Photo Gallery of Third Year of Building (2007) IV back to home page / photo gallery1 / photo gallery2 / photo gallery3

These were taken on May 20, 2007 and are the latest photos.  We've been working on the side wall -- against the hill.  Once this side is enclosed we will remove the walls of the trailer to open up the kitchen and bathrooms.  This is the last big area for papercrete.  We will pour papercrete into forms that will cover the front and back trailer ends and then we will commence finishing the interior.  Hopefully the majority will be completed by fall!

Scroll down to check out the NEW Photos from July 2007!

 

The back of the house.

Here you can see the greenhouse window and to the right of the photo the side area where we are still working

View of hill and wall

Side wall against the hill where we are currently pouring.

Close-up of most recent pour

If you look closely, you will see Yahshu the cat -- our helper who loves to wade in the freshly poured papercrete. When the wall is finished he will miss the best kitty playhouse in the world!

This portion of the wall is finished.

The octagonal window will accomodate a stained glass window that Elisia made of an African Grey Parrot

Inside view of the new wall

Here you can see ceiling rafters up and ready to pour. Also, the outside trailer tin covering will be removed and/or covered.

The Inside

Here you can see another area we opened up after the winter cold.

Detail of Rafters

The Rafters that will be filled with papercrete slurry for the ceiling

They are attached between the outside trailer wall (now on the inside of the back addition) and the finished (poured) back wall.

The trailer wall will be removed and this will be the kitchen.

 

The back is finally finished!

After papercreting is finished, we will close in the opening on top. We are making an attic/storage space above the middle section (where there ONCE was a trailer)!

Elisia Putting up Forms

Elisia is putting up one of the last forms for the back wall!

Elisia Pouring

She schleps the mud from the mixer, bucket-by-bucket and pours it into plywood forms screwed into 2X4 frames.

We use small buckets and as the wall gets higher, we climb up a ladder, pour the bucket into the form and tamp it to make sure it completely fills the form.

After a few days we can remove the forms and let the walls air-dry.

This may not be the most effective means to accomplish the wall-building but we are doing it without the use of any heavy equipment.

 

 

Inside of Back Wall

Notice the completed ceiling where the rafters were filled with slurry/mud (we also added chicken wire to secure it to the rafters) and the forms now removed to reveal a beautiful ceiling!

Outside Back Wall

Here is more detail of the outside back wall. If you look at the 1st year (2005) we dug out this hill with pick axes and are using the clay to make the papercrete slurry.

Paper

We keep donated paper (thanks to all our friends and neighbors) in a box trailer.

Hauling Paper

We use a garden wagon to carry the paper from the trailer to the mixer.