I didn't really start documenting things I did until I began to work on old arn, in Maine. I just needed an audience to get me going.
So, there isn't a good pictorial narrative of this building. I simply chose a spot of ground below the house, marked out a rectangle with fairly square corners, and hefted my shovel. I did not immediately discern the difference between flat and level, but I'm a fast learner.
Left: You see an 8 foot wall, and the level of the dirt behind is 4 to 5 feet.
Once again, you can guess the rest. Using a shovel to throw dirt on a screen, placed over a utility trailer, I sifted rock from sand as I worked, and I spent 3 months digging this hole. Had the abs of Apollo when I was done. I think it was about 100 cubic yards. The back wall is 25' across, and it comes out, when complete, 37'. It began as a shop. My neighbor Ramona said, 'You won't like it a bit if you make it too small'. What the hell, dig a bigger hole.
The accusation has been made that I keep reinventing the wheel. I can only reply that when I do, and the damn thing goes round, I feel awfully good. Starting this project I had no knowledge of soil, frost lines, footings, etc. A large stone was put down, then another, and when I had a line of them, I began putting more stones on top. There was never any written plan or drawing; it is all out of my head. I actually did try to find a book on building with cobble, but all the books are written by folks back east who use flat fieldstone and ledgestone. Nobody advises building with round stones. I had to make it up as I went.
The trick soon turned out to be to stack two parallel walls, each fitted up dry and only a few stones high, and then place a 1:3 mix of portland to sand between these walls, that sand which I had dug up in the site, and then I would pack this mud out between the stones from the inside, so that as little concrete as possible showed but the stones were well-bedded. The remainder of the inbetween was filled with the same mortar mix and rubble. The walls are generally about 22" thick. I like my stones, especially since the are a bit round, to fit well into the wall. In general, at least half of a given stone should be set in; more is better. Since I had built on undisturbed sand it turned out that the soil was going to bear the load, and we don't really have a ground frost problem. Am I lucky, or just good?
Oh, the reason this looks like the tropics is that for about 3 months, from early July, the monsoon sweeps up from the Gulf and we get rain most afternoons. Everything comes alive.
This shot is from about 4 years later, don't ask! - Sisyphus lives. It shows pretty much what I was explaining above. Did I mention rebar? Rebar is good.
Below: this pic is looking across the site from about the same position, but turned to the left. This is what is, after 6 years, unfinished. As you can see I am leveling off the front of the building and am not too far from putting a roof on. What holds me back right now is the freezing nocs. Concrete doesn't do well if it freezes when wet, just goes all crumbly, and it doesn't cure worth a damn at lower temps, either. Concrete is a lot of fun and a study in its own right. Best thing the Romans gave us.
I actually do have a sheet of tempered glass that fits the below window. Scored all the large sheets of glass at the dump. Over doors and windows are welded-up steel and angle plates.
One of the reasons I wanted to live here was the very availability of rock. Always wanted to do this. It is so damn satisfying. Every rock is a puzzle. You can spend a lot of time just getting the pattern you want, the colors, the size proportions, the nice fit. It is really fun. Maybe mortality rears its head here. I think this building will still be standing in a thousand years, and it is what will be left of me. You can see places where I have gotten tired and sloppy and a lot more concrete starts to show. They'll have plenty of time to fault me.
Corners are very difficult due to the lack of good square rocks.
Above pic is of the front. I left a ten foot opening. Since there is no plan, doors and roof are still a mystery to me.
If it looks to you like my walls waver here and there, well it's just my camera work. They are actually pretty damn straight and level. I worked with a 6 foot level and plumb bob as I went.
Other side of the shop here. Nice thing is that there are so many different sorts of stone in the wash. Lots of black and red volcanic stone.
