Back to it...

Christmas at Mark and Torre's was wonderful, the real deal, but my upcoming move to the neighborhood was always creeping into my thoughts. Gotta rent or borrow a truck to move the outhouse and the yurt. Get the refrigerator and range delivered and hooked up. The yurt platform!

About 2" or so of snow fell immediately after the dig, and yet ANOTHER 3" or 4" Christmas night... The most recent snow is waiting up there now for me, armed with a new shovel and pushbroom.

Building is going very slow now that the ground is frozen - I'm hoping to somehow set up my Mongolian yurt for a little more living space while I wait out the winter.

We're going to focus on the yurt platform now - something fairly simple, screwed together, that could be dismantled and moved if I myself should move on someday. Legally speaking, I'm not supposed to be living in the house while it's under construction, so the yurt will be my "construction trailer."

The ground is frozen deeper every day - kind of discouraging - I can't imagine pouring the foundation in this cold, but apparently it can be done, with special cement and insulated blankets. Mark says we can do the whole foundation in one pour if we plan it right.

The woodstove is almost hooked up -
just need to screw it together and add the cap on top:

Spent parts of Xmas Eve and Xmas Day raking up after the Big Dig.
Here's the new hydrant and the water shutoff...

...and the place where there was a 5' deep trench 5 days ago:

...and this is the freshly dug foundation,
with electric water and sewer hookups ready to be integrated into the addition:

Water and Electric to the House

The well-share has now been brought onto the property, with a functioning hydrant at the parking lot; as well as electricity, temporarily outside the house, both underground. Below is the trench that made it possible - water 5 feet down, electric 2 feet down, coming up from the neighbors':

The water hydrant and shutoff to the house.

When we get the addition finished, there'll be water and electric inside, but for now this is a great improvement. The weather has been VERY snowy, with about 2 feet of snow in the last month, delaying the process at every stage. I'd hoped to have the yurt up by now. Here's the yurt (ger, for all you Mongolians) being set up at my book premiere way back in June 2006 at the Taos Solarfest:

Before the yurt goes up, I want to construct a platform for it, to keep it warm and dry. This will be the next big push before actually building the addition - the ger will be my "construction trailer."

After putting in the addition footings, and the trenching and back-filling, we got another 2" of snow...

So, on Xmas Eve, I STILL haven't moved in, but I'm much closer. Almost all of my personal belongings are up there, except what I need to work on web sites and eat and sleep. In the next week, I need to put in some kind of cat door for Browser, and pick up a few bits of furniture, like a bed, table and chairs.

Reprieve

Today marked the beginning of my 5-day countdown, but my landlady has now opened the door to the possibility of staying as long as necessary, until the Questa place is livable. We got a little more snow last night, but it looks like we may get a few days of sun now.

Here's the road at the top of the property a couple days ago, when I visited with my latest prospective big equipment operator, Redwolf (Ruben Martinez):

Above is Ruben's truck at the top of my driveway - no way were we driving down to the house in 18 inches of snow on top of a couple inches of slush...

And here are a couple before/after-the-snow pics, in case, like me, you've forgotten what it looked like a month ago:

The house......and

the driveway, looking up from the parking lot.

Incredibly, Ruben says he can begin Monday, assuming the main highway is ice-free. At least, he'll shovel the drive, but there's actually quite a list for the as yet unhired excavator:

1. Trenches for electric and water lines.
2. Septic system, including trench for sewage out, hole for tank, and dispersion field.
3. New addition foundation, in preparation for pouring the concrete pad.
4. AND, shoveling the drive...

Bah!

Looks like we got a few more inches of snow here in Taos last night, and they say we should expect another 5-10 inches today above 7500'. The property in Questa is at about 7777'...

It's been about 4 days since I attempted to get to the house, and failed. At that point I would have been the first to drive (my '97 Honda) on the nameless road that leads to my house. Now, I'm thinking it may be time to ask if I can stay put in Taos for another month, even though I'm nearly packed.

There's not much to do now but wait out this storm. Getting supplies in is going to be very difficult; big equipment, almost impossible. The roads will open eventually, then we can begin again. One of my excavators IS willing to come out and look at the job in Questa, maybe even tomorrow - we'll see...

The amount of snow we've received is just awesome. Bah.

How much snow? Maybe not as bad as much of the midwest, but we had major damage to a tree in our "zen garden," here in Taos. Here is it this summer:

And here's what happened this morning.

3 out of 6 major trunks hit the ground, under the weight of wet snow:

(This view is from the opposite side.)

Shifting Priorities as Necessary

Hmmm... beginning to look like winter...

Rain, rain, rain here, probably snow tonite.

Mark (the builder) came by today with the first page of plans for the addition. See below.


We should be ready for the Planning Dept on Monday. Apparently you can save almost a week on receiving the building permit by hand delivering and picking up the plans and application at the main office in Santa Fe (70 miles). I'll talk with the people at the local office on Monday to make sure my ducks are lined up neatly.

I still need to choose a window for the bedroom - I want to put it near the north corner of the west wall. The view will be kind of like this:


The nice view will be near the ceiling, but the egress requires a lower profile. Mark has a new legal egress thermopane window (vertical) that might work - I have to get the dimensions.

I bought a grounding rod today, and a sledge. This will make it possible to get the phone hooked up.

I had a septic system guy up on the property day before yesterday, Carlos. He thinks we might be able to do a field big enough for 2 bedrooms - the tank would be the same - 1000 gal. He needs to call the gravel guys before he can give me an estimate - 28 tons for 2 bedrooms.

The weather has been very wet, however I do have a couple other septic guys who will be coming up soon. Right now, it's VERY muddy - I think I'll be graveling some paths to get around if this keeps up.

I'm also working on weatherproofing the yurt. I got some plexiglas to cover the ring at the top. The yurt door needs some sealing.

The house windows need sealing too, when it dries out...

The floor is now stained and sealed, 2 coats. We'll be securing the kitchen unit this weekend, and installing the woodstove, weather-permitting.

Mark wants to punch and frame the holes in the north wall, then insulate and cover them with the T-111 on the outside temporarily, so there'll be less dusty intrusion later on, when I'm inside.

I have a few weeks off from school until the next semester starts, around Jan 23, so the timing is actually good for moving, etc., etc., etc....

Boy, there's more news than I thought...

Masonite Floor

The floor is stained now, with one coat of sealer:

Well, it LOOKS like masonite - it's really cement - it'll be darker. This is only about a half-hour after the first coat of sealer. The look is very uneven, like Mexican saltillo tiles, but a dark coffee color. In case you forgot, here's the concrete floor, before:



Here's a picture taken through the car's front window (carefully...), coming down into Questa. The property is out of view here, I think, but it would be almost in the center of this image (the tiny red arrow - click picture to see it BIG), in the foothills of the big mountain, hidden here by the ridge in Questa town.


Another view, from my parking lot, looking south, toward the hill seen in the above image on the right, below, on the left...


The big one in the background here is Flag Mountain, site of the Lama Founation and the huge fire of '97(?).

Finally, here's the old cistern (just a big cement tank, no pipes in or out), in danger of further deterioration because of a combination of wet and cold. I've been covering it with cardboard, but some water is soaking part of the concrete, turning the cover back into gravel in the hard frosts.

More Weather

We had about 2 days of sun after the snow, but it rained yesterday and melted most of said snow. Somehow in all this, I managed to stain the floor:


The picture above shows the acid stain soaking in, before removal. I've since sopped all this up and rinsed the floor many times. The actual color is going to be more like black coffee, I hope (for max solar gain, as they say).

Yesterday, friend Steve hauled hauled up the bookcase I sold him long ago, which I just bought back from him... I was intending to seal the floor then, but rain had gone through the big thermopane windows... around them.... There was a bit of water on the floor, and obviously a lot of wind came with the rain.

So, today I'll work on sealing windows. If the sun comes out, I'll seal the floor.

Not sure about contractors... Sun and wind (good) and cold (bad) are forecast.

And what about the cat?
Meet Browser.

New Floorplan Finalized

First, before it all melts, here's the first snow of the year, about 4"
(as with all these images, click to see a larger version):

Below is the layout we'll be going with. Convenient. practical, with the best views, this is basically a mirror of our first idea (south is up).

Thanks to Mark, the builder, for this great suggestion.This layout may affect the place we bring the water a power into the house. I'll be meeting with a septic system installer today [Didn't happen], who is also an excavator, and he'll certainly have some good suggestions.

Yesterday afternoon, my last act was to stain the floor of the original structure. Too dark to photograph by the time I finished, the effect is going to be dramatic in the light of day. The color is dark, a mix of two shades of brown, chosen to increase the solar gain.

Today, I'll be cleaning up the stain, in preparation for sealing, which has to wait until the floor is completely dry. Once the floor is finished, we'll be cutting a hole in the ceiling for the woodstove.

Gratuitous Snow

Day after Thanksgiving, 4" of snow and still snowing...

I haven't been up to Questa since the snow, but here's what it looked like day before yesterday:

We pulled most of the north wall off and got a glimpse at the structure underneath. Mark removed the windows (below) and we covered everything in clear plastic (above).

As much as possible, we're trying to save the wood for re-use. We'll selectively undo the plastic to insert the door openings (to bedroom and pantry), and to install electric.

I picked up a small woodstove:

So much to do! The stove needs to be installed in the south room, and the ger platform is coming up soon.

At Thanksgiving I suddenly saw myself as a Questa person visiting Taos... get packing!

Oh yes, most important of all, my brother Herb and wife Janice appeared briefly the night before the night before Thanksgiving... They got to see what I'm up to and ply me with gifts - Strawberry jam and pear butter and a pumpkin pie - all home made - and candles and a mountain of tupperware.

Without further ado, here they are:

Janice & Herb

One last pic of the walkway, removed for the electric and water, maybe for good:

Snow pix from the site, tomorrow!

Fixing to Blog Blues

As a coda to yesterday's post, here's the possible view from the bedroom window if we mirror the current house plan, from the bathroom if we don't:

Nice?

Today the phone man and the Septic Inspector came around, the visits overlapping but distinct.

The phone wire coming out of the ground by the shed is dead. Phone man came with a metal dector, and we were able to find a live phone wire nearby. He brought underground phone cable to the house, but can't hook up until we have the ground cable that comes with the electric line. No. 6 cable from ground to phone box (northeast corner on the east side).

Phone line trench - I guess the phone box will go on this wall... kind of visible...

The leach field for the septic system needs to be huge for even a single bedroom cottage - for a two-bedroom, some trees will have to go, for a three bdrm, it'd be too far uphill...

yellow line is leach field - good for one bdrm, tight for two bdrms...
green line is 25' from arroyo.

Fine with me if the improvements on this property are small but well-made, though. Today I decided we could perhaps do a trench around the patio for water and electric, threading through the trees, to the far northeast corner of the addition - with a ditch witch, if Edwin has access to a smaller trenching device.

It'd save some beautiful flagstone work... So much digging soon, soon...

Holmes Sweet Holmes

Saw the comet last night.

I haven't tested, but as of right now, I think the phone is on ( just on a wire coming out of the ground) and the electric is on (but only to the meter box. 200' from the house).


Mark suggested trying a mirror-floorplan instead of our former. Compare these floorplans (Up is SOUTH on both. The original structure is the green rectangle at the top, including the porch):

before flipping:

mirrored - not everything is flipped, though...
Muddy feet carrying groceries into the kitchen,
THEN taking off boots and entering house, livingroom, bedroom, etc...

Anyway, this was just a thought of Mark's, worth considering. Looks good to me.

My bro Herb and wife Janice may be here for Thanksgiving. Moon is waxing. The big move happens right at solstice, the light slowly returning even as the days get colder. The days have been short but warm and bright, dry dry dry.

Getting Ready for the Big Stuff

I spent yesterday afternoon cutting back the piñon trees that reach into the building area. Most or all may have to come out, to accommodate the concrete pad and septic system, but at least now I can see what's going on. The trees, at their trunks, are fairly far from the foundation, but I'll leave their fate to the experts.

View of the north side.
The addition will come off this wall, with the roof line of the new part coming between the two rows of windows. The trees obscuring the house will be severely trimmed or removed - sorry, guys. The area of ground seen here will be part of the septic system.

I began moving rocks from the building area as well, beautiful rocks - some solid granite, some porous lava rocks. Today I'll return to start dismantling the low wall of thick light-colored flagstone along the north side of the existing structure, along with thin slabs of red flagstone, gravel and other decorative stones. All the rockwork around the studio is very well done (by a nice guy from Crestone CO named Steve) and a shame to take up, but this is where I'm building, and everything will find a new home in the future.

This is also the beginning of the hard labor I'll need to get used to. Part of my arrangement with John, my financier in this project, is that I myself will do every step I can, or can be trained to do. Not just a boon, but an education.

As the days get shorter, the nights colder, and the chance of big snow greater, the project will become more challenging.

Spider's Last Days

The spider in my shower survives again. I give a him chance to run for cover every day, turning the water on slowly, urging him up into the drain vent every time. When I move into my new house and leave my small but luxurious upstairs adobe apartment in Taos I suppose his fate will be sealed along with all the other creepycrawlies I allow tenancy here. And why not? I'm just one more, with as much right to life as any.

Looking at the west side of the house.

The new addition will grow to the left(north).

Today I began making a trench for the underground telephone cable, the least protected of my new utilities, and the first to get hooked up. Wednesday the phone man installs the phone box outside the house and I'll be able to communicate from the job site.

The job site becomes my home full time on December 20th, 39 days from now. By then I hope to have water and electric lines to the house, as well as a septic system and, with luck the pad will be in place for the new addition. The existing house by then I hope, will be sealed against the winter, while work begins on the addition, which will consist of bedroom, bathroom and utility room.

Also, by then, god nosing, the yurt will be standing on a wooden platform nearby, extra space, a refuge from construction. Until the addition is complete, I'll also have an outhouse, kindly donated by my current landlady and longtime booster, Suzy Starr, a beautiful outhouse which has sat unused in the hard here in Taos for years, originally property of the National Forest Service.

Focusing on getting my ducks in a row - builder, electrician, excavator, septic installer, plumber all have been secured, plus many the necessary permits and signatures - has let me avoid thinking about the actual mechanics and scheduling involved in the construction itself, but today reality begins to set in.