straw bales arrive

Yesterday Sterling, the neighbor, called to say that he had the bales of straw that we asked him for, so we went to get them. We got 60, which is quite a few extra, but we will use them for other things. We stuffed them in under the upper container, in case of rain. Soon we will begin placing them. It is a good thing that we had some good, strong help to toss them up 5 bales high!

cross bracing

Since this wall (and the long beam that tops it) will sustain all of the outward thrust of the rafters, some cross bracing was designed in. And, since there are about 10 pieces of 20 foot long well pipe on the property, we wanted to recycle that, too - at least one piece. So here it is. It may be a bit of over kill, but it works.

These are pieces of all-thread with "shoes" welded on. They will be, in their turn, welded onto the top rails of the upper container as well as the one at the west end, where they will tie down the 4x8 beams that will be the base for the rafters.

One thing that we have learned is that there are a lot of small details (ie makingt these items) that you cannot forsee, when you build such a hybrid house. It takes a bit more time, but it is very interesting.

waterproofing and french drain

Here Pam is putting in the French drain for the part of the house that will be under an 8 foot berm. She put on asphalt emulsion to seal the concrete parts and covered the metal as well (although the metal is well painted with a very resistant paint.

post and beam

Now we have raised the corner post (really a 10 inch diameter log) and have inletted into it's upper end a 24 ft. long 4x12 that we salvaged from the site of a defunct mill here in Harlan. We are trying to recycle as much material as we can, and the beam is really quite nice, but verrrry heavy. It took the bucket of a tractor to get it up.

steel I beams for terrace

Now we are starting to make some progress. Here you can see the I beams that will support the terrace for the upper bedroom being welded into place. The "sub floor" of the terrace will be some of the steel siding that we will cut out of the 40 footer to make part of the living room, stairs and access to the bath. It will get a light weight mortar bed on top and then tile.

Notice also the pins protruding from the footing, which will be to pin the straw bale infill in place. The upright beam that holds the steel in the corner is fastened to a one-quarter inch by 18 inch by 5 inch "fin" that is buried 9 inches into the corner footing.

a new foundation

So, we finally have time to start to work on this place again, after spending 7 weeks working on a remodel of a rented space where our son and daughter-in-law are going to move their tea business.

As you will see, we started with the pour of a (colored) slab floor with reinforced perimiter foundation.

Also, as you may notice, the floor is insulated from the ground, to enable it to store more of the heat that is in the room when heat (perhaps from a wood stove) is supplied to the living space.

We put in integral color (wild plum) and fiber, which has helped give us a crack free slab (the rebar and remesh also helped), but has also given us a few furry spots. We probably will just torch those off.

We chose the dark color so that the slab would retain more of the sun's heat - when there is sun in these coastal hills in the winter! You can see stcking up in the lower left corner of the slab one of the one quarter by 5 by 18 inch steel bolt plates that will hold another post in place. Keep watching for more changes soon.