Shed Mud Wall

Ever since I hauled home this metal storage shed from the other side of town I never liked the look. What I do like is the storage capacity and now I really like the new coat of mud.

Today Satomi and I spent the morning covering the chain link fence netting with mud. The netting had been hanging there for years.

Completed base coat of clay and straw on the West side.

North end and West side.

 Corner detail

Two styles, one is Satomi's and one is mine.

Lots of good grip here.

After this base coat dries we will add a final finish. I like the fact that we finally at least have mud on the walls. A whole new look.

What's up!

Been a while since I have added to my blog.  No excuses. Sure I'm busy, too many things to do with my life here in the mountains.

Did I mention Satomi and I completed our Straw Bale Timber Frame Cottage Cabin.  Call it what you want.  That was a month ago.  I have already forgotten it took ten years and have now moved on a new model train hobby.

Unless you want to run your train on a floor, every layout needs a base. Mine was designed to fit a certain space and to use up salvaged hollow core doors.  After that it cost me money.  Steel angle and strapping, bolts, washers, wire rope, pulleys, an electric winch and a battery.

Why all that you ask.  Again back to limited space.  My base now lives hoisted up below my shop garage door.  A series of pulleys and cabling raises and lowers the base and a set of articulating arms guide and support. When its time to play I roll out my Otis golf cart and Harley and hit the down switch.

Last week my attempt at hoisting failed and had to run into town for more pulleys and parts. Today I was successful and so I begin to lay track.

Base hanging in air

Beginning HO track

If  you look close you can see two cables (wire rope) and the two articulating arms. Pulleys are above the garage door.

Wire rope and arms on the south side

This is a plywood guide for Fles Track with a 22 inch radius curve

My first rail joint and straight sectino of track

This is a bad picture of my 8 car  HO Great Northern given to me by my brother in law.  I promised that if he gave me his train I would get it running.  If all goes well, tomorrow will be the day.

More wood

Today I wrapped up new shelving in our Well Pump House, loaded up the Little Boxes from yesterday and started cutting wood for a under the stair closet shelving.

And just think all this stuff was piled on the floor.  Last September I installed our water softening system in the pump house and had to remove the old shelving unit. Never liked the old shelving anyway and had always planned on replacing it.

Little boxes in place and starting to get filled.

We live in a small place and like a boat need to use every inch, within reason, this is not a boat.

Snap together.

Now it's on to shelving under our Alternating stairway and then I will enclose with two 12" bifold doors.

Little boxes

It seems that my woodworking project list keeps growing.  These little boxes are for our closet and will be used for an extension of the medicine cabinet.  Nice to be able to use up leftover scrap plywood.

Now it's on to another closet shelving until and a shelf extention for an office cabinet.

Ramada

Check out this cool screened in ramada with observation deck on top. Today we drove 2 1/2 hours to visit the owners, architect and builder. I have been consulting a bit these last few month advising on building details for straw bale construction. Plan is to hire us to lead workshops for the bale rising, interior earth plasters and earth floor.  The tower is a shute for a fire pole for the grand kids. Never seen one of those before.

Furniture

Cabinetry and furniture, better known as work working. My latest projects almost completed. Odd that I always find myself doing multiple projects at the same time. Multi tasking? just busy.

Today I finished installing our kitchen maple drawers and sink cabinet fronts. 8 days after picking up the lumber. Unfortunately my Spar Varnish left over from our Sun Room bar counter tops was too old to use so I will have to take them off again for the finish.

Another fun project has been some small earth tables. We bought the two sets of three a couple years ago in Las Cruces at Sutherland's. Step one was to adhere 1/4" cement board over the tops. Next I milled up on the table saw edge trim out of some extra Brazilian Mahogany and then went to work basically making delicate picture frames which yesterday I glued on to the cement board. Today I finished sanded and gave the wood one coat of raw linseed oil. Now it's Satomi's turn to systematically install the earth tops.

When we bought these tables the plan was to finish and then sell. Now I want to keep them for our buildings. We can always by more.

Counter Tops

I'm back in the saddle again, I think that's a line to an Aerosmith song. Meaning here is a blog post. I know it's been a while, sorry about that.

Not that I'm in a saddle, rather we purchased one of those cheep ergonomic kneeling office chairs to try to improve my posture. Satomi says it is working.

Yesterday we finished up two Earth Counter Tops for a designer house. The process took 5 days. Not that it was 5 days of work but the drying stages between processes had us going out to the job site 5 times.

Yesterday was our last visit, a 29 mile commute. We sealed the earth with Raw linseed oil, cleaned up with Bio Shield citrus thinner, met the cabinet maker, watched some other sub contractors frantically trying to wrap up their tasks and then headed back home.

The owner is arriving for a two week stay with his family so the builder/contractor was in clean up mode and trying to wrap things up. Over heard he fired the tile guy. I would be a bit upset too. The master shower was not complete along with various other tile areas nor the brick on sand patios and grand entrance.

Had I know I could have brought my tile saw.

At least we finished our commitment.

Master Bedroom Desk.

Office Desk.

The other big commitment is for us. We have now spent the last 9 nights sleeping up in our  "New" place, showering too. Love the big shower and especially the endless hot water from our Rinnai on demand water heater. Today I will finish installing the kitchen drawers and doors and continue with the process of moving in. All but the kitchen.

We had a nice 24" deep refrigerator all picked out and were going to order it up when Satomi caught wind of high altitude issues with the brand. One phone call to the Tech department confirmed their models do not work in New Mexico or Colorado. Now what are we going to do?