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.