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 #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.

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.

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.

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.)

Sheds

As important as sheds are to builders,

 I have never done a post on them.

Small Buildings

There has been quite an up surge in interest

 in small buildings these last few years and that is good

 as I have always been a proponent of small is beautiful. 

So here are a few to consider.

An Adobe Dome Building

Our friends Bill and Barbara up in El Rito, in the northern part 

of New Mexico, took advantage of the Adobe Construction Program 

put on by Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) a few years ago

 and had the class build a small adobe dome building on their property

 for the price of supplying the foundation and the adobe bricks.

 Such a deal.

Cabins

Small buildings are making a big comeback, 

at least in the blogging world, as witnessed by the number of sites 

devoted to the subject.

Above is a cabin at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon.

Unconventional Homes

I have been wanting to do a post on this topic

 for awhile now and have been collecting photos. 

As time goes on I hope to add future posts.

Fixer Upper in Alamos

     We have been in Alamos, Sonora for almost a month and last week we met some folks in the campground who had friends who had fixed up a run down house here. Naturally we were interested and they introduced us and we were invited over to see their work. Pat and Steve live part of the year in Abiquiu, New Mexico and and the rest of the time here.

     (Please note: To see a rewrite of this post please go to Fixer Upper In Alamos, Sonora.)

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.