Day 49 Finishing the four arches

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.

Day 48 Building our castle at Eve's Garden

Day 48

Alaine finished her first major arch! It's the big arch on the south wall with the home-made glass block arch in the middle over the french doors to be. Lucky thing I'm a good plasterer, lots of gaps to fill and surfaces to even out, but still she's strong (my arch).

That's a scaffold in the foreground, pain in the butt to maneuver around but makes the building a bit easier.


Kate is in this picture of the "Alaine Arch" to give you an idea of how big the thing is. Or maybe how little Kate is.

















The "Noble arch" on the west side of the sitting-room-to-be on the other hand is perfect just like him, but he got to use a form. He'll pull the form out after the papercrete gets all sets up.

Another big accomplishment today is we got the window frames in in the kitchen-to-be. So, the building should go super fast from here.

We have to lug up about 4 wheel barrows of bricks each day we're working. About 30 bricks per wheel barrow.
I note this cuz I'm going to calculate how many times I had to drag materials up here to the 2nd story.
And, to share a pretty picture, these Holly Hocks in the garden remind me of my grandma Berg's garden.

Day 47

Poor Noble had his first collapse today. Well, Nobe didn't collapse, the arch he was building on the west side of the sitting room, on top of this wire form, couldn't hold up to the speed at which we were workin'. Got carried away and ka-boom. Nobody hurt.
Paul got a picture of the avalanche...send it on Pauly...
Just learning to take it a bit slower.

Day 46

Day 46

I'm so excited!
It's hard to see, but the little arch coming up over the french doors (to be) has my home-made glass block in it. Jagermeister! Send your Jag (YAY!g) bottles to us here at Eve's Garden. You put them to good use, then we'll put them to good use.

This room is to be our sitting room, in between the bathroom and the little kitchen. Each wall is an arch like the one you see here on the south wall. You can see the arch on the west wall starting to come up here in the foreground.

Spring Flowers at Eve's Garden.

Day 45

Day 45

Alaine is actually been building up this arch!
I remember the first year, I was afraid to build. I was the muscle and Noble the brains. I'd wench the materials up here to the second floor and Noble would build now, i ain't skaired.






Noble has been working on setting up the deck on the south wall. Slabs of plywood outside the arch (pictured above) that I'm working on. Doesn't look like much, but believe me it'll be super-duper!

Day 44.

higher and higher...

Day 43.

NOTHING Washed out!
We'd had a week of rain so didn't get much work done.
Then our buddy Paul and his girlfriend Christina came for a visit so we took the chance to go to Big Bend National Park and go camping! (Paul will have to send us the pictures form that, we didn't lug a camera.)

Here I post the shot at the end of our 43rd day of construction on our flat. Yes, we started in 2008, but we've (if I've calculated correctly) worked so far on constructing the joint, for 43 days! Just me and Noble. Of course Kate and Clyde (my mother-in-law and her hubby) lended untold hours of consultation of their expertise.
We're on a roll. Hoping to get the arch over this french door on the south wall done in the next few days.

The view of these yellow bibbed black birds from our window over in neighbor Pancho's yard. Various people have identified them as Kingbirds, mocking birds, and yellow-headed black birds. Any ideas? Shouldn't be so hard...




Here's the nicho we framed around that big piece of selenite rock. Nobe left a space underneath it so we can shine a light through it. WOW. I've commissioned our friend Dieter to make a sculpture to sit in this spot.