Well, well, well. I can assure you we have not perished. I can also assure you I've been far too busy to write blog entries. I have lost some interest in keeping this blog, but I will continue to update occasionally for the long distance fans.
We've been working like dogs trying to tie up some loose ends. Loose ends that should have been completed long ago, but got put on the back burner, and then on the back burners back burner, and then on the back burners back burners back burner.
Our greenhouse is 90% done! Or at least I'm going to pretend it is. We still need to do the final coat of plaster on the planter, line it with rubber, and fill it with lots of rocks and soil, not to mention plant things... dye half the concrete floor, plaster a wall... but besides that, it's closed in and getting super close!
We've been using this space as a sort of weaving and fibers studio. I've been doing a lot of dying projects. I wove some Ikat scarves, which I hope to start selling. Dain has been learning to spin wool with Yak wool he got in California, and some local sheep's wool. He has been weaving, too. He rented a larger loom at the Fiber Arts Center and wove a rug. We hope one of these days we have more than one loom. Right now we take turns using it.
The monumental work we've been doing is the next room. We've pounded all of the tires, which was quite a task because the room is going to be two stories. We're about three or four weeks from putting this roof up. We hope to put up the entire structure of the house by December, or February (more realistically). This next room is the second to last. It will be the living room, and have a lofted second floor for guest quarters. The bathroom is in the front of this room. It's only structurally half there, which is why we don't have a real bathroom yet. It'll happen around 2016. What's another year of waiting?
We've also been finishing the floor of the kitchen. Unfortunately we started in December and it got too cold for the adobe to dry, so we've been stopped up for about 3 months. Just last week we put the tiles in and have just one more coat of adobe to do. We use the Earthship recommendations with the adobe, doing 4 coats and letting it dry slowly, this allowing it to dry without cracking (too bad). It's so close. We have to use ramps in the kitchen so we can avoid walking on the floor while it dries. This is annoying, but at least we're not locked out of the kitchen. The new rule of our house is: FINISH IT BEFORE YOU MOVE INTO IT. This will be a touch rule to keep, but I hope we can do it.
And so..
The proof:
Here was the greenhouse December 1st (how I barely remember it):
Digging trenches for our planter drainage...
Can wall "Form" made for the pouring of our cement floor.. Footing for the interior wall of the mud room..
Pouring Floor
Building interior wall of mud room *currently it's exterior as we still need to complete the mud room
A beautiful stained glass window my Grandpa Dave made and then gave me.
What a special gift. Thanks Grandpa!
Digging out for the planters, we dug SO MUCH in this one day,
the cement floor to the left is complete, but covered in dirt.
A mosaic I made. I think I could find a career in middle school science room mosaics.. yikes.
Finished.
No one is allowed to laze around at our house.
We had a pretty good snowy winter this year, view from inside Greenhouse.
Planter walls, almost finished. We're doing mosaics where the grey grout is.
Okay, actually someone does laze around all day..
The other mosaic also got completed in December.
The kitchen floor, adobe, concrete, and tiles...
First, pouring the cement form:
Figuring out how we are going to use the tiles..
Using the tiles. They are now grouted into the floor, and at home drying as we speak. In a week we'll be able to do the final coat of adobe and be done with it! This blog entry feels premature. I wish I could have waited until the floor was done. But, there is always something almost done at this point in my life.
Marble tiles in the back of the kitchen.
Dain grouting the tiles. We worked on these tiles for two days straight, cutting and arranging. Another whole day figuring out how to use them. I think it was well worth the work.
View from our newest room, the future living room. looking out towards the future 2nd greenhouse.
The bathroom wall, or soon to be.
Looking into the living room.. All two stories of it. Phew.
Our greenhouse has become a studio. Here is an Ikat warp I was working on, it is four scarves (12 yards) long.
Another Ikat project.
The warp in its most frustrating stage..
The rug Dain made.
Some of my finished scarves (that I would love to sell.. Too bad they are hand made, and have to be pretty expensive).
Alright, that was way too many pictures. It would be different if I had the internet at home, I can assure you. I will update when we get that floor finished and the next roof up, which will be in a month!
-Amanda
