Monthly Archives

November 2008

Nov 26
Love0

How to Build a Reciprocal Roof Frame

By Resources, Reciprocal Roof
reciprocal roof frame

A freshly assembled reciprocal roof frame

This is a long-delayed post about building my reciprocal roof frame. This entry documents the details of building my reciprocal roof frame, including the type of wood I used, the number of rafters, and the work process itself. I hope that this will be useful for individuals who want to attempt building a similar frame. With the general lack of information about reciprocal roof construction on the internet, I hope this will become a primary resource. Here we go…

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Nov 21
Love0

My cob building in The Bund magazine of Shanghai

By Uncategorized, Resources

the bund - cob cover

I was surprised to receive a comment on my blog from a foreign reader a couple of months ago. It was from The Bund magazine of Shanghai, and they were interested in doing an interview about building my cob house. Needless to say, I was immediately interested. Surprised, too, of course.

Anyway, I just got a copy of the magazine in the mail the other day. It’s a large format weekly magazine, very glossy, very westernized. Smack dab in the middle of high fashion and pop culture is the article about my cob building, with a photo of me (see above) sitting in my (unfinished) little mud house in a dirty t-shirt. Pretty hilarious. (And opposite that photo? An advertisement picturing Jackie Chan. Trippy.)

Fun stuff.

Here is a PDF document of the article: Cob building interview in The Bund

Nov 18
Love0

Still here, but almost done for the year

By Uncategorized

When all of your energy comes from the sun, and the sun don’t shine for a week, that means there ain’t no power to keep this blog updated.

So. Anyway. Building is definitely winding down and pretty much done for the season. I will put up a few more entries detailing the last of my cob building exploits for the year, and then I will slowly enter hibernation mode.

I would like to keep this blog rolling in the off season, so I am considering creative ways of keeping relevant and fresh content coming even while I’m not working on my house. We shall see.

Nevertheless, expect a little bit about my earthen plastering experience and winterproofing the house in the near future.

Nov 03
Love0

Starting to build the earthen mass floor

By Earthen Floor

And now… how to build an earthen floor:

When I began building, I decided to leave the topsoil in my house instead of hauling it out. I guess mostly to avoid the extra labor, really.

floor-dirt

Over the months, it has become quite tamped and solid from continually walking on it. I decided to leave it as is, with the original slope of the land, supposing that any moisture that does happen to get in there (which it shouldn’t) will run out towards the drainage trench.

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Nov 03
Love0

Getting in the last building work before winter

By Earthen Floor, Living Sod Roof

I will be headed out of Dancing Rabbit in three short weeks to go back to New Jersey for the holidays. Within the past couple of weeks, I have accepted the fact that I will not absolutely “finish” the house before that time. By “finish”, I mean complete the roof, finish the floor, make my rocket stove and cob bed and bench, and plaster the interior.

So. I’ve done some prioritizing. Now that the cob walls are complete, and the windows and door are in, the house is sealed. My biggest remaining priority is the roof – I need to construct an edge board around the roof, create a soil-retaining system, and have soil moved to my site and load it onto the roof. Oh, and seed the soil, too. That’s not a small load of work by any means!

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Nov 02
Love0

Late October cob building photo update

By Uncategorized

Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks:


Finishing the cob walls – it was very tight having to work so closely to the roof.


Installing windows – all of the windows I purchased were some kind of replacement windows – they all had a vinyl exterior trim which we screwed into the window frames.

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