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.