Adobe Building Liza Macrae John Corcoran

very cool simple solar sky light

2011-09-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

anarchyapiaries

2011-08-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sam Comfort took over John's bee yard here in Tivoli when we were living in New Mexico and made it his. Check out the video link and his passion. We feel luck to have Sam bee yard here!

http://anarchyapiaries.org/fullscreen.html

Garlic Harvest Time

2011-07-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Earth Oven Workshop Tivoli NY 2011

2011-06-29T15:13:00.001-07:00

A great editorial

2011-06-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/opinion/20mcardle.html?_r=1

A great editorial that talks about how much we have to learn from the so called third world that have been practicing sustainability for centuries. It makes me want to make another solar cooker.

Garlic Scapes

2011-06-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

These are just a handful of our garlic scapes. In the past we have either sautéed them in a cast iron pan with olive oil and s&p, or roasted them on the grill. With this number I needed to find new recipes. First out of my head, I made an excellent pesto with the scapes, olive oil, pecans s&p. I will do it again. And from a recipe in the nytimes a good double garlic soup. Next I would like to try the white bean and scape dip. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/18appe.html?ref=dining

A cool idea, I have never heard of, compost hot water,

2011-05-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Incredible

2011-04-24T20:00:00.001-07:00

Humanmanure

2011-04-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Two New Summer Workshops

2011-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Solar Hot Water

2 Sessions

Session one will offer an overview of solar water heating for the home, covering basic concepts and systems including: batch heaters, flat panels and evacuated tubes. The processes of thermosyphon and heat exchange will be explained, with emphasis on simple and basic technologies that can be applied by the homeowner. We will look at an operational on-site hot water installation that was built from ordinary materials, some of them salvage. Finally, we will apply some of the concepts we have covered, working on a simple water heater constructed from a salvage tank. Participants will leave this session with the basic knowledge to plan for their own solar hot water systems.

Sessions two is optional for those who wish to gain more knowledge of solar heating and to further plans for their own systems. Together we will problem solve individual systems and, hands-on, cover basic skills, such as soldering pipe, iron pipe fittings and the simple construction involved in installing hot water panels. Limited to 6 participants

Cost: Session One : $35 Saturday, June 18 10-3 Lunch Provided

Session Two: $50 Saturday, June 25 10-3 Lunch Provided

Tying Knots, Coiling Cords and Sharpening Tools

We'll learn by heart the 3 basic knots that are needed for anything you might want to do, from tying up a bundle of newpapers to lashing down a boat in a hurricane. Other knots will be demonstrated, but are optional. We will also learn how to coil up an extension cord so that it will uncoil easily and flat when pulled from one end.

In the same workshop, we will learn to sharpen various tools found around the home: knives, pruning shears, lawnmowers, chainsaws, chisels, etc. Bring your favorite dull tool.

Cost: $25 Saturday, July 16 1-4 pm

Earthen Oven Workshop this Spring

2011-03-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

FULL

Come join us for Mud Hen East's first East Coast workshop led by John Corcoran.

This workshop will lead participants through all the stages of building an earthen wood-fired bread/pizza oven.

In this workshop we will begin with a discussion of the basic elements of building with earth. This will cover aspects of soil composition, suitability for construction, and methods for testing. Next, we will go through the steps of design and construction of our project, culminating in hands-on work as we mix local mud and actually construct the earthen oven.

Come prepared to get your hands - and everything else - muddy.

Workshop is at 225 Kidd Lane Tivoli New York 10AM-3PM, Saturday May 28th, lunch included. RSVP liza@lizamacrae.com

On June 11th we will meet again to fire up our oven and make pizza. Bring friends, drinks, pizza dough and/or toppings.

Cost of workshop: $35

Mud Hen East

2010-06-19T08:49:00.001-07:00

We have sold our mud house here in Cerrillos N.M. and are heading back to New York's Hudson Valley. It is a bitter sweet choice that has brought up all sorts of storms of the heart. But alas for me, aging parents beckons me home.

There will be lots to do to feel settled in our home in Tivoli. Lots of weed pulling, grass cutting and for me the ritual cleaning that washes away unfamiliar smells and allows our family smells to settle.

It is my hope when we get settled to begin to grow Mud Hen East. One of the first projects I want to do is earth plaster over sheetrock in our downstairs studio. It is there I imagine a sort of earth building laboratory for brewing clay paints and earth plasters. A place for experimentation and teaching. Stay Tuned

FuturArc

2010-03-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

check out an article on us and our friend Simone Swan in this months FuturArc: see link on right

George Bernard Shaw Studio

2010-03-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

a reminder that it is not the size of our studio that matters

2009-12-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

I wanted to put it out there to all of you that Carole Crews, the renowned Taos adobera and enjarradras of Adobe Gourmet , who has worked with and alongside a long line of women adoberas has just published a book! As the back blurb reads "Open the door to self-reliance..create and maintain natural clay finishes over a variety of surfaces. Beautify walls or make works of art with natural materials collected from the Earth or purchased lnexpensively from ceramic suppliers". As a student of Carole's, I recommend her book highly , she opened the door for me to the world of clay plasters and clay paints. Through her recipes I have earth-plastered over adobe, made alis paints, made homemade plasters and clay paints from ingredients from the ceramics store. This book can aid the independent-minded self-reliant soul who inhabits any kind of home. The mystery of clay plaster over sheetrock is revealed through recipes from Yolanda Rawlings and Janine Bjornson. To buy the book send a check for $22 plus $5 shipping to:

Carol Crews

HC 78 Box 9811

Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557

http://carolecrews.com/

A must see video about the power of mud

2009-07-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

Video of John's Adobe Workshop 1 at Ecoversity

2009-07-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

On Living Modestly and Simply

2009-06-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

My partner John Corcoran and I recently built a small light-filled adobe home near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The home was designed to be beautiful, efficient and easy to run. Ironically, many visitors to our home announce that they don't have the skills to live the life we live. To this I say, " Wow, what skills?" By making everything simple we somehow have communicated a complicated household. To live in our house the skills needed are: the ability to wash dishes by hand(a treat in the desert where any contact with water is a pleasure); the ability to bring wood inside, light a fire in a woodstove and to sit still in front of a fireplace with a book or a game on long winter nights; the ability to hang clothes on the line to dry; the ability to once or twice a year add water to the batteries that store our solar energy; the ability to start a generator on rare cloud filled weeks (for us,this has happened once.) That's it, no furnace and air conditioner filters to change, no waiting for countless repairmen. No dark smelly basement to clean and bait with mouse poison. The life we have made for ourselves off the grid is like the life we lived on the grid, only its easier and cheaper. I will grant that learning to live a simpler life did take a lot of homework, research and independent thinking. As a thank you, I thank all the human ingenuity that has come before us, that solved centuries ago what we see as today's problems. A great little book with countless solutions concerning energy efficiency and efficiency in general: John S. Taylor A Shelter Sketchbook: Timeless Building Solutions.

In Praise of Walnut Oil as a Finish for Earthen Adobe Floors

2009-06-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

Last January, after laying down an earthen floor in the adobe home we were living in, the question of what to finish the floor with arose. In New Mexico adobe floors were traditionally sealed with ox blood. Today, the choice both here in New Mexico and in contemporary cob building in England, is to seal the floors with several coats of boiled linseed oil diluted with a thinner such as turpentine or, the more natural alternative, citrus solvent. To this is added a final waterproofing coat, a polish made from a mixture of beeswax and linseed oil.

Linseed oil is a gummy derivative of the flax plant which must be thinned to help it penetrate the earthen floor it is being applied to as well as to speed up its drying time. At the time of year that we needed to seal our floors, the freezing temperatures outdoors prevented us from being able to adequately ventilate the room we were working in, making the choice of linseed oil unattractive because of the strong and long-lasting fumes the oil gives off while drying. While researching alternatives to linseed oil both milk and blood meal were named as alternatives, but as neither fully answered our requirements for a beautiful, long-lasting finish that we could mop, we began to consider walnut oil. In our research we had found no reference to walnut oil as a finish for an earthen floor, but we had recently finished our kitchen cabinets and counters with the oil on the suggestion of a friend, colorist and inventor Stephen Auger. Having used it on wood with great results, we thought it might work well on an earthen floor. For our cabinets we had applied food grade walnut oil which we purchased at the local food co-op. We puit it on with a paint brush, let it soak in for a couple minutes and rubbed any puddled areas dry with a clean cotton rag. The oil gave the wood a warm oiled glow and served also as a stain and water repellent. Although walnut oil is said to polymerize(fully dry and harden) over several months it was dry to the touch almost immediately and left no sticky or smelly residue. Relying on this experience with walnut oil, Auger's experience, and with previous experience oiling floors with thinned linseed oil we decided to take the leap of faith with the unknown and ordered 5 gallons of food grade walnut oil online. www.libertynatural.com.

The area we were working on was about 300 square feet. We applied the oil generously with a paint brush, allowing it to soak into the earthen floor, occasionally going back and wiping up the puddled areas. The next day we gave it another coat, not noticing any difference in the floor's willingness to take the oil. On the third day we moved ourselves and furniture back into the room which is both our kitchen and living room. With the walnut oil finish the floor had taken on a luscious chocolate brown color and though not dry ( we tracked oily footprints onto the hallway saltillo tiles, which we simply wiped clean) we were pleased.
Ideally at that time we would have liked to have applied another coat to achive a richer and more protective finsh. A coat we did apply the following summer. Today,a year and half later the floor has gone through weekly moppings with water and a little castile soap and still looks great, thus negating the need for the beeswax polish. As a footnote, we are a household that rarely takes our shoes off when coming in from outdoors, something we do frequently throughout the day.

2009-04-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Check out our adobe building workshops.

Paper for AdobeSW Conference

2009-03-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Passing New Mexico Energy Conservation and Building Codes in Traditional Adobe Construction

In New Mexico, the adobe builder is fortunate to be able to call on extensive traditional and modern resources, as well as an excellent and unique earthen building code. These advantages allow us to study and make use of methods that have succeeded over centuries, in addition to modern techniques that have not necessarily been strictly adapted into the codes. However, navigating the system of codes and the bureaucracy which supports them can be daunting and frustrating. Some choose to ignore the system and build without permits or any bureaucratic oversight. In rural New Mexico, because of isolation by distance and landscape; and low or no enforcement of codes, this remains an option. But those who build in more populated areas, more visibly, and perhaps with stricter oversight, or who are under mortgage constrictions, will have to walk the officially condoned path laid out by local, state and even international building codes.

There is another reason for working within the system. It is critical that traditional and sustainable earthen building practices be promoted and championed openly and legally, so that they are not forgotten, neglected - even outlawed - and eventually lost. As well, architects and engineers who design systems and stamp plans need to be brought into awareness and appreciation of traditional and sustainable alternative building methods so that they can foster them in their contact with code agencies.

When the authors moved to Santa Fe County from New York, where they had built using stick framing and post-and-beam methods, they were captivated by the examples of traditional adobe buildings still standing; still in use, or in some cases in ruins. Less interesting, and often confusing, were the adobe houses under construction in Santa Fe. The use of foam insulation and cement stucco, while providing defensible utility, seemed environmentally and aesthetically unsustainable. To us, the whole idea was to honor the earth, in every sense; and when we actually got our hands in the mud we were even more convinced. The specialist in adobe preservation, Ed Crocker, has put it this way: "Over the course of two generations adobe buildings with earthen plasters were replaced by soil blocks saturated with asphalt emulsion, laid up in Portland cement, tied with a concrete bond beam...[and] sprayed with polyurethane foam...This is not earthen construction: it is a composite with which one could build an adobe submarine."

Bound to build in adobe using traditional methods, we designed a small house built on a rubble trench foundation, with earthen floors, mud plaster inside and out and -most critically- no insulation on or in the walls. This decision was taken after extensive research on the subject, especially(and quite accessibly) in the work of Paul G. Mc Henry who, in his comprehensive study of insulation and thermal mass values in Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings, covers the scientific as well as anecdotal evidence which lends support to the fact that traditional adobe buildings are cool in summer and warm in winter: "People who have lived in earth houses have stated a satisfactory comfort standard repeatedly, more comfortable than temperature measurements might lead us to believe." A statement something quite like this was heard from many others, including as an aside from a state building inspector who allowed that he lived comfortably in an uninsulated adobe house, but nevertheless officially stood by the International Building Code, which requires wall insulation.

The authors' decision to build on a rubble trench foundation was based on the determination to use as little Portland cement/concrete in the building as possible, given that the embodied energy in a 94 pound bag of Portland is 381,624 Btu, or the equivalent energy of about 3 gallons of gasoline. Consideration was given to building with no foundation at all, as have been many earthen structures in New Mexico, including much of the Taos pueblo. On high, stable ground this method, which requires nothing more than laying adobes directly on the earth, is a tempting and extremely sustainable alternative. However, it might be impossible to find an engineer who would sign off on it, and even then, the state might reject the plan. Buildings under 140 square feet are exempt from code oversight, so this method, or a variation - like setting a course of stones on the earth before laying the adobe wall - might be employed with good result.

We decided to put in a gravel-filled trench with a steel reinforced concrete grade beam on top. This resulted in about a 70% reduction in concrete and rebar as compared with a conventional footing/stemwall foundation. The design involved digging a 16" wide trench to below the frost line(about 2' in our case), making sure that the bottom of the trench was undisturbed ground and sloping slightly from one corner. This required continuing the trench about 50' from the low corner of the building until it reached daylight. This allows any water that runs toward the building to drain through the gravel trench and out. To facilitate this, we set a 4" PVC perforated pipe, holes down, on top of the first inch or two of gravel at the bottom, and ran that all the way around and to daylight as well. We set in vertically a 2' high panel of 2" thick styrofoam insulation inside and against the outer wall of the trench, holding it to the height of our eventual grade beam, and filled the trench to grade with gravel. We used one-and-a-half inch round stone, which settles very solidly with little or no tamping required, much as marbles poured into a jar naturally form their most compact arrangement.

On top of the gravel we formed an 8" high concrete grade beam, using the styrofoam we had set in the trench as the outside of the form. The grade beam was 12" wide plus the thickness of the styrofoam, which allowed a 14" adobe to be laid flush, inside and out. Eventually, we brought our mud plaster right down to the ground, over the styrofoam(no lath or other preparation)and, more than a year later, it's still sticking well.

This method: the rubble trench foundation, has been employed extensively in myriad variations over centuries and has proven to be effective and lasting. However, the practice has not been accepted in the International Building Code, and the Portland intensive method of concrete footing/stemwall/slab has become the standard in practice as well as code. While a few architects and engineers know about the rubble trench foundation as a sustainable alternative, they are unwilling to incorporate it into their designs, most likely because they are leery of taking the risk of pushing through an innovation which is not in accepted practice. Inspectors at New Mexico CID knew of the method, probably because of traditional use of it, but would not take the risk of approving our plans without a stamp from engineer or architect. The authors were fortunate to find, with the help of Ed Crocker, and at the eleventh hour, (trenches were dug, and we could have poured either concrete or gravel into them) an engineer in Santa Fe who was willing to stick his neck out on a practice he knew to be sound.

Neither a rubble trench foundation nor uninsulated adobe walls are allowed in the International Building Code. A few days after submitting our plans to NM Construction Industries Division, we got a call from an inspector in the Santa Fe office. "You're going to need to insulate your walls; and that foundation isn't in the codes." We told him we wanted to build in a sustainable way, and as close to the traditional as possible.

"You're going to have to get an engineer or architect to sign off on that foundation. But you still need to insulate your walls to R 19." We asked him if there was no alternative. At first he said there was none, but after persistent questioning, told us:

"Well you can fill out a trade-off worksheet and try that."

The 2003 New Mexico Energy Conservation Code Residential Applications Manual is a comprehensive and fairly easy to navigate 41 page book ( available at www.energycodes.gov/rescheck/download.stm), which includes tables and data on various thermal building characteristics including passive solar, mass wall allowance, building material thermal data, etc. Its stated intent is to:

1. Allow the use of a worksheet to trade off R-values between various parts of the

house, without increasing the energy use of the house.

2. Make it easier to demonstrate code compliance for passive solar heated homes.

3. Make it easier for massive construction to achieve code compliance.

Included are worksheets by which allowances and tradeoffs are calculated. Most important of these, for builders who want to use uninsulated adobe walls, is the Tradeoff Worksheet. Essentially this allows you to balance positive thermal and insulative values against lesser or no values to achieve an overall compliance with the Energy Code. In our case, high insulation values in the ceiling, demonstrated passive solar heating and allowance for the mass of our walls allowed us to exceed the code requirements while having no added insulation on the walls.

Essentially what the Tradeoff Worksheet in the manual does is to compare total roof, wall and foundation R values in the proposed house to the values of a hypothetical code-compliant house. It does this by requiring the applicant to enter figures which are attained by dividing square foot area by the R value of the materials comprising that area. For instance, a 14" adobe wall, with an inch of mud plaster inside and out, adding the Mass Wall Allowance given in the worksheet manual, has an R value of 7.3. Divide this into the square footage of wall area and enter at the right. Thus, the higher the R value the lower the end number. Enter all walls, ceiling, windows, skylight and uninsulated slab edge, add these numbers together, and if the sum comes out to less than the sum for the hypothetical code house of the same square footage, voila! you pass. If not, you must add insulation somewhere to bring down your numbers. A 1000 square' house with R 25 in the ceiling gives an end number of 40. Double your insulation and you halve your end number. Without much adjustment, the authors were able to come in at about 15% lower than the code house.

As is frequently found with codes on the books in government agencies, recognition and enforcement appear to be matters of group or individual convenience and discretion. Permit reviewers and inspectors may be ignorant of the Tradeoff Worksheet, or may be reluctant to accept it. One official at Santa Fe CID refused to say whether a Worksheet in compliance would necessarily be accepted, saying that permits were reviewed on a case-by-case basis and that the International Building Code(which requires wall insulation) was used and enforced in New Mexico. The Residential Applications Manual gives inspectors an out by saying, "This publication does not intend to negate any of the standards found in the International Energy Conservation Code."

After completing the process, and having received a certificate of occupancy for our house, our sense is that greater leeway is given to the homeowner/builder over contractors, but this should not deter the contractor or the client from completing the worksheet and submitting it. Our experience has been that politely standing ones ground and continuing to ask for an alternative to what is often a kneejerk "No," will win out in the end.

Presumably, codes are put in place to protect the public. In New Mexico, at least, we have found that working within the system, the builder can pursue traditional, sustainable and alternative methods by using implemented paths as well as making full use of unofficial openess to these methods, when presented properly. By building openly and legally, we are helping to continue tradition and to bring back or present new sustainable building practices. To us, this is critically important if the promise of true earthen building is to be fulfilled.

Consider the Shovel

2009-02-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Consider the humble shovel as an alternative to the noisy, fuel guzzling, plant-killing, soil-ripping backhoe.

Dig by hand? Are you mad? Actually, no. For millenia, before the advent of fossil fuels and modern machinery, digging and excavation was done by hand. Yes, it's slower, but yes, it got done. It's time we all slowed down anyway; stopped believing that getting things done requires us to rush. Rushing stresses us out. Many times, I've stood on a building site while backhoes and bulldozers careered across the landscape, noisily crushing everything under their huge wheels and metal tracks, feeling the panic of watching as hundreds of dollars an hour were sucked up and praying that the men behind the controls knew what they were doing.

A machine needs room to move, thus always an area 3 or 4 times the size of the machine ends up stripped bare of any plant or animal life. When an earthmoving machine is on site, the noise blocks out everything else. No one can think clearly. Often mistaken decisions are taken, and these usually cost money.

Consider the humble shovel. Digging is an art; digging is a science. Digging can be a true pleasure.

At the age of 20, I learned to dig from a master. I was living in Philadelphia and was between colleges (I'd been kicked out of one, was taking some time off before starting at another) and had gotten a job at a tree nursery on the Main Line. Most of the work involved planting trees - some of them full grown, with root balls up to 8' across, on the estates of well-to-do locals. Moore Nursery was an old, well-established business, and was known for its fine work and minimal impact on the landscape. Thus all digging was done by hand. Crews of Puerto Ricans worked in the nursery, digging up and wrapping the root balls of the trees. The all-anglo crews that went out on the estates worked under one or another of the Moore brothers, all of them in their sixties and seventies. They were an Irish, hard-drinking bunch, who nevertheless knew their craft. In addition to learning how to handle a shovel, I learned to drink shots of cheap rye followed by a short beer. One of the Moore sisters had married a landscape architect, a white-haired gentleman, who dressed in suits and wore a fine fedora. It was he who really ran things and who sold the jobs to Moore Nursery's elegant clientele.

On-site crews were composed of two laborers and a boss, usually one of the Moore brothers. On arrival, we would mark out the locations of the trees for planting and begin by laying burlap about 4' wide around the perimeter of each hole. This was where the dirt from our excavation was laid, so that when we were done, we lifted the burlap, sprinkling the final dirt near the base of the tree, and except for the temporary flattening of the grass, it looked as if we had never been there.

It was Earl Moore who first taught me how to handle a shovel and who bought me my first boilermaker at a saloon in Gladwyn, Pa. I learned from Earl how to dig a straight-sided hole, how to work sequentially from one shovel-full to the next; how to let the weight of the pick work for, rather than against you; how to use your legs more than your back; how to take your time: rest, reflect, tell a racy joke, play a prank, yet get the work done. Earl was a tough man, a traditional boss, a bigot and a sexist. He was often mean in the morning, probably from being hung over, yet what he taught me about honest work has served me well all my working life.

Since then, I've done a lot of digging: planting fruit trees on our property, water trenches for drainage, cleaning up after backhoes(the inevitable on any job done by machine) and more and more lately, digging and excavating for foundations or other earthwork: Big digs. In digging by hand, by the nature of it, you go slowly, efficiently and considerately. Earth is heavy: you plan just how much to dig and no more. You observe the contents of each shovelful; learn the nature of the soil and the plants and creatures living on it and in it. You work at your own pace. Because it is tiring work, you stop frequently, look up, across the land, into the sky. Smell the soil and the trees. The birds stay close, not chased off by racing engines and diesel smoke. You reflect, ideas come into your head. You bend to the soil again.

Allow time for digging. If you are in a hurry, ignore these words, or perhaps you should heed them. Don't try to attack the work all at once. Dig for a few hours a day, perhaps in one or two-hour sessions. It's good exercise. Food tastes better. You sleep well. Hire a helper or helpers. A man with experience with a shovel(as most men I've known do, who come from the south of our border) can move a lot of soil in a day. They'll move as much as a backhoe will in an hour and cost you the same amount, and at the end, you may have made a friend.

John Corcoran

Plaza at Chimayo

2009-01-23T20:31:00.000-08:00

Anselmo Jaramillo "the last adobodero of Chimayo"

2009-01-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

We took a little road trip to to meet "last adobedero of Chimayo," Anselmo Jaramillo. Anselmo is an instructor at Northern New Mexico Community College (where they have a great inexpensive Adobe building program), and a man passionate about adobe . Anselmo was born in Chimayo thus born into northern New Mexico Adobe. He has traveled extensively in Mexico restoring many adobe structures. His project that he showed us in Chimayo though is inspired by the buildings of Hassan Fathy who he learned of through "his hero" Simone Swan of Adobe Alliance. Anselmo is passionate about using only the materials he can find on his 5 acres in Chimayo thus he has employed a foundation of stone and mud mortar and the vaulted and dome roofs of Egypt. He has his on website that will explain more of what he is up to. adobeclass.blogspot.com/

What I want to experiment with after talking to Anselmo is with making insulation from straw. I have done a little experimentation making straw clay blocks as insulation but what he talked about sounded simpler. Make a wheel barrel of clay slip and dip wedges of straw as they separate from bale, air dry and there you go. My only hesitation is mice, the philosophy of straw clay is to coat each piece of straw to make it mouse proof.

Adobe Conference 2009

2008-12-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

My partner, John Corcoran, will be presenting a paper at this year's Adobe SW Conference in El Rito, New Mexico. John's paper will be on our personal experience of getting through the approval process for an adobe house without insulation on the exterior walls and built on a rubble trench foundation. As outsiders to New Mexico we thought of these traditional practices as integral to building with adobe, and came to adobe building perplexed at seeing new adobes covered entirely with sprayed urethane insulation, wire lath and concrete stucco. Lucky for us and lucky for all New Mexicans, it is legally possible to build a snug warm house in the traditional way. Come to John's talk.

The desire to build an adobe house without additional wall insulation came from both a personal and philsolphical place. We were determined to avoid toxic and non-renewable materials wherever possible. As artists, aesthetic considerations were at the forefront; quite simply, we wanted to build a soulful house made of earth. We wanted to work under the premise of honesty in materials and allow adobe to be adobe: to go beyond its known and quantified properties and to experience what it was to live in a house made of mud.

As knowledgeable builders we did not come to the question of not insulating the walls blindly. We knew of the energy advantages of having R19 in your walls face to face with the only .34 per inch of adobe. But adobe had what is called the effective U-Values which were measured and codified by the Tesuque Thermal Project; great thermal mass. And for me, which was most convincing, was the experiential evidence of the comfort of living in a solar-oriented adobe house with a well-insulated, modern roof. Fortunately, through careful consideration of the house orientation, window placement and size, as well as maximally insulating the roof, we were able to comply with the New Mexico Energy Conservation code and build the house we wanted.

Unfortunately what was most disturbing in this process was a telephone conversation I had with a man who owned a "green" cellulose insulation company here in Santa Fe. Without getting any other details about our house other that that it was adobe and that we were not planning to insulate the exterior walls, he refused to sell us insulation for the roof cavity. He didn't want to discuss or even consider what we were doing. In his mind,we were wrong and he was right. It was rather heart breaking to be thought so ill of especially by someone who was ultimately on the same "side" as us.

As we all wrestle with the question of global warming and our addiction to oil, I think we must rely on our own instinctual and experiential knowledge as much as in scientific and technical information. For us, building small and living simply was equal part in our decision making. To live in a small house, we knew it had to be beautiful and sparse and that, for instance, though a fireplace might not be considered "energy efficient," for us it would be our winter heart: a place to gather, to read, share a evening meal or play a game. In essence what I am trying to address here is the importance of knowing yourself and family when building a home, and as great as Hers and Leeds are for our commercial and developer-built buildings, they may not be the right bench mark for us as individuals.

Incidentally our south,west and east walls are laid at the 14 inch direction with another 2 " of plaster while our north walls are double 10" walls with a 2" airspace with 2" of plaster, and our roof is insulated to R 40.

For more on rubble trench foundation.www.buildnaturally.com/EDucate/Articles/RubbleTrench.htm

Some great links to learn more about adobe and the people we learned from

2008-11-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

It seems a bit odd that I have begun a blog about Adobe building with a recipe for oil paint but I guess that is in part the nature of a blog as my introduction each day is moved further down the page. I will skip around with information I have to share just as you will skip around the blog and internet looking for the information that may be helpful to you.

Today though, in an effort to start at the beginning, I wanted to share a little background on how John Corcoran, my partner, and I came to learn how to build with Adobe and some background information on us.

Background:

John Corcoran, my partner in life and building, and I came to New Mexico to build a small house of Adobe. John has built many homes as a contractor and on his own. He is a graduate of Goddard College in Vermont , a school that had a great program in the early 1970 where students studied home building and where he built his first home as a senior thesis project. The experience I brought to the table was as a house designer, and as someone who spent most of her waking hours in and around the home, thus had a lot to say about a homes design and flow. This house is the third house we have built together as a team.

On arriving in New Mexico and as the closing on the land we wanted to purchase took a longer time than we had imagined, John and I set out to learn everything we could about adobe.

We took field trips visiting such notable historical adobe structures in and around Santa Fe and Taos:

Taos Pueblo

The Martinez Hacienda

The Rancho de Taos

The Ranchos de Los Golindrinas

The Acoma Pueblo

Georgia Okeefe's Abiquie Home

We took country drives and fell in love with all the small adobe villages along the Pecos River.

We read everything we could get our hands on:

John perused the used bookshops of Santa Fe finding numerous out of print titles while I perused the Santa Fe Library southwest section and the internet.

good used bookshops: Gunstock Hill Books 308 N. Guadalupe

Nicholas Potter Books 211 East Palace

We read Ed Crocker's monthly "Understanding Adobe"column in Real Estate Guide of the Santa Fe New Mexican, and all his back columns we found on his internet site.

We met:

Quentin Wilson the Head of Adobe Building Program at The Northern New Mexico Community College in el Rito New Mexico, an inexpensive hands on college program to learn adobe building.

And joined his yahoo International adobe chat room, a must for anyone serious about adobe building.

Through this chat room we met and became good friends with two invaluable player in our Adobe building:

Simone Swann, Adobe Alliance

Claude Hayward the guy who with a team of guys from Anton Chico put up the adobe block and built our fireplace,

And I took a weekend plaster and alis paint workshop with Carole Crews where what I learned gave me complete confidence to to take over the entire plaster job inside and out on our home.

Conferences:

We attended the Adobe Association of the Southwest conference in el Rito and met people from all over the world truly passionate about adobe. There is another conference coming up this May 15, 16 and 17.

If you take the time to follow all the links I have created above and get out and drive the New Mexico countryside I whole new world will open up to you. I am only sorry I didn't discover adobe sooner.

2008-11-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Homemade Oil Paint

Outdoors

I used this paint to paint our outside window trim. I wanted to paint them to add color to the house, if you call white color, and to give the wood more protection from the elements. My thought and hope is is that the white painted wood will weather beautifully, never peel and as I used titanium dioxide as the pigment it will be further protected from the sun. Titanium dioxide is the sun block ingredient in expensive natural sun screen. I can see giving the wood an occasional re- oiling if it warrants any care.

For years I have been looking for something to paint and/or stain wood to give it that look of an old northeastern house or barn faded with time.

Indoors

I used this paint to paint our interior doors.

I used the same recipe but used the walnut oil/citrus thinner combination to preserve indoor air quality. I combined a grey earth pigment I purchased from earthpigments with the titanium dioxide I purchased at the local ceramic supply company www.santafeclay.com. The walnut oil may be purchased online at libertynatural or bought at your local health food store, the citrus thinner at bioshieldpaint

Recipe

1/2 cup boiled linseed oil or food grade walnut oil

3T pigment more or less to taste

1/4 cup turpentine or citrus thinner

This paint has long drying times, here in New Mexico it is dries to touch after 48 hours. Here you can add a second coat if desired.

More about me

2008-11-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

My interest have always revolved around home and simple living. This was my play as a child and has been my work as an adult. I am a 47 year old mother of a grown child and a child still at home. Living around and amongst beauty has always been paramount to my life. When most people my age were concentrating on careers, I was planting gardens and learning about foraging for wild foods. Throughout the years I planted many gardens both professionally and for my family and co-designed 4 homes in New York's Hudson Valley. It was only in coming to New Mexico and building with adobe, cob and earthen plasters and paints that I began to feel fully encaged and cable in the structural aspects of the building process. Unlike conventional building methods and materials adobe and earth building allows you to control the rhythm of the process and involve very few if any power tools. For a woman with children and with concerns broader than what is right in front of me, this method of building is perfectly suited. This is not to say I haven't been dependent on my partner John Corcoran, an individual completely competent in all aspects of building, but for me I have taken a great leap in my abilities and independence in discovering earth building.

2008-11-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Everything I know about Adobe and earth building I have learned since 2006. I have learned the craft through many helpful adobederos, through books and through the trial and error of getting my hands dirty. Fortunately for me I like things that are handmade, I like worn-in blue jeans and wonky ceramic pots. I also like the machine edge and the modern and the juxtaposition of old and new, soft and hard. But as I get older and I choose to live in a smaller house I find I like to surround myself with objects that are made by hand, that speak of the hands and the spirit that went into their making.

I tell you all of this by way of an introduction because I believe if you embrace this thinking you are already well on your way with adobe building. There are many theories on why living in an adobe home brings such a feeling of well being, including the idea of living within the walls of something that has been thoroughly embraced by human touch. And so as you build, celebrate the imperfection of adobe and of yourself, remember the beauty and soulfulness you find in that handmade wonky ceramic pot.

In this blog, a first for me, I will share with you what I have learned, I will connect you to the people, books and websites that have guided me and my husband John as we built a small adobe home in northwest New Mexico. It is my hope to gradually build a site that will include photographs , recipes and how to essays. Just as my adobe work is full of imperfections, so too is my writing. Enjoy my misspellings, misuse of words and run-on sentences.