Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The butterfly window is really coming along...




Mike set the rafters on the West side of the house, and is shown here putting up a base coat of plaster between the two roof lines:




On top of the rafters goes 3/4" plywood, and then 3/4" rigid foam to act as both insulation for the roof and as a protective cushioning layer under the EPDM liner (the integral part of a living roof system).



I began setting rafters on the east side of the building...






And here is the finished roof line, all decked and foamed:





The following shots are just random "site photos," to give an idea of what things look like around the house:



The pit below is where we've been mining our clay from to make the cob.





Here's the initial stacking of the bricks for a test-run of the rocket stove heat riser.




It worked great! Incredible draw, and a very clean, almost smoke-free burn.



The light has a expanded metal lath form around it, which will be plastered over with earthen plaster, the end result being a cave-like cob sconce:



Stove pipe embedded in what will be a cob bench, and then exiting the building:




Preparing the pad for the rocket stove:



Setting the bricks into a sand/clay mortar:



Here is the "burn tunnel."



And they are all stacked!



Here Mike is cleaning the rust off of our 55-gallon barrel, and polishing it. The barrel is a very important part of the rocket stove. More later...

1 comment:

  1. Geez! I look away for a month and you've got a new building. Your design and craftsmanship are superb, a true inspiration!

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