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!
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
Happy 2019 to all of our intrepid readers! Thanks for following along with us in 2018 - we should have lots more interesting posts on our progress as we continue our build in the new year. We finally finished filling in with our two courses of adobes between the vigas on December 13th, 2018. … Continue reading Filling in between vigas…In winter!
Here's a new post in my effort to catch our intrepid readers up on some of our recent construction activities that I haven't gotten fully into in previous posts. I'll be detailing a method we employed for anchoring our bond beam to the adobe walls. Firstly, the bond beam is an essential structural element in … Continue reading Geogrid Anchoring Method: Part 1
We've been busy laying bricks, taking advantage of dry, warm days, and waiting out the cold and wet ones. Poor weather days provide opportunity for gringo block production, lintel sanding, and clay screening - so all's not lost on wintry days. Although we really couldn't have asked for a better winter season for laying adobes, … Continue reading …and the house takes shape
The year is now 2018 and the winter season is in full swing. We count ourselves lucky during this time of our adobe work, as the season has been quite mild. Daytime temperatures have been in the 50's and 60's, while overnight lows have ranged from low 20's to upper-30's. We've had two snowstorms thus … Continue reading Building Adobe Walls…In Winter!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, it seems a fitting occasion to say a big THANK YOU to all those family members and friends who have been out to the build site in the last month or so. Whether coming just to see what we've been up to or sweating it out with us on the … Continue reading A thank you to all the helpers and visitors!
After over four months of foundation work, we were finally ready to lay our first adobes on Saturday, October 21st. The thrill of this milestone didn't fully strike me ahead of time. I had been primarily focused on making the final preparations - moving adobes up to the build site and finishing the door rough … Continue reading Laying the first adobes
Another month has passed and we finally laid our first adobes yesterday morning! It took us a little over four and a half months to get to this point, as we broke ground on the foundation on June 1st of this year, so it really felt like a huge milestone. Before I discuss laying the … Continue reading Finishing the foundation and preparing to lay the first adobes
Vision creation adobe 