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.

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.

Papercreting the Stairway

Oh, I did have some pictures of what's getting plastered, this week.
TOMORROW shots of progress!

Below is a pretty pictures of a finished plaster job, it was taken by our friend Alexa Walker (http://3heartsranch.com/photographs/index.html) and I put it here just to make sure that people know that Eve's Garden Organic B & B is up and running, and has been for around 10 years. We have seven unique hand built rooms all made out of Papercrete and other alternative and recycled materials. Come for a visit! We're a work in progress to demonstrate alternative construction methods and to inspire folks to build crazy stuff too! 

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.

6 person hours!

OK! Upwards!
It's a Rainy Day, rare thing in the high dessert of West Texas, so we're worried all the work we did would wash out, cross your fingers.
French door frame in, A/C frame in, and the piece of selenite crystal from our friend Mark set in!

Our friend Mark donated two larges pieces of selenite crystal which we are using kind of as windows, or back drops to two nichos located on the left and right on the south wall French doors. Mark actually bought a selenite mine in New Mexico. He has a website http://www.crystallinephoenix.com/
The word “selenite” comes from the Greek “selenites,” meaning “moon stone” or “moon rock,” with the root word “selene” meaning “moon,” and for good reason - the mineral selenite is the near transparent and colorless crystal form of gypsum that exudes a pearly luster which glows and can very much resemble the moon. Selene is also the name of the Greek Goddess of the Moon (a.k.a. Artemis or Diana).


This picture is a piece of Selenite that Mark gave us that is displayed in a window frame at Eve's Garden B & B. We're going to actually make windows out of it! Translucent windows yes, but windows! You'll get a better Idea of what it is to look like after we build the nicho up around the rock, hopefully the day after tomorrow, when no rain is forecast.

Working!

April 12th, 2010
About 6 person hours

Here's Noble building the frame for the French doors we've decided to put in the south wall!
So we'll have French doors on the north wall AND the south wall! So exciting! Lots of light.
This means I'll have to knock out a part of the wall we already built. The beauty of papercrete, change your mind... just try try again.









Everybody loves photos of kitties. Here's one of the 8 or 9 cats we have around Eve's Garden sitting in a bucket of nails. Tough Cat!

14th Day Building the Papercrete Castle at Eve's Garden

Noble and Clyde--boss-man, architect, mad scientist behind the whole Eve's Garden extravaganza--changed our whole blue print and added these two arches YESTERDAY in one 18 person hour day (total 347 total person hours worked in two spring seasons here in Marathon Texas). Soon there will be an arch between these two arches and then a gigantic arch over these three arches--si dios y Noble quieren.
I'm excited to see big flowing green ferns in these arches.
Soon I'll have to change the point from which I take the shot. And soon we'll have to clean up a bit.