We knew we would make many mistakes when we began this project. Today's mistakes are the seeds for tomorrow's successes, and we prefer to leave this project having made most of our grand mistakes in natural building. For your edification and amusement, here are some of the errors of our ways.
When the schedule is placed before all else, quality of work is sure to suffer. Organisational lapses accumulate and boulders end up on the wrong side of a foundation trench. Piles of excavated earth block the work area, until they are haphazardly relocated to make way for a wheelbarrow. On an un-level site, just carting around 80kg of rock is a challenge. Alternatively, a site with even a minimum of forethought put into organisation is delightfully satisfying to work on and, personally, much more aesthetically pleasing. Sand, stones and earth handy where you need them; always a clear and level path for the wheelbarrow; safe for children to work and play in and around. They must mind the scorpions, of course.
1. We'll just strap the baby on our backs and work together.
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| This one doesn't mind. |
The baby, as it turns out, has plenty to say about that. Half of us is occupied with childcare in easy times, and on other days we abandon work on the natural house to cook, clean and nap. Parenting is a much harder job than natural building.
2. That looks fine, let's just go ahead and build.
We try to accommodate many different priorities here, sometimes leading us in a tricky balancing act with no right choice and many wrong ones. After digging and filling the foundation trench for the first attempt we realised we hadn't put enough thought into the design. The result was several awkwardly large rooms that had no flow. This and several other "mistakes" filled us with such regret we decided to scrap the first attempt, relocate the site, and begin again from scratch.
3. We'll organise the site later.
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| Chaos. |
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| Order |
4. Never trust Zapata.
More on this later.
5. Trust in ourselves and our vision.
(alternatively, Just Say No!)
There will always be someone who thinks they know better than us how to accomplish our dreams. Sometimes they do know better than us about the practicalities of getting there. But if we relinquish decision making to this person, at that point our dream ceases to be ours and becomes theirs -- and that is in the lucky case. Much more likely is that our dream becomes their side-project or resumé-padder, and we are pointed in the "right" direction and left on our own at the first difficulty. We cannot trust our intuition once we begin down this road because the project no longer comes from us, is no longer tied to our standards, nor to our aesthetic and technical vision. No matter how much more than us someone knows about a specific subject or way of doing something, we will stand firm in our decisions. Working to educate yourself without a teacher can be stressful and frightening. The final form of your work remains cloudy and the path to achievement is unclear. This project has been full of these experiences: learning to cement, learning to plaster, learning to build a dry toilet and grey water system, learning to build a stone foundation. I can say that ultimately, walking our own path is much more satisfying and, for me, has been much more edifying than following someone else. Even if it means restarting from scratch a couple of times.
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| Our intuitive interpretation of dry-stacked stone foundation. Taken before we applied mortar. |
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Hi Jamie Sandra and Ainoa,
ReplyDeleteHow nice it is to receive your updates and read about your continued learning and development.
Your observations are all very valid and will ultimately lead to achieving your dreams. What comes with these realizations is that it takes time - a lot of time and hard work.
Child minding is a full time job but one to be cherished and enjoyed. Things will get easier as Ainoa gains independence to play - on a safe and well organised site (the most important element on any successful build).
Hard labour - moving heavy stones - is the true way to relearn pre-industrial ways...otherwise it is "mere prattle without practice" and never fully reaches your toes. Soon rhythm will follow and things will begin to flow.
Remember your first building attempts are always a learning experience. Good design is the 2nd most important element of a successful build and good designers and buildings grow from real experience so take your time with the new design.
"Imagineer" all the stages of the build and know in your minds eye the detail of each stage...this will help to lesson the uncertainty and reduce inevitable mistakes. Remember to design through models - redesigning is a lot easier on this scale! Good planning and premeditation allows you to leave your mind while working and to find your body rhythm and natural movement.
You are correct to hold onto your vision and to thrust yourselves as builders and designers - always remember to remain flexible though as the most pleasing elements of many natural homes were born out of reacting to mistakes or making positive changes to the design during construction.
Be open to gaining invaluable local knowledge which will help you to make you own well informed decisions. Lastly be keen observers and thrust yourselves.
Best wishes and we look forward to reading and seeing your progress.
Love from Paul, Therese, Áine and baby Eimear (in our cob home in Tipperary)
ps: They say 1/3 of the building is complete by the time you finish your stemwall. So the effort is really worth it. It is a lot easier to remedy a roof afterwards than foundations or drainage!
ReplyDeletePaul, Therese, Áine and baby Eimear,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, congratulations on being four! Wonderful news. And two little women, is it?
My goodness how it takes time and work -- all of it! Raising a child, raising a wall.
As a little aside, we've become so interested in child raising that upon our return to the US we would like to gain certification in the Montessori method, a three-summer process, and eventually open our own little school in a natural building with permaculturally-designed gardens surrounding it.
The "heavy-labour" has been my favourite part so far, partly because it's so intuitive and as you say, I dance with my toes and the work-day flows. Stacking rocks was a bit of a challenge owing to the mental stress of fitting together a puzzle without knowing if it's right or wrong. As we've gotten to the third course and seen that the first two stand firm, albeit with a bit of supporting mortaring, we've become more confident in dry-stacking and more efficient stackers.
Also great advice about "Imagineering" -- this is the one part we've found ourselves horrible at, and we are continuing this unfortunate trend... Ainoa is such a wonderful, enjoyable, happy and constant drain of our energy and time that we have found putting aside extra time for brainstorming and imagineering difficult. On your advice we'll give this another go around -- who knows, now that we finally get an hour or two to ourselves after Ainoa falls asleep we may be able to dance around our imaginations of the house.
I want to say too that we've been lucky to have great resources/friends in the Cob Cottage handbook, Tammy, and especially you. I'm sure you'll be getting a few more e-mails from us in the future concerning the next stages of the house.
Best wishes to you all,
Jamie, Sandra, Ainoa