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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... |
| We're done! The construction of our ferrocement roof is finished! We celebrate by tearing down the cement elevator and holding an impromptu wake to celebrate the effective end of our upward construction. We've finished coating the roof and have just brought all our tools back to ground level, although your humble correspondent will admit to feeling slightly elevated... |  |
| Here is a look at the barrel vault after 3 coats of our elastomeric sealer. The sealer will expand/contract up to 300% - certainly far more than we'll need it to do. As you can see, the material is highly reflective and will bounce a lot of our summer sun back off our roof, keeping our house much cooler in summer. An elongated "cricket" made of ferrocement and meshcrete snakes across the roof to channel rain runoff. |  |
| From the top of the barrel vault, you can see how much better the roof looks. Another "cricket" is visible at right channeling water down the incline towards the exit through the parapet midway along the wall. We've already passed through some light rains with no leak problems and remain cautiously optimistic. Hope stinks eternal... |  |
| Not content with finishing the roof, I start on the front of the house, finishing this side in a day. This is the side which will face most of the wind and rain and has been the beneficiary of two coats of sealant. I am struck by how much our place resembles Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Somehow, I imagine that master inventor would approve of what we've been able to accomplish. |  |
| Here, we get to the pun behind the title of this week's episode as your humble correspondent finishes the day covered in reflective paint. We're feeling festive because we've just raised the last chunk of money we need to finish construction, meaning we haven't had to borrow a dime from anyone but ourselves. This news (and a new paint job for everyone) is certainly the best Christmas present we could ask for. |  |
| 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 installment: Long Night's Journey Into Day Click HERE |
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