Every now and then I have been updating on the progress of my adobe house project in New Mexico. Earlier reports over nearly a year can be viewed
This is also our regular Saturday Morning gig to talk about home repairs you might be dealing with or schemes and dreams or your own projects you'd care to share. As always, our ad hoc cadre of construction professional and gifted amateurs can be trusted to show up and help out with advice and/or encouragement. We do empowerment here. You can do it.
This is the view coming up the driveway. The deeply battered stone wall is built without any concrete or mortar. The wood posts supporting the portal roof alone rest on concrete columns and footing pads.
Going up the stairs, again done without concrete.
which lead up to the portal, paved with sandstone slabs ("flagstone") quarried by my neighbors and cut and fitted by my crew. This has not yet been grouted. Yes, that is a 4 inch copper downspout pipe. 90% of the roof runoff is channeled into two of these pipes that join into a 6 inch buried plastic pipe that carries the runoff safely down the hill to a retention pond.
The pathway from the entry patio to the entry portal
Here is the alcove for the kitchen range and grill. There is a hefty hood for ventilation tucked up in there. This isn't a very good photo, but it does locate the seating nook, which has been seen in earlier photos. The seating "banco" is adobe, thermally isolated from the outside wall, and has some of the floor heating tubing running through it to toast the buns.
Finally there is this view down the hallway that catches the light from the windows behind and gives an idea of just how polished the plaster is. The work is done entirely with steel trowels and skilled elbow grease; this is the raw unsealed plaster, following the natural contours of the adobe beneath. The white plaster ("Red Top") has had tint added to the mix to give this color.
There are several views of this same place in the house as it has come along, including details of the stone columns in the earlier diaries linked above.
Soon I'll have very colorful slate flooring and wainscotting in the baths to show, and old style Mexican "Saltillo" flooring tile. Fellow Kossak native will begin the painting and staining next week; his work on the guest house can be seen in some of the earlier diaries as well.
I am truly blessed to have such interesting, satisfying and rewarding work to keep me busy, although I have put in well over thirty years getting to this point in my career as an adobe builder. Please enjoy looking as much as I have enjoyed building and thank you for your interest.