Back From My Break!

So it has been a few weeks since my last update. I went back to North Carolina last week to be in Malachi's wedding. It was a nice break from all the work, but it is nice to be back. It was a beautiful wedding and it was nice to catch up with old friends. We had a wild and crazy time!

When I got back from NC last Thursday, I cooked dinner with Owen that night then went to bed tired from travel. Friday morning we work a half day on the Timber Frame, then left after lunch for St. Louis. Friday night we got to Dana's house (we met her at the last Ultimate tournament in Columbia) and got settled in before heading out to a potluck with another community. They were an awesome group, mostly teachers, and fed us amazing freegan food. We left with heaps of bread they got dumpster diving at Whole Foods. After potluck, Owen, Tony, Alex, Horacio, Jennifer, and I went to the City Museum, the coolest place on Earth. It is an amazing man-made maze made for magical mania (my description). We spent hours climbing through the mazes, going down massive slides, playing on the adult size ball-pit, and of course drinking beers. We went back to Dana's to pass out around 1 am. The next morning we woke up early. While we ate breakfast, Jennifer took Owen and Tony to an Ultimate Frisbee tournament where everyone put their names in a hat and drew them randomly to decide the teams. Tony's team took first place. Alex, Horacio, Jennifer, and I went to the farmers market where Horacio bought some jalapeños for making salsa. When then walked down Flora Ave. to look at all the cool house on our way to Sweet Art (a vegan friendly cafe). Then we we met up with John (a DR visitor from earlier this year) who took us to the Botanical Gardens.

It was amazing too. We walk around for a few hours and still didn't see it all. Overall, it was a magnificent trip and a great escape to the big city. Oh, and we saw the arch.

So as for the building project, a lot has happened since I was gone. They finished all the straw bale walls! Hooray!!! Today Horacio and I put the ridge cap on the loft section of roof (above) which signified the end of installing metal roofing.

We also started installing windows today and they all look absolutely fabulous. We still have a few more of those to go.

The upstairs wiring is also complete (has been for a while) which I forgot to mention.
I'm sure there is a lot I am leaving out because it has been so long since the last update. Horacio got back the same day I left for the wedding, so now, for the first time all year, we have all the work exchangers here and the project is starting to fly by.

Time to go give Nani a guitar lesson.

Every Day Brings Something New

It has been a while since my last update, but we have been so busy I've forgotten to stay up to date. Alex and I finished the soffits before lunch time today! This is really exciting because it feels like we have been hammering over our heads forever. It is so nice to be done with that.

The past couple of days have be spent largely focusing on getting the building as water tight as possible so we can start putting the bales in (hopefully by tomorrow). We have done flashing around the loft window and around the foundation.

Bear spent most of today designing/building the overhang on the clear-story. Once he got the purlins on, we all spent the last hour or so putting tarps over all the unfinished parts of the house that we think might potentially leak water.

A short blog, I know. It's the pictures that are important. We should start putting in the bales tomorrow (if its not raining). HORRAY!