Electrifying Progress

Tuesday was a big day here. The carpenters were here finishing up their work on the walls of the second floor. The electrician, Kevin, came in the morning and we had discussions on where everything electrical would go. He started working in the afternoon placing wiring and boxes in the walls and ceiling, and the plumbers showed up.

 

Kevin has been concentrating on the first floor - under the second floor.  

We went 'window shopping' last night at Lowe's to look at lighting fixtures, and whom did we run into but Kevin who definitely knows his way around the lighting department.  We have decided on some 6" recessed lighting in the kitchen and living room and a shower; most of the other fixtures need a bit more research.  We also viewed the plumbing fixtures for the bathroom to see what was available.

We discussed with the plumbers the work to be done, and the placement of fixtures (tub, sink and toilet) in the upstairs bathroom.

Bill is working on closing up the tunnel/utility room so the walls can be plastered. The South visor or overhang still needs the final coat of plaster.  

Weather is getting so nice that we are planning on starting some of the outside work.  That work includes contouring the garage dirt 'roof', covering it with the insulating umbrella and finishing with dirt and grass on top before the hot summer.

The Carpenters Have Done Some Magic!

The stud walls on the second floor are almost finished. The carpenters were here Wednesday, Thursday and today, Friday.  

The wall between the bedrooms (Manuel and Felix)

The West wall and doorway to access the storage area

Bruce and the East wall with the electrical closet

 

The framing on the second floor looking North from the South wall

They will return when bad weather prevents them from doing outside work with their other clients.  Other work they can do here includes the stairway and half wall that separates the living room from the kitchen.
Electricians, it's YOUR turn!  Plumbers, it won't be long before we ask for your services again. 

The Thrill of Accomplishment

The inside of the house including the West Annex is plastered.  The exhilaration of having walls look like walls is going to keep us going toward completion with enthusiasm.

Our crew are expert 'flatwork' cement finishers.  They had experience doing vertical surfaces and floors. Guadalupe had experience of flipping cement onto walls in the old fashioned way.  He tried our mortar sprayer, but found that it didn't put the cement exactly where he wanted in the thickness that he could get by hand.  None of them had experience with ceilings.

Guadalupe putting down base coat

Fidel and Fernando finishing the 20ft high ceiling

The overhang (or visor) to the South is now in base, to be plastered upon the finishers' return, probably next weekend, weather permitting.

 We are looking into insulation to use as our PAHS blanket insulating material.  One product looks to be easy to use, has waterproofing properties, and radiant heat resistant properties as well.  We plan to try it out first on the garage.

We used a heater in the pantry/utility area to get the room temperature up to 50 degrees F. The paint for the metal bows requires it.  Now that we have done that painting, we are ready to clean and paint the floor. When all is prepared, we can get the water installed in this area.

The carpenters have been notified of inside work availability and we have the materials to have them magically make stud walls appear on the second floor.

Bill and I have started experimenting with the outer end of the earth tubes.  It involves putting a barrier to animals in it, along with a clip for a cord which will remain resident in the earth tube.  Here is a prototype. Cutting the six inch PVC pipe is the tricky part.

 

11 and 6, then 18 and 8 - Barrel Vault Ceiling Getting Plastered

Eleven bags (80 lbs each) of Mortar Mix and Six bags (70 lbs each) of Masonry Cement were used Friday.  Our concrete finishing crew of 4 put base on the West side of the barrel vault of the living room (great room) and finished the last bay of the second floor that was in base coat. 

Eighteen (80s) and Eight (70s) were used on Saturday.  The crew of 5 finished the West side of the barrel vault in the living room (great room) and put one bay on the East side in base coat.

Fernando, Fidel, Sabino and Jorge Luis (l-r)

Sabino, Fidel, Fernando and lower right Guadalupe

 Perhaps you can extrapolate how many bags we have used thus far.  I know it has been a lot.  The 'barrel vault' over the second floor is completed.  There is a very minor little 'ceiling' area between the main house and the West Annex that needs the finish coat.    And work this week will be prepping the remaining surfaces so base coat can be applied.  (Prepping means removing loose burlap and wires, and chiseling bulges of concrete.)
(edited by ownerA)

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.