Another Look At Porfilio Bustillo, #3 - Cement Trim As Faux Stone

This is the 3rd post in a row on the work of mason Porfirio Bustillo.

Please refer to the 2 previous posts to more easily follow along:

Porfirio Bustillo, Master Mason In Alamos, Sonora and

Porfirio Bustillo, #2- Formed Cement And Faux Tile.

Now I want to show how he gives his decorative cement work 

a finish that resembles carved cantera stone.

Another Look At Porfilio Bustillo, #2 - Formed Cement Trim And Faux Tile

My previous post was on the work of Porfirio Bustillo.

You may want to read that before this post:

Porfirio Bustillo, Master Mason In Alamos, Sonora.

Another Look At Porfirio Bustillo - Master Mason In Alamos, Sonora

I had the pleasure to meet Senior Porfirio Bustillo,

  a mason in Alamo, Sonora who specializes in fireplaces.

These next couple posts will concentrate on the work he is doing 

on his house which is under construction.

Looking Back At Murals In Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico

I would like to expand a bit the definition

 of alternative building to include murals.

(I want to continue looking back at some of my posts 

from a couple of years ago that may have been missed

 by the weekly readers of this blog,

and this post comes from December 13, 2010.)

Faces And Masks - Looking Back At You

It is interesting how we present ourselves to the world.

The mask above is found on a home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

(Please note that I am continuing to look at posts 

from a couple of years ago that current readers may have missed

 and this post was originally done in January of 2011,
with several additions we have run across since then.)

Another Look At Domes In Mexico

As the weather turns colder

 it is nice to look back at some of my older posts from Mexico 

and this one comes from December 16th, 2010.

We have visited all these spots over the last five years.

Above is a beautifully tiled dome in San Carlos, Sonora.

Another Look At Stonework At The Lake Valley Ghost Town

Last fall I ventured by the virtually abandoned ghost town

 of Lake Valley, New Mexico, where I got some photos

of the building above which was the saloon, general store,

 and gas station.

(I first did this post on April 23, 2010 

and I want to highlight some of my older posts that I did in the first year or so of this blog 

that may have been overlooked by current readers.)

Ruins Of San Juan Parangaricutira Church Revisited

A couple of years ago as we traveled through the Mexican state of Michoacan

 we were advised by fellow travelers to visit the Paricutin Volcano. 

I am glad we did.

(Please note this is a post I originally did 12/30/10 

and I want to highlight some of my older posts that I did in the first year or so of this blog 

that may have been overlooked by current readers, hope you enjoy it.)

Building A Well House #9: Trombe Wall Solar Collector

It was a thrill to finally get to the point in this project 

that I had been most looking forward to 

and that was building the Trombe Wall passive solar heater 

to keep our well house from freezing in the winter.

In the photo above you can see we are pretty solarized with the Trombe wall

 and in the background you can get a glimpse of the attached sunroom on the house

 and the solar batch water heater on the roof, all passive solar use.

To follow along on the well house project:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

 Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block,

Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof,

Building A Well House #5: Corrugated Metal Roof,

Building A Well House #6: Plumbing And Electrical, 

 Building A Well House #7: Prepping For Stucco,

and Building A Well House #8: Stucco. 

Building A Well House #8: Stucco

Last week we looked at wiring the well house for applying stucco to,

now let's look at the stucco process itself.

The whole series to date is:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

 Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block,

Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof,

Building A Well House #5: Corrugated Metal Roof,

Building A Well House #6: Plumbing And Electrical, 

and Building A Well House #7: Prepping For Stucco,

so please take a look back to get up to speed on our project,

particularly the last post on the preparation for stucco.

Building A Well House #7: Prepping For Stucco

Once we got the plumbing and electrical hooked up in the well house

 we were ready to finish up the outside

 and the first step was insulating and wiring for the stucco.

This being a cement block building I wanted to try and refine some techniques

 I have been working on for applying stucco over rigid foam insulation.

Here is the complete series to date for those who may want to follow along:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

 Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block,

Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof,

Building A Well House #5: Corrugated Metal Roof,

Building A Well House #6: Plumbing And Electrical.

Building A Well House #6: Plumbing And Electrical

Once we had the roof done on the well house we wanted to go ahead
and make the switch over from the old well system to the new
before we did the outside finishing of insulation, stucco, and solar Trombe wall.

Here is the whole series to date:
Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

 Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block,

Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof,

and Building A Well House #5: Corrugated Metal Roof.

In the photo above you can see the old set up unearthed:

-the well casing at the top of the photo, installed in 1984,

-the 1 1/4" white pvc line that goes from the well to the two houses 

(this is a shared well), 

-and the buried grey pressure tank.

Also note the 3" white pvc line with a cap on it 

at the very bottom of the photo that is the conduit for the new pex 

(polyethelene cross braided water line),

and the 1" electrical conduit that has been left short till we are ready for the final hook up,

both of which run back to the new well house.

Building A Well House #5: Corrugated Metal Roof

This is the 5th post on our well house project 

and we will take a look at the corrugated galvanized metal roof.

To get up to speed on where we have been check out these previous posts:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

 Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Wall,

and Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof.

Building A Well House #4: Framing The Hip Roof

This is the 4th post in a series on building a well house,

and I hope you will look at the previous posts

 to get up to speed on this project:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block.

Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Block

This is the third post in our series on building a well house.

Please refer to the previous posts to see how we got to this point:

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

 Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block,

and Building A Well House #3: More On Dry Stack Cement Wall.

Building A Well House #2: Dry Stack Cement Block

This is the second post on our well house project

and in the first post, Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation,

we looked at the foundation and got up to the first course of block.

Above we have dry stacked the block

 and prepared the form for a 4" bond beam at the midsection 

at which time we will also fill all the cores in the block up to that point.

This mid section bond beam is a bit of overkill

 but I needed to size the footer forms to the bond beam dimensions anyway,

and the forms make it easier to fill the cement block cores with concrete

much like a funnel.

Building A Well House #1: Rubble Fill Foundation

This post is the first in a series

 for a 80" x 128", dry stack cement block, solar heated, well house we are building 

and will highlight several out of the norm methods of building.

Here we will look at the rubble fill foundation

in which the footer sits on top of a foundation of rubble 

and various size stone aggregate.

The above photo shows the form work ready for the concrete footer

which is at the top of the foundation instead of at the bottom of the trench.

Nearly Natural Hot Spring Pools

Since the last post was on man made hot spring pools 

(Concrete And Stone Hot Spring Pools),

I thought it would be nice to look at the more natural style pools.

Since most pools are altered by people in some way,

nearly natural refers to pools made with primarily natural, local materials

 and with either sand or gravel bottoms.

Above and below are pools that are dug out from the sandy banks

 along the West Fork of the Gila River in southwest New Mexico.

Concrete And Stone Hot Spring Pools

One of our favorite pursuits while traveling is looking for hot springs 

and even if you don't have a hot spring,

 you may want to build a pool and here are some ideas.

These first three photos are from a hot springs near the small town 

of Aconchi, Sonora, Mexico in the north central part of that state.

Designing And Installing A Rain Water Catchment System

We are just finishing up on a rainwater catchment system on our house

and our first big decision was what kind of tanks to use.

Of course we would have loved to have had nice galvanized tanks, 

but the reality is that the above ground polyethylene tanks we chose were more affordable, 

are easier to handle and install, are able to be moved,

 and will last much longer than the metal.

Many people go with below ground tanks but that requires different tanks,

 and the added cost of digging not to mention the disruption to the landscape,

and the added factor of pumping the water back up to the point of use.

Making Adobe Bricks

It is (was) June in the southwestern USA and as is typical it is hot and very dry-

 what better time to make adobe bricks because they also like it hot and dry.

I had a pile of adobe dirt that I wanted to get rid of

 and knew I would need these bricks for a future project.

As you can see above the ingredients for making adobes are:

-a pile of good adobe soil

 (sift your soil only if it has stones larger than about 2" or lots of debris),

-a form for the bricks,

-straw for mixing in with the dirt,

-water, a water barrel and a 5 gal. bucket,

-a very sturdy wheelbarrow,

-and a shovel, hoe, and trowels.

Make Your Own Solar Oven

For many years Allison has wanted a solar oven 

and we finally got around to building one out of cardboard

to serve as an experiment, prototype, and a pattern for a permanent oven.

(Our latest post on our new and improved oven is:

Make Your Own Solar Oven- A New Improved Oven)

Fence And Wall Ideas

Seems like a good time to show some more fence and wall ideas.

The above wall is in Santa Fe, N.M.

Helmut Hillencamp's Metal Gate In Santa Fe, N.M.

For many years we lived across the street from the Fayette Street Academy

where interesting things were always going on.

One of those things was the evolving metal gate 

built by Helmut Hillencamp of Iron to Live With.

Update On A Japanese Style Shed

One of the more popular posts in this blog has been 

A Japanese Style Shed,

and we were recently given a tour by the current owners of the property,

and got to see the many improvements they have added.

Metal Handles And Latches For Doors, Drawers, And Gates

Going through my photos I could see that it was time to look at handles

 for doors, drawers and gates to give a few ideas for designers, and builders.

Above are handles for the doors into the Albuquerque Aquarium.

Adobe Domes At The Northern New Mexico College Adobe Program

Some time ago I did the post-

An Adobe Dome Building,

profiling the dome, above, built in El Rito, New Mexico

 by the Northern New Mexico College 

and it's Adobe Construction Program .

Since the last post was on adobe hornos

 I thought by extension it would be nice to take a look at domes.

Adobe Hornos Built By The Northern New Mexico College Adobe Program

We were on the El Rito campus of the Northern New Mexico College back in the spring 

and I got some photos of the hornos that had been built 

by the Adobe Construction Program there.

Having gotten much interest in the recent post-

Wood Fired Ovens In Baja California Sur,

I thought these ovens would be a nice contrast.

The above photo shows two contrasting styles- 

the traditional one on the right that is found all over northern New Mexico

 and on the left the smaller, lower type that requires less wood to heat up.

Building A Stone And Concrete Bridge

In our frequent trips to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

 over the last few months I got to know William 

who was doing stonework at the Hay-Yo-Kay Hot Springs.

Part of his work included this very nice stone and concrete bridge 

spanning a channel of hot spring runoff water.

Tile Art In Silver City, N.M.

As careful readers of this blog may have noted,

 I have posted on tile mosaic, murals, and manufacturers in Silver City, New Mexico,

 as well as the artists who practice such work.

For such a small town there is a lot of ceramic art.

Above, is a small work that we noticed 

walking around a residential area in the historic part of town.

Although it is small and at the bottom of a wall

it jumped out at us.

Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain In Niland, California

One of the more amazing places we have been over the years is Salvation Mountain, 

built by Leonard Knight not far from the south eastern shore of the Salton Sea

just outside the town of Niland, California.

Allison had been wanting to go there for quite a while 

and this winter we had the opportunity to see this part of the world,

and she provided the photos for this post.

Onyx Steps In Catavina, Baja California

In the long lonely drive south from El Rosario, Baja California 

to Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur lies a magical land around the town of Cataviña

populated by boulders and cactus.

Wood Fired Ovens In Baja California Sur

Here are some more examples of wood fired ovens, or hornos,

 that we found while traveling in Baja California Sur.

To see more check out LABELS-ELEMENTS on the right side bar

 and click on Kilns And Hornos.

Above is the horno at Ricardo's Rice and Beans Hotel, Restaurant, and RV Park

in San Ignacio.

Bamboo Mat Shed With A Palm Thatch Roof In Mulege, B.C.S.

I ended the last post, which was on small homes in Mulege, Baja California Sur,

with the above photo and now let's see how to build the shed.

Small Homes In Mulege, Baja California Sur

With the small house movement getting so much well deserved interest,

 I thought it would be interesting to show some examples

 we saw in Mulege, B.C.S. at

 the Huerta Don Chano RV Park and Campground

 that were built for Canadian and American retirees.

Old Adobe Buildings In San Ignacio, Baja California Sur

This is the last post on San Ignacio, B.C.S. 

and this time we will look at old adobe houses, mostly in ruins.

The previous post shows some adobes still being used:

Architectural Tour Of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur.

Sadly, I saw no current building with adobe, 

having been supplanted first by fired clay bricks 

and now almost all new construction is cement block. 

As I mentioned in the last post, 

if one had the choice of spending a hot summer in a cool adobe

 or a hot cement block house, 

it seems the choice would be obvious. Hmmm?

In the above well built wall, 

the coursing shows the bricks are laid crosswise for a wider wall.

Architectural Tour Of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur

One of the more interesting towns in Baja California Sur

 is the date palm oasis of San Ignacio,

which lies near the center of Baja both north-south and east-west.

Because it is on neither the Pacific or the Sea of Cortez,

 it has missed some of the tourist development that has centered along the coasts.

The springs that provide the water in this small valley have created a lush environment 

and an obvious place to locate a town in the otherwise harsh desert.

The large building in the center of the above photo is the mission

 which I covered in the previous three posts:

The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur,

More On The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur,

and Doors And Windows At The Mission Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur.

Doors And Windows At The Mission Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur

In this third post on the Mission Church of San Ignacio de Loyola 

in San Ignacio, B.C.S. we take a look at the windows and doors.

To see the front door of the church go to the first post on the mission:

The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur:

and for another look at the exterior along the nave:

More On The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur.

More On The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur

In the previous post,

The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur,

 we looked at the front and the inside of

the Mission of San Ignacio De Loyola.

The next and last post on the mission will be:

Doors And Windows At The Mission Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur.

Now let's go around to the side to look at some more details.

The Mission Church Of San Ignacio De Loyola In Baja California Sur

One of the more interesting towns in Baja California Sur

 is the date palm oasis of San Ignacio,

which lies near the center of Baja both north-south and east-west.

Because it is on neither the Pacific or the Sea of Cortez,

 it has missed some of the tourist development that has centered along the coasts.

The springs that provide the water in this small valley 

have created a lush environment in the midst of a harsh desert,

and an obvious place to locate a mission.

Anthony Shadid's House Of Stone In Marjayoun, Lebanon

I recently became aware of a set of videos to accompany the new book House of Stone

by the recently departed Anthony Shadid,

which follows his remodeling of the family home in Marjayoun, Lebanon.

To see the whole set click on House of Stone Video Chapters 1-10.

The separate chapters are:

Chapter 1- 3:56 min.- Returning Home,

Chapter 2- 3:41 min.- Excavation,

Chapter 3- 4:05- Revealing Scars,

Chapter 4- 4:07min.- The Tiles,

Chapter 5- 4:49 min.- Renewal,

Chapter 6- 3:52- The Symphony,

Chapter 7- 4:35 min.- A New Identity,

Chapter 8- 3:15min- The Garden,

Chapter 9- 4:31 min.- Surrender and Reinvent,

Chapter 10- 5:29 min.- The End.

(In the above list I cannot find Chapter 3 as a separate video

 but it does show up in the Chapters 1-10 link.)

Anthony Shadid, an American by birth, 

was a Middle East journalist who died tragically last month,

of of an acute asthma attack while on assignment.

These videos provide a fascinating look at the remodeling process

that he goes through in bringing back the family home

 after years of abandonment.

I have not read the book but it looks good.

Enjoy.

The Home And Art Of Maria Eggleston In Mulege, B.C.S., Part 4

In this last post on the home and art of the mosaic artist,

Maria Eggleston of Mulege, Baja California Sur,

let's look at her wonderful cactus gardens.