BMN What’s Next: TheShell

Good Morning
So far this work week has been pretty draining, thank goodness it is Friday. I would have written Thank God it's Friday, but my final job of the day was mildly disturbing. After the client let me through two locked gates, then had trouble getting in the house through a contrary garage door opener, a fancy SUV was revealed with a front plate that read "Rapture Ready." At first I thought it was a joke, then after a while it didn't seem so funny. As I toiled, the old timey adage "It's the Devils work," kept rolling around in my head.
 
I'll try to write about what is to be done next on the kitchen building project.
Hopefully, after a major break on Saturday morning, I supose it is time to start building concrete forms.

On two sides the concrete floor butts against solid rock and is below ground level. Maybe I'll spend some of my down-time sitting outside imagining how the forms ought to look and work. It has been in the back of my mind to do some rock work. Every spot I think rocks would look nice I realize that with the limited space we're going to need cabinets against every wall that isn't a window, and with the spectacular views, most walls are windows. Cabinets are great, but will cover any rock work. So, I'm still pondering how to get my favorite media into this structure.

The below-ground walls will definitely need to be masonry. I'll need to tie the floor and reverse foundation together well. This will be a good place to try out some of the earth sheltered building techniques I read about in the two books,  Earth Sheltered Homes & Earth Sheltered Greenhouses. The west wall is the deepest into the earth, at two foot below grade. Probably for a moisture seal as well as structurally the wall and floor should be poured at the same time. I enjoy working with steel so I'll build a frame for inside the concrete.

Because of my own emotional instabilities, I haven't been able to bring myself to look at the house I built down the hill in the 12 years since we fled up the hill. Those massive rock walls have hundreds of pounds of steel in the form of rebar, and whatever scrap iron I could find and weld together. I don't need to build that strong here, but I do need the wall to, not move where it meets the floor, and it is pretty simple to tie them together with iron before pouring concrete.

Also we want to have a layer of Styrofoam under the floor and behind the wall, and anywhere there is an interface between the ground and the concrete. For the shop we made the concrete forms out of Styrofoam, which is great because you don't need to remove the forms when the concrete sets. I'll check on cinder blocks as well. On the back wall of the shop we set a layer of cinder blocks right in the freshly poured concrete which makes a good bond between wall and floor. I could do something like that here and even go all the way around with a row or two of blocks.

Anyway, this is what I need to start thinking about now. I've got a little more plumbing to layout before we pour concrete. Once the slab is poured and cured for a week or so, the walls go up, and then the roof. It'll start to look like something before long.

Okay, okay, that was dull, so I went for a walk to the river.

(Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk) Already the grasses are turning green after a few little rain showers. It rained again last night, thank you Rain God!!!

(Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk-sparkle) I just love the water. Sometimes I wish I lived in Minnesota, with my own little wooden rowboat moored next to a little wooden dock. I would row and row and row out into a vast lake with morning sun sparkles all around me.

(Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk-fresh-cut) Some kind of branches in the water. Are the beavers back?

(Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk-BeaverBuddyBoy) Yes! There is one now.

Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk-Water-flow-NM-style

Friday-the-13th-2012-River-walk-tree-protection-updated

Well, I guess that is it. This was a pretty good week for progress. Nell is still suffering. We're all hoping and praying she heals soon. I also wish I could say she is getting better. My poor sweet wife, we love you.

Brian Rodgers
-   

Related posts:

1. BMN TheShell Project Begins (8.3) Brian's Morning Newsletter Wednesday, June 06 2012 Possible-Hailstorm-June2012 Good Morning…
2. BMN Treeman (7.1) Brian's Morning Newsletter Friday, July 06 2012  Treeman-Brian Good…
3. BMN More Glorious Rain (5.5) Brian's Morning Newsletter Monday, May 14 2012 ATV-Brian-Rachel-May2012 Rachel-Brian's hat-May2012…
4. BMN Storie Lake Driveover (5) Brian's Morning Newsletter Tuesday, February 21 2012 (Storie-lake-Feb-2012) See…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.