Middle room will have a door and window breaking the vault. The door will be a vault coming out 50 cm.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Bucket List: Arched Bridge
On a vacation a few years back in the Amani Mountains (sometimes called East Usambara Mtns) we liked the place and ended up buying a few acres and this house at a price we couldnt pass up. There is a spring down in a steep ravine.
The problem is we need a bridge. We have another plot further up the river and here is the bridge to get there.
Up by the house I have been collecting these stones, to make an arched bridge over the river in a narrow spot. I want to make a stone arched bridge before i kick it.
Long Vault continued
The internal walls finished early last week and the vaults started. this is a start but still not what i envision as the cheapest way to build. I would rather 3 vaults next to each other, rather than a long one.
the
The other end room. Dixon has picked up another mason.
Apologies about the camera. I like how they closed the last gap with bricks the other way.
the
The other end room. Dixon has picked up another mason.
Apologies about the camera. I like how they closed the last gap with bricks the other way.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Long Vault progress
As mentioned we are building a 10m long 4m wide vault starting at 80cm height. NOT how I wanted but it is work for dickson. two openings in the middle room breaking the vault.
dickson thought we could do the whole distance but it proved to bring issues so he will do all four walls.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Salvaging Wood, Wood flooring, door panels,
(draft)
Jerry Jeff Walker sings "pickup truck song" , saying " this is some of the stuff you can do in your pickup...........truck". I enjoy this foot tapping, easily words of this song. My mind wanders and listening to this led to this post.
This post is about some of the things you can do with salvaged .........lumber. And in the spirit of Jerry Jeff, here we go buckaroos, taking you down the road of salvaging that wood.
My salvaged lumber comes either from the firewood I buy or from demolishing buildings.
We use some firewood to start our brick kiln. Most of the firewood we get is the off cuts, branches, unusable parts of a tree that has been cut down either to clear a house site or someone needing the money. It will be another post about this big issue. Off cuts are the piece on the right.
The other source is demolishing structures. In the 1970-1980's lumber was cheap and plentiful here. Other materials for partitioning , roofing, ceilings, doors, etc was expensive or plain not available. Most of the partitioning done at my office was wood frames and chip board. It looks cheap. So over the years we have removed it all and put in , yep, aluminum and glass. I bid for what was torn out and got a few pickup loads. Other staff went for the doors and window glass.
the last source is pallets and shipping crates. 1/4 of the base flooring upstairs is Bernice's crates when she came from Philippines after university. I save everything. (Including a crate that came from borneo in the 50's, very very heavy and hard)
Easy stuff first.
Our new side table for the patio.
We leave it in the rain, sit on it, put a glass on it . Hard to tip it over.
Railings:
After a visitor walked off this footpath in the dark and into the ditch i threw this up, or rather a masai night watchmen did.
tables.
benches:
I got tired and never finished a balcony upstairs. this room became Nashesha's. this year I walled in the balcony part (that was just 2x8 joist) removed the old door windows and wall. Most of the wood was salvage stuff. 1/2 the outside was plywood a friend gave me.
Next was what to put over the rough floor. In the salvaged wood was tons of 2x4 short pieces. So I ripped them into strips nailed it down.
after sealing and polish looks great, even the nail holes add character.
The Parquet flooring in our entryway is 1/2 from off cuts from sawing timber, that was destined to be firewood. I kept looking at these short pieces so i stored them. A few years ago i got a table saw so kept going making strips, glued them together and then made them into 20cm square parquet. I haven't finished the sanding but it is spectacular and so much warmer.
but it is too of work so i think i will do the dining room in long strips.
And then paneling on our new steel doors.
This post is about some of the things you can do with salvaged .........lumber. And in the spirit of Jerry Jeff, here we go buckaroos, taking you down the road of salvaging that wood.
My salvaged lumber comes either from the firewood I buy or from demolishing buildings.
We use some firewood to start our brick kiln. Most of the firewood we get is the off cuts, branches, unusable parts of a tree that has been cut down either to clear a house site or someone needing the money. It will be another post about this big issue. Off cuts are the piece on the right.
The other source is demolishing structures. In the 1970-1980's lumber was cheap and plentiful here. Other materials for partitioning , roofing, ceilings, doors, etc was expensive or plain not available. Most of the partitioning done at my office was wood frames and chip board. It looks cheap. So over the years we have removed it all and put in , yep, aluminum and glass. I bid for what was torn out and got a few pickup loads. Other staff went for the doors and window glass.
the last source is pallets and shipping crates. 1/4 of the base flooring upstairs is Bernice's crates when she came from Philippines after university. I save everything. (Including a crate that came from borneo in the 50's, very very heavy and hard)
Easy stuff first.
Our new side table for the patio.
Railings:
tables.
I got tired and never finished a balcony upstairs. this room became Nashesha's. this year I walled in the balcony part (that was just 2x8 joist) removed the old door windows and wall. Most of the wood was salvage stuff. 1/2 the outside was plywood a friend gave me.
The Parquet flooring in our entryway is 1/2 from off cuts from sawing timber, that was destined to be firewood. I kept looking at these short pieces so i stored them. A few years ago i got a table saw so kept going making strips, glued them together and then made them into 20cm square parquet. I haven't finished the sanding but it is spectacular and so much warmer.
but it is too of work so i think i will do the dining room in long strips.
And then paneling on our new steel doors.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)