27-30 June 2013

After a busy week of prep at home making up bottle bricks and ripping paper, we eventually got to the earthship for another 4 days hard labour. I jest - we love it there and the work saves money on gym membership!

Crates of bottle bricks

Bathroom wall taking shape

We put the electric conduit into the wall to feed electrics to the kitchen area. The pics also show the rebar we're using to pin the can wall to the earthcliff and the metal ties at the joining corners.

At last I made the wall high enough to try out the first section with glass bricks. These were bought second hand a few years ago and will eventually make a curve that runs all along the bathroom and utility room walls.

Electric conduit hidden in can wall

Metal wall ties

Glass bricks from inside the bathroom

The glass bricks from the main living area

Through the triangular window

The first piece of glass goes into the dome. The blocks of wood are there to hold it in place until I get a chance to papercrete over the edge of the glass to give it a good seal (with the help from lots of caulk as well).

window glass in dome

Opening windows in front face

Dave's main job (apart from being my gofer) has been to prepare the frame to take the opening windows for the front face. This involved a trip to the carpenters who planed the wood to size then routed out the recess for the opening part of the frame.

Dave then brought them back and cut them to size. Sounds simple eh? But it took a while because they had to be done very accurately and with butt joints that overlap to finish the corners. I think her did a splendid job.

They're now ready to put the rejas into and glue/screw in place. But we didn't have the right sized drill bit so that job'll have to wait.

Window frame with routed recess

Both sets of frames ready for rejas

kitchen cabinets

Since moving to Spain 11 years ago I've collected so much 'stuff' from the roadside, from beautiful antique pine chests, antique wooden bedsteads, bedside cabinets to old wooden doors and windows. The tradition here is to leave your unwanted items next to the big roadside wheelie bins so others can come along and take them if they want before they get taken to the dump. It's like an outdoor candy shop to me, I can't go past a wheelie bin without having a look and anything wood I have trouble leaving!

Consequently, we (well I) have collected rather a lot of 'stuff' that I have plans to renovate...some time, when I don't know. It's become a bit of a sore point as our house is full of it, so you can imagine how chuffed I am to eventually be using some of this, er, junk. These two kitchen cabinets which we're building into the can walls are just the tip of the iceburg, but you'll be seeing a lot more of it as our earthship takes shape inside.

Another idea for the entrance

After putting the two fancy anis bottles into the bathroom wall a few weeks ago it gave me an idea for the bit above the door in the entrance.

I've found 7 different bottles with lovely shapes and/or moulded glass which I think might look nice as a sunburst. What do you think?

Curtain making spiders?

These are a couple of smallish rocks on the berm at the back of the dome. They have strange curtains of tiny rocks hanging from them on minute strands of spider web silk. They flutter in the breeze just like big bead curtains. I have no idea what's living behind them - I'm guessing it's some sort of spider but I've never seen anything like it before. Anyone have any idea what it could be?