Foundations and Footing Begin on July 22nd: Plus Video on Building Walls from Cob

We have a date for starting the foundations, Elliot has said that July 22nd is a go. So fingers crossed that the building permits come in by then. Everything is actually lining up perfectly. The septic field and tank should be in just as all the paperwork for my permits is processed. :-)

As we get closer to the foundations going in and then the posts and beams, I start thinking about mixing the cob and putting in the walls.

I have been going back over the video I shot up in Summerland and realize how much wisdom Patrick Heneberry has on every aspect of building with cob. I am so privileged to have had the chance to do a workshop with him.  Here he is explaining how to add the cob to the wall, how to tie it to the posts and how the spluge can be trimmed.

To mill or not to mill? What to do with the wood

One of the hardest things to accept when you plan to build a new home on a forested lot is the trees must be cut down. It has to happen but for someone like me it was a very painful decision.

I arrived at my lot from the ferry just after the first trees had been cut down . The devastation seemed enormous. We had   been very selective with which trees to cut down but it still seemed like a lot of trees lay on the ground.

My neighbour, Evan, had the big machine needed to move the trees. He took off the branches and cut them up into lengths and placed them carefully, ready for milling. It was my original intention to use all the wood from my Douglas firs and cedars in my cob house.

Another friend, Lou, has a chain saw mill which he kindly brought down from Hot Springs Cove. I had arranged to meet him last Wednesday in order to plan cutting up the wood.

He needed the wood to be laid out across two supporting logs so they could be rolled off easily in order to mill them.. This had yet to be done. We sat down with the house plans to determine how much wood we needed and what dimensions the wood needed to be. For my house we need posts that will go upright in the walls.  There are also posts that would support the beams which go across to support the ceilings and upper floors.  There are two by sixes and two by fours for the floor joists and the rafters and the framing of the upstairs floor. Lots of different dimensions. It took us an hour and a half to do most of the figuring.

By this time we were thinking that this was a lot for a chainsaw mill. So I started seeking an alternative. I called my friend Carol who knows all the local tradesmen and she gave me a name. And I emailed Patrick Heneberry to ask his advice, first of all for someone who had a mill on the island, and secondly if it was even worth the cost of milling the wood. Patrick immediately said the Douglas fir would be cheaper to buy but the Cedar would be worth milling for the siding.

When Richard Brown came around to look at the logs to see if he was even interested in taking the job on, he said that the Douglas fir logs were too big for him to work with and also there were a lot of large knots in them, as well as sap. He told me that Mayne island Douglas fir turned very hard once felled. He felt we might be having to resort to screwing the wood rather than just hammering nails.

So, at the moment is Plan B. Lou and I will select and mark the smaller round Douglas fir that will be suitable for the posts and the beams and the round rafters which I would like to see exposed in the lofted ceiling. Richard will mill the cedar for the bat and board siding. And hopefully I have a contact for someone to come and take the fir for firewood. 

I will begin my search for some recycled wood for my floorboards upstairs and who knows I might even find wood I can use for my framing. Otherwise it's off to the builders merchants.

How to mix cob, filmed in Summerland.

I have had lots of people asking me how is cob made, well here is some video I shop when I was up in Summerland a few years ago working on a cob recording studio. As you can see, we had a lot of fun while working hard. It is the sense of community that makes this way of building so special.

Thanks to all the participants for letting me film them.

My Mentors Featured in a Cob Homes Article in the Vancouver Sun

Cob construction makes a comeback  is a great article in the Vancouver Sun today written by Megan Cole.
I was working on my Building Permit application form, finding all my paperwork and emailing the appropriate office to get my title search documentation and the  Homeowner Protection Office to get my  Builder Declaration and Discloser Notics etc. This is not particularly fun.  I am excited to be getting it done as it means I am one step closer to building.
While on the computer doing the emails, I saw I had a message from Doug Stanger, a wonderful supporter and steward of the environment.
I am so grateful to Doug for letting me know about this great article in the Sun today. I was excited to read it as it features Patrick Hennebery of Cobworks, who taught me everything I know about building in cob and also OUR Eco Village on Vancouver Island, where I met Elke Cole who designed my house for me. I went to a Design Your Natural Home workshop there two years ago.

Elke Cole leading the Design Your Natural Home Workshop at OUR Eco Village

Patrick is leading a Cob and Community in the Village - Skillbuilder Internship this summer at OUR Eco Village.  He is also my consultant as I build my home and I am thrilled to be working with him.  His time and wisdom are invaluable to me. 

So this is the serendipity of life. I am just putting together my submission for my building permits and I go to facebook and I find this link to information on cob houses growing in popularity. 
I thought I would take this opportunity to share a video of Patrick speaking about his work, specifically the Summerland project that I was a part of. 




 

By the way Building Permit applications are not that much fun.  

Beautiful Cob House Pictures on the Natural Homes Widget.

There is a wonderful website out there called Natural Homes. They have a widget that shares images of natural homes and I selected cob as it suits this blog. I hope you enjoy seeing all these fabulous buildings.  I encourage you to visit their site if you are interested in Natural Building.

Plans and Planning

This past week my official plans arrived from the engineer, after many months of anticipation. This is very exciting for me. I have several copies in various sizes and I can see all the side and rear and front elevations. The structural plans and foundation plans are there. So this weekend I managed to come to Mayne Island and meet with the very important people who are helping me put my plans into action.
Elliot is going to organize and coordinate putting in the foundations. I gave him a copy of all the plans in the big format and we went over them together to check how many post supports there will be and how the beams will go etc. There is lots to do.
Now I have the plans I am filling in my form applying for the building permits and hopefully this goes smoothly and we begin the work in mid July.
The septic field and tank should be in by then.

Septic Field Plans

As the summer approaches I am happy to announce that I took the step of hiring someone to put in the septic field/tank. It is something I dragged my heels on as I really do believe that on an island that needs to conserve water that top of the line composting toilet systems would be a much more sane way to go.
I did a research project on composting toilet systems and there is much evidence that they are safe and a workable sanitation system. There is a community in New York State that has been using one for over ten years to protect their water shed. I will post more on this research later. But here is what a modern day composting toilet looks like. :-)

I fully intend to put in a two toilet composting toilet system from Sancor. These toilets use only 1/2 cup of water per flush. 

However, I realize that such changes if they ever occur to the bylaws will be slow in coming and that I will have to conform and put in my septic system in order to build this summer.

I am happy that Matt Taylor has agreed to put it in for me.  I have yet to meet him, but he and Andrew Money, the engineer, are in the process of designing the system and I hope to hear it is going in soon.