DRY STACK CONCRETE BLOCK ON INTERIOR WALLS-RUSTIC APPEAL
All of the off grid interior walls except the
bathrooms
are made of 8 inch dry stack concrete block.
Every four feet the concrete block has rebar filled with cement. There is surface bonding cement was applied over the them on both sides which gives them their strength.
The fiberglas reinforced stucco gives the interior of the house a rustic look. If the walls are wet enough it is possible to attain a smooth surface. Ron and I were not that good so we went for the rustic look. The walls have been painted bright, rich colors. The desert is drab brown and I needed the interior to be colorful.
April 2010: we repainted the walls a light color as it was too dark in the house and we needed some reflective light.
The upper corner is where the north side
vents
are located for ventilation. Hot air is supposed to escape from these vents.
June 2010: The vents did not work as well as I had hoped. They are too small and as the temperature rises the wind dies down. I did try to put fans in the vents but that was not working very well either.
L brackets were put on the walls that were free standing for stability. None of the walls except for the bathrooms meet the ceiling.
This was done for air flow for heating and cooling. The concrete blocks were laid out from the chalk lines that we did. They were then adjusted to meet different needs that were not originally planned.
Ron leveled each coarse of block. Dry stack concrete block was designed to level the first and last coarse which speeds up the process.
All of the walls are 8 feet high. This gives the front of the house where the living room is located a minimum of 2 ft gap from the ceiling. In the winter we put small fans on the walls to direct air flow from the wood stove to the back of the house, which is coolest on the north side. The wood stove is located directly in the center of the house. It was placed in a alcove so the walls heat up and dispense heat when the wood stove has gone out.
This is my sister Connie. She is sorting nails on the make shift bench. She says the only picture we have of her working she is sorting nails so I thought I would include it.
Connie helped me stucco our first building on the property. We built a 10' x 10' shed to see if we would be able to build our home.
She also came down and helped install the double doors in the front of our house.
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