Building The Bathroom

08 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , , ,

After finishing the bedrooms, we directed our attention next on the bathroom. We had a corner tub already, which we found for sale on the side of the road a few years previous for $200. The tub had been sitting in the forest and consequetly needed a good cleaning before we wrestled it up the stairs and into the space. Because of this affordable find, we had to redesign the bathroom somewhat since we had originally assumed we would have a regular rectangular tub. In fact, having this larger corner tub really simplified the arrangement of the space and probably saved us a bunch of time.

Building the frame for the corner tub. We also packed insulation around the underside so the water stays hot longer!

The main job involved in finishing the bathroom at this point was tiling. We obtained a certain amount of black slate tiles, mostly 1×2 foot tiles, and some scraps, from a friend’s leftover project. We weren’t sure if it would be enough tile, especially now that our corner tub redesign added more area that needed to be tiled, but another friend of ours who came visiting one day was excited to give us 100 square feet of almost exactly the same tile that he was no longer going to use at his place! It had a slightly different texture and colour, but was close enough to hardly tell at all. We hired Keith, a local tiler, because at this point, having speed, tools, and expertise sounded way better than our old ways of fumbling through these things ourselves. Since our job was relatively small, Keith even used up a bunch of scraps of backing board from other jobs.

We already had a basic sink from the recycling depot here, but another old friend noticed that we had used Mexican Talavera tiles around the base of our woodstove, and offerred us a hand painted Mexican sink which she just had hanging around her place… it is such a beautiful and perfect addition! We were planning on using the same Talavera tiles as the backsplash in the bathroom, and now the artistry and colour of the sink and tiles really looks amazing and lively with the neautrality of the black slate and white walls.

Gifted hand painted Mexican sink and talavera tiles purchased online from Mexico, black slate counter top and mahogany trim

Colin trimmed everything out with the mahogany that we obtained through a work trade 17 years ago, and which has become all the window sills in the bedrooms. The toilet* was installed in a little nook, with the wall of the shower on one side, and a framed linen closet on the other, which doubles as a hide away for some awkward venting pipes which coming through from the utility room. We used all the low grade t&g cedar for the walls around the toilet and cupboard, and added the multi-toned blue and grey theme on the wall of the bathroom around the door. Both the cupboard door and the main door are solid wood doors reclaimed from an old house that Colin’s Dad had in his salvaged collection for a long time. They came complete with the old fashioned glass door knobs.

The final plaster is one of the last things to be done. Tracy and I spent one lovely day mixing a small batch of natural clay plaster, the same as in all the rest of the house, and did the bathroom and the mud room. Little by little, our slow house building project was coming together.

The bathroom counter and drawers were built with the aid of our carpenter friend Pete, who also did all the kitchen units. We used yellow cedar for the frames (from the material left over for the windows) with the same blue and grey cedar inside them, and the green frog handles were purchased 5 years ago from the clearance bin at Lee Valley. At the time, we made a very imagined estimate of how many handles we might need for all the doors and cupboards in the house. We were one short. Luckily, the clearance bin still had frogs.

The bathroom really seems to be a small story full of serendipity, friendship, patience, salvaging, flexibility, and persistence. We didn’t have everything figured out and planned ahead of time. We found what we needed and made it work. We stayed open to change. We were not fixed on a certain outcome. Materials showed up, sometimes from over many many years. The bathroom has become my favourite room, especially in the morning with the main window on the eastern side.

*One thing I highly recommend for the bathroom- a bidet! We purchased a simple add-on bidet (Tushy!) and absolutely love it. Wayyyyy less toilet paper which is such a bonus for the septic system. Also for the trees. We use pieces of cloth for drying and just wash them.

Internal Shear- T&G Cedar Walls

26 Jan 2021 1 Comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

All of the internal walls of our straw bale house are shear walls- meaning that they are constructed to be structural panels that can resist lateral forces acting on them. Lateral forces are those that are parallel to the plane of the wall, and are typically wind and seismic loads. In simple terms, lateral forces could push over parallel structural panels of a building were it not for perpendicular shear walls keeping them upright. In our case, the external structure of the 2×4 framing with bales stacked as infill for the walls, does not meet the structural requirements that protect against racking, particularly as we live in a high seismic event zone. Our structual engineer calculated that we needed 36feet by 8feet of shear wall, which amounted to all of the interior walls in our house. After building our walls with plywood on one side and a LOT of nails, as well as metal brackets from the foundation to the end of each wall and strapping over blocking in the ceiling rafters of the main room, we were good to go.

Mostly, these internal walls occur around the bedrooms, the utility room and staircase. The lower room of the house is basically one big open area, with shear walls separating the mudroom and utility room. We decided to buy some tongue and groove cedar and cover all the plywood with it, so we found a whole lift of 5inch wide cedar that was rather rough, meaning lots of knots (and knot holes) cracks, scrapes, scuff marks, discoloration, but in a general state of usability and affordable!

For the upstairs bedroom/hallway zone we pulled the best of the pile and used a clear natural stain product called Osmo as a finish. Luckily, with the solid plywood wall it really didn’t matter about the length of the wood. We finished the passage that connects to the upper house, which then took on a bit of a sauna feel, seeing as the ceiling is also cedar.

One of my original ideas for covering these walls was to use old pallet wood, and so to create a rustic, upcycled look by painting or colour staining the pallet material. This seemed like a good cheap option but ultimately we decided that it would be way too much work for the amount of wall we needed to cover. However I was still interested in adding a coloured stain to the cedar, which was all rather rough looking anyways. I experimented with creating multiple colour tones using blue, white, and grey water based stains from Saman, which was really easy to use and gave a nice palette. I prestained a whole bunch of boards, finished them afterwards with the same Osmo natural oil stain, and then assembled them on the walls from the mudroom, into the kitchen and then up the staircase on either side. Because the ceiling was made of uncoloured cedar, I decided to arrange the colour tones from dark at the bottom to light at the top, effectively fading into the clear boards before they hit the ceiling.

It was a fun experiment, and I think the blue, grey, and white palette creates a fun feature amoung the neutrality of the white/grey tone of the natural plaster which will cover the straw bale walls. I hadn’t really pre-thought the interior decor of this house, at least not as a priority, but as we move along into the finishing phases it is really fun to choose materials not only for their price and availability, but also for their attributes of atmosphere and tone.

We had a lot of this cedar leftover, so we also used it to finish some of the framed bathroom walls which create the toilet corner. Also, the we used it for the walls inside the utility room, which didn’t need to be beautiful, and despite the roughest boards being used in this room, looks surprisingly decent for a utility room.

Sculptural Walls

18 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , ,

The wonderful thing about natural plaster, whether it be on a cob wall or on straw bale walls, is the potential for creative sculpture. Cob is even more so, as 3-D shaping can be accentuated into the depth of the wall, while with straw bale, the sculpture tends to be more on the surface (unless one wants to cut into the bales). In the bedrooms and the hallway, we added some sculptural elements before applying the final plaster.

In the hallway, we had rather lumpy bales, which I managed to make less lumpy with the rough coats of plaster, but there still were definite hills. Either side of the opening that leads to the upper level of the house were really rather bulgy because of the small cavity within the framing that we rather awkwardly stuffed mini-bales into. We decided to build up a kind of crossing of flowing ribbonish lines that would frame the sides of the opening and go up and over the arch we had built at the top. These lines also widened out around the staircase landing, and down the length of the hallway. We drew lines on the wall with chalk and then used water and some clay slip to moisten the wall before beginning to add the cob.

In the bedrooms, each of the kids wanted to design and create their own sculptures, so we have a bird above one window, and a tree in the corner of the other room. We built a small half moon shaped shelf in our room that is wide enough to hold a tea light candle.

The sculptures look so much more effective when the final plaster is done, but that will have to be another post! The additions of the sculptures definitely makes the work of the final plaster a lot slower and more tedious, but in the end, having these personal touches of creativity enhances the intimacy of the house. Too much sculpture, I think, can be visually overwhelming, so finding a balance between a nice smoothly finished wall and a specific placement of sculptural detail is good to consider. However, considering how much work it is to build a house in the first place, I think it is equally important to take the creative opportunities when they arise- and cob/natural plaster is a wonderful way to incorporate such creative moments.

Ceiling Layers

06 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , ,

Getting the ceiling finished was the next important step, allowing for lights to be turned on so we could work past daylight hours, and enabling us to finish the walls with the final plaster. We were also keen to get the insulation above our heads as soon as possible, since the cold space of the addition was effecting our heating abilities in the finished part.

We did the same as before, adding 10 inches of rock wool insulation in two layers- R14 and then R22, giving us a total value of R36 above our heads. Since the strawbale walls are somewhere around R35-40, it made sense to match that in the ceiling, even though it is way above code for this area, is twice as much work to install, and ups the cost of the insulation dramatically. We did the same in the first build and are incredibly happy with the heating and cooling effect of the high insulation.

Because of the changing angles of the rafters, pieces needed to be cut on varying matching angles to stay held in place. It is not a pleasant job, with the configuring of ladders and the rub of insulation across one’s head and face, but at least the rock wool is less irritating than fibreglass, and eventually it gets done and then it’s… done!!

Covering the whole ceiling with the vapour barrier afterwards is way better as a two person job. Crinkled and oddly stapled plastic is just annoying.

We had acquired (for a fairly cheap price) 5inch wide tongue and groove cedar in 10 foot lengths, which needed to be stained previous to being installed- we used a natural product called Osmo which is a Geman product of natural oils and waxes. The wood is quite varied in colour tone and has a fair amount of knots, but none the less is a beautiful material to use and the oil stain made it even more brilliant in tone. Because our rafters run the width of the house (15feet) but curve the length of the space (40 feet) we needed to put strapping across the rafters so the ceiling boards could go up in the same direction as the rafters. Initailly we thought we could find ceiling material that would flex a bit with the curve, and so run lengthwise, but without incurring the high cost of custom milling something thin enough to bend, we had to change plans.

We had round LED lights to set into the ceiling, and of course other required things like the bathroom fan, stove fan, and smoke detectors to work around. Having the ceilings done really changed the whole space!

Creating the Living Roof

08 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

The addition of the straw bale house also has a living roof on both sections of the house. With 4 foot overhangs on the south walls and 3 feet overhangs everywhere else, the two levels of the new section total 2,000 square feet of roof over 1,100 interior square feet. Both roof lines have an element of curvature over the 25′ sections running east/west, and are otherwise flat over the 15′ depth.

We elected to go for a torch on roof underneath our soil, rather than the pond liner that we used on the first build. Over that, we laid out the vapour barrier plastic and then rolled out the drain mat. Also at some point, Colin fitted the flashing over the lip of the roof in one foot sections. We also added drain rock to the roof sections that are under the overhang, and made gravel beds around the drains that funnel into the downspouts so those areas don’t get clogged up with dirt and roots.

Next was the job of loading soil onto both levels of roof. We had our friend and neighbour come over with his excavator, and he loaded up his bucket and lifted it onto the lowest corner of the roof. More friends and neighbours then transferred buckets of soil up to the second roof, also at the lowest point, which was then spread out by more amazing friends and neighbours. Our depth of soil was set at 3 inches, calculated by our building engineer as the weight capacity for the roof based on the framing structure we used. The soil type we used was simply a mix of local sand and soil.

I waited until the fall to begin planting, as I didn’t intend to do any watering. Mostly the plants collected were from the first roof we planted, which was rather fully grown and could use some thinning. Many of the local sedums were lifted from the rocks on either side of the house, but also we were gifted with succulents thinned from crowded patches from friends’ gardens. There were spaced about 4 inches apart, with each variety planted separately inside linear sections that I imagined flowing across the curves of the roof, so that eventually when they are filled in, the colour diversity of the plants as well as the flowering times and colours will show up as differentiated sections. Eventually it may be too time consuming to keep the plants inside their own sections and succulent chaos will rule. Each following spring and fall I have added to the planting, thus, it has taken 2 years to get the roof covered, although not filled in. 2,000 square feet is a lot of plants.

Varieties include- ice plant, sempervivum (hens and chicks), sedum spurium, broad leaved stonecrop, oregon stonecrop, spreading stone crop, and various other sedums of unknown names. These two new roof sections are visible from inside the house, as each floor is stacked like a terrace down the bedrock, which makes the prospect of design and colour more interesting. Our first living roof is not at all noticeable except from a place outside and to the east of the front door, which is not a highly used space, and so the plants on that section are rather unattended, which suits us just fine. I am happy knowing that the ground space our shelters occupy is not being wasted on the birds and insects that might have otherwise foraged for food in it’s space. Each morning I watch as the chickadees tumble all over the roof, and in the summer the bees cling to the range of variously flowering plants. It is reassuring to know that we can continue to provide habitat for those that live side by side us in this world, while we clear hillsides and raise buildings in the pursuit of comfort.

Second Coat Plaster- Filling and Detailing

09 Jul 2020 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

Second coat of natural clay plaster

The second layer of plaster for this strawbale house consisted of layers of fills and details to level out the lumpiness of the bales, which was a result of not doing any trimming to the bales once they were installed. This is because of the orientation of the bales as they were stacked into the framing of the walls, which meant they were string side out and unable to be cut. (See this post for details!)

Generally the same process for second coat plastering applies that I described during the building of our first straw bale house (see this post…). The main difference here is that I did a round of filling in the sections that were significantly dippy, (which was generally around the perimeter of the bales), letting that dry, and then covering the walls fully with the attempt to keep the plaster thinner in the lumpy spots and thicker in the indented areas. If the plaster is too thick in the dips, it will crack too much as it dries. The window edges also had burlap which needed to be embedded into the second coat to keep the plaster from pulling away from the wood, and there was some extra shaping needed in the curves of the window openings as we couldn’t trim the bales ahead of time into the curves we wanted.

We created wire forms above the hallway openings to create a curved archway, which then needed two coats of plaster. We also plastered over the interior bedroom walls that are constructed with 2×4 framing and rock wool insulation covered in metal lath. The bottom of the upper story exterior walls needed flashing installed, which we plastered into the wall also using metal lath.

The final purpose of the second coat of plaster other than protection of the bales, is to create a surface that supports the final clay plaster, especially at all the various edges. Once the windows and doors were installed, more plastering details were attended to- wherever the clay plaster meets window sills, frames, counters, kickboards, ceiling boards, etc., there needs to be a tight edge to within 1/4 inch for the last layer to fill. This can be finicky and involve a lot of unique areas that need extra attention and thought, and will be different in each build.

  • Window details- outside flashing
  • setting mahogany sills
  • metal lath for plaster
  • rough plaster up to the sill apron

First Plaster Layers

29 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , ,

With the baling done by September, our goal was to get the first layer of plaster on the bales before the winter rains began.  Plastering has to be done while the weather is still suitable for quick drying, since it is not advisable to have wet clay against the straw for long enough to develop mould.  The faster it dries, the better.  Because it was September when we started, we decided to make this first layer no thicker than 1/2 inch.  If it had been June, we would have taken the seasonal opportunity to fill the dips, which would mean much thicker plaster in some areas.  However, we will probably go around in the spring and add plaster just to the places that are dippy, so the next layer will begin to smooth out the surface of the walls.

Once the baling was done, there commenced the job of stuffing.  This entails going over each wall and looking for spaces that push through the bales, generally where one bale meets up against another bale.  All along the tops of the bales needed stuffing, and sometimes where the framing separates the bales.  Tucking in tight little twists of straw to fill these places becomes methodical but doesn’t take too much time.

After that, comes the messy job of applying clay slip to all exposed straw.  We collected waste clay trimmings from a pottery studio, and soaked it in buckets so it becomes soft and scoopable.  Then we mixed it with more water to dilute it to a thick chocolate milk consistency, using a paddle mixer.  It was thick enough to not drip very much off a dip stick.  I created a little wearable square bucket to hold the slip while I slapped it on the bales with a big brush and a gloved hand.  The bucket, equipped with old belts that went over my shoulders, could catch any excessive dripping and free up both my hands to massage the slip onto the straw.  It dries a much lighter colour of pink.

Then came plastering!  We used local clay from an excavation job on the island, pitt run sand, (also from the island) and all that straw we collected from the bale trimming.  We built a soaker pit from damaged straw bales, lining it with tarps and then filling it with clay and water to make it soft.  On tarps, we mixed 4 or 5 shovels of the soaked clay with 10 shovels of sand by rolling the tarps around and then foot mixing, adding water as we went to get a good consistency without allowing the mix to be sloppy.  Adding a few handfuls of straw (equivalent to 2 or 3 shovels)  soaked up a bit of water, so sometimes we would add a bit more if it became too stiff.  The test is to make a ball, and not have it ooze or slop, but also not have it be too stiff and crumbly.  The other test often comes from actually applying it, and becoming used to the ideal consistency while working with it.  The hands on experience of plastering generally becomes the best way to really learn!  We had to adjust things as we went- our ratios changed as we dug into our clay pile and found less high quality clay.  We noticed that our mixes were more silty, difficult to apply, and orange in hue instead of blue/grey.  It was a subtle change as we filled the soaker pit, but after a few mixes we realized we needed to amend our clay from a different pile we had saved.  (After so many years of natural building, we have all sorts of little and big piles of resources hanging around!)

The clay slip gets sprayed with water before applying the plaster, just lightly, not so that water runs down the wall but the slip turns darker in colour.  A handful of plaster is then smeared onto the wall with the heel of the hand, and massaged in so that it doesn’t peel back off.  Everyone finds their own method, but the important thing is that it isn’t too thick, or too thin, ideally the same thickness, and it doesn’t peel off! Our first group of plasterers were my son’s school class, a group of 24 kids ages 10-14.  They spent a whole day rotating in groups between mixing, plastering, and hiking around our part of the island while birding and geo-caching.  They got so much done!  We also had a visitor staying with us for two weeks, learning all the steps of plastering.  For the next month, we had a variety of friends and community people coming by for a few hours or a day to get their hands muddy on our walls.

Partially dried wall

We focused first on the north walls, and the places where there is less sunlight and wind movement.  Then we moved to the inside when the weather got rainier in October.  Luckily, the fall was generally sunny late into November, so when we finally got to the south walls, the warm sun was still shining most days.  We used a fan to help dry out some of the inside walls that weren’t getting much sun.

plaster over clay slip with insulation at the top covered with metal lath

Plastering the bales in this build was different than the last house we did because the bales were oriented differently- instead of placed like bricks and plastering the sides of the bales we have stood the bales up and plastering the faces of the bales, where the strings are.  In the last build, we trimmed the entire bale walls, shaping the curves of the windows and removing any shaggy straw, so the plaster went onto the evenly cut ends of the straw.  This time, we couldn’t do any trimming because of the baling twine, and the plaster went onto the length of the straw.  While we didn’t need to take the extra step of trimming, it was a little more challenging to apply the plaster.  The walls are more lumpy and will need some extra work in the plastering to get a nice smooth wall.  Smooth walls, of course, are a matter of aesthetic preference over function.  Maybe in the end we will incorporate more creative sculptural elements into our walls.

first coat plastered dried. Burlap will be plastered into the next layer of plaster.

This winter will be a time for these seed ideas to take root while the house building projects are on hold.  We can take some time to sit in the house and imagine the different possibilities for the next phases.  It can be frustrating at times to have to be patient, but often the results come with better decisions and a renewed sense of creativity following the flurry of building.

If you read all this and want to see more photos and more descriptions of plastering, please refer to my previous post on the last house we did~ Natural Plaster

Light Clay

23 Nov 2017 1 Comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , ,

The framing of the house created some interesting areas that were challenging to fill using straw bales, so we decided to do a little light clay instead.  In the upper level, the framing of the roof joins in with the framing of the floor, leaving a narrow wall space that widens out with the curve of the roofline, so filling this oddly shaped wall space with light clay was a great solution.

Light clay is a mixture of loose straw coated with clay slip and packed into a form.  The form is removed right away to allow for quick drying time, and there you go… a nice flat straw surface solidly held in place by the clay.

The process is fairly simple.  We spread loose straw on an old piece of plywood, mixed up some clay and water into a nice thick slip, poured it over the straw, and tossed it with a pitch fork.  We were looking for an end result of long straw that would stick together when squeezed, with no clay dripping or running off, but with the colour of the straw no longer golden.  Like a salad dressing… lightly coated.

 

Light clay will go under the window frames
Mixing clay slip
Pouring on the clay
Tossing!
Uncoated and coated
filling the forms
Nails or screws
First lift
Another small section in the next room

We did the first foot of wall, adding screws or nails into the framing to give a little something for the straw to tuck into, and packing it in securely but not densely.  After we took the forms off, we let it dry out for a week, then did the rest of the wall up to the window bucks.  Our wall section widens out once it gets above the roof framing, but we didn’t want to fill the whole space at once and risk the centre staying moist for too long.  We put the forms back on higher up and did our second lift in another few hours.

This was the first time I had done any light clay, and I know it is another whole natural building method in it’s own right.  We have helped some friends build their house with chip slip, which is the same as light clay but uses wood chips instead.  The mixing of clay and straw has been used as an infill material for timber framed buildings from at least the 12th century in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

It was really great to so easily utilize a variation of natural building in our predominantly straw bale house.  I think we would have done more in some of the other awkward spaces, but the timing of the summer sun was a bit late for ensuring a complete drying out of the clay slip, and we ended up making lots of small oddly shaped bales to stuff with.  But that will be another post~ the results of baling above this light clay wall and then plastering over the whole thing was quite positive.  The flatness made for a lovely plastering experience, compared to the lumpyness of the bales… but that will be another post as well!  Stay tuned as I catch up on a busy summer and fall of building.

GROUNDWORK- Building with Straw Bale

14 Jun 2017 Leave a comment

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , ,

Last year we were approached about being interviewed for a short documentary about building with straw bales.  We are excited to share our story as well as our reasons for choosing straw bales and other natural materials to build with, and it is delightful to be among other home owners and builders who share the same sentiments about the homes we create.  We are currently on this journey once again, and the reminder of why we are doing this is truely valuable in the face of the various challenges that manifest during such a large and complex project.

Our wood working shop is also featured in Episode 1-Building with Cob.

Other episodes made are Episode 2- Building with Timber and Episode 4- Building with Rammed Earth.

*Made by TELUS Optik Local~ supports compelling, original stories told by filmmakers from BC and Alberta by providing production funding, training and exposure to new audiences.

Workshop Update

25 May 2013 4 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , , ,

cob workshopThings have been progressing slowly but steadily in the workshop since we finally got the roof finished in the winter.

Colin focused on getting the doors in right away, refining two old doors that came from his Dad’s work of deconstructing old houses on the island, and refitting a pair of salvaged french doors.  He also built a raised stone hearth from the pile of stones we have on the property, put in the stove pipe, and wired in the rough electrical circuits.  We got the insulation in the ceiling and the plastic vapour barrier secured over that and ready for the finished ceiling layer, which we think will be some kind of bamboo or sea grass mat.

rough sculptureI spent a couple of weeks on and off getting the rough coat of plaster on the inside and outside of the building.  This layer of clay plaster is the only rough coat needed on a cob wall, and is the same layer as the third layer that we put on the strawbale house.  (See my previous post called Natural Plaster for full details).  A mix of 4 parts sand, 2 parts clay, and 1 part straw with water to mix it to a troweling consistency kept me busy in the warmer days of late winter. rough plastered windows I cleaned up and shaped the sculptural aspects of the walls so they were ready for the final layer of plaster, which Tracy and I completed earlier in May, while the temperatures were still cool enough to give the plaster time to dry.  The final clay plaster took us 2 days to put on, a seemingly record pace for any one job to be completed in.  We mixed up the kaolin clay, sand, straw, paper pulp and whiting in the buckets the day before, and then added the rice flour paste, and borax and mixed multiple buckets together the morning we started plastering.  (See my older post Final Plastering for more exact details).  We got much of the simple walls done on the first day, then completed the wall with the windows and arched shelf the next day, cleaning up our tools by the afternoon.  I am always so amazed at how quickly the finishing layer goes, compared to the time it takes to get all the other layers beneath it built.final plaster

Last weekend, Colin and I built the one interior wall that separates the workshop from a small storage room.  It will also be the wall against which will be built Colin’s work bench.  It holds the majority of the electrical outlets and is a standard 2×4 construction filled with rock wool (Roxul) insulation and covered in plywood.  final plastered windows

There is not too much left to do in this simple building for Colin to finally move in and use the space for his wood working.  Right now he is coming to the end of a giant stone facing job and is looking forwards to working with the more forgiving medium of cedar wood.  I can turn my attention to finishing the outside of the building later this summer, playing with some creative designs for sculpture as well as getting the last coat of lime plaster done when the weather begins to cool off once again.     interior wall

Hand Split Cedar Roof Shakes

06 Feb 2013 9 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , ,

hand split cedar shakesBeing a splitter of cedar by trade, Colin naturally decided to split all his own shakes for the roof of his new workshop by hand.  Having many piles of cedar already collected and in need of being moved out of his old working location gave Colin a good start at the job of splitting approximately 600 square feet of coverage, or what he estimated to be 6 squares of shakes.  A square is made up of 4 bundles of shakes covering 100 square feet (each bundle covers approx. 25sq.ft. depending on length of shake and row coverage).  Using a froe and mallet, Colin split and shaped the shakes out of 18″ bolts of cedar, using the best of the shakes for the roof and saving the less than ideal (wavy, thin, less tapered, or  too narrow) for a future wall project.  froeshake splittingsplitting shakescedar shakesShakes are split by placing the froe across the grain on one end of the bolt, about 3/4″ from the edge, then hitting the froe with the mallet and peeling off the shake.  It should taper somewhat (shakes can be 24″ or 18″ long, usually the longer the better for coverage and tapering) and then you flip the bolt over and repeat the same action, flipping the bolt after splitting each shake.  stacks of shakesIt took a surprisingly long time to split the estimated amount needed, mostly because of the amount of less than perfect shakes that he was getting from the bolts he was using (of which much was old grapestakes, and other pieces of cedar that were not as usable in longer lengths anymore, as the cedar he salvages is not collected for shakes, but in longer bolts usable for furniture, gates and fencing).  Colin chose 18″ shakes partly because of the wood he had available and partly because of the curves and roundness of the roof on his shop.  layeringHe layered the shakes with an overlap of 7.5″ each row.  As the rows are applied it is important to offset the gaps between shakes from row to row.  What this means essentially is that the space between shakes never lines up directly with the gap in the row below, and better yet not for 3 rows.  The straight grains of cedar and the overlapping shakes encourages efficient water run-off, while the gaps allow for evaporation and quick drying time.  Cedar shake roofs have a life span of 50 years (though some have been known to last upwards of 80yrs).  flowing around the curvesCedar shingles differ from shakes in that they are taper sawn, thinner, and usually are rated only for 25yrs.  Cedar has excellent natural oils present in it’s wood that makes it rot resistant in it’s naturally wet climate.  Much of the northern pacific coastline, rimmed and abundant in fat old growth logs, offers ideal shake block opportunities with wide planks and tight grains.  Most shakes are collected from downed red cedars near logging clear cuts or trees not long enough to be worth milling into lumber.   roofHere we have salvaged what we can find on the beaches and then applied the best of our skills to producing by hand the beautiful and functional flow of cedar shakes.

At the very end of the project Colin ran out of suitable cedar to split for final part of the roof, and not wanting to waste anymore time as it was the middle of winter, we gave in and purchased the last few bundles of shakes needed to complete the roof.  Although a bit of a disappointment for Colin, this is the reality of building yourself, sometimes you just need to compromise and get it done!roof finishedfinished roof

Final Lime Plaster

06 Nov 2012 5 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , ,

Back in May (2011) we decided to get going on the final lime plaster of the outside of the house before the business of summer cob building took over.  Lime prefers to have cooler temperatures in which to dry, and requires much more attention to the timing of the drying process for a result of eveness of colour and trowel lines.  Much like the process of applying the cayolin clay plaster on the inside, lime needs to be troweled on continually until a whole section can be completed, otherwise an apparent line will be visible where the plaster dried too fast, or where troweling stopped.  There are techniques to make these lines look less visible if whole big sections are difficult to complete in one go at it. We added a beveled line that undulates around the house, dividing the wall into smaller sections and providing a place for us to stop.  That way we were able to plaster only the top section, and then only the bottom, and have the line of plaster meet under the bevel and so be hidden.

moving along in a team of three

Working with three people who are competent with the job is important.  Fixing spots as you go, running out of plaster when you need it, and being too late for the sponging part of plastering is stressful.  So is having the sun come out unexpectedly and not being able to stop to find a way of shading the work space.  Likewise, having lunch, snacks, and drinks being made available while working is a huge bonus in making lime plastering a smooth and fun thing to do.

getting those mixing muscles flexing

The right tools are also necessary.  We used Japanese trowels, hawks (easy to make-plywood board with a handle on one side), just like with the interior plaster, and mixed the plaster in 5 gallon buckets and then in a large tub for uniform colour and consistency.  A powerful drill with a paint mixer attached, measuring spoons and cups (depending on colour pigment used), a spatula, and big scooper are helpful to have on hand.  Ladders or scaffolding should be close by for high parts.

The ingredients are simple- hydrated lime, stucco sand, water, and colour pigment.  We soaked the lime in a big barrel a few weeks in advance.  We also did many colour samples using a one litre mix, adding pigments in increments of tablespoons to get an array of shades and colour blends.  We have many beautiful arbutus trees framing the house, and we wanted to make a colour that brought out a reflection of the deep red/orange/brown that we see in the twisting branches.  We also thought that such a colour would bring out the vibrant yellow of the yellow cedar window frames.  Red pigment, however, has pink tendencies, and so we ended up using ten tablespoons of red in a one litre mix, plus five tablespoons of chestnut brown.  Multiplying that up to 4 gallons in a bucket, and we were deep into a large quantity of pigment.  We ordered what we thought would be enough for the whole house, based on calculations for the area covered per bucket on the inside, but discovered partway through the job that we had only enough for just over half the house.  We spent way more money on colour pigment than we ever expected, but we were committed to the colour.  Lesson #1: estimating for natural plasters is difficult, and calculating for colour pigments is even more complicated.  Lesson #2: find a good source of affordable, bulk colour pigments.  Because we were pushing to get this job done while the weather was still cool, we just walked in to a concrete supply store and bought mortar pigments that come in small bags.  When we discovered just how much we would need, we didn’t want to take the time to find a different source because different pigments have different colour shades.  We would have needed to do the colour sampling all over again.  By the time we ran out and needed more though, I was very much wishing that we had.  However, in the end we spent about $800 in the final outside layer (incl. lime and sand), and compared to other forms of siding or paint, we have a beautiful plaster that soaks in to the landscape, accentuates the curves of the bales and the coziness of the forest, for probably less money in the end.

The very first thing we had to do, before any of the plaster went on, was to add the sculptural elements to the rough coat.  Elemental it was, too – the aspect of the house is situated very close to the four directions, and we wanted to acknowledge the directions and the elements on each side of the house.

south sun

We sculpted a large sun on the south side for fire, and a water lily on the west side for water.  My mom got to work on sculpting a tree on the north side for earth, and I placed two dragonflies on the east wall under the light that shines beside the front door for air.  Our beveled relief line that undulates through the middle of the wall flows through each of the elemental sculptures and adds a subtle shadow line.  The sculptures were made using the same mix as was used for the brown coat of the walls- 1 part clay, 2 parts sand, and 1 part chopped straw.  Fine sand and clay sifted free of rocks makes the plaster easier to shape.  We also wet down the wall and spread clay slip over the area to help with adhesion.

mixing lime, sand, and pigment

Lime plaster: 1 part lime, 3 parts sand.  For us, this meant 5 litres lime and 15 litres sand.  That is what we could mix in one 5 gallon bucket.  Spin it together with the mixer, and add colour pigment, mixing it in with a small amount of water.  Then we turned three buckets into the big tub and mixed them all together.  We worked out of this tub until we got low, then had our extra person work on mixing up more.

Before we started on the walls, I went around and plastered the sculptural areas first, thinking that it would make plastering the walls faster to do rather than having to do the intricacies at the same time as keeping ahead of the drying plaster.  Two were done in white, and two were done as the same colour as the walls.  What I discovered was this was not as straight forwards when it came time to do the walls.  Red pigment, as well as splatter from the rough coat of clay as it was being sprayed with water, got all over the finished sculpture and needed cleaning and touching up afterwards.  Also, it was hard to sponge the plaster without touching the already plastered areas, which made the transitions between the two look smudgy.  From a distance, it is not a big deal at all, and since this is the outside, we usually look at it from a certain distance.  So I recommend doing it all at the same time- just consider simple sculpture lines and expect to be slowed down considerably when plastering these areas.  Small tools are essential, as well as the all useful yogurt lid with the rim cut off.

sponging- making the finish texture smooth and uniform

The sponging part of the process comes when the plaster is tacky enough to leave finger prints but dry enough that no plaster comes off onto the fingers.  It can be a very precise moment, depending on the weather and how fast the plaster may be drying.  A damp sponge is simply moved around in circles to remove the troweling marks and give a smooth, uniform look to the whole wall.  Sponging too soon will pull at the plaster too much, and sponging too late means that the sponge needs to be wetter and a stronger motion is needed to smooth out the trowel marks.  A well troweled wall, however, won’t have very many marks to be eliminated.  We noticed that sponging on a too dry wall caused a variation in the colour pigment, making it a lighter shade, just like when we sponged near an already plastered spot and brushed up against it.

final plaster layer is about 1/4 inch thick

Our process went pretty smoothly.  Colin and I mixed what we needed for the day and did the troweling with a friend who pre-sprayed the wall sections ahead of us with water, sponged along behind us when the plaster was ready, and helped remix some of the plaster from the bottoms of the buckets when it began to dry out too much.  Getting familiar with the perfect consistency is learned simply through using the plaster, and noticing when it is too dry and difficult to spread or too wet and sliding off the trowel.

the art of troweling is challenged when ladders and awkward spaces need to be reached

The motion of getting it from hawk to trowel to wall is also a practiced motion that comes with repetition.  Generally, I would make lots of little overlapping rainbow swipes over a one foot square area, and then smooth the whole area down in larger swipes right away, and move on.  No putzing allowed!  Get it on, flatten it out, and move on.  Plastering a whole house gives lots of opportunity for repetitive motion learning…  start with the most hidden space and do the area around the front door last.

dragonflies at the front entrance

There are many details and considerations with lime plaster, and it is helpful if you have experience with some other form of earthen plastering, or if someone who does can give a hands-on lesson.  Again, we had the direction of Tracy Calvert, who has been building naturally since the 1980’s and has specialized in earthen plasters.  She has led many workshops and believes that skills of natural building are to be available for anyone willing to learn, like the traditional practices passed down from cultures around the world that enable the reality of shelter for everyone in a community and not only for the wealthy.

north tree

west water lily

Cob Walls Going Up!

29 Aug 2012 2 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , ,

It has been a little difficult to keep up on a blog posting about the building of the walls, because so much is happening in such a short time that photos of progress quickly become out dated.  Most of my own time has been spent working alongside the cobbers, helping my mom to prepare and make meals, or collapsing in bed at the end of the day.  The walls are now very close to their final height, and we will soon be able to install the rafters before we continue with the cobbing up and around them.   I thought it would be a good time to review what has been done, and then follow up with the roofing later on.

We had three people from off-island join us for four days, and a continuous stream of friends and neighbors each day to learn and help out.  Colin’s mom from Florida was visiting, as well as our friends from Vancouver who sold us the property and are building the little cabin on the property.

clay slip on the foundation

We started with learning the art of foot mixing on tarps, but then moved on to using the huge pile of bobcat mixed cob.  Tracy Calvert, our cob building expert from Cobworks, showed us how to apply clay slip to the stones of the foundation to help adhere the cob to the stone, and then we started laying down the first handfuls of cob.  We focused on building up one of the wall sections that would have windows in it, so that within the four days, our cobbers would have the opportunity to set the glass in place and cob the sills and edges.  Tracy spent time each day after lunch discussing different areas of the building process, including foundations, techniques for windows and doors, plumbing and electrical, and roof structures.  On the last day, we had a small ceremony to celebrate our work together by placing objects in a jar that have a personal connection and burying it into the wall of the workshop.  We did that again with the second group of cobbers on the next weekend, and Colin and I were very touched at the honesty and words of appreciation and inspiration that everyone had regarding their experience building and learning together.  Everyone had a different reason for being here learning about cob- some of which were specific to cob and some were seeking personal empowerment.  We come together as strangers and leave each other with new friendships and new gems of knowledge to integrate into our lives.  I was reminded of the time when Colin and I traveled a lot and met different people from all sorts of paths, knowing them sometimes for a short time or a long time before parting ways, but always taking something of the experience of knowing them with me.

It is also wonderful to have friends and fellow islanders stop in for a day or more to help out.  Having the support of our community means a lot to us.  We have come to see the building of this workshop as another example of building stronger community ties with experiences of working together and deepening relationships and memories between us.

Colin and I had drawn out a general sketch for a sculptural design on the outside of two flowing lines coming out from the sides of the main door and sweeping up into a raven on the left, and diving down into the roots of a tree on the right side of the door.  We wanted to have bottles placed in the wall along the pathways of the two lines, so as we went we taped two bottles together to span the width of the wall and cobbed them in place.  We also have some circular thick glass port windows, about 8 inches across, that we wanted to have in the walls, so we put buckets that were slightly smaller than the glass in the place where we wanted the windows and them cobbed all around them.  By turning the buckets each day we ensured that they will pull out easily when we want to set the glass in.

placing corbels for the arches

We also made corbels with long lengths of straw covered in clay and layered together to build a strong protruding window sill and arches over the tops of the tall windows that we cobbed in place.  Celine, our neighbor, brought us a beautiful tall blue glass bottle that we placed in between the windows, adding more dimensions to the width of the wall.  We added a framed opening window on the east side, hammering old nails into the wooden frame for the cob around it to grab onto.  We did the same with the door bucks, creating a network of wire and nails that the cob will harden around.  There is no plumbing in the workshop, but there are a few light switches that Colin mounted near the door bucks, running an electrical conduit up to the rafters where all the wiring will run.  Other electrical outputs will be built into an interior wall that will frame in a utility room and backing for Colin’s work bench.

Trimming is a big part of cobbing.  Every day, before more cob is loaded on to the walls, the splooges that occur while building up with wet cob is trimmed off with a saw and remixed to be put back on the wall.  It is important to make sure that the walls remain plumb, so that the strength of the weight of the cob is kept directly above the foundation.  It is easy for the wall edges to wander in all directions.  It is also easier to trim excess splooging than it is to add to dips that may occur, so it is important to keep the edges as plumb as possible and allow the splooging to happen.

We had the bobcat return in the days between the first weekend of cobbing and the second, to mix more cob and to remix the leftovers as it was getting dried out.  We had two cobbers from off island join us for the second workshop, and again a continuous flow of islanders coming by and spending time working with us.

niches built into the sides of the window and bottles framing the door

By this time, we were also getting two or three groups of people stopping by every day just to see what was going on, asking questions and watching the process.  We are fairly visible to the road, so walkers would stop, cars would slow down, and our neighbor across the street sent anybody who came to see her and her road side stand over to check out our building.  After the weekend, Shawn (one of the workshop participants)  decided to stay an extra three days and keep cobbing before flying back to South Korea, and we had two more people arriving after that who were not able to make the workshop dates but wanted to learn while we were still getting it finished up.  That is where we are now- working up in the top few feet, making deadmen for the rafters to sit on, feeding Marco and Nick alongside our family, and enjoying the continued company of our community.  Cobbing so far has proved to be a lot of physical work, work that is energizing and fun with a group of people working together and learning from each other.  New creative methods of building are developed, and artistic touches are discovered.  It would be too lengthy for me to explain details of the cobbing techniques, so I will recommend a book that Tracy recommends for anyone interested in learning more.  Check out The Hand Sculpted House, by Ianto Evans, Michael Smith and Linda Smiley and Cob Cottage Company in Oregon.  I also recommend a hands on experience for a better understanding of the process, and as a way of feeling out whether cob would be the ideal method if you have a project in mind.

Cob Workshop Approved!

16 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , ,

Come and build a cob workshop with us! This summer we are offering an opportunity for learning about building with cob while constructing a woodworking shop on Pender Island.  Details about registering are at the end of this post.

During the last month, Colin has been working on drawing the plans for his woodworking shop that we are building this summer.  He has been using a small area in his dads workshop for a long time, and the limitations of that space are more and more apparent. Since his business ( www.thujawoodart.com) is what pays for all our land and home building projects, it was obvious to us that the next thing on the list would be a permanent space for him to expand into, with proper space for wood sorting and storage.  Since we are building within the Capital Regional District (CRD), everything we do needs to be permitted and inspected for compliance with the building codes.  Colin’s dream of building a load bearing cob workshop was thus dependent on the engineer that we have been working with throughout the construction of our strawbale house.  For the past three years, Colin has been giving him a heads-up about this plan, and sending along information and history about the processes and strengths of cob.

From Home Work, an inspiring sky lit workshop

The design that Colin has imagined was inspired by a photo in Lloyd Kahn’s book, Home Work, showing a workshop with a huge central skylight.  Colin’s design entails a large skylight, (8×12), supported by a timber frame in the center of the roof, with the posts coming down into the center of the room, and the roof rafters fanning out from the skylight to rest on the cob wall.  In this way, the walls are supporting a slightly less load than if the roof had no posts at all, and our engineer was happy to approve the designs without any other additions besides some re-bar within the stone foundation and a concrete stem wall beneath the stones for reinforcement of the foundation for seismic standards.  We sent him a video that was filmed at UBC showing a cob building built on to a seismic shaker platform, and given the equivalent shake of a 7 earthquake.  (Ask An Expert-Cob Construction).  A city engineer was witness to the demonstration, and after the building showed minimal cracking, it was subjected to a 9, at which point a wall section crumbled but the roof remained entirely intact.  Seismic qualifications are important considerations in this area, and our engineer was quite satisfied to approve our project with the information we were able to pass on to him.   We are pretty excited about this approval- there are not many engineer approved load bearing cob buildings out there yet.

a cob wall on a stone foundation

We hope that the more exposure alternative building has in the world of construction, the more it will be seen as a viable option in certain circumstances with a understandable set of guidelines and standards in place to keep the buildings safe, healthy, and affordable.  I don’t imagine that cob houses will become a “normal” way of building, but we would love to see the doors opening so that those who wish to build with cob can do so without unnecessary expense and obstacles for something that is really so easy and widely applicable.

So now,  we are organizing some cob workshops for building the cob workshop!  Here is what we are offering this summer:

camping will be in the meadow beside the swimming pond

Join Colin and Wendi, with Tracy Calvert of Cobworks, www.cobworks.com to learn and build load-bearing cob walls onto a stone foundation.  Besides covering the basics of cobbing, we will include the finer details of working around door and window frames, constructing arches and niches, using wood lintels and exploring creative bottle and glass placement designs. Discussions will provide opportunities for questions and further site specification points, as well as other aspects of natural building.  Camping sites are available in the meadow beside the swimming pond, with an outdoor shower and composting toilet. Vegetarian meals will be provided, please inform us of any special food needs ahead of time. Two positions are available for intensives covering both workshops and extra time between and/or after, as self-directed opportunities to learn more. Also, cabin facilities are possible for any needs of circumstance. It is our hope that cob and natural building construction can be widely available methods of building for a diverse, creative, and compassionate community.

the site of the future workshop will be where the pile of logs is, against the rock slope

August 10-13 (Friday to Mon. encouraged to arrive thursday night)

August 17-20 (Friday to Mon. encouraged to arrive thursday night)

Intensive including both courses and 3 days in between with extra instruction at $950 (with possibility to volunteer and stay later afterwards.)

Early bird pricing at $380 until July 27/ Aug 3, then full price of $420 after that.

Comment on this post to register, and we will be sure to email our reply.

The Earthen Floor

21 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by inspirationalvillage in Natural Building Tags: , , , , , , ,

burnishing the floor at the "leathery" stage

The south room floor is the one spot in the house where we continued with our plan for laying out an earthen floor, in hopes of capturing the heat of the southern sun that streams in during the winter months.  The rest of the house, which was originally intended to be an earthen floor, became cork flooring due to some time pressures and uncertainties regarding the success of the earthen floor process. (See my previous post titled The Layers Beneath Our Feet for a total description of the floor.)  We found lots of information, tips, recipes, ideas, things that didn’t work, and things that did from a variety of resources, some of which contradicted each other, or were from climates very different from ours, or which used materials that were unavailable or too expensive for us.

lots of considerations and discussions

Figuring out what to do was challenging.  Tracy joined us again for the experience of mixing and laying our earthen floor, and we are grateful to her for sharing her observations and experiences of working with natural plasters.  (Tracy is our natural plaster and straw bale teacher.)  We wanted to use what we had and we felt most comfortable with techniques that were familiar to us from the wall plastering that we had just completed.  Cracking seemed to be the biggest common result, and one that is difficult to fix without a very messy look.  We heard of filling the cracks with different coloured plaster to create a marbled look, but we never found a source of a good example of this method.  A certain amount of experimentation, intuition, applied knowledge and trust was going to be needed.  This was the point at which we were grateful that it was now only a small 200 square feet that we had to do.

clay slip

We decided to follow (loosely) a set of well laid out steps and recipe ideas from Anne and Gord Bailey, of Eco-Sense on Vancouver Island, ecosenseliving.wordpress.com.  We adapted the recipe to what we had available, which was screened clay mixed into a slurry, red clay mixed into a slurry, stucco sand, horse manure, straw, and some red pigment.  We started by laying down a cob sub floor at a depth of 3/4 inch using a mix that resembled our second coat of wall plaster.  When that was dry we mixed up the top layer in 5 gallon buckets, then tried a technique we saw on the internet of laying burlap all over the floor area, wetting it and slopping clay slip as a binder then troweling on the 1/4 inch thick top layer.  I am breezing through the details here because it didn’t work.  We thought that the burlap would help reduce the shrinkage factor of the clay that leads to cracking, but it didn’t at all, and it also prevented the top layer from bonding well to the layer below the burlap.  We think it dried too fast, the layer was not wet enough, the burlap wasn’t soaked well enough, or there was just too much clay content in the mix to begin with.

troweling on the top layer

So we ripped it up!  Just chipped through to the burlap and pulled, and it lifted too easily.  We crumbled it back into the buckets, then worked out a few new ratios of higher sand and straw contents.  We laid out some sample areas and let them dry to see how the cracking went, and decided to make the mix with 4 parts sand, and one part clay slip.  Because of the remixing, it is hard to say what the quantities were for the various other ingredients.

sifted manure

Fibers (manure and straw) were around 1 1/2 parts, and water content was based entirely on feel and how the mixer spun.  Not too wet, not too runny.

This time we left out the burlap.  We also poured buckets of water all over the floor the night before to keep the cob subfloor cool and to prevent it from sucking moisture out of the layer we troweled on top.  We hung blankets over the windows to try to keep the summer sun from hitting it right away.  It took a whole day of two people troweling on hands and knees to get our 200 square feet covered once again, then while it slowly dried we lay planks across the floor so we could burnish it, giving it a polished look while compressing it more, and hoping to prevent too many cracks.  The outcome was 90% better than the first try.  We had a few thin cracks, mostly where it dried the fastest, and no lifting.

The recommended method for fixing the cracks was to use some left over plaster.

the worst of the cracking after the second try

We dried it out, crushed it, screened it through window screen, then sprinkled it into the cracks while wetting the area with a mister and troweling it smooth as best as we could.  There was a bit of texture difference for sure, but we decided that it was a natural floor overall and a bit of texture was fine!  Then we began with the oiling and waxing.  This was another reason we were glad to have done only a small portion of our floor- we brushed on 3 coats of boiled linseed oil, and two coats of Land Ark oil, which contains beeswax, tong oil, linseed oil, citrus extract, and pine rosin.  Land Ark is made with only natural, non-altered ingredients from sustainable resources, without chemical processing, bleaching, or harmful additives.

oiling with linseed oil

We have also used it on the timber frame,door and window trims, the baseboards, and the ceiling boards.  It actually feels great to get on my skin, and I love the smell of it as I have done much of the staining.  For more info on a great product- www.landarkwoodfinish.com.  The cost of this oil runs at about $85 a gallon, so we were hesitant about what it may have cost in oil to finish a larger area of floor, since we didn’t know how many coats the floor would take.  We read that it could be anywhere between 3 and 10, with at least 2 being the straight linseed oil.  Then we waxed the floor, using another natural wax from Land Ark, and then buffing it hard with a buffer.  The golden flecks of straw suddenly jumped out, and the places of various texture and colour deepened and settled in.

The best part of the finishing of the floor was not anything that we read or heard about in all of our earthen floor research, and so here I would like to add it in as a recommended part of laying an earthen floor.  Don’t move in any furniture, but set up the stereo.  Lite some candles, build an altar, and invite as many people as can dance on your floor.  Put on a rocking playlist, strip off the socks and stomp, swirl, boogie, laugh, and send all that energy of celebration, gratitude, and joy through the soles of your feet  into the hard work and beauty of the earth.  That’s what we did, quite unexpectedly.  We felt warmly supported by our friends, and happy to finally be able to open our space for gathering together and sharing what we have.

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