Hello walls

The adobe wall in the greenhouse is finished.

Johnathan and Brian finish up posts in the guest room.

New guy Eric came today to help with framing. Ivy & I finished framing the dining room and laundry room walls.

Thanksgiving weekend

On Thanksgiving day we visit the work site before going to dinner at our friends Marc & Linda's who live nearby. Amelia & Rick joined us for the day.

The next day we got hit with snow I spent some time Friday and Saturday clearing off the work site.

On Saturday the snow covered mountains emerge from the clouds revealing a view that is the reason many of us live here in Taos.

Adobe wall & round room

We started the adobe wall on Friday. The adobe will absorb heat from our South facing greenhouse for the passive solar aspect of our house.









After much head scratching Ivy and I figured out how to frame the curved breakfast nook. It will have 5 windows when we are done.

Post, beam & septic

The guys plumb up the box posts. The posts are used for mounting windows and doors. The windows are set inside the posts and the straw bales are set between them. The posts are 16" wide. After they are plumbed they set the bond beam on top and it and we are ready for the trusses.
Meanwhile our friends Norbert Vigil and his son Norbie install our septic system. They were able to clear the large area required for the drain field without removing any trees. We got the inspection
and they backfilled it by lunch today.

Window frames

We continue to frame walls. The South facing walls are mostly windows so we do them in traditional 2x6 framing. The other walls will be strawbale. We will set 16" wide posts to accommodate the bales.

Out of the ground

Today we started framing the garage. Here Suzie helps Ivy raise the first wall. Brian puts a brace on the wall. Finally at the end of the day we admire the two walls we framed.

Lets build this house

We let the concrete cure over the weekend and today the crew showed up to work on the next phase. From the left, Ivan, me, Brian and Ivy. Johnathan is taking the picture. We stripped the forms then set up an assembly line and started building posts.