Walls, Drainage, and Earthworks
Walls and Earthworks
The swales designed and described in the prior post did not survive the Category 4 hurricane that visited the property in...
Swales and Pools
The most critical erosion problem was caused by our neighbor building a retaining wall and stealing our large rocks which had stabilized the earth for...
Earthworks Week: Septic System search and Clean Out
The last 10 days of August I attempted to finalize the project: find and connect the septic to the new bathroom; prepare the ground for more annual water...
Electrical and water infrastructure
Infrastrucure Photos and Summaries
Electrical and Water Connections
The main water pipe and 2 conduits (one electrical, 8 guage wire and one ethernet...
Building Shelves and Shower Walls
Building Shelves and the Shower
This is the frame that Andres and Cesar used for the new bathroom sink (called a ‘vento lavababa’ or window sink)....
The Dome Village Thus Far
Looking at pics from 16 years ago when we built the original complex of domes, look how much my neighborhood has changed:
Niches #2 - Learning from Mistakes
The niches I made in the Sunrise dome are two of my favorite (and most useful) attributes of dome living. One is my bookshelf and the other my 'art...
Plastering - Pollido and Fine Coats
The finishing coats of plastering (‘fina' which uses sand and is smooth, ‘pollido’ which is pure cement + water and brushed on is much smoother) are...
Fixing the 'Dimples' We Made
Because we over-tamped Eli’s dome, the rustic plaster layer attempted to ‘smooth out’ the error (for a narative on this see the Nov 26 2022 post titled...
Plastering the Domes - Rough Coat
Benito and Carlos Victoria, two gentlemen from Oaxaca, have been hired by Jose Maria (Chema) to plaster. I haven’t helped much, except to share the...
Framing the Doors and Windows with 'Eyebrows'
‘Ceja’ is the term for ‘eyebrow’ and we use one on each window and door. They serve two purposes:
Provide a visual break to the dome's flat surface...
Niches in the 3 Domes
I was commited to making niches before curing took place, as during Hootenanny I we didn’t do the ‘carving’ early, before the concrete 'cured’. This...
Framing vs Cutting: the pros and cons of two approaches to Windows and Doors
This was the main motivation for trying another set of domes: by avoiding the framing process, it would provide significant time and material savings....
The Bathroom Dome - freestyling with the metrics.
The bathroom is an appendage onto the Bedroom Dome, accessed via an interior door. As such, it can ‘lean' it’s weight onto the bigger dome. The plan...
Closing the Bedroom Dome
This was a long project, as it's a big dome, using 16” bags the Dome is 176" inch (14.6 feet) diameter. With the ‘keyhole’ door, 3 arched windows, and...
Ending of the Hootenanny Phase - was it worth it?
The Hootenanny will end today with the leaving of Scott and Amy Hartwell. There are no more gringo visitors planned, and Kate and Eli have just two...
Can a dome be built in 2 days, from foundation to closure?
I certainly had confidence a dome could be built in 2 days, from foundation to closure. But I was 14 years removed from actual earth building work and...
Teen Dome Closing, Notes on how to close a dome
Once the Hootenanny cast dispersed back to N America, we were left with the core Mexican team of Blas, Raul, Gomez, and Ceasar; with Kate and Eli and...
The Hootenanny Was a Success
Hootenanny II was an amazing experience. The team started to arrive on Monday night and we spent Tuesday getting to know each other. Starting early (7...
Let the Hootenanny Begin
The preparation has been laid to rest. It’s time to begin the Hootenanny! We finished laying all foundation and buttressing bags over the last week....
Foundation for 3 new domes is ready
The chalked lines I had readied in June were completely erased by the September hurricane. Luckily, the ability to edit my earlier markings yielded better...
Earth preparation with piping readied
When I was in Baja in late May, I met with Jose Martin to prepare the site for the November build. What we decided:
Teen Dome
This will be dug...
Hootenanny Two Takes Form
Welcome back to Earth building. It’s been 14 years since I last practiced this art form, and I’m GLAD TO BE BACK!
The plan is to start with a 12’...
The Table Rises - Stronger Than Ever
Santiago and Arthur came to install the power and drill a hole for the lights that will bring ‘Baja Christmas’ to Las Domas each night we turn ‘em on....
The iconic table falls over
Upon arriving back to Las Domas after 9 long months, I was greeted by the table having fallen over. Yes, expecting an untreated piece of driftwood to...
Bienvenitos Casa De Las Domas
The last few days have been long and tough, but full of fun and adventure. As is typical in this community, the workers had done most of what had been...
Wrapping up the Hootenanny
That didn’t happen. I was ecstatic upon my arrival, as some of the finishing touches I’d forgotten about had been done beautifully: the table surrounding...
End of the Hootenanny
The last few days were 18 hour days - getting my ‘checklist’ of finishing items ready; choosing tile and paint colors; rounding up the final pieces needed...
The WIndscoop - and expensive air conditioner
When we altered our plans for the scoop back in early January (read the posting on January 17 ‘Windscoop Thoughts’ if you care to re-visit), I was gung-ho,...
Exterior Plaster Strategy
Here in Baja, we have less rain than nearly anywhere else on earth. We’re not going to do the final coat of plaster, because I want to percolate designs...
Solar Water Heater - it’s cool
The ideas was hatched by Christopher, who had built ‘brea box’ solar heaters in the 70s. And it’s very similar to a solar oven I had built in Peace...
Our Domes Are Complete
It is a major thrill. We do have some considerations we’re having about plaster and the windscoop, For those reading the details, here’s a summary of...
Bedroom Dome is Closed up
The tops of the domes proved to be a tougher project than projected. Closing them in and making a small cap of cement is no problem, as bags naturally...
Kitchen Dome Has been closed
Today is a massive accomplishment with the kitchen dome closing in. Having forgotten to place the vent tubes in, we had to go back and cut away the earth...
Lancet Arch ‘Eyebrow’ Windows
Besides the eyebrows, built with small shots of rebar and wooden forms to hold the arched concrete, we’re adding 18” paper forms to make ‘star gazing’...
Happy New Years To All
From all of us here in El Cardonal, we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. We enjoyed a lovely evening of fresh sierra (mackerel) on the bar-b-qd,...
Our Kitchen Adventures
We delved into an outdoor dining platform. With the help of Romero and Estabhan, the Gringo team dug a trench for a semi circular kitchen. It was a lot...
Palapa Ready and a Trench
The image above is of the forms we poured today to hold our palapa over the shower, and the hot water solar heater/palapa over the toilet. These are...
First experience with plaster
Eli and I made the plaster mix, Kate and our crew helped apply it. Ricardo believes we need to first plaster the ‘gap’ between the bag layers. While...
Merry Christmas
This was a short work week for us, and very little got done from the gringos, though my crew worked 2 full days. Progress was made, for a 2 day work...
first round windows
I knew I wanted round windows to allow star gazing at night. But the position had to be ‘solar smart’, so that we didn’t introduce heat during the day....
Windsccoop thoughts
The tube-like feature shown above was intended to be built on the bedroom dome, so that it bent around between the Sunrise and Bedroom domes. But with...
Earth bag arches are a lot of work
After working all day on the arch, we realized we’d become spoiled by laying long bag - progress goes quick. Once you fill and shape a whole lot of smaller...
Orca feast
It was an extra special day for the Sea. We awoke to seals playing on the reef, dolphins jumping, and a school of small rays jumping out of the water...
Walls Are a Rising
It’s hard to think we’ve really stated to see the top of the domes. All 3 domes now are fully into height rows corbeling inward. We have used a ‘3...
Keyhole Door
We are making progress beyond my plans. We’re now climbing over all the door, window, and keyhole frames. Today we laid the height compasses on each...
Window forms and windscoops
We used our last bag of cement at 10 am today, and were promised 2 deliveries that never came. But what a time to break for form building! Luckily,...
tema - the extra mile adventure arrives
A break form the rhythm of the building process occurred at ~ 9 am, as the TEMA bus arrived, led by a local after they made a few wrong turns and wound...