Help us decide on which exerior lighting to choose

Help us decide on which exerior lighting to choose...

 Lamp #1

 Lamp #2

 Lamp #3

 Lamp #4

Lamb

Benefit Concert for Recycling in Marathon at Eve's Garden

I know it doesn't have much to do with our building, but we gotta let you know. . .
On Saturday May 26th,  our buddies with the Austin-All-Girl-Doo-Wop-Folk-and Roll Band
GUY TOWN
will be preforming here at Eve's Garden in Marathon!

I went to the Marathon Chamber of commerce meeting last week and we were discussing how much it'll take to get recycling going for this little community. We had the idea to make Eve's Garden's monthly Happy Hours event into a fundraiser for recycling. With this awesome group of talented folks and your participation, we hope to cover the whole year. We need $100 a month (we estimate.)

My conservationist hubby got himself a KEG-O-ATOR, so we'll donate the beer and have a no-waste fiesta:
Lone Star beer of course.
We'll have some snacks, but it's (as always) a pot luck, don't go to a bunch of work--tweak some leftovers or just come on by.

Saturday
May 26
starting at 6PM
through and after sunset.
at
Eve's Garden
www.evesgarden.org
with
Guy Town
www.iloveguytown.com

Lighting Issues

Our living room's four walls are arches that meet in each of the four corners.
Noble has wired in light bulbs in each corner where the arches meet to creat this cool light effect.
I am trying to design sconces cover up the CFL bulbs and shed colorful light.
The last of these four photos shows a piece of recycled glass I was trying to design as a sconce. Our buddy Willy gave us a glass melting kiln, so I've been experimenting with melting bottles. That one is beer bottles with clear marbles inside.
I have been trying to research how to slump recycled- (rather than art-) glass, but I think I'll have to get a new ceramic tile saw. Probably with a 7" or so diamond blade (we over-used and busted our last one) and slump the bottles and cut it to fit the space.
ANY OTHER IDEAS FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CORNER LIGHT LOOK SPECTACULAR? !

 Wondering why we haven't been blogging? Bubbles is the reason....

Meet BUBBLES!! Our new puppy from the Alpine Humane Society. We are So In LOVE!
He chose his name...the first thing he did when he came into Eve's Garden was pee on a case of champagne (ok Miller High Life, the champagne of beers) so we started calling him Bubbly... then Bubbles, and sometimes Buba. . ..
Not a yipper and SO SMART. ... gonna train him to help us load the mixer.

South Exterior Wall PLASTERED

Yay Team! Just a quick six days and poof, plastered wall.

Day 1 Prep: 5 hours Alaine
Day 2: 2.5 hours Aliane
Day 3: 7.5 + 3 hours Noble
Day 4: 8.5 + 4 hours Noble
Day 5: (today) 7 hours + 5 hours Noble
Day 6: 8.5 + 2 hours Noble
Total: 60 hours!

Thirty Some Feet in the Air!

 I got the middle section, arched part, plastered, didn't get the in-between picture though.
Spent 8.5 hours doing that.
Then, a calm windless day, we hooked up a saftey built and Noble belayed me. We were really high tech. He looked up how to wrap a big rope rope around me (not so comfy) and then found a carabiner and hooked it to a long extension cord.
Luckily, no problems. and LUCKLY after just 7 hours, got that hard part done!
Day 1 Prep: 5 hours Alaine
Day 2:  2.5 hours Alaine
Day 3:  7.5 + 3 hours Noble
Day 4:  8.5 + 4 hours Noble
Subtotal: 30.5 hours so far


Can we get it done in one more day?

2nd Day Plastering the Exterior South Wall

Gotta make sure it's not a windy day when one is plastering twenty some feet in the air on a not-very-stable platform.
Day 1: 5 hours Alaine prep

Day 2: 2.5 hours Alaine

Day 3: 7.5 + 3 hours Noble

Subtotal: 18 hours.

Any other guesses for total hours to plaster this whole side?

Can you see the difference? Just plastered the lower left section.
So far, about 5 hours in preping the wall ... using my chipping hammer to knock off buldges, and make sure the platform is safe.
and 2.5 hours to haul the plaster up and around to this the second floor and plaster that lower left part.

How Many Days do you Think It'll Take Us to Plaster the South Wall?

 Here's where we started, our exterior south wall is about 45-50 feet across. The right side is more than 30 feet in the air?

What do you think? How many days or hours will it take us to get the whole surface done??
Remember, there will be a few hours of prep time...
Looking forward to guesses...

Goal Reached!

Pheewww.
Got the ceiling plastered in three days, the four arched walls finished in the four days we planned. So, we'd planned eight days to plaster and wire the whole living room, and we got 'er done with one day to spare!
Of course I have No Idea How Long the mosaic job on the east wall will take and we have to schedule out PAINTING!
Did you see how perfect those crystal nichos are looking? Noble made little boxed underneath, put in outlets, and has the light switch wired, so we can have colored lights shining up the crystal. Fabo!
1672.5 hours worked so far! = 104.5 days worked by the two of us. (No Pauly, we didn't calculate in hours you guys put in, let us know and I'll adjust)

Next, looks like nice weather, going to plaster the exterior south wall. It's 30 feet in the air, wish me luck!
Noble is plumbing the bathroom.
We plan a trip to ND in the coming days, so would LOVE to get the office and library and bathroom all done, so when we come back, I can start painting and Noble can figure out the kitchen.
We're both at a kind of lost on the kitchen
Will have to post the measurements and see if anyone wants to design it for us.
We had a group of 20 some architure students from Europe stay at the B & B a couple days ago, tried to get them to plan out my kitchen, no luck, they were having too much fun running around the Big Bend.

Before Pre-Plaster Final, South Living Room Wall

I tried to get you people to drink more jagermeister for the arch over this the south French door. But the arch turned out super! Wait'll you see it all plastered out!
Did I tell you Noble has the whole living room wired!
Notice these nichos on each side of the French doors, they are crystals!
The open square below the right nicho is where the A/C will go.
Papercrete is very insulating, R40 per square foot, if I have the correct.
Noble will put in some ways to get the heat out at the high point in the kitchen and to suck the hot air out through the bedroom on the third floor. So, we shouldn't have to use the A/C much. But we plan to rent out the joint when we're not hear, so some peopel need the A/C.

After Plaster

Plastered! The east wall in the living room.
1651 hours completed = 103.2 working days for the two of us.

I'm Still in need of broken mirros and ceramics.
Breaking a mirror used to mean bad luck, now it means Good luck for me.
Bring me broken mirros and we'll give you a discount at the B & B
www.evesgarden.org

I'm wearing the awesome rubber boots that friend Dawn got me at the Alpine Thrift Store Deja Vu. Love it, their profits go to help abused women, why buy new. No more cold wet toes for me!

Papercrete Plastering the Triple Arch Bottle Wall

Above the before shot of the east arch in the living room. 
I had to chop out a bunch of the bad plaster above the bottles, it looked pregnant. I want to make it a level smooth surface because after we get everything plastered I want to mosaic the big surface above the bottles and below the arch.
IF YOU HAVE BROKEN MIRRORS OR TILES OR CERAMIC COFFEE CUPS, LET ME KNOW I CAN USE THEM ALL!
Also, if you have experience doing mosaic, adivce is Very Welcome.

Half Done with Arch Plastering

1,627 hours later, the north wall of the living room is done. Note the bottle light on the right ride maintains its swallow's nest. And we've got some fancy furnishings. At the end of each work day, noble and I sit and admire our work over Lone Stars and plan for the next day's work.
Sorry for my Poor Photo stiching job.

Before, Way Before...

Trying to find a "before" picture of the north wall in our living room. Forgot to take one before I plastered this wall, so I post this one from our 11th day of work.(Above) and below around the 7th day.
Tomorrow will be the 101st day. The french doors are in, this level of the house is all closed in, elecrity in...wait till you see the progress...
Of course, I look just the same as I did back in 08.

And Remember Eve's Garden Bed and Breakfast and Ecology Resource Center is up and running.
Write to Kate at
info@evesgarden.org
We still have space for superbowl weekend. Come on down!
Below is a shot of the Sapphire Room.... Give you an idea on how AWESOME our place'll look when all done this spring.

Making Papercrete Plaster

Pre-Step One:
Make a deal with the local recycling center or bank or school to take their shredded paper off their hands.

Step One:
Weigh out 35 pounds of shredded paper.

Step Two:
Toss the paper in your big ole mixer (save the plastic bags for reuse).

Some people say a toe mixer will work fine for making papercrete, we found that it doesn't mix up everything well enough. We use a big cement mixer. If all your ingredients aren't thoroughly mixed, your first wheel barrow will be all paper, your middle all sand, and your last all cement (or some order of events)

Step Three:
Sling over your shoulder in to the mixer on top of the paper, 40 shovel-fulls of plaster quality sand (or crappy sand that you've sifted into 14 half-full 5 gallon buckets--put in 10 today)

Step Four:
Hope that your hose isn't frozen and then squirt five minutes of water into the mixer.

Step Five: Hope that you can start your mixer. If you're so lucky, then tumble your paper, sand, water mix for 10 or 20 minutes.

Step Six:
After you've shut off the mixer, hose down the paper from the side of the mixer and let the paper, sand, and water mix sit overnight. Looks good enough to eat. Har Har har.

Tomorrow Morning:
Add
One 94 lb bag of Portland Cement
Half of a bag of Metacalin (I'll check the spelling) Clay
14 shovel fulls of sand (or the reserved 4 half-full 5 gallon buckets of sifted crappy sand)
Water to your liking (I like a dry mix cuz I have to haul my plaster up to the third floor. I add about 2-3 mins from the hose)

Tumble for about 30 mins.

Dump into wheelbarrow and NOW you Can Get TO WORK!!

We get about 3 small wheel barrows out of this mix, haul it up to the second floor, add more water, and work with it for between 6 and 12 hours! (times TWO people).

Taa Daaa

100th "Day" of Working on the World's Tallest House of Paper

Yippeee! 100 Days!
It did take Noble and I ALL Day to get this arch plastered. SO GORGEOUS!
Can't wait to see the next arch plastered!
Above shot the west wall of the living room, entering the kitchen and the front door.

Below, the other side of that same arch. It's a double arch, I only did the lower arch. It ended up taking a LOT of Plaster to try to smooth out this arch.

Maybe tomorrow I'll show you how to make the plaster, step by step.

YIPPPPEEEE

1,593.5 Hours of Work on our House!

OK, today pre-loaded the mixer so we can plaster the first of the four arches in our soon to be living room!

After loading the mixer, I cuddled up with my computer by the fire with all my old records to update my time log.
Since we started building our castle in 2008, I've been logging how many hours it's taken to get to where we are today. I knew it would take the course of Years, but wanted to log actually how long it takes if we had the time and funds to just build and build and build.
So, since 2008, we've spent 1,593.5 person hours of work. Averaged out with two people working eight hour days, that'd be just 99 and a half days. I'm hoping we can finish these three floors (world's tallest house of paper!) in less than the equivalant of one year!
(Not included planning nor shopping time, just physical labor)

The second floor of our house (Aka apartment)  is all sealed up, so even if it does freeze at night, I can now keep on plastering inside. Here's the "before" shot of the west wall of our living room, pre-plaster. Could plastering this little 12 foot high arch really take a whole day? We'll see tomorrow...

This is the same arch, foto taken while standing even more wester in the house, in the kichen.

A Ceiling as Smooth as...

Well, a ceiling as smooth as a rhinoceros' back side! It's as smooth as the smoothest papercrete ever! Three weeks from now we can start painting!
In the end it did take three days to plaster the ceiling. Working from first light to dark, slow process, but now, again, I can say the hardest part it done.
We figured out we'll need 18 light fixtures on this floor!
For example, just in the living room: there will be:
two spotlights on the back side of the bottle wall there on the east bottle wall.
four sconces, one in each corner where the arches meet, so light shines up on this perfect ceiling,
two other lights hidden on the arches to shine on the north wall which will have local art,
four lights outside the french doors on the south and north walls,
two hidden lights underneath the crystal nichos on the south wall,
and the big ole six foot wide ceiling fan has a light.

OPPS I guess I did the math wrong somewhere, that's already 15! light fixtures Just in the Living Room!

NEXT we'll start plastering each of the four arches around our living room! Those before and after pictures impressive!

Covered in Productivity

See there on the scaffold at my feet is the contraption that is connected to the air compressor, I load the hopper up with papercrete plaster, hold it up over my head, and spray on the ceiling, then trowel it into a perfectly smooth finish.

 http://www.mortarsprayer.com/stucco-tools/
Stucco Tools--donated this stucco sprayer to us, it's a great tool for building with papercrete or I'd bet any kind of stucco. It can be used for a wide range of papercrete mixes , from progressive stiffening form-work to colored mixes of papercrete stucco.

He's Electric!

You'll have to turn your computer on it's side to see these pictures correctly I guess. I can't even figure out how to use the camera, let alone the complicatedness of  wiring the electricity for 100000 lights and outlets and switches.

Working on a Room to LIVE In!

We're working our way through wiring and plastering the interior of the house. The above picture is where we start. I plan to get the living room plastered in eight days! (Really I plan seven, but underpromise!)

We'll set up a scaffold and I'll plaster the four foot mini-vaults in the living room. Harumpff, more plastering over my head! At least it's not on the stairway! I love plastering! I LOVE plastering! It's true, just hard work. Each 200+ pound load of plaster has to be mixed, then moved from the ground to the second floor and then stuck to the ceiling! The feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day is un-reproducable though. 

Here's Noble about to drill a hole in the ceiling to put the base for the Awesome! six foot wide ceiling fan we'll get in here before too long.

Insert Your Own Cliche Title about Celestial Stairways Here.

WOW!! WOWW! You gotta come walk up my AWESOME New Stairway!

Just three easy days, and Poof , gorgeous plastered stairway!!!