Earth Bag House

Some detail trim work painted white near the foundation adds an aesthetic touch to the house.

Once the Arts and Crafts' guys finish the sun on the house the exterior will be done.

Earth Bag House

Can you tell I'm proud of the work our guys are doing with the Earth Bag House? The metal roof should be finished today. Hope so cause the dark clouds are rolling in as I write this. It will have a composting toilet (see www.oursoil.org) and running water once we get the well dug and we buy a pump and a cistern.

Earth Bag House

Wooden windows are in.

Door is set up.

TiBoss (Jocelyn Nelson) and Biondy admire the interior.

Sunny

Roberto standing next to his creation. He made this out of cement on the exterior wall of the Earth Bag House.

Earth Bag House

Tige and Herold posing next to the bedroom window in the earthbag house. The inside walls are done and look kool.

Outside walls are slowly getting done. Work on the neighborhood wall was our focus during my absence so the house saw little improvement. The effect of the stucco is very similar to old structures in Europe or early homes in the southwest-- see the rounded corner here.

Earthbag House

Cement stucco is being applied to the exterior of the earthbag house now that the interior has been done. Still have the roof to finish but that will go up in a snap.

Looking good

Here's Raymond near the refined, textured wall. Raymond moonlights as a weaver of fishnets, hammocks and bags.

Textured

I use the word 'texture' when I comment on the cement stucco adhered to the earth bag house walls. Brings back fond memories: like the first time I gift-wrapped a present. It wasn't pretty but still got the job done.

Earth Bag House

The "ceinture" is finished. Don't know what it's called in English. It bonds the bags together at the top and allows us a way to secure the wood framing for the roof.Here's Boss Junior working on the forms so we can pour the roof over the toilet. There'll be a cistern up there to provide water.

Earth bag house

The cinder block wall for the bathroom is up.

Earth bag house- Update

Denis and Evens waiting on the masons to put up the block wall for the bathroom.

Here's Denis, the Earth Bag House project manager, framed by his work. He's proud of his accomplishment and can't wait to see it finished. Denis is 20 years old and now sees the possibility of becoming an alternative building contractor.

Evens

A photo of Evens finishing the sewing of earth bags. All the bags are done now.

Room with a view

Here's a great, pastoral view from the bedroom window. That itty-bitty dark thing in the middle of the photo is a cow. We are laying the last of the earth bags today (if the rain holds off). Then comes the roof.

One more update

Window and door frames are in. More and more neighbors are stopping by to take a gander at this strange-looking structure. They aren't sneering but... I'd like a dollar for every raised eyebrow.

Another update

Door frame is in and the walls get higher and higher.

Here are TiDenis and Thierry getting a close up look at the new, funny house.

House update

A long shot of the house taken from the road. It's slow but sure progress.

Earth bag house- Update

Shot taken late this afternoon. That's TiWawa stamping away.

The guys are getting more proficient. Here's an example: they fill a bunch of bags, sew them shut and than lay them out.

Too wet to work

Had torrential rains all night last night. That puts a halt to the earthbag house, at least for this morning. Here are Denis, Aye and Junior thinking about what to do next. Notice the metal tamper next to Denis. This works much better, is more solid and a better workout for the biceps.

Barbed wire

Photo taken yesterday afternoon. Here we see (from left) Janel, Junior, Denis and Winzor. The barbed wire is much easier to handle now that we have learned how.

Earth bag house

This is a shot of the day's work on the earthbag house. Lots of lessons learned.

One big lesson: it is much smarter to sew the bags shut after putting in the sand and clay mix. A sewn bag can take 11 shovels' worth of mix unlike an unsewn bag of only 5 shovels' worth. That's Pierre-Rinot taking his turn as an earthbag tailor.

We broke two wooden tampers so we're making a couple of iron ones for tomorrow. The barbed wire was tricky but we finally got the hang of it. Several of us are walking around with band-aids tonight.