Puerto Viejo to Big Bend Blog

1,593.5 Hours of Work on our House!

2012-01-27T14:31:00.000-06:00

OK, today pre-loaded the mixer so we can plaster the first of the four arches in our soon to be living room! After loading the mixer, I cuddled up with my computer by the fire with all my old records to update my time log. Since we started building our castle in 2008, I've been logging how many hours it's taken to get to where we are today. I knew it would take the course of Years, but

A Ceiling as Smooth as...

2012-01-26T07:30:00.000-06:00

Well, a ceiling as smooth as a rhinoceros' back side! It's as smooth as the smoothest papercrete ever! Three weeks from now we can start painting! In the end it did take three days to plaster the ceiling. Working from first light to dark, slow process, but now, again, I can say the hardest part it done. We figured out we'll need 18 light fixtures on this floor! For example, just in the living

Covered in Productivity

2012-01-24T09:30:00.000-06:00

See there on the scaffold at my feet is the contraption that is connected to the air compressor, I load the hopper up with papercrete plaster, hold it up over my head, and spray on the ceiling, then trowel it into a perfectly smooth finish. http://www.mortarsprayer.com/stucco-tools/ Stucco Tools--donated this stucco sprayer to us, it's a great tool for building with papercrete or I'd bet

He's Electric!

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

You'll have to turn your computer on it's side to see these pictures correctly I guess. I can't even figure out how to use the camera, let alone the complicatedness of wiring the electricity for 100000 lights and outlets and switches.

Working on a Room to LIVE In!

2012-01-22T17:14:00.001-06:00

We're working our way through wiring and plastering the interior of the house. The above picture is where we start. I plan to get the living room plastered in eight days! (Really I plan seven, but underpromise!) We'll set up a scaffold and I'll plaster the four foot mini-vaults in the living room. Harumpff, more plastering over my head! At least it's not on the stairway! I love plastering!

Insert Your Own Cliche Title about Celestial Stairways Here.

2012-01-19T06:30:00.000-06:00

WOW!! WOWW! You gotta come walk up my AWESOME New Stairway! Just three easy days, and Poof , gorgeous plastered stairway!!!

Second Outa Three Days Papercrete Plaster

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

I'm tooo Tired to type. A bicycle, two unicycles, one big double wheeled wheelbarrow. TWO tired!

Oooffdahhh!

2012-01-17T08:30:00.000-06:00

Started at the top of the stairs and working down. Thought I could do it all in two days, but will probably take three. I have a cake decorating tool I use plaster around these small spaces, it's only about an inch across, Clyde (father and law and our papercrete gooo-rooo) thinks I'm crazy for such detail, I can't help myself. Plastering all this over my head! Eight hours

Papercreting the Stairway

2012-01-16T15:41:00.000-06:00

Oh, I did have some pictures of what's getting plastered, this week. TOMORROW shots of progress! Below is a pretty pictures of a finished plaster job, it was taken by our friend Alexa Walker (http://3heartsranch.com/photographs/index.html) and I put it here just to make sure that people know that Eve's Garden Organic B & B is up and running, and has been for around 10 years. We have

Moving Up in our World

2012-01-15T21:19:00.003-06:00

This is the shot of our hand built papercrete stairway taken in 2009. That same year we did get the roof over the stairway, I just don't have a good picture of that. The next project for this season is to plaster the stairway. Plastering on the stairway is hard enough, but the ceiling on the stair is a 9 (or is it 10) foot arch! YIKES! Above another couple of pictures of stairway

Feeling Blue Again

2012-01-14T09:30:00.000-06:00

It's been three weeks since I got that plaster on (tricked ya) and climbed back up that ladder to get the first layer of paint on the papercrete. We'll "dry brush" a layer of gorgeous gold paint on top to this to make it fit in the fancy courtyard. But on to the interior. Working next on the elecrical and the plastering of the living room, on the inside of this french door. Below a picture

Getting it on!

2012-01-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

Getting the papercrete plaster on the wall. Ruff to get up and down a 10 and a 20 foot ladder to pret-tify this space, but when you're overlooking the below courtyard, a lot to live up to!

Exterior Interior Space on the Paper Palace

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-06:00

Here is Noble standing in our living room, through the french doors of what will be someday our "Juliet Porch." People often compare Eve's Garden to the Winchester House, in California, with 100's of rooms, doors and stairways leading nowhere. Don't worry, we'll get the porch made, probably in 2013. That porch is overlooking this pond.... This is the coffee shop open to Eve's Garden

GLOWING

2012-01-11T16:00:00.000-06:00

There it is- the final color. Three coats of Radient Yellow covered with Apriot. You gotta see it at sunset! You can see our paper palace from miles away.

No Longer Feeling so Blue

2012-01-10T11:00:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought that this wardrobe'd be camouflage. Noble and Kate sat in the back garden with the color book and planned and planned and finally came up with a color plan. We all agreed that the whole place in tourquoise blue was overkill, we wanted bright and shiny! We put three coats of this yellow over that blue. By the way , did you know that Noble's great great grandfather,

Wintertime building.

2012-01-09T15:00:00.000-06:00

We have to have a few days in a row without nightime freezing to work outside. If it gets below 32 F ice crisals form in the papercrete and mess things up. So, taking advantage of non-freezing nights to get some exterior plastering and painting done. So excited to be making progress!

2012-01-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

A first coat of paint on the west exterior wall. Folks ask, WOW!? Can one papercrete an exterior wall and not get all leaky? Yup! The final coat of papercrete plaster is between 30 to 50% paper in the mix! We've been here for more than 10 years, no leaks!

Getting Plastered!

2012-01-07T16:30:00.000-06:00

OK! I'm on track to get you the update on exactly how many hours we've been working to build our papercrete palace. Here you see we've plastered the exterior west wall of our place. Yes, we've been working on our little flat over five years, but when we count the days, it's only been about 90 some days. The idea is to inspire folks to do ANYTHING! We are hand building our house, block by

OOOOhhh Progress!

2012-01-06T20:34:00.003-06:00

Here is the west side prettied up. All of the guest rooms here have their private courtyards completed and painted. On the right side you see Noble and I's place. The plan for 2012, is to get the whole second floor completed. 2013 the third floor bedroom. 2014 the deck which is the fourth floor! According to my google searches, we will have the tallest house of paper on the planet--at two

Working on the Sunset Side of the Garden

2012-01-05T08:35:00.001-06:00

We've been working on the western side of the complex. Been GREAT working outside. Today supposed to be the PERFECT 64 degrees (18 C)! (See our weather at www.weather.com and enter our zip 79842 to see if we're getting sunburned or frostbite). Here is a photo of where we were last year in March, 2011. We were working on finishing the Sapphire Room. Here you see the outside of the Sapphire room

2011-12-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

Here's day 84 and 85. Building up the stairway. What's that Noble is building out of? Paint cans!!!

2011-12-08T18:00:00.000-06:00

I found more pictures from the construction of the 4 foot wide vaults over the living room in our house. Here's the step by step of how we put up the roof... Getting the vigas up here on the third floor was a fun activity for Noble and me. The vigas are re-used 14 foot long telephone posts. Noble set the molds mostly without me, thank the goodness or we'd have come to blows.

2011-12-07T20:32:00.001-06:00

I was REALLY Bad at doing the blog last season. Noble and I set our goal for our fourth season (from November 2010 to April 2011) of working on our house to get the vautled roof over of the living room. The above photo was where we started from the end of the previous season. Here is a summary of what we did last season. Day 67, northwest wall after one day's work.. Also day 67,

Welcome Back to Marathon, Texas!

2011-02-01T12:59:00.002-06:00

Welcome back! Noble and I are finally back to West Texas. We took this video on day one of this season, number four!I have yet to figure out how to put audio with it, so I'll describe what's happening:We start watching Noble walk up the grand staircase. We enter the house-to-be in the kitchen. You see the roof which is four foot wide mini-vaults which we built last year. Then, we enter the

Actualized, 65 days worked so far on Papercrete Palace

2010-06-11T12:32:00.004-06:00

OK. We've finished our third season of building our papercrete palace.We started in 2008. This first photo is the shot of our space after the first day's work.That first season, we were only able to work 11 days, it was a total of 165 person hours.Here is the picture at the end of that 11th day, in which we completed the north wall of our flat (or joint or palace), on the second floor, built