Our Earth Sheltered Home | Page 8 | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

I let that set up over night and started on the walls the next morning, just spacing and making sure the joints are staggered

After letting that set up overnight I pulled the spacers, wiped down the tiles and sealed them

After letting the sealer dry, I started grouting and wiping again

I finally finished that, I then needed to trim out the shower entry

I ripped down some pine

and stained it up

and trimmed out the other side

my wife threw on a coat of poly

I spent the next 3 days screwing around with the toilet, I had to get 3 different toilets, before I could get one to fit. When the plumber had set the rough in for the toilet, he didn't take in account for the drywall, wainscoting and the baseboard, I had to drive to bangor, augusta and portland, before I could get one that fit. You wanna know frustration, try mounting 3 toilets and having to return them, oh

well we got it straightened out

we had the freezer delivered for the pantry

and the stove and refrigerator

and slowly moved in all our personal items during the week

had the washer and dryer delivered, of course this was a issue, it doesn't come with a conversion kit, so we had to special order it and had to take our clothes to the laundromat for 2 weeks to dry

got the entertainment center set up

set up the kitchen

and on sunday november 1st, we brought the dogs and cats down, and officially moved in

2 days later I woke up and saw my wife standing out front just looking around, it was good to be home

we backfilled around the forms to stop any blowouts

and started drilling out pin holes into the footer

and hammered in 2 foot sections of rebar

we ran rebar around the perimeter

and laid down wire mesh

all ready to pour

we decided to cut the slab into a 3x3 gridwork so it looked like a large tile floor and to provide stress relief

and snapped a line and cut the bottom of the stucco 5.5 inches off the bottom

all done, we also had a seamless gutter delivered

we used a piece of 2x6 pressure treated and filled in the bottom cut, we also installed a drain for the gutters

the next afternoon we washed the cement several times to get it clean

and my wife started staining with the same stain as inside

we mulched around the slab

and mounted the gutter and piped it through the drains, we used this for our rain water catchment system

at this point the house itself was officially done