Another Day off

There is a joke here in Mexico that the patron saint of the albanil is
San Lunes "Saint Monday",. That explains why the albaniles don't
like to come to work on Monday. It is some sort of religious
consideration. Mayra took some pictures of the small nichos we put in
the walls. We are going to have to rework some of them when we are
done.

Walls are done

The walls are now done. Now I need to figure out what the maestros
did all day on Saturday. I don't really see that much difference.
Looks like they are nervous about doing the windows and the arches by
themselves...

Last work on the Walls 19th of September

Well, it looks like we are wrapping up the work on the walls.

Last Saturday, I took my oldest son to look at the work. He said
"Dad, I thought YOU were doing the building". I replied, "I am doing
it, but the maestros are helping a little bit". He figured out that
they were doing it all !!!

Heating this Vault

I figure that cooling is going to be a breeze!
But how to heat?

I just bought Ianto Evans book at rocketstoves.com

and I just remebered a link that Ernest Aragon gave me for instant happy heat from a Count Rumsford fireplace.

http://www.gobrick.com/pdfs/RumfordFireplace.pdf

So I am wondering. Do I just need the firebrick and the flue, then make the rest out of adobe? This is looking like it needs to be in the corner of the "office" at our house.

Adobe Diet and Fitness Plan

I have seen a ton of gimmicky diets over the years. Today as we were
hauling adobe, I realized a great one. Just eat a bowl of beans for
breakfast, then have 3 bean burritos for lunch, and a dinner of
cooked rice, vegetables and chile. Now you might ask, "How will I be
fit and trim on that?" The secret is: HAUL ABOUT 200-300 adobes a
day!!!!

We loaded and unloaded 440 8x16x3 inch adobes between three of us.
Then we went to a old building that the owner gave us permission to
tear down and took about 60 12x24x3 inch adobes. We had to throw down
about another 200 that broke. I am beat. That is harder than folding
baby clothes or typing computer programs.

There is the new Adobe diet and fitness plan. Take advantage of it
and watch the excess weight just melt away, while your building goes
up. If you want more details, or to buy the $10 ebook, please leave a
comment or contact me and I will send you a paypal link. ;)

The guys leveled the floor out so we can start working in there with
barrels. Hopefully tomorrow.

16 deSeptiembre

Today is Independence Day in Mexico. We covered our site to protect
it from the rain. The work is rolling along.

Start of windows

We got some rain, and we had to haul adobes, so there was very little
progress on the walls. We did get started on the window spaces on the
walls. We also got a big black plastic so that we could cover
everything. I took the Profe back out to Puerto de Janos and he is
scheduled to come back in about 10 days.

We dug a little trench to drain the water away from the building.

Day off for rain

We got quite a bit more done yesterday. The masons stayed until about
6:00 p.m. to get things done. This morning it rained like cats and
dogs so they didn't go to work today.

More walls

We are working around some light rain now. Profe. Anselmo and I spent
the better part of the day in Casas Grandes looking at an old Hacienda
and some other property. There are a lot of great adobe homes over
there. This will be in great company.

Here go the first couple of rows

It took a little while to figure out how to do the corners, but here
we go. The first couple of rows were slow going, but we hope to get a
few more guys and finish laying up the walls in a couple of days.

Footings almost done

We are at the end of another week. The weather has been good. The
builder's are excited to finally get another paycheck. They seem a
little camera shy.

Progress on the Adobe Vault Footings

Here are a few pictures of the footings. We finally got one of the
builders to stay in the picture for a minute so that you can see the
scale of everything.

Check out these Footings

We got some of the biggest rocks we could find for the 70cm x 70
cm(28inx28in) footings.

Photos of Vault 4 September

Mexico Earthen Vault

From Nuevo Casas G...

We have started the construction of an adobe vault in Nuevo Casas Grandes CHIH, Mexico. This is based on the plan for a kitchen/garage by AVN found here:

http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/IMG/pdf/cuisine_exterieure.pdf

or more floor plans are available here:

http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/IMG/pdf_Catalogo_de_ejemplos_de_los_planes_VN.pdf

Profe Anselmo Jaramillo is scheduled to come down on the 8th of September with some students to do the actual vault work. We are using no concrete. It has been really hard to find the big rocks for the foundation.

Now I know that the secret to this is to be accumulating big rocks in advance. We went a little wild with the footings. The two end walls only need to be 40cm wide, but we made them 70cm. The depth on all the footings is 70cm. These are some BIG-BOYS!!

Nice little adobe home

Here is a nice video about the construction of a nice simple lime exterior adobe.

Simple Adobe

I love adobe construction. I think that one of the keys is to do simple construction. This is construction in harmony with the philosophies of Hassan Fathy.

I think that adobe is beautiful in small and simple presentations. I really want to build a two-story adobe that is less than 1500 sq. feet.

I will blog photos, books, sites, and videos.

I hope that if there is something you like here, you will take time to leave a comment.