Progress in the Last Two Days on the 2nd Floor 'Ceiling' and the Tunnel

About two days' supply of mortar mix and masonry cement

On the second floor, we now have EIGHT bays in finish coat; FOUR bays in base coat awaiting finish coat; and TWO bays prepped and ready for the base coat.  And the finishers are returning tomorrow and will hopefully leave with TWELVE in finish coat and TWO in base coat. (Perhaps the Walls Becoming WALLS and Progress on the 2nd Floor 'Ceiling' are misnomers.  Perhaps it is the curved surface starting at the floor, going overhead and continuing down to the floor - the arched ceiling-wall or wall-ceiling.  Each bay is a 6 foot wide section from floor to midpoint of the ceiling, outlined by the metal structure that is not getting the plastering treatment.)

The workspace after a day's work (still some cement dust in the air)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tunnel is closer to being the first room completed, but still a ways off.  It needs the beams painted, the floor cleaned, prepped, and then painted with epoxy and a coating. And some work on the earth tubes (wire replaced with cord, a good cleaning, and grates installed at both ends).  And then close in the wall (we are looking through with this picture), paint the wall, and installing a door. Install a light fixture. THEN, we can call it WHATEVER (Pantry, Wine Cellar, Cold Cellar, Utility Room) as Tunnel is just not functional, but it has stuck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walls Becoming WALLS

The burlap and 6x6 wire (mesh) and miscellaneous concrete 'scrambled eggs' and other protrusions on our concrete walls are disappearing.  Not without a lot of work.  Thank you, Carol!  And our Mexican concrete finishers - Fidel, Fernando, Victor, Pedro, Juan, Sabino, Guadolupe, Luis, and Humberto - say they enjoy coming here and working.  They are doing a great job of getting our walls finished. And thanks Keith, for keeping up with the concrete mixing and anything else asked of  you.
I thought I would provide before and after pictures.  These are of the Northern most 3 bays on the East side.  They are now in base coat, curing, awaiting the finish coat.

  These are before and after pictures of the West (3 northern most bays) that are now finished (except for paint).

 There are only 2 bays that need some prep work (burlap and metal removing and grinding,and hammer-chiseling).  All other bays are awaiting base coat, in base coat or finished.

With this coming week being cold, we are hoping to be finished the second floor.  Then, we focus on prepping the living room 'cathedral' ceiling and invite the concrete finishers back. When all this plastering is done, we can invite the carpenters back to finish the framing.
The ladder-lift has been a very welcome, very well-used tool.  As is the mortar sprayer.  It has sped  up applying the mortar.  The bonding adhesive has helped make the mortar stick better to the walls and overhead.

Data Logging Started

We want to find out the effects of the measures we take in making the house energy efficient.  So, we are starting to collect temperature (and humidity) readings.

We currently have 3 data loggers stationed to collect the data: one in the house - in the kitchen, about the middle of the structure; one in/on the segmented retaining wall near the north end of the house; and one about 10 feet into the northeast conduit (buried for this purpose) to measure the temperature of the soil.

At this point, the exterior walls (South, North and West wood walls) are not insulated or finished.  The shotcrete has soil on top, but does not have the umbrella 'installed'.  We plan to do that in spring or summer.  And we were just talking about a solar chimney, which Bill has been thinking about. It sounds good and I hope it will happen.

The data loggers were positioned Sunday and Monday, 5-6 January 2014.  We plan to leave them in place for about 30 days, logging hourly data.

Today started out with the coldest temperature of the season and the coldest temperatures in 20 years. It will be interesting to see what the data shows.