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