in middle and master bedroom closest to photographer).

Ken was also able to dig our water line connection for us with his tractor.

We leave for Santa Fe tomorrow to attend Willis Umholtz's memorial service, but we should be back by the weekend and Adam will be hard at it again. Therese may even be able to help this weekend, as she is not schedule to work at her "day job".

Thanks for checking!

Filling the Foundation (still)

2007-07-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Sad news: Adam's father, Willis Umholtz, died on June 10, 2007. Adam necessarily had to put the building project on hold while he grieved his father's unexpected death and made all the arrangements associated with moving his father's body from Texas (where he died) to Santa Fe, NM (where he was buried), and attending his burial. We will be taking another break later this week when we all travel back to Santa Fe to attend a memorial service in Willis' honor.

After an extended hiatus on the building project, (Willis you are missed), we finally got going again on July 2 with the delivery of 14 dump truck loads of "dirty cinders" which we'll be using to fill in the foundation. Once we fill up what seems like the vast space defined by the impressive wall, we will be ready for the slab.

Adam spent one whole weekend trying as hard as he could to move the dirt from outside the wall to the inside, level it and compact it by hand (carrying the dirt by wheel barrow load; shoveling it in, leveling with a rake and compacting every 10 inches with a jumping jack compactor). While he made significant progress for this method, it seems there is still a long way to go!

Accordingly, he has rented some equipment for this weekend: a bobcat and a remote compactor. These, along with the help of some friends, will make it go faster we hope!

Building the Stem Wall

2007-06-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 5, the Big T crew started the stem wall and worked right through a bitter wind storm to finish it by Thursday, June 7. It’s a pretty impressive wall, standing about 8 feet at the downhill (east) side, and just slightly above ground level at the uphill side. Next step will be filling the area inside the wall with dirt. Adam is planning to do this himself with the help of a friend who has a small tractor, so it may take a few weeks!

Filling the Footings!!

2007-06-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

We decided to go with a licensed contractor (David Lavadazo-Big T Masonry) to finish the footings and build the stemwall, so on Friday, June 1, they came and laid the steel in place. On Monday, June 4, they poured the cement in the footings and shaped the steps to make the grade work for the foundation.

More Foundation Work

2007-05-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

Still working on shoring up the foundation ditches (and finding someone to help with the pre-concrete preparation work). Adam's been working hard, fine-tuning the ditches with his shovel, and now compacting them with his compactor while he lines up help with getting the re-bar in place so the concrete can be poured into the ditches. It may take another week or so before the re-bar is ready (as most of the work is being done on the weekends).

Footings

2007-05-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we laid out the house this week, and hired a backhoe operator (named Fred Long) to dig the footings on Friday, May 18! I wasn't here but Adam was, to help him dig in the right places. Fred was surprised how soft the dirt was, and now we have to worry a bit about making sure the trenches don't cave in before the steel gets put in place and the cement truck can make its first appearance!

We ordered the steel (re-bar) needed to reinforce the concrete for the footings. It will be delivered Friday the 25th! Once it is delivered, Adam will spend about a week putting the steel in place. We will hope to have the cement truck come to pour the footings on the following Friday or Saturday, June 1 or 2.

Ground Cleared

2007-05-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

Second step down! (Getting the permit was the first BIG step. Anyone who has ever dealt with an arbitrary and cantankerous building department can identify, I'm sure.) The top layer is scraped off, with the help of a little rental tractor. Next step, lay out the "footprint" and dig the footings with the help of a backhoe and operator. That's scheduled for later this week, stay tuned!

We got the permit!

2007-05-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hey, so we've been designing our strawbale home in Flagstaff, Arizona for the past three years; we've been tweaking the plans for the past 12 months, and we've been waiting for the building permit for the past ten weeks. We finally received the blasted piece of paper on Friday, May 11, and we're off!

My husband, Adam, is planning to do most of the work himself, with various "helpers" along the way. This in addition to a full time job as a civil engineer in the private sector, and three smallish kids (ages 5, 7, and 9). So you know we won't be moving at a lightning pace, but we'll hopefully be moving faster than we have the past three years! The picture is the building site "before". The tractor (rental) is poised to remove the top layer of organics to start preparing the site.

Check back often to see how we're progressing!