Journey in the Woods

Melissa the Plastering Princess

2012-01-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

Melissa has been tackling the outside plastering job, and doing very well:

These are photos of the west side of the house. You can see the dark spots are the latest additions

it makes the place look quite finished. We're not sure yet if we'll even do another coat. (we were originally thinking white like Greece, but we like the tan look a lot)

and you can see by her hat and jacket that it's been cold out again. Hard work to deal with cold, wet mud in the foggy rain.

Knife and Kit

2012-01-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

Something that had been on my personal desire list for a long time was making a knife. I've made some handles, well, replaced handles for knives before, and certainly continue to replace hatchet and hammer handles all the time, but I'd never done the blade and handle together.

I had set aside a piece of logging bandsaw blade 5 or 6 years ago, and finally got it out and cut it up with m y hack saw. then filed down the edges, drilled the handle rivet holes and carved a madrone handle. After a batch of times with the sharpening stone, a bit of oil for the wood, it's a pretty solid tool. It's not for kitchen use, but future outside butchering. Thus, I asked Melissa to make me a carrying kit for all my 'outside' knives.

She used some denim from some old jeans (I have tons of jeans that people give me for filters for the veg oil) and I think it turned out great.

views and times

2012-01-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

Jack takes in his morning view, overlooking our fruit tree meadow

While Melissa and I prepare a typical breakfast of dried persimmon, apple, yogurt and granola... and don't forget my strong coffee. (notice the baked bread there on the side)

Later, coming in from the rain, I'm ranting about how they can't seem to make a poncho long enough to cover your legs! I had high rubber boots on, but since about 5 inches of my legs were exposed, the water started soaking downward and filling up my boots! I'm not that tall that a poncho should reach past the top of my boots! arrgh!

A Tree in the Forest

2012-01-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

One of the tops of the redwoods that got cut off to provide more light to our house was just lying there in the woods while I cleaned up around it... so I decided we needed to drag it out. Melissa drove the truck while I managed the rope:

We got it up on the mill and cut it open. Revealing the inside of a log is an amazing thing:

Because this was a tree top, there were lots of knots, making for difficult milling and interesting wood:

After an afternoon of milling, I got 5 or 6 planks from it, ready to be made into the laundry deck.

Car Parts Update

2012-01-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

So, since I don't have much to show for my days of organizing the forest, here's a couple new pieces:

the plastic pull handle for the truck's emergency brake came off, so I whittled a new one.

I felt good about this idea because my hand made (Oak) drivers side door handle has been working well for a couple years now:

As each interior piece breaks, I'll just keep whittling new ones.

Even More Tree Work

2012-01-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

With the holidays and all the clean up necessary, there's not a lot of other stuff to show off... but this is a dramatic thing going on. Check out the tree guy way up in the tree in this photo:

and this one was one Steve, the tree guy, wanted me to take. He's been cutting trees in these mountains for 15 years, and he was impressed by the size of this old redwood on our property. the point of the picture is to see the diameter of the trunk compared to the guy.

More of the Mess

2011-12-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

A batch of photos of the mess from the tree trimming. (much worse than a christmas tree lot)

One or two branches came down on a plastic barrel I had over by the hot tub, dented it but didn't break it.

I'm in this photo, way in the middle back... for a bit of the scale. the amount in this picture is about a fifth of what needs to be picked up and moved around, and then chopped up. I'm tired just looking at the photos.

Huge Mess!

2011-12-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

(looks like blogger has changed their formatting. will be interesting to see how this looks on the published side)

So we got a guy back up her to do more tree work. This first picture is a little into the project already, but you can see the trees directly to the south of the house... with the sun creeping into the shot on the left (east)

Then check this photo out after he was done for the day. (I was his helper, to save money. mostly refueling the saws and organizing rope. not unpleasant work, but a surprisingly hard workout)

Barely looks like anything was taken out, right? well, there's days and days of 'slash' clean up on the ground. A HUGE mess. Just going in there to organize it enough to start to cut the stuff up will take days. I'll take some pictures of the before and after today.

In the meantime, Melissa worked on all the solstice cookies - Great Grandma McTavish's date-filled-oatmeal cookies. Made on the mountain on the shortest day of the year.

2011-12-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

Work on the Gen

Well, I've gotten the diesel generator all up to speed for running on veg oil. Here's the full view:

You can see the fuel line "T" here with the valve switches (the brass bits):

and an old lemonade/ice tea jar for holding the (cold looking) veg oil:

and the still annoying alternator being worked on to get it to create the proper amount of electricity.

Days can just disappear when trying to get this stuff done. sheesh.

2011-12-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

Living the life

December is the time for setting up the firewood for winter. great stuff.

2011-12-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Different kinds of accomplishments

Melissa has finished the first round of cushion making. Here's the love seat by the fire with the micro-suede cover sewn to fit over the hand cut re-used foam cushions with hand made (and stuffed) pillows.

Here's the fuel injection pump from a gas generator that my neighbors gave us -unworking - about 3 years ago. I managed to take the thing apart all the way down to find this little brass bit needed to be adjusted and cleaned. I put it back together and she runs.

2011-12-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

The morning view

I finally got my laptop holder together. Foolishly, I wanted to make it extra cool with some special notches (through mortises inside a rabbet groove) which took 5 times as long and ended up looking worse than other options... but it's done now, and holds the laptop above the keyboard.

You can see I also bring my morning tea up to the loft on a little wooden tray. The tray was a gift from Art and Joanne's last trip to Hawai'i.

2011-12-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Apples and Fans and Wind
(this post never got published for some reason... if it shows up out of order, oh well. it was written 12/2/11

The Gravenstiens are in! and yes, they are as tasty as they look:

Built my own ceiling fan. We got a standing oscillating fan from Art and Joanne, and I took the stand off, added more wiring, and hung it from the ceiling. Done.

the big wind storm came through and knocked tons of branches down all over the place. Here's the yurt deck:

and while this doesn't look like much on the roof, it sounded horrible all night long. time to clean the gutters! Again.

2011-11-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Various finds and changes

The persimmons are drying slowly, and multiplying: I think Melissa has done close to 200 this year. The purple ribbons indicate they've been dipped in brandy.

Tree guys were here the other day, and cut some high stuff out so we can get some more sun. Surprisingly, that's hard to take a picture of. There may be a lumberjack up in one of these trees.

On our way back from LA for Thanksgiving, we stopped in a small town for lunch and hit the thrift/antique consignment shop. I splurged and got this drill. Notice the handle unscrews and has a holding place for bits. Oatmeal powered awesomeness for $22.

2011-11-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

West Door Work

So I finally sealed up the spot under the door where the pipes go into the floor. Originally, I had wanted the pumps to sit under the threshold, but the way they put them together at the factory made them about an inch too tall for the space. So they sit under the deck, and that empty space behind them needed filling and sealing. I stuffed a bunch of old insulation bits left over from the roof and some plastic trash and then used plywood to cover it. Then, the can of Great Stuff, for every crack:

Eventually, I will build a little insulation box around the whole thing as well as the pipe insulation I have on there. No sense in losing heat. I'll just wait to scrounge some rigid foam somewhere.

Above is the deck boards in place, over the pumps. These were all ends and pieces left over from construction. Some had been the shelves under the yurt. I had to cut bits of rot off and such, but they cleaned up pretty well. Here's with the deck sealant stuff on them, still wet:

2011-11-19T18:02:00.000-08:00

Melissa getting things done indoors

Check out this entirely rebuilt from recycled materials pillow: The outside is an old flannel sheet from our bed (that got a rip in part), the next layer is the cover thing that was on the futon we got for free - we wanted the foam inside, which was used to make the seat cushions - and then the cut up bits are from the leftover foam shaping project.

When we go get the 'fancy' cloth for covering the seat cushions, Melissa will probably cover this blue pillow with another layer.

and, more persimmons peeled and hanging, now indoors, for comparison's sake.

2011-11-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

Little projects

There seems like hundreds of these little things still to do around the place, and more detailed and important to get right, as they are so front and center to the daily life.

I whittled up the dutch door lock for the back door, finally. and got the door knob on. I love how all three of our doors use the same key.

Melissa has started in on the persimmons for this year. We're trying it the more traditional Japanese way, outside under the eaves. We'll have to see how well they do compared to others.

the rest of my day was spent almost putting another drawer together. It was a great day to be doing carpentry outside.

Still, it's amazing how difficult I find each one of these drawers. I'm making six, and this is my fourth. Maybe by the end of this I'll have these dovetails figured out.

2011-11-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Views around the house

Now that it's colder, the interior bathroom windows fog up very artistically when we've both taken a shower. Melissa is moving plants in there also.

We didn't grow these or anything, but they sure look nice on the counter:

and we've started in on the drying of the persimmons again; Melissa is peeling like mad:

and I got all the new metering parts up and running on the solar power. Check out how nice it is to see this on the meter at 6pm:

2011-11-06T19:29:00.000-08:00

Home

How about this for a picture of home life? Melissa is sewing the final seam on the first cover of the first couch cushion while sitting in a rocking chair with the fireplace behind her, on the new rug out of storage. Cute!

2011-11-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

More work on the fridge

So, our little propane under-the-counter fridge wasn't happy with it's new home in the house. I had sealed up the (much bigger than needed) space it was going to be in very tightly, caulking and plastering the edges so that no potentially harmful gases could get out... but then I realized that my venting system wasn't sufficient enough to pull the heat away from the coils. So I went back in and busted some more holes.

Here's looking at the cob wall in the back of the cabinet with the two new vent holes busted into the 18" thick wall:

to the top hole I'm going to add about 10 to 15 feet of chimney, which I hope will create enough draw to pull all the heat out of there.

I also went back in and further insulated the box of the fridge itself. Above you can see the extra inch of foam on the top, and over on the left of the photo you can see the other foam for the side. I also did extensive stuffing of rigid foam along the sides so that the heat exchange area is fully separated from the back of the box (the closest corner in the photo).

All seems to be working right now, but I'm willing to cut a fridge sized hole in the wall back there if I have to.

2011-11-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

Solid wall

Some folks think that cob, made of sand and straw and clay, might not be as strong as a 'regular house'.... well, I had to add a vent behind the fridge yesterday (under the loft window). I had to go through about 18" of wall to get in. It took me about an hour of this sort of force:

I'm not too worried about the strength of my walls.

2011-11-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Ladder and Moving in

Made a ladder the other day, to get to the loft. It went from logs to ladder in 2.5 days, even including the gluing. It looks nice, but the steps are too close together (I thought it would be nicer to have them closer, but it just bugs me)

it's pretty light as well, so it can be slid up onto the loft floor for more space.

Simple photo inside the bedroom, as things are getting on the shelves

and, the lovely morning light coming in just after breakfast

2011-10-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

Some moving in

Got the chosen glass and dishware into the china cupboard, with new cup hooks and upside-down-wineglass-holders made myself. I can't believe I grew up with this piece of furniture in my life and never thought about making those wineglass holders until about 2 days ago.

I love the way the sun comes in towards sunset, streaming across the whole house.

2011-10-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

Forward , and into the night!

Did I mention we have electricity, and it works? I turned on a couple lights for this photo... turns out it's hard to take pictures of lights working.

Also, since the first rain, we've had puffball mushrooms, and we got a bunch of Oysters from down in the valley. hello dinner!

Melissa started to repair the old chair that had been in the yurt... the clothe supports had ripped out. We got new stuff from the fabiric sotore, and then she went to work.

Then she had to sew the springs back into a holding pattern.

The coolest thing about this project is my mom is the one who had refinished this chair to begin with. Another cycle through, and ready to use!

2011-10-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Local wildlife

The California 'blue bellied' fence lizard enjoys our sun-warmed cob walls (under the south windows)

2011-10-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Some Drain pictures

The gray water system is in place. The outlet pipe has the ability to have a garden hose put on it, and a winter out-to-the-woods pipe.

where the shower drain meets the bathroom sink drain with a access pipe for the future clothes washing machine starts looking complicated:

2011-10-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Stumped

well, it was time to take out the old madrone stump right next to the house. We left it there for two reasons: didn't need to move it, and it was giving a little shade. But, needed to put in the drainpipe. So, here it is in:

and, gone!

from the other side. I left the one growing section in, since it wasn't in the way. That will go out when the patio goes in.

2011-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Various progress towards normalcy shots:

the lights are not only wired in but have glass shades:

the 2nd bedroom has a paper lantern cover for it's main light (looks nice next to the bottles, huh?)

the china cupboard from Oshkosh is in place and I've fixed the warp in their doors so they close properly:

and the liquor cabinet door is on!

still needs to be oiled, but it opens and closes!

2011-10-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

More Furniture Refinishing

So, this round table that was in my parents' living room my whole life definitely needs some work. Mostly due to the rats in the storage shed, and the flood in WI back when it was stored there... but also from ME, when I was a toddler, I used to run my toy cars back and forth on it. Apparently, it was a flat surface I could reach from my cage- I mean playpen.

So out comes the belt sander:

and then a bit of oiling, some rotten stone, more oiling, and now it's going to be our main table in the house:

2011-10-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

Even MORE closet doors.

I got the little shelf/closet/cabinet doors above the clothes closet in yesterday. They still need to be oiled, but I'm happy with them. Obviously, the hinges are all on the left side, so that the slope of the door matches the slope of the ceiling when it opens... otherwise, the door would smack into the ceiling and not open.

A Before and After photo of furniture refinishing:

Here's the top of a dresser as it came out of the storage container... yes, that's rat poop.

Here it is in place, after sanding and re-oiling:

2011-10-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Even more Closets and Close ups

broom closet door is on!

opens and closes:

Here's a close up of the lantern under the bookcase - showing off my fancy joinery.

2011-10-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Various Closets and Close ups

Got the doors fit for the 2nd bedroom, though they still need to be oiled.

The coolest part about these doors (other than of course, again, they are made from one tree) is that I made the hinge mechanism myself: oak pegs as pivot points. They pull out if you ever want to take the door down.

Melissa took some photos in the main bedroom as we get furniture in there:

and she did up the curtain that is the closet door:

and I made a rustic workbench for planing. Note the bench dog.

2011-10-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

Curtain and Fire

Melissa has sewn the curtain for the toilet area. (how weird that we have a curtain for the toilet and an open space for the shower.

It's really well made, with some cool fabric that matches the tiles and has that watery feel.

and it works!

The bathroom cabinets all got their doors and got oiled as well:

AND, the woodstove got put in!

2011-10-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

From Log to Door

So, I pulled some redwood logs out of the old pile the other day,

and milled it, glued it, planed it, screwed it, and oiled it, and now it's a closet door.

all in 24 hours. bam!

2011-09-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

Additions and Details

Some other side projects are getting completed to add to the overall details list. Here's a bad picture of the slate around the chimney in the ceiling:

The glass in place behind the loft bookcase:

the front of the bookcase, with a clamp still on it:

and the paper lanterns are wired into the bookshelf above the bench:

2011-09-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Grout and Desks

Melissa has gotten the grout in between all the tiles in the bathroom:

and it's looking pretty good:

and I connected the desk to the loft the other day:

and it doesn't look too bad either:

and seems pretty solid:

2011-09-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

Small edges progress

The loft desk got an edge wall glued on the other day:

And Melissa has been working on the bathroom cabinet doors by adding edging to the tatami mats as we cut them to front the doors. She's using an iron to fold over the edging material. We got this iron from family friend Amelia, an antique:

that heats up the old fashioned way, fire:

2011-09-16T08:49:00.001-07:00

Desk update

Two of the legs for the desk have knee braces for stability on them. Got those notched together the other day. They actually look pretty good.

2011-09-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

The start of the Desk

I went into the woods to live deeply and cut a wide swath... and decide which log held the future desk of the loft in it. Here's the winner:

It got all milled up and I've started gluing bits together, but here's a shot of the legs in their beginning stages:

Cut square,

and then some mortises cut out so they will fit into the cross pieces of the underside:

2011-09-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

"solid wood"

I spent a good bunch of time cutting up the parts of that oak tree that fell in the driveway a while back, and then when we got the truck back, we dragged it down to the mill, and I wrestled it up there... and then spent a bunch of time slicing off the sides to get it mostly square so I could cut out big chunks for a desk I was going to make...

and one more slice in to it revealed a huge rotten hollow spot. oh well. fancy shaped firewood.

Then, in this super dry hot weather we're in right now, I've started to hear (!) cracks coming from the front and back doors! After hearing a particularly loud one, I discovered a crack going from the top of the door to the porthole window:

and it goes all the way through! It's not a huge deal, as I can putty it up,

as I did all over the back door. Here it is before I sand and repaint:

What's amazing about these cracks is that these boards came from ends of logs that were cut down maybe 4 or 5 years ago - before the timber frame got put together, obviously, as they are the end cuts from that project. I'm glad I built those doors with strong cross braces.

2011-09-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

Oil Oil Oil

Thanks to Kindra at http://claysandstraw.wordpress.com/ , we now have the oiling process down pretty well. 5 coats all in one day, with real hot oil going down one coat after the other. Still takes all day, but it soaks in well, and then you do all your waiting at once. I got the kitchen/lower level done today:

and we did the living room area last week:

we even used the new stove to heat the oil. Note the double boiler action to keep the fire danger to a minimum.

2011-08-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Small fixes for the floor

In the kitchen, I had put some 2x4s into the subfloor as potential anchors for the cabinetry. Then, when we finally decided on the depth of the cabinets and placements of the posts, these footings weren't in the right areas. So I just put the floor over them.

Well, the thinner layer of finish floor didn't like that, and there were some small cracks due to faster drying or whatever. To fix them, first I wet down the area with a spray bottle,

and then took a little bit of leftover floor mix (remoistened) and just worked it in with the trowel:

then, gently swept away any excess, and it seemed to work pretty well. Here you can see all the little spots I had to work on:

2011-08-26T22:35:00.000-07:00

The Damage

The rear output shaft of the truck transmission... cracked through a 1 inch diameter steel rod.

at least I got to keep the part.

2011-08-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Closet Rods get in

In between coats of oil on the floor of the second bedroom, I managed to put together the closet rod set up in the main bedroom. It has a center area for long things (pants hung by cuffs, dresses, etc) and two sides with each an upper and lower rod.

Here's a half done photo:

and here's how it looks all put together. It was surprisingly difficult to put all together, due to the design that locked it all together.

2011-08-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Back at the floor

After a week of travel, we tackled the last big job of the kitchen/dining room/pantry floor. We couldn't quite get the whole thing down in one day, but it was close. It'll be nice to not have the dusty floor kicking up on everything.

2011-08-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Some features in the bathroom

Got the first batch of cabinet doors on to the bathroom shelves. They're fronted with the reed beach mats you get for a dollar. Melissa sewed up the edges and when backed by some veneer, they look pretty good.

Showing off my bathroom door lock:

carved out of a piece of Madrone.

2011-08-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hammer and Oil

Got the pantry/mud hall shelves cleaned up (again) and oiled so they'll be ready for their doors. If they were always going to be empty and dusted like this, I'd leave the doors off, they look so good.

The first grounding rod for the DC side of things got put in the other day. 8 feet of copper bar,

all the way in the ground. We probably have to ground the AC side, and then do some more for a lightening rod set up.

2011-08-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Growing ideas

An interesting discovery I've made about my thinking process living out in the woods is how sometimes it takes a while to see the obvious answers. Perhaps it's a change in my perspective due to age rather than my surroundings, or perhaps that I work in more practical applications now than I used to... or maybe just I need more solutions more often.

The most recent example comes from dirty water. In the plans for the house, I had made up a complicated gray water system that could hold about 50 gallons if need be so that I could then distribute that water with a hose to the fruit trees when I got around to it.

This summer, instead of doing the typical 5 gal buckets at the end of the drainpipe, since we had a good crop of raspberry and blackberry bushes, I 'stretched' the capability of the hose and had it just drain out right into those berry beds. The main reason I hadn't before is that it's almost a horizontal run from the yurt to the berries.

Now that the strawberries have finished producing, I'm putting the gray water there, to encourage runners and new growth for next year.

All this leads up to my realization of the obvious: I don't need a complicated system for the house, I can just have the drains go right to a hose, and just move the hose every day or whenever I get to it. I'll just have a switch for wintertime, where I can send the gray water out into the woods when we don't need it for the orchard. Easy and simple. Took me 3 years of thinking to get to the simple answer.

The blackberries (with bird netting on it now) are VERY happy to have had all that gray water in the month of July.

And the peaches are starting to look good too. Another week or so before they'll get eaten.

2011-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Cabinet Doors

are on! They're not all perfectly square, and they don't all line up exactly how I'd prefer, but in general, they don't look too bad.

We'll probably use those little door-holder magnet things, but most already stay closed the way one would want.

Now I have think about whether I want to try and make handles/pulls, or just buy them.

2011-08-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Truck Trouble

The photo below is one of three interactions with the towing company from the last week. Seems like the transmission is not happy. It stopped moving down at the bottom of the road with a load of sand in it. We tried to get it towed that day (Friday) but with the sand in it, it was too heavy for the tow truck. After a long complicated day with another truck, I got the sand out, and had it towed into town.

Now we've had to have it towed from town to another town about 15 miles away, to a transmission specialist. could be spendy, but it's gotta get done.

2011-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Tear apart

So, I had to take apart the bed yesterday, as we had a worry that down inside, underneath, there may have been a mouse that got in before we closed off the doors, and then died. The evidence was, unpleasantly, a lot of flies in the bedroom. No smell or anything, but flies.

So, taking that apart took some work:

making a mess, I decided to plaster in the bottom layer, to really cut off any possibility of this happening again

here's a shot of the new plaster edge, before the top went back on.

2011-08-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Bathroom floor tile in place

Melissa has the tiles all laid out, getting ready to be thin-setted down. Looking pretty good!

the idea is that it's a stream, from the waterfall on the wall.

2011-08-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

More Floor!

Living room surface is DOWN! now wait a week and start oiling. I'm also looking forward to removing all that paper and blue tape protecting the walls.

2011-07-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

Activities on several fronts

Melissa continues at her regular station of tile cutter, working through the complicated pattern for the bathroom floor. She's at this wet saw about 5 or 6 times a day:

the doors on one side of the mud room all got on... though they still need to be oiled:

the first set of kitchen cabinet doors went on. The smallest ones, under the sink. We're still not sure we like the shelf paper for the surface. maybe wallpaper?

The garlic harvest has again had some clunkers, sort of soft and aged right when you pull them out of the ground. To save them, Melissa sets out the cloves and we dehydrate them under glass in the sun. Makes a nice pattern:

and, found some awesome Prince mushrooms the other day. They are so prized, they made the front cover of the reference guide. Tastes great.

2011-07-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

Cabinet doors and doors and doors

So, yesterday I cleaned off one set of shelves and oiled them up. They clean up well!

and all the doors (for everywhere) are made now, and the ones for this side of the mudroom are complete, with their oak horizontals cut from slats from old pallets and screwed into place:

I lightly oiled the inside of the doors as I had a bit of slightly thinned oil from working on the floor... I'll do the outsides once their up. Here's my first 3 (out of 22) put on with the hinges:

Then I went back to working on the kitchen side, where I decided to make some glass doors for the upper shelves. All was going surprisingly well until I got the first high one on... and realized that the center 'beam' of the loft is lower than the top of the cabinet. Great. so, I had to cut the top doors down about 1/2 an inch, and now will have to come up with a different way to trim up the top bit. not that big of a deal I guess.

Here they are put in, without a flash for the photo, trying to show the glass with reflection. (I know how to clean glass!)

and look, already crap on the shelves. what the...?

2011-07-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Foggy mornings

When I walk the dog in the morning, we hike over to an overlook towards the ocean. I love it when the fog comes in, yet we're above it.

2011-07-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Floors and Floors

Bedroom got another coat, this time thinned out a bit, and the entryway got the first whole coat:

and the 2nd bedroom got it's earthen layer

starting to clean up around there!

2011-07-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

The outside view

we haven't had a picture of the outside of the house lately - not that it's changed recently - so I thought I'd toss up a few:

The front door:

looking west down the south side of the house:

and, looking east towards the west wall of the house:

2011-07-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

More Details

Got the door onto the cold box in the wall today, part of the oak table (that's also the counter top). The latch is from the windows we used on the front of the house.

stepping back a bit, with the door open:

Did a proto-type of a possible light shade for above the bench in the living room. I'm going for a Japanese lantern sort of thing... we'd glue a light paper in the four main square sides if we go with this:

it looks pretty good for no glue and no plan before I started cutting.

2011-07-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Floored!

Got down to put the last coat of mud on the entry way. It was a small space, so not to grueling a project

I use my trowel to smooth it out, instead of the scree boards, as they leave seams that are too hard to go back and fix. this means there's some tiny variations in my surface, but not too much to notice.

Now it has to dry, and then we oil and oil. In the background, you can see the bedroom floor with two coats of oil on it.

2011-07-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Door Knob!

we're getting to the details level around here. Put in the first door knob on the french doors

went in beautifully. Two more to go.

2011-07-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

Kitchen and Floor

Melissa's tiles are going in well:

]

the old antique accents from my parents collection look pretty good mixed in:

and the whole effect is coming together:

in the meantime, I've put together all the cabinet doors, and added crosspiece supports (on the inside)

and, the bedroom floor gets its first coat of linseed oil!

2011-07-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Drawer

Took a shot at some real carpentry for the first time yesterday. I decided to go for the dovetail joints on the one kitchen drawer I intend to make. I used an old piece of pine for the sides that had been used as a closet shelf (I think I found it on the street in San Francisco years ago). Here you can see my best joints, actually looking pretty good - no glue!

The front redwood piece I went for the blind dovetails... and included an extra edge, making them even harder to get started. Those joints didn't turn out quite perfect, but they do work... and don't look too bad.

I used a board from a wine case for the bottom. you can still see the burnt on label a bit (not in the photo though). This is where the main kitchen utensils will go - spatula, clever, knives, etc.

Amazingly, it fit perfectly in the hole.

2011-07-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Various things move forward

I got the first coat of varnish on the shower side of the interior windows (the blue tape will be removed at the end):

I did a TON of smoothing and fixing on the wood edges of the floors - these are the madrone sort of retaining walls for the earthen floor... they're also the steps themselves, to cut down on possible wear on the earthen floor part. Working with madrone is really hard.. it's a hard wood that warps a ton, but it is so beautiful when done and oiled (not including my crappy glued up seams):

and the redwood edging around the kitchen counter got screwed in - with wooden plugs for the screw holes - and oiled as well. Melissa and I call them 'hip huggers'

AND, I milled up the entire amount of wood for the kitchen cabinet fronts today. I love it when the mill and the chainsaw are working well.

2011-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

How to make Bathroom Shelves:

First, find a log in the woods:

Mill it into boards with the chainsaw mill:

collect your boards:

Use the table saw to trim off all the bad bits:

cut them to lengths, and glue together to get the right widths:

plane them... a lot:

and then plane some more:

and then put them together!

Now, of course, I have to make doors.

2011-06-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

Back in the mud game!

we decided to tackle the finish layer of floor in the main bedroom today. One thing about these finish layers, you can't stop half way through a room, so we had to get it done today.

Mixed it up right in the living room:

and spread it around with the hand trowel:

working towards the door, of course:

we'll see how she turns out:

2011-06-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

the whole solar system

I'm starting in on the solar electric system puzzle. It's going to take me a while to figure out what goes where.

2011-06-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Melissa takes it easy

We have the big tarp up over the yurt again, so it's shady and cool inside again. Melissa decided to take a break, doing some reading in the rocking chair with her feet up. the country life!

2011-06-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Updates after long pause

I've been dealing with some pinched nerve issues, so besides the guests, I've been on my back a bunch not getting stuff done... so not much to update. Thought I'd show off some things though:

the setting sunlight coming in the west door on solstice:

Melissa continues to lay out tile on the kitchen counter. Starting to look like a house!

The "farewell to spring" flowers are coming on strong... must be summer now!

We had a breech in the deer fence... or they figured out how to get through the one small door down to the west. Anyway, they got the grapes, amongst other things.

2011-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Talcotts visit!

Looking back at the blog to this old blog post we see how when Talcotts were here last time, they sat on what would become the living room bench:

well, a little further along, and now with Diana as well, they're back on the bench!

We also put Karl to work moving the irrigation barrels uphill a ways (to keep them out of the sight lines of the house) and plumb them into the grape drip line system:

Michael wants to point out how good the new grapes look: "it's right there!"

2011-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Tile and Wood

Melissa starts tackling the strange angles of the kitchen counter, planning out the layout of the 12x12 tiles:

and I got the bathroom door up on the hinges and oiled up. Here it is from the outside:

and here's an inside shot. Did I brag about how the window is a shelf from a refrigerator? I love that. Nice frosted window.

and since I had the linseeded rag (you have to be really careful with linseed oil, as it has a spontaneous combustion quality as it dries [on rags, not doors] so when I oil something, that's officially the last time that rag gets used. It goes into the firepit afterwards. So, I try hard to get every drop of oil and use out of a rag... so I run around re-oiling stuff), I cleaned up the living room benches:

2011-06-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Floors and Edges

Melissa did a bunch of work filling in the subfloor in the bedroom. We'd worn it down over the last year (or more?) kicking up dust and such, and so by sweeping up the dust, sifting it out and adding water, we were able to pretty easily spread it out again.

Note all the protection of the white walls from splashes. We will need that for the finish layer as well.

They say the oiled and waxed earth floor will be the same color it is when it's wet... so the above might be the color of our future floors.

Meanwhile, now that the granite counter end is in place, I've added the 'hip bumper' to that section (so we can get down to finishing the plaster around it) and started making it fit into the curve:

After some chiseling and some sanding, I added the first layer of linseed oil, and it looks pretty good:

I suppose I could have gotten it rounder, but it feels pretty smooth on your hand even now.

2011-06-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

Top of the bathroom wall

Above the bathroom/hallway interior wall, we've put up a glass 'transom' or whatever.

The idea is that it will allow light in from the west - the sunset light - into the rest of the house. We used the old windows from our San Francisco apartment, some of which, I'm sure, are quite old.

2011-05-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

Random nature boy stuff

so, I've been making more local tea in the morning. Penny Royal, Yerba Buena, Yerba Santa, Wild Rose... lots of stuff. and my teapot broke, so I'm using a mason jar:

and I fixed a basket handle with some young hazel branches. Getting Natural!

2011-05-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

KaYun Tackles Project

KaYun is here again, and I managed to talk her into fixing the hot tub patio. Digging down in front of the fire area,

and then replacing the pavers. This way, it's easier to work on the fire!

2011-05-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Plumbing fix (#1)

Redid that joint at the shower mixer with sharkbite connectors (which are awesome, by the way) but had to chip into the stud to get the elbow to fit while screwing it in. The red PEX line then met the PVC before it goes out the wall. I haven't actually run water through this yet, but one of the great things about the Sharkbites is they spin on the PEX, so if the joint needs tightening, you can crank away without worrying about the other end of the pipe (not) spinning.

Meanwhile, Melissa is working on how she wants to lay the tile in the bathroom. We have a bunch of nice tile (from our friend Karl) but not quite enough to tile the whole thing in one way.

This river rock stuff is cool though.

2011-05-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Plumbing Fail

well, all things considered, it hasn't been that bad. Turns out where my cold in PVC meets the shower mixer, there's a leak.

and, since the PVC is all glued in, I'll have to cut it out and replace the whole cold side. Of course, due to the fact that I couldn't check for a leak until it was all together, this was the only way to find out. and, it's not too bad a leak, but anything is unacceptable.

hardware store run tomorrow.

2011-05-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

First Run at Shelf

The bookshelf over the windows got formed up today. The brackets were hard to put in, but they're solid now. Now I'm going to create covers for the horizontal bracket parts, and a fence to hold the books in.. and then fasten everything together... and then add lighting!

2011-05-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

More Plaster, fixes, finishes

Getting to the end of the plastering, I did above the front door, so as to have a tighter seal between wall and door:

Re-did the re-do job on the middle step. This time I added a huge amount... perhaps it won't flake off and will take the abuse of the step flexing:

and the toilet bench got sealed in as well:

2011-05-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Manifold Central

Well, all the water lines are in, and the drain lines are ready to be hooked up (but I want to wait, as they will run through the west patio, where I do a lot of work) and I need to figure out how I'm going to cover this up and protect it. Here you can see the white cold water line, the gray and green and yellow gas line(s) and the black and red hot water lines.

The tool box is holding down a PEX line that wants to bend up, and is in there for scale. It's also sitting about where I want to have the clothes washing machine when all this is done (thus the water riser there with the shut off). Now, one issue is how to deal with the slope from the wall to the 2x4 on the ground. Remember also that the patio (to the right in the above photo) will probably come up 8" to 10" with flagstones, etc. I should probably build a deck that will allow access to those pipes on the ground...

Maybe a railroad tie along the front that the deck can sit on and the flagstones can come up against.

2011-05-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sunshine

As it warms up around here, the grasses are getting longer and the field mice are out in force. Jack thinks he can get them if he sits still and watches:

and the sun is starting to come in nice and bright on the limewashed areas. This is the high spots of the bathroom wall, which still needs another coat or two:

2011-05-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Substructure of Counter

Here's a bit of the work done to support the granite piece at the end of the counter: Next to the plywood box that will hold a drawer, I've put in a batch of 1.5" redwood pieces as supports. Here's the west one being screwed on (I thought it was such a nice carpentry moment, I took a picture)

and here, with the cross pieces notched in, is the whole thing that will then get a layer of plywood, and then the granite:

2011-05-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Tiles and More

Melissa's work is coming together

The shower with the start of the fixtures going in, and the floor tiles getting laid out:

The French doors area gets grout:

The liquor cabinet tiles get grout and cleaned up:

and look good all together, huh?

2011-05-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

Things are growing

We've got tall grasses and budding flowers all over the place. This is me checking out our artichoke plant, with one real artichoke on it!

and the irises that were given to us a couple years ago are really coming on this year.

2011-05-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

Tile work continues

Now that the mirrors are in,

Melissa has decided to shape the upper edge of the tiles that will be below the mirror, so there won't be much of an edge for gunk to build up on.

She says it takes the tile saw, then 3 kinds of sandpaper, then a sponge, to do each one. She has to shape 22 of them. Here's a before and after:

2011-05-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Counter surface work

I took that old table and cleaned it up, sanded it down,

and cut it to fit between the sink and the stove. It still needs more sanding and oiling, but I think it's going to work out pretty well.

Here you can also see where Melissa has cut the granite (that we scrounged) into the 'island' end, next to the stove, and she's made pieces that continue towards the french doors.

Those above the white plaster will get plastered in, and the whole counter will get a wooden 'bumper' that will hide the exposed edge.

2011-05-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

Counter structures

Here's some photos of the sub structure of the kitchen counters. Here's where the fridge will go (note the 2x4 ribs under the plywood for strength):

and here's the space between the stove and sink, looking out the south windows:

Note for future reference: there's electrical wires on the horizontal at the back of this area, under the outlet... I need to make sure to not screw into those by accident.

2011-05-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Progress, Process, Possibilities

I figured out some additional ways to mount the 'faucet trunk' to the side of the house. I had these plastic strips from the back of a mirrored door, so I screwed them into the cob with 3" screws, and then to the top of the trunk before putting the lid on. Now, when we plaster all that in, it should be pretty solid:

It's officially solar cooker season! Granola gets underway:

While Melissa preps the shower wall to attach the mirror:

I'm exploring the possibility of cutting up this old oak table I got for free a year or two ago (a give away on craigslist that was just on my way somewhere). The stains you can see, by the way, are rat droppings. ugh.

I'm thinking of cutting the table up and making it into the counter top between the stove and the sink. this is the section - about 48" across the top side, and about 28" deep. The orange level is there defining the right (western) side, where tile would meet it.

2011-05-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Trying something

taking an old-growth off cut and getting it down to size,

I thought I'd try and make a little stand that hid the PVC coming up the wall on the future patio area. of course, it's also right where the sink drain needs to come out, etc. Check the brass faucet coming out the top. We'll put a piece of slate on this thing like a roof/shelf, and then plaster over the higher PVC.

2011-05-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Various Trenches and Pipes

There's been a lot of trenching and plumbing type stuff lately. Here's the propane gas line going in to the various appliances:

Then I cut and fit all the PVC for the water inlet lines, taking some extra time to think through various future plans, including this little line going off the NW corner of the house - I hope one day to put a wood fire boiler for domestic hot water (and radiant tube floor heat) over there, and will need a cold inlet line.

Here's a bit of the confusing challenge that is the manifold for the floor heating system next to the propane line next to the domestic water line(s).

and this is the serpent waiting to be hooked up to the whole thing so as to be able to circulate water through the floor

2011-05-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for various appliances

While we're still waiting for the propane guy to show up so I know where the shut-off valves will be, I've set up a batch of the cabinetry in preparation. A lot of things are determined by the height of other things... and the stove being a main one. We decided to put some tiles under the stove, instead of earthen floor, in part just to get it done, and so that if it ever needs to be dragged out of there, it won't gouge it up. (though I realized my hand truck moves the stove perfectly, so no need to drag it)

Here's the tiles in and done where the stove will sit. Now I know how tall to make the surrounding counter tops:

The other propane device is the fridge. Worse, it's the same one we use now, so I can't even build it in yet (I'm not sure *how* that transition will go) but again, waiting to figure out the valves, I can build parts of the enclosure, but not all. Interesting thing (that I'll brag about), all this is notched and wedged in, so it can be easily disassembled when the gas guy gets here.

And, did I post a picture of the sink in yet? Note the drain pipe is already connected!

2011-05-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Searching with a shovel

Did I mention I had to dig a big trench to get ready for the propane guys (who have yet to show up?) of course, I didn't have the metal detector to find the pipe, so I ended up digging about 10 extra feet, as I thought the pipe was much further north than it was.

here you can see the pipe; all the extra trench to the shovel was just exercise. whee.

2011-05-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

Bathroom Plastered

The lime plaster is completely covering the bathroom walls now. Looking in the door at the mirror:

The cubbyhole shelves by the toilet area:

and the skylights and upper windows:

2011-04-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Bed Project

I'm building the bed frame for the main bedroom, and we want storage underneath, so I had to think about drawers and all that. Also, we're coming to the end of our nice long redwood lumber, so I decided to take on the challenge of only using scrap pieces (and some plywood) for the whole thing.

First, I went scrounging through our piles and came up with a batch of ends and bits:

After planing and cutting to size, I started putting them together, leaving holes for the future drawers (I'll build those later). In this photo, you can see I've used plywood as structural support between the drawers. These pieces hold up the platform piece as well.

We had planned to have electricity coming out the ends, so those had to be figured in as well. (Melissa had long ago figured out the wiring needs)

Here's an early shot of how the bed is actually made two platforms - one that the drawers will sit on, and one that the mattress will sit on.

Electricity for the other side... and notice that I had to build the sides different from one another because the wall curve isn't 'square' with the room.

I wasn't sure what to do with the end, since the drawers couldn't go all the way (because of the needed corner support) but we decided that a bookcase would be nice, and I think it turned out well. The two long horizontal pieces are the longest redwood boards in the bed. the floor of the shelf is a think scrap supported from underneath.

Then it was time to scrounge for the 'headboard' pieces. Here they are, laying out to dry, as they were out in the rain, some of them even buried in duff and dirt.

Once planed up and cut, I had to figure out how to fit the wood to the wall. Notice I decided to go grain-edge to the wall, the only way to use scraps instead of a couple of good pieces.

Here they are cut to fit the wall curve, with the future light switch junction box:

and then the linseed oil goes on!

First coat, done!

2011-04-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Some Cabinet updates

A bit of progress on the cabinets. Here's between the stove and sink:

and the ones under the cold box, in the northwest corner of the kitchen:

2011-04-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Bread and Bridget

we baked bread in the earth oven - two small loaves went in together and stuck - and we just left them that way and started slicing off pieces of one. Now it looks like a head. Bread head.

Bridget came to visit and wouldn't stop playing the ring on a string game:

Until the wine and pizzas came out, then all was well!

2011-04-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Visitors Do Work!

Sky and Laura came to visit, to check out our whole project in person, as they are hoping to be on a similar *journey* some day.

They were truly eager to experience a bit first(muddy)hand, so we did a batch of scratch/discovery plaster near the west door - on the north buttress. We spent most of the day on tours and talking, but they clearly knew about hard work and wanted to help.

Good times.

2011-04-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

Lime Plaster!

We've gotten going on the plastering of the bathroom with lime plaster. Some parts of it seem easier, some more difficult. These walls will get painted with the lime wash as well, to turn it white.

and, just for a change, it hailed at lunch today.

2011-04-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Back at work!

I got the lower part of the kitchen sink support in place, with some good grooves on the posts for a tight fit. Also, since the propane line is going to go under there, I decided to throw down a big old HDPE pipe for the gas line to run in. In the ridiculous possibility of an earthquake somehow making the cabinets jump around so much that they land on the pipe, the HDPE will protect it from getting cut by any vertical plywood.

Meanwhile, Melissa got to work on the garden, with some transplants and some watering. The leafy stuff is coming in strong - lettuce, mizuna, arugula, radishes...

and I had another little DIY victory: I figured out why the generator wasn't putting out any power - well, actually, why it was only putting out 2 volts - it was the 'brushes' in the alternator... apparently they wear down over time. Here's a photo of me putting in a new one.

2011-03-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

More Grapes go in

Down in the SW corner of our place, the area we've always called 'the vineyard', we put in 25 more vines! Melissa actually mapped out and dug the holes:

I spent a lot of time clearing the overhanging brush... this is an 'after' shot... you couldn't see that stump from all the growth around it, about 10 feet high.

Each one got gopher wire:

and then buried in!