Cottage Slab Poured!

Walter, I guess I didn't realize that y'all are going to live in this house. I thought it was going to be a guest house/studio type thing.

What are you going to do with the big drafty farmhouse?

How long do you plan on living in the tiny cottage? Is it an experiment of sorts?

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Zeal, yes, it will become our home. Ultimately we'll expand it but the tiny cottage is what we're starting with. It is very experimental - a place for us to test out a lot of construction ideas we've been thinking about at minimum cost and effort. Then later we can expand it.

We actually spend much of out time outdoors so that helps and in the winter we shut down much of the existing house so it is only the core thus we're used to living in a fairly small space for a big part of the year.

The old farm house will either get used for agricultural purposes or maybe we'll sell it and someone will move it to a new location and restore it or use it for parts. It is full of 200 year old beams, wide boards and all that good stuff. You can see a tour of the farm house at http://www.sugarmtnfarm.com/vermontcape/

Cheers,

-Walter
SugarMtnFarm.com
in Vermont

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Our house when finished will be earth bermed to shelter it from the cold winter winds and low temperatures. A friend sent me this link about green roofs. Interesting to look over. Lots of photos.

http://www.hadj.net/green-roofs/assemblies.html

In their articles they talk about 3" to 6" of soil which is a reasonable depth. I often hear people talk about burying earth-sheltered houses several feet underground. They give the reason of wanting to have enough soil for planting. An interesting observation is we live in an area where there is often only a few of inches of soil before you get to ledge or bedrock. Grasses, other plants and even trees grow well on our thin mountain soils. This is not to say the plant life wouldn't like deeper soils, but the deep soil isn't required to have a green roof.

Food for thought.

Cheers,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Orange, Vermont
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog
http://HollyGraphicArt.com
http://BlackLightning.com
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Highlands, I've been looking at your site. Love what you are all doing. Keep up the great work.

I'm thinking a lot about ceilings these days. I've been reading about plastering, which I've never done aside from installing and fixing sheetrock. Sheetrock is something I've done a lot of before but I'm not going to be doing that for the tiny cottage project.

One of my goals is to not paint inside the house. I do not want to paint walls, ceilings, trim, etc. This is a health, aesthetics and maintenance issue. Thus I would like to go with stone, plaster, stucco and light colored concrete for surfaces.

I did the roof of the tiny cottage using a technique like MXSteve's barrel vaults such that I have a very nice rough interior from the concrete that came through the expanded metal lath. I plan to do a light colored cement onto and then perhaps a coat of plaster.

I have three more areas to do that will produce a ceiling - front room, bathroom and bedroom. I'm about to pour those areas and I'm thinking of how I can do the ceiling plaster and cement pour all in one shot.

First there is the bathroom which is about 30 sq-ft. I'm planning a flat ceiling in the bathroom. I have setup the scaffolding for this and when I pour the bathroom ceiling I'll be also creating the floor of the utility space above the bathroom for the hot water heater and such. I've been wondering about using a white PVA fiber reinforced concrete for durability. Finding white sand has been, shall we say, challenging. I'm in Vermont near Montpelier. Any ideas on sources? Ideally I would like to buy a truck load so I'll have enough to do all of the plaster and parge work. The bathroom is small enough that if necessary I might buy bagged white sand ($$$!!!). I've also been experimenting with adding lime to whiten the grey cement. Finding reasonably priced white cement is difficult. I had thought of doing plaster but fear it won't be long lasting enough in the presence of the water from the shower and other bathroom moisture. Thoughts?

The next ceiling is the master bedroom which is about 43 sq-ft. Again I'm going to go with a flat ceiling and that is the floor of the storage attic loft. Here I was thinking of doing a 1/2" layer of plaster leaving the upper surface rough and then as soon as it stiffens a little I would like to pour PVA fiber reinforced concrete which will make the actual attic floor.

Lastly is the kids loft in the front which makes the 71 sq-ft ceiling of the entry and dining area. I'm thinking of doing that as possibly a lightly arched ceiling poured into a mold. Again I would like to do a plaster layer which will be slightly more tricky with the arch - the reason I'll do that one last. Aside from the arch it would be the same technique as the bedroom.

I already have setup the scaffolding for each of these spaces. I'm planning to place 2" pink foam board on top and join them together with PVC tape. Edges of the concrete will lock to the existing walls with #4 rebar pins and rest on top of the partition block walls forming the bond beam for the top of the partitions.

I have thought of doing a shrink wrap plastic layer on the top of the foam to get a perfectly smooth surface. The foam alone gives a pretty smooth surface and oiling the foam helps with release.

Alternatively I've thought of doing shallow vaults on all three ceilings just like the roof leaving a rough surface for plastering. That means then doing a lot more plastering over my head. Doable but a pain in the neck.

Sooo... all of you plaster buffs out there... Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Orange, Vermont
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog
http://HollyGraphicArt.com
http://BlackLightning.com
http://NoNAIS.org

Print to pass out: http://NoNAIS.org/handout
Print to hang up: http://NoNAIS.org/poster
Print for people offline: http://NoNAIS.org/printout
Stickers with NoNAISewe Logo: http://NoNAIS.org/stickers
Ad copy is available here: http://NoNAIS.org/ads

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

If you can finish concrete, you can apply plaster. Mix it thick, almost every novice starts with it too thin. Work it with a 18 or 24 inch concrete trowel, and curl the corners of the trowel back just a touch with a pair of pliers.

Pete

Plaster is great!!!! I think it is VERY cool that you are considering the material for your house!!!!

It is very easy to apply, as you probably know.

I am curious what you will be using as lathe, expanded metal?

How will you attach it to the wall?

As for the moisture, I think you will be okay. It is basically a cousin of concrete/cement. Here are a couple of options to consider:

1. Many of the old homes used a cement scratch coat on wood lathe in the shower and bath area. I have seen it covered with a thin topcoat of plaster. I have also seen it tiled over. This applies to the immediate area arround the bath tub.
2. Today we have the wonderful use of plastic and fiberglass for surrounding the tub and shower stall.
3. I think you will be just fine using plaster in the bathroom. Heck they have survived nearly 80 years in my old house.
4. Even though you don't want to paint, it would help seal the walls.

If I were to give you any suggestions about plastering, it would be to buy very good tools. I paid $20 for a Marshalltown trowel...just pre-bent enough to make it nice. I tried the 1.99 trowels, and my work looked like a 1.99 job. If you are going to plaster, also invest in a plaster hawk. About $15, and well worth every penny. You will need it for the ceiling work, and it will make your life 1000 times easier when you do the walls. Another trick, I strongly suggest is to make or build a little contraption to set your hawk on when you are not using it. Since the hawk has a handle in the center of it on the bottom, it doesn't sit on the ground very easy. Takes less that 20 minutes to build, and you will thank yourself a million times for making it. Answering the phone, taking a break, stopping to eat, moving your work....wallah!...you have something to lay your loaded hawk onto.

Clove

I have been experimenting with building ceiling sandwiches of plaster and ferro/pva cement. It is going very well. I have now finished a model plus one shelf which is my next larger model. The first model is demolded and everything so I did a write-up about it with photos on my blog here:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/03...-of-paris.html

If that link doesn't work for you just go to:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/

and if it is no longer on that page then search on modeling with plaster to find it.

The bathroom shelf that we poured last night looks great although I have not fully demolded it yet. I'm trying to be patient and give it 72 hours.

Cheers,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Orange, Vermont
Pastured Pigs & Sheep
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog
http://HollyGraphicArt.com
http://BlackLightning.com
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

New progress at:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/03...sub-floor.html

and

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/03...wer-shelf.html

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

One year update on our tiny cottage at:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/11...tion-mark.html

and

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/11...ction-pan.html



Making progress!

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

We've moved in to our tiny cottage:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/12/moving-in.html

Hurray!

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

ok, what are the supermagnets for in the concrete?

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*grin* They're great fun for children to find in the coming years.

On the practical side they make for:

Door latches with no mechanical parts

Towel racks that are invisible

Mitten and hat hooks that are flat to the wall

Coat hooks too

Note boards to stickup papers

Locking mechanisms

And other fun stuff.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

LOL, just be careful about strong magnets and computers!!!!

__________________
Check us out out "The Modern Homestead", a small, helpful, friendly forum. Find us at "The Modern Homestead", on facebook too!

Actually, ironically, computers are a good source of super magnets. In the hard drive motors.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Walter, I'm new here, but I am simply awe-struck at what you and your family have done. Wow. And I'm in love with that house you're selling. Maybe if we win the lottery... Kudos to you and your family, you are an inspiration to novices like me and my DH.

*grin* Glad you like the old farm house... as we get moved out the price will go down! But beware the pigs are bidding on it, they want to use it for a winter barn. I've told them no, they're too big.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Update of an old project. Today we have a new front door step on our tiny cottage. The cottage you might remember has a ferro-cement barrel vault roof as well as many other FC, RC, brick and stone features. Here's the latest post:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/06...e-step_26.html

Cheers,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm LLC
Pastured Pigs in Vermont
---
http://SugarMtnFarm.com
http://hollygraphicart.com
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I love your little cottage. Just not sure it would hold all my pack ratted fabrics, etc (if I were to have one). Congratulations on the door step

I'm going to go have to catch up on your blog to see how your family is working out living in such a small space.

Angie

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"Live your life, and forget your age." Norman Vincent Peale

I'm so jealous. Living that close to a granite quarry would be dangerous for me.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming