Saturday, July 4, 2009

It is the 4th of July and I am still planning my departure. One of the methods I used to bring the project in under budget and achieve the look I wanted was to scrounge as much of the wood I used here in East Texas and bring a trailer load with me every time I came to work on the house. The weathered wood and the adobe look good together in my opinion. I am trying to build something that is strong and functional . Most of the time I was lax on tolerances. Every little thing is not exactly plumb or exactly level . My brick laying has the look of a beginner. But I allowed for much of that in my design, and as it played out, all the critical elements worked just fine. The design made up for the lack of ability. A case in point would be with the walls. Now I knew that I probably would not be able to make a long wall straight and plumb and still do it in the allotted time. But I figured I could make short walls straight enough. Also, I did not know how I would bridge a 30ft. gap that would be the width of the building, with the roof. So I designed the building so I would build it in compartments. All of these problems were solved by changing the shape of my place. It also solved one more requirement. I wanted some architecture, some shape, something visually interesting to look at. When I find three reasons to do something, or in this case three or more solutions to a problem. I go ahead with it so as not to be stuck endlessly trying to make up my mind . I move on the problem and go on to the next. By making the roof square and the walls kind of plus shape I get the advantage of maximum roof area and shade in the notched out areas. This helps in the summer by shading much of the wall area much of the day. It may hurt me in the winter . We will see. I guess I had better go on out and see John at the fieldlab and Betty at the Grub Shack. I will try and update when I can. Rusty

1 comment:

  1. Rusty, I linked here from Johns blog, your adobe looks
    great, did you make it onsite, if so, could you write
    a post with details of your adobe making process for
    the blocks and the floor. Thanks, Aaron

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