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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... |
| A close look at how I spend most of my day, dancing the straight line boogie on a 2x6. The cattle panels can (and do) support my averdupois (French for fat ass), but while I am carrying blocks, concrete or other objects such as in the photo below, it never hurts to stay on the straight and narrow. |  |
| Turnabout being fair play, The Wife snapped this photo of your gracefully aging correspondent (48, thank you for asking) in response to my posting a photo of her recently. Sigh. In this photo, I am transferring a cattle panel across the roof (while staying on the 2x6s) where it will appear in the photo below. |  |
| The south wing has most of the metal panels laid in place and hammered down using 1.5" fencing staples. Notice the pitch of the roof, which wil aid rain runoff. The drain block is just behind and to the left of the photographer. |  |
| The west wing (living room/kitchen/dining/utility area) looking toward the south wing (the master suite). As with the photo above, note the pitch of the roof. The courtyard walls are built to 17 courses of blocks high, the front outer wall to 16 courses and the rear wall to 15 courses. The "Leggo block" aspect of dry stack block construction greatly simplifies complex design considerations for the DIY owner/builder, such as building a multiple plane roof. |  |
| My neighbor Louis, a sociable beer-drinking kind of guy, drops over to swing a hammer, chat about the heat and generally do some male bonding. I can't decide if a construction site can often be a testosterone preserve/Estrogen-Free Zone or if women are sometimes simply too smart to be out swinging tools in 100 degree heat... |  |
| 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: Crazy From The Heat Click HERE |
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