With the advent of June, the daytime temperatures and sunlight make it necessary for your humble and gracefully-aging correspondent to bifurcate his schedule. I set up lights at the top of the cement elevator cage which illuminate the mixing area and now work in the mornings and evenings. Even as we press to finish the roof, it's just not safe to be toting 100 pound sacks of cement in 90+ degree heat.
In response to a request (hello Katou) I am posting a close-up photo of the winch from the cement elevator pictured above. It is rated at 220 pounds (440 pounds with a double cable rig) and cost $60 USD. While I will miss lugging 75 pounds of wet cement in a bucket up a shaky ladder, I think I can bear up under the disappointment.
This whole house fan comes with a thermostat and humidistat. One of the knocks on cement construction is the dank, clammy atmosphere in some structures - a product of humidity. The excellent ventilation in our house design will enable this fan to keep air moving through the house, even when it's too rainy to have the windows open. This is located on the northwest corner above the mud room and is concealed behind the parapets.
We start work on the window and door headers by cutting 3/4 inch insulating foam board to shape and tacking it to the 2x4 supports, then cutting 1/2 inch plywood to shape and screwing it to the 2x4 supports. We cut sheets of metal lath to shape, screw them to the plywood and then bend them around to hook onto the tops of the windows. This will all be covered with hand-troweled cement so it matches the walls.
An internal pillar is covered with metal lath, which is wrapped around the pillar and then secured with plastic cable ties. We are troweling in the cement to finish the scratch coat. When we apply the finish coat, The Wife plans to decorate it via some combination of cement stamps and placing some medallions or ceramic tiles in the cement. After all the hard structural work, it's cool to start planning for making the place liveable and beautiful.
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.
Next installment: Sills, Thrills and Spills Click HERE

All music and data on this site ©2001, 2003 and 2004 TexasMusicForge.com. Any unauthorized usage of music and/or data from this site is strictly prohibited and will get you tied up and dragged behind my horse.
E.M. Kliman, Proprietor.