We have battled many things this summer! Our biggest challenge has been the weather. In spring we had so much rain, later on we had a small drought and for the past week nothing but rain. All of this wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if we had built our roof first. I am making note for our next house!
A lot has happened since the last post. We finally finished the cellar!! It has been a very long process. We dug it all out by hand with a pick-ax, shovel and buckets! I am very excited to finally be done with it!
Our cellar idea is completely experimental. Since the hole we were digging was solid clay we thought about leaving it and just building a roof but then we started thinking about using cob. Why not? We are young enough to try out new ideas. Thinking (hard) turned into doing! We started collecting tons (literally) of stone, started mixing cob, and then started building up the walls.
The walls are narrower at the bottom and slowly widen out as they get higher. We thought that it would make the hole more structurally sound. We also wet the clay walls down and tried to meld the cob with the clay wall. It may not stick but who knows. Redundancy! Redundancy! Redundancy!
We finished building up the walls and started cutting down trees. Building the roof was pretty easy. Nothing compared to the roof design I am working on now and the work it will take to finish the first floor on the cob house!
We secured the roof of the cellar by notching the wood, screwing it together, and then cobbing all around the side of the locust posts.
After covering the larger posts with chicken wire we filled in the gaps with smaller posts and then started cobbing over the roof. We also leveled out the floor surrounding the cellar and filled it in with rocks.
After we finished pouring our rock floor we then started our first layer of earthen floor!
It seemed like this day would never come! Digging a hole isn’t as much fun as cobbing but it is completely worth it! Food (wine) storage is just as important as having a home! 🙂
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!! IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT.
Now you just need a fancy “dumb waiter” like Thomas Jefferson invented to bring your wine up for you from the cellar!
Fantastic! I love a cellar! This will be accessible from inside the house, is that right? I’m trying to picture it all put together! I am dying to see a floor plan but I will wait as patiently as I can to see it all come together!
Are yall collecting rocks from your property? I am SO curious about your whole process!!!!
Itlooks AMAZING!
Hey, This is Brent and Karen. You guys are so industrious. I love it! I wish all the best for you two. Joell, we just saw Daniella, and as always we had to talk a little bit about you. And it was all good too 🙂 Stay sweet.
Hey Brent and Karen! Thank you so much!!! You guys are more than welcome to come check it out anytime you’d like! Tell Daniella I said hello! We want her to come take some photos for us when she is in town next time. Hope to see you guys soon! ❤
Good luck. Building can be so simple. I’m planning a similar gig. I’ll use old grain bags filled with sand for the walls and instead of the chicken wire I’m using willow branches to hold the dirt roof. Course I need a barn for the goats and a green house first. I bet your house turns out awesome!
Thanks Dennis! That sounds like an amazing idea. I would love to know more about using the willow branches!! That sounds incredible. Let me know if you set up a blog. I would love to check it out!