Faywood Hot Springs Resort, New Mexico

Howdy folks, welcome to Faywood Hot Springs Resort.

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Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One year On And A Companion Fence

Now that our adobe wall is just over one year old 

I thought it would be nice to give a look at how the adobe plaster has held up.

We had couple of hard driving rains this past summer 

and as expected they left a nice texture to the plaster

but also washed off much of the pigment in the exposed designs.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs.

Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs

In this post of our series I want to take a look at how we plastered the wall 

and Allison will explain how she and her sisters made the designs, such as you see above,

 out of adobe mud and mineral pigments.

 In the photo above Cynthia used caliche, a clay slip, and oxides on her burrowing owl 

with earring eyes hiding under the Mexican Hat flowers Allison created earlier.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof for the Gate

In this post on building our wall, after having looked at how we put the metal cap on in the last post,

I want to now look at the standing seam hip roof that will protect the yet to be built gate.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap

In this fourth part of our series on building the wall you see above

 let's take a look at how we did the metal cap that will protect the wall from the elements.

An adobe will not last without protection from rain.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes

In this post of Building An Adobe Wall we will start putting up adobe bricks.

In the previous post we made our "gringo blocks" and set up our mud mortar mixing pit.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,
Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started

After the first post in this series
where we looked at how to build the stone foundation for our adobe wall
we will now take a look at making the "gringo blocks",
 and setting up our mud mixing area for making the adobe mortar that will be used with our bricks
as we go through all the steps for building the wall you see in the photo above.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation

This is the first post in a six part series on how to build the adobe wall that you see in the above photo.

All the posts in this series to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

In this post I will cover all the aspects of this wall from the stone foundation to the metal cap...

Building A Well House #10: Finishing Up

To conclude this series on Building A Well House I want to show how we built the door, 

some final landscaping, and finally a photo collage of the project from start to finish.

And here are links to the whole series:

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,

 Building A Well House #8: Stucco,

Building A Well House #9: Trombe Wall Solar Collector.

Update On Our Rainwater Catchment System

We have now had our rain water collection system for a year and a half 

and it is time to give an update on how we are using it.

This is a continuation of the post I did over a year ago that you can access at
Designing And Installing A Rainwater Catchment System.

The first year was a bit frustrating as we were in what the National Weather Service 

describes as an "exceptional drought" which is their highest category.

It is hard to store water when there is no rain.
This relates to the topic of how to best size a rain water collection system.
When it is possible to go for more than six months with less than an inch of rain,
 a larger system may be necessary.

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.

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.

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.

Carved And Shaped Stone At Stone Forest In Santa Fe, N.M.

In the last post we looked at water features at Stone Forest,

now let's take a look at some more of their beautiful stonework,

starting with the front entry gate to the display gardens.

Water Features At Stone Forest In Santa Fe, N.M.

We stopped by Stone Forest back in early September

 and got some photos from their beautiful display gardens 

as well as inside their showroom.

A Japanese Style Shed

Not long before we sold our house I wanted to build a "nice" shed,

 not only to have extra space,

 but also to the block the view to the parking area 

and a two story apartment next door.

I decided on a 12' x 12' foot print to avoid getting a building permit 

even though I don't like squares particularly but it solved the permit problem

 and saved waste in the plywood sheathing used under the stucco. 

(Please note this post is a reworking of the post:

Japanese Style Shed from 2/7/10.)

One More Gate

I built this gate back before we sold our house

 and you may have seen it in previous posts 

but I have never shown the whole project together.

The earlier posts are:

Woodworking At 831,

and Stone and Ceramic Tile 831.