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The Project: A 2,163 square foot house utilizing dry stack concrete block construction with a central courtyard and based on the Spanish colonial-era missions in San Antonio. The Challenge: Can a forty-something married couple design and build an attractive, efficient and mostly paid-for house while remaining sane, solvent and married? With no actual prior construction experience? Hmmmmm - let's check in on our Contestants and see how they're doing... |
| This week sees us finishing our ferrocement work platform on the roof and continuing to lay down joists and decking. Here, I use a trowel to spread out a fairly thick mixture of Perlite and Portland cement. I want to reinforce a section of the platform I'll use to stack concrete parapet blocks before installing them. This area will be approximately 2.5 inches thick. |  |
| Back to work as a framing crew, I set up at the workbench with the close and attentive supervision of one of the members of project management.Notice that I have stacked up some concrete blocks to serve as workstands for feeding 2x6 boards into the mitre saw. |  |
| Back up top, work progresses as I lay down the cattle panels we will be using for roof decking. Notice the change in roof pitch as it angles towards the corner of the house. The block next to the corner is turned on it's side. The water draining from this section of the roof will exit through the two holes in this block, where it will be collected via piping into a cistern for use. |  |
| A view of the decking for the ferrocement roofing. The fencing panel is secured to the joists and covered with 6 mil plastic sheeting. In this photo, we see that the parapet blocks still need to be installed to close off the edge of the roofing. The ends of the metal fence panels are supported by pieces of 2x6 attached to the inside of the parapet blocks. |  |
| The high-tech tools o' the trade at work here as I use a wire tool to twist the wire ties that bind the edges of the fencing panels together. Feeling somewhat twisted, wired and bound ourselves, we contemplate the idea of taking a full weekend away from the house site for some badly-needed rest. |  |
| Want to see a rough floor plan?Want to be notified when we post new pictures? Just e-mail us! Want to see the rest of the story? Click on Gimme Shelter Home Page. |
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| Next week's installment: Workin' In A Coalmine... Click HERE |
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