All Done

Well I completely finished all of the cordwood yesterday! what a great feeling to know I am done mixing mortar. For the most part I have really enjoyed the whole process of the cordwood part except this last little push, I noticed I was very eager to be done and impatient at times.
Waiting to take picture of north wall until jeff gets door installed.

The end is near

Finished the east wall completely and more than half way done......yeah.

This week is supposed to be beautiful so I believe I can get the greenhouse done!

Then for the most part it is just staining and sealing around edges.

Northern pygmy owl

Woke up to a Northern pygmy owl calling-ran outside and found her sitting high up in a pine tree.
What a beautiful morning.

Moving right along

View of west wall-impressive! you can see the glass bottles set, From inside it looks so pretty. I wanted random and no design with the bottles nothing but splashes of color, It looks really fun and whimsical!
I wish I had taken a photo of everyone today- a big group shot.
I had Laura(faces by laura), Laura (neighbor), Susan (neighbor), Becky, Mary lakes (previuos owner), Caroline, Jen (friend of carolines-from berkley), Jen (painter), Anita(from CA), and Dean (our token male). Then I had many send me(via mail) there wishes to enclose in bottles (I wont look) from SLC, CO, WA.......then at the end of the day we had other friends show up to sing, eat dinner from the garden and have an amazing cake (photo to follow) baker not for sale. So SO much fun. Thank you thank you for a special evening.

Bele, Susan, and Laura ohhh and Mary Lakes (hiding behind wheelbarrel) starting on East wall. We got 3-4 feet done on west wall and this was about 3 pm and finished 3-4 feet on east wall about 5pm. Much faster with everyone fimilar with routine.

Birthday BABE Building day

What an AMAZING birthday party. This photo is of anita (who surprised me from CA), and bele.

People starting showing up around 11:30. We started the day by putting our wishes-hopes in the glass bottles and then sealed them in the walls "to grow" in my greenhouse. I was amazed at how everyone just knew how to do the mortar and were naturals at being creative and making it so beautiful!

Tonight the moon is shining bright and I just came inside from just sitting there with the moonlight looking at this beautiful building that so many people have help create. THANK YOU.

I might not be able to do dirt floor in here it might be to pretty.

Dean our "lookout man" stopped up and was our token male! We would have crashed much earlier if it wasn't for him mixing mortar by hand..... wheelbarrel after wheelbarrel.

View from garden

A small view from the garden. I will eventually be removing the fence that is there and enclosing the greenhouse to main part of garden area. Just love the cordwood look with the look of my garden. Looking forward to all of the walls done to see it all come together.

North panel

One north wall panel ALMOST done. This photo is taken from inside the greenhouse so you can see the bottles. I have been doing this by myself and so it is taking a while. I can do 3-4 wheelbarrels of mortar mixture a day before my arm starts killing me. It will be a HUGE help to have that party on sunday. I like mixing with a hoe not with a cement mixer because of the noise level and you can feel the mixture better when it is ready.

My friend Chris(roomie) who helped me yesterday begin the cordwood project!

Cordwood

Day one of the beginning of the cordwood part. I wanted to have a day in doing the cordwood before my party on sunday and refresh my mind on how to do it. I think it went really well and am liking how it turned out-so far. I loved pointing-the final thing you do to the mortar making it smooth, it is very rewarding and calming.

Cordwood building tomorrow

Today, I got all of the portland cement , sand and a truck load off saw dust. Tomorrow is our first TRIAL of cordwood erecting on the building. I am very nervous and a little worried about the corners-We shall see I guess. Chris (roomie) not RUMI is coming to help me tomorrow for a few hours and work out any kinks before sunday.
I wish sage mountain center (where I took my class) was close by to help me...

Morning of departure

Dad and Reet baby (knickname) left this morning. Just amazed that my father was here for 2 weeks and now just gone. Not sure what to do with myself today! Going to take a few days to re- group and just sent an email to all my local girlfriends for a cordwood erecting birthday party. September 14th is the day and really looking forward to it. Am hoping to have one day of cordwood building in before next sunday.

Details, Details, Details

I love this picture. You can see all the details my dad did to make my greenhouse a piece of art.
This is looking to the west you can see windows open, the cordwood window box and then the gable window. Notice the detail on the roof rafters- I can stick a dowel through them and then hang things from them. My father also did this on the cross ties, I will be able to stick 3 dowels through there and hang my garlic, baskets etc. So Cool.

Cordwood window boxes

Dad making the window box frames for the cordwoods walls. These windows go in the east and west walls. They are close to 13" wide and the weight..... feels like 3,000 pds.

Inside the greenhouse-The detail work is so amazing-All thanks to my dad! we finished triming inside windows today and trimmed the inside gable windows as well.

Our Last Day

Well we did it!!! Today is Saturday and we finished our last piece at noon. Rita's plane was delayed in Boston this morning and we were able to finish the last of the details. This is on the very south edge of property looking north. Our first bit of sunshine in days.

Building the south wall

We had a very big day-got up 6 am ran to town at 6:30 got the rest of the wood we needed and finished East gable and then got south windows all boxed in.

SOOOOOO tomorrow we should have all south wall framed and detail work done (or should I say my dad will)

We finished at 6pm!

I am so sad thinking about dad leaving on sunday. It is a thousand times prettier than I could have imagined.

More to come.

okay-today we got ALMOST one side of the gables done! Tomorrow should go faster!

Katherine left around 11:30 and that was when we started to frame in the gables. We should be able to get this side (west side) done and all of east side done> I have to work doing flowers in AM so wont be a whole lot of help to dad till afternoon.

Missing Tessa, she was an amazing worker and very sharp!

Was cold and high of 50' today. I believe it is 44 out right now. BURRRR.