Building an adobe home in the woods of southwestern New Mexico
Hello Readers! A lot has happened in the year since our last post. Let's take a look at some of the projects we completed between August 2021 and August 2022... Finishing the earthen floors Not much compares to the beauty and feel of an earthen floor, but installing earthen floors throughout an entire house requires … Continue reading finishing earthen Floors, Solar power, and final inspections!
The second part of our final plaster coat process and our first attempts at our 2nd coat of our poured earth floor
I've been hesitant to describe our plastering process up until now, as I still consider myself to be a bit of a plastering novice. It's also really hard to take accurate photos of plaster, especially without interior lighting! We have essentially been learning as we go, making adjustments to our techniques and process as we … Continue reading Natural Earthen Plaster, with Aliz (Clay Paint) – Part 1
Although we started constructing the light straw-clay wall at the end of May, I am just getting around to writing about it now (October). It was a project that took the entire summer, and we are still working on finishing the plaster. For now, I will just provide a basic overview of the process, and … Continue reading Light Straw-Clay Insulation Wall
When we think about building an earthen home, we often don't think about drywall installation. Most earthen homes, however, have at least a small amount of wood framed walls with drywall. These walls are usually interior walls. For example, all of the load-bearing walls in our house are made of adobe. This includes all of … Continue reading Drywall Process
Working two days a week, it took from January 15th until April 10th to complete the base coat of earthen plaster on the interior of the house. It was a long and, for the most part, enjoyable process. Not all of our work days were actually spent plastering, as some were devoted to preparing the … Continue reading Plastering and Hanging Drywall
Finishing the First Floor Layer We worked long days during the first few weeks of December to finish the base layer of earthen floor, room by room. After pouring the first three rooms, we ran out of screened clay. From that point on, one person would screen clay while the other made the floor mix. … Continue reading Finishing the first floor layer and starting to earthen plaster
Now that our work on the roof has concluded, we turn our attention to tasks inside the house. This is a welcome change, as the weather has gotten colder and wetter recently. It's also nice to finally be spending more time inside the house, since we've predominantly worked on it from the outside over the … Continue reading Frame walls, doors, and earthen floors
There's nothing like putting the finishing touches on your roof! Not only is it a relief to finally have the house fully and permanently protected from rain and snowfall, but the finished metal roof is also a final visual layer of the house. At this point in construction, very little of what we have done … Continue reading Installing the Metal Roof
Installing the attic insulation and roof sheathing went much faster than I had anticipated. The quick pace has proven to be quite auspicious, as the typical summer monsoon storm systems begin to play out in southwestern New Mexico. Nick, an owner-builder pal of mine, helped me put up the insulation and sheathing over the course … Continue reading Attic Insulation and Roof Sheathing
Vision creation adobe 