OK. We've finished our third season of building our papercrete palace.
We started in 2008. This first photo is the shot of our space after the first day's work.
That first season, we were only able to work 11 days, it was a total of 165 person hours.
Here is the picture at the end of that 11th day, in which we completed the north wall of our flat (or joint or palace), on the second floor, built above two guests rooms here at Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast in Marathon, Texas.
So, we started season two in March of 2009. This second picture is the end of our first day of the second season. The goal this year was to complete the east end of our main floor, which is the stairway up to the bedroom on the third floor, and the structure of the bathroom along with the dividing wall/arch that separates a small office from the big sitting room.
Here's Noble, architect, builder, all around brainy guy on the first half of the stairway finished after about 6 days into the work. In case you haven't seen the rest of the blog, those colorful windows in the arches are booze bottles cut in half, siliconed together and placed as glass block.
And, the block we use to build with is papercrete. We we make it right here at Eve's Garden out of recycled paper, recycled Styrofoam, sand, clay, pearlite and concrete.
Stairway completed and the east interior wall arch begun by day 15 in season 2.
A shot of Noble and I gazing adoringly at each other. Everyone knows how great it is to work day after day after day with your sweetie on a project like this, nothing but bliss and harmony.
This is what the east end of the joint looked like at the end of the 2nd season. We worked 30 days this season, a total of 412 person hours in 2009.
And, here's what we got done in Season 3:
This is Alaine's first major arch, on the south wall of the living room. This living room is about 16 foot by 16 foot, with an arch of this height. Next year, our goal is to put a ceiling on this room. Noble wants to build a groin vault, but he can't find much information on it, SEND YOUR IDEAS.
The nichos on either side of what will be french doors here are selenite rocks given to us by a great guy with a mine. His website http://www.crystallinephoenix.com
And this is the view of the west end of the joint (the kitchen), which will be the kitchen. When we started this season, there was only a two feet tall wall on the outside west wall and the south wall. Now all of the walls are done on All of the main floor of the house. Last season we got the roof on the other side of this level. This year we got the min-vaults here over the kitchen.
Total days worked in season three: 24 days.
Total person hours worked in Season three: 335.
I had reported that we have worked a total 55 days, I have to update that because I hadn't included six days making blocks and four days of working on preparations (framing windows, putting up forms, etc.)
So, the grand total of days that we've worked on our papercrete palace since 2008, so far is 65 days.
Grand total of person hours worked on the joint: 912 person hours.
Day 50
Well, the walls in the kitchen are nearly up. You can see the bottles formed in an arch over the windows in the kitchen. They are mostly the beautiful sapphire blue Bombay Gin bottles that I brought (empty) in my suitcase from Costa Rica. Thanks ReciCaribe!
Also today we mixed a few extra handfulls of concrete in with the papercrete plaster mix so we have a very strong mix to plaster the Noble arch, cuz soon we put the vigas (beams) on top of this arch, so it has to be really strong.
That's my shadow there on the left.
Day 49
The goal for this season's construction was to get up the four arches up in the sitting room-to-be and then get up the walls in the kitchen and get the roof over the kitchen.
Today we got the four ardhes in teh stting room done!
The view through the Noble Arch into the kitchen.
One more day of 
building up and then we should be able to start putting up the ceiling! That's why there is a gap in the middle of this arch, because there is going to be a vega (a beam) in the middle of this arch and a couple more beams going east-west and we'll build mini-vaults over the beams. 
The south wall of the kitchen has Bombay Gin home-made glass block that I brought in my suit case from Costa Rica.
Ooo the wind here in the high desert can be a killer. Noble and I started wearing goggles on the windy days. There are little bits of papercrete flying around and even more painful is the perlite (little volanic rockcitos). So far, we've worked 329 person hours on the joint. We're hoping to get the 15 by 15 foot square foot part of the place together before we head up to visit my family in Fargo, ND from the 5th to the 9th of May. --Mom finally got off the farm along the Sheyenne River, for the first time in 4 weeks cuz she was on an island in the middle of the country. An island in North Dakota.
Anyway we have 11 days to get that room up and together. Then, 5 days in ND, then we'll have about 10 days to see how much we can get done on the 15' by 15' space built ABOVE this space --which will be our third floor bedroom. Just 10 days cuz we'll be headed by to Costa Rica around the 20th of May. In case you didn't know, we spend about 9 month out of the year on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica and the other three months here in Marathon, Texas.
Day 4, total person hours worked 60.
Check out those recycled glass bottles, with the sunrise they are incredible!
I call them home-made glass block. Every morning I swing over to the two bars in town and collect their empty booze bottles. Then I slice them in two with a diamond blade tile saw, clean 'em, and stick 'em together with silicone.
Tomorrow, the second arch.
Plastering all this over my head! Eight hours of lifting all this plaster over my head! Thanks goodness it's papercrete, lighter weight than other plasters. 
Subscribe in a reader
