This is a long-delayed post about building my reciprocal roof frame. This entry documents the details of building my reciprocal roof frame, including the type of wood I used, the number of rafters, and the work process itself. I hope that this will be useful for individuals who want to attempt building a similar frame. [...]
Posts from ‘November, 2008’
The end of the building season & a retrospective
This is the official end of the 2008 building season for me. I am in New Jersey for the holidays. The work site has been cleaned up, the house has been sealed, and the EPDM pond liner has been tied down.
My cob building in The Bund magazine of Shanghai
I was surprised to receive a comment on my blog from a foreign reader a couple of months ago. It was from The Bund magazine of Shanghai, and they were interested in doing an interview about building my cob house. Needless to say, I was immediately interested. Surprised, too, of course.
Anyway, I just got a [...]
Making and applying an earthen plaster exterior finish
A week or so ago, while the weather was still reasonably comfortable, I decided to experiment with making an earthen finish plaster. I settled on ingredients and a recipe for my earthen plaster mix relatively easily after talking to others who have done plastering here at Dancing Rabbit in the past.
Still here, but almost done for the year
When all of your energy comes from the sun, and the sun don’t shine for a week, that means there ain’t no power to keep this blog updated.
So. Anyway. Building is definitely winding down and pretty much done for the season. I will put up a few more entries detailing the last of my cob [...]
How to build an earthen floor
Recently, I wrote an article about building earthen floors for Green Building Elements. Earthen floors are commonplace in straw bale and cob buildings, but they can also be installed in more typical suburban homes.
Check out the full article here: Natural Building 101: How to build an earthen or adobe floor.
Starting to build the earthen mass floor
And now… how to build an earthen floor:
When I began building, I decided to leave the topsoil in my house instead of hauling it out. I guess mostly to avoid the extra labor, really.
Over the months, it has become quite tamped and solid from continually walking on it. I decided to leave it as is, [...]
Getting in the last building work before winter
I will be headed out of Dancing Rabbit in three short weeks to go back to New Jersey for the holidays. Within the past couple of weeks, I have accepted the fact that I will not absolutely “finish” the house before that time. By “finish”, I mean complete the roof, finish the floor, make my [...]
Late October cob building photo update
Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks:
Finishing the cob walls – it was very tight having to work so closely to the roof.
Installing windows – all of the windows I purchased were some kind of replacement windows – they all had a vinyl exterior trim which we screwed into the window frames.
