Floors and Walls!

Well, Chad and I have been back to school as teachers, but trying to work on the house in the evenings.  It's obviously slower with just the two of us for just a few hours a day, but we've managed to accomplish some major parts of the house.  We've had an electrician in the house for a couple days last week, but we found out from the code enforcer that we needed to use a certain wire encasing to be submerged in concrete walls and floors.  So that put things on hold for a few days while they're ordering that wire.  Therefore, the walls cannot be finished until the wiring and plumbing is finished, so we're working on floors.  In addition, I had a huge set-back with my tiled kitchen floor when I found out that the tile glue I used must have been defective, because the tiles came right up and it crumbled in my fingers.  So I had to scrape up the floor and each tiles, and then on top of that, it turns out that all of the tiles that I had pre-cut and laid would not cover the space leading up to the cabinet kick-walls, so I basically had to start from scratch and re-pour concrete, find more tiles to cover a larger area, and now I need to use a different method to glue them down!  Ugh.  Slow progress, but I'm learning, and we're excited to move forward!  Thanks to my family for helping out this weekend!

area for septic tank dug

My 3rd cousin Sarah stopped by from Cornell to check it out and help build our pantry can wall!

laying out an idea for the kitchen tile

kitchen cabinets purchased and ready to install

my dad (self-proclaimed "can wall king") and my sister Cait working on the pantry can wall

Chad starts laying the free granite pieces in our back hallway

I glued them all down

inside of the pantry

bedroom can wall

Chad digging a hole for the orange tree!

orange tree planted

Willy the Can Wall King takes a break at the end of the day.

coming together!

We're going to build a brick-pizza-oven that will pump hot water through this Pex tubing to heat the back hallway floor.

Maddie and Bridget and our truck full of granite cutoffs from a local tile shop, Tile Tec International

Michelle is the cement-mixing queen.

Post-Crew and "Army" of Apprentices

     Early Saturday morning we took some of the crew to the Ithaca airport to send them off.  The rest of the crew drove out later that morning, and the few apprentices left trickled out by early afternoon.  Luckily, the loneliness didn't have to set in yet because my dad, Michelle, my mom, and Chad's mom and dad came for the day and were a SUPER help.  We picked up around the site, clearing away garbage, recycling, wood scraps, tools, materials, etc.  We folded up tents and tables.  We began to clean out the cabin and barns where the crew stayed for the last 3 weeks.  And then we worked.  We laid cans and moved the banana tree into the house.  Later that night Chad's cousin Jon joined us for dinner and then took some really cool shots of the earthship at night with a long exposure to let the full moon light and stars in.

footer for our brick pizza oven

Coffey family can wall work!

Turns out my dad is a master can-layer!

First plant into the earthship planter... banana!

earthship in the full moon

special long-exposure to capture the stars

How cool is that?!  Is that a satellite in the sky on the right side of the picture?

bonfire

     My parents and Jon slept over and we worked hard again on Sunday.  We had a visitor from Rochester NY named Paul who heard about our house and wanted to come down and help out for the day.  Thanks Paul!  

     We planted the banana tree, laid out and poured the concrete slab for the rest of the kitchen cabinets, laid a short can wall across the family bathroom floor for an 8-inch step, prepped the area behind that with dirt, rubble, gravel, sand, plastic, and remesh, and then enjoyed our "first meal in the earthship" via Char, the lunch lady and mom extraordinaire.

banana tree planted

laying out the forms for the cabinet concrete pours

Jon and Paul start the can wall in the family bathroom

Don't mind me in my sports bra and my shirt wrapped around my head squatting in a strange position in the corner... I was sweating my butt off and taking a measurement in a tight spot!

ooh... kitchen cabinets slab poured!

family bath can wall step

Momma makes dinner for us to eat in the starry night bedroom

My dad and Michelle and Jon had to leave Sunday night, but my mom stayed through Monday to help us finish up with the cabin and other work in the house.

Again, in my bra with my shirt on my head, sweating.

no need to go to the gym with this "building an earthship daily workout"

family bathroom step poured

kitchen tile area cement slab poured

back hallway cleaned out

can walls in the bedrooms are almost finished

master bathroom wall/ledge

master bedroom closet (behind)

master bedroom bathroom wall/ledge and closet wall

right side of closet wall

The white spray paint is where electrical lines will run.  We'll then plaster over the conduits.  Electrician coming tomorrow!

Lemon and lime trees planted out of sight behind the banana plant, and our dwarf orange tree sits in the foreground waiting to be planted!