Suscol Strawbale - Part 4 Finishing Touches

Interior finish plaster

skylights and niches

built-in hooks

sculpting the doorway

building a bamboo privacy fence

with locally grown bamboo

torching down the rockscape on the living roof

gravel drainage system

wow!

Suscol Strawbale Project - Part 3

Time for the finish plaster!


Off-white aliz on the underside of the soffit


Tracy applying the final coat to the outside of the building


Bob comes around shortly after with the texture


We use the handle of the trowel to get the 'woven' texture

Early morning shadows are amazing


Enjoying popsicles along the way, what a treat on a 110 degree day!

voila!

Oasis Remodel

Got to help out on a really fun plaster job with Kata Polano at a home near Santa Barbara, California. The 40's style cabin is being entirely retrofitted to withstand the Santa Barbara threats of wildfire. By finishing almost all the interior and exterior surfaces of the house with earth plaster (including eaves), this home is virtually fire-proof and hopefully if one did come it would pass right by.

The style is really elegant and the color palette is just charming. Kata has a great sense for earthen finishes. It was also lovely to work with this all-female crew. Somehow getting dirty together always makes for good friends.

Eva mixes plaster

Sculpting the bar between the kitchen and livingroom

Awesome steel bracket details support the salvaged granite countertop.

Kata does aliz (clay paint) with lots of mica onto the kitchen ceiling.

Kata does more aliz on the walls of the entry porch

Blue glass bottles in the ferrocement roof wash great colors onto the wall.

I work on a window detail, more mica aliz!

The finished porch window

Amit plasters an exterior wall

Arched plaster meets the ferrocement window treatment at the basement level

The most beautiful mechanical wall ever!

Earthen plaster surrounds each of the utility boxes and cable conections.

We save the leftover aliz (clay paint) by making 'cookies'.

Once dry they can be stored and then saved for repairs. Since we use custom dye-lots, this is the best way to get an exact match.

An interior niche filled with light from a solatube. Note: this is not on an exterior wall, it coming through the center of the house.

The basement apartment has a sweet little kitchen and dining space which got frequent use since the main kitchen was still a construction zone.

We even celebrated with a rocket-stove baked pizza.

Eva and Art are really excited about it, so adorable!

Earth & Lime Plasters at Aprovecho

Ashley Aymond showing how to earth-plaster over lathe.

Lime plaster samples

Lydia Doleman mixes up the lime plaster

Back to Cob Cottage

Returning to Cob Cottage to work trade for alittle while, this logging truck was the perfect reminder of why I'm doing this whole thing...

And since I had been there, another workshop had taken place that was focused on plasters and finishing, they did a great job on the walls we had built in the workshop I took.

The niche with the sand cast crystal Will made was one of my favorite touches. I did the wire-wrapping with the inside of an old electrical wire.