A day plastering the common building

Eden (far left) working with the plaster crew on one of the outside walls...
Freshly-made plaster headed to the building -- a combo of chopped straw, sand, water and sifted clay.
Brendan of the plastering crew, who was doing the mixing.
Jo throwing clay at the screened sifter.
This should've been the first photo; it's Justin, head of the plastering crew, spraying a very thin coat of the plaster mix onto the straw. Then the crew came back and applied the first real coat. Unfortunately, it is so late in the year that this coat won't have time to dry thoroughly until next year. It should be enough to protect the strawbale insulation from moisture though.

A look at some of the earthen plastering earlier this month

Looking up toward the roof, on the outside of the building...
Up close and personal with the plaster. This is the first coat, and it's very rough. There will be two more coats put on next spring, and the final coat will be silky smooth....
One of the outside walls...

Some Interiors of the Common Building

A nice look at part of the ceiling, the stairs and some of the interior second floor walls...
...Our windows recently arrived; not sure when they'll start getting installed....
A view of what will be the solarium, on the ground floor.
The interior and exterior ground floor walls have been coated with earthen plaster; coating the second floor is happening this week.
Framing on the second floor. For now we only have windows on a few interior second floor walls, but all walls in this series have been framed so that we could remove the plywood sheeting and install windows if we change our minds.

Views of the ceiling/roof of the common building.

Lying- down look at the cupola
Just love the cupola!
The roof is now fully tarpapered, the fascia has been put on. The roofers are forging the metal roofing, which will be delivered and installed in early November. The fascia for the cupola just got painted with wood finish and will be put in this week.
...A closer look at the fascia board.
A view from the kitchen garden at the common building. This picture is a little old now -- all the fascia below the roof has been installed.

A few more pix from the roof.

Matt Garrity, our good friend and one of the carpenters on the crew
All the insulation for the copper piping that carries water up & down the building...
Yuki, of the Portland baling crew, who also is a longtime plumber; he was helping Dave the plumber out with this part of the project, installing and soddering the copper piping.

Laying down the solar heating

Eden on the roof, on a day that was threatening to rain....
Our good friends Daniel Herman and Lauren Bouyea, out for a stroll while we worked on the roof.
Eden and Dave Kennedy, the plumber for the Common Building, working on the roof
These copper pipes will be insulated with that black poly-tubing, and will be circulating water that has been heated by solar panels down into the commercial kitchen on the ground floor and back up again...
Dave Kennedy and Matty on the roof. We could only expose certain sections of the uncovered roof to install the piping, while everything else had to be covered for fear of rain. This all happened at the beginning of October.

Random shots from a day around the common building

Carpenter John planing the fascia for the common building. Now it needs to be sanded and painted.
A view from the roof of the common building. While I was insulating the roof, Matt was on the farm, disking in the broccoli.
Lydia stapling tarpaper while Chris rolls it out....
The skeleton of the cupola, at the very top of the building (30 feet up)
Beginning to tarp the common building, starting with the cupola; it's been raining on and off for a few days since this picture....

Insulating the roof of the common building

This photo should be at the end of this series -- Autumn nailing down the tarpaper over the decking....
We used denim insulation, or shredded blue jeans. It's a lot slower to put in than fiberglass, but alot better for the environment. Lauren (left) and I worked on the insulation while Chris (middle) and Matt (right) came behind us and nailed down plywood decking. We were 20-25 feet up the whole time and it was pretty freaky for me.
Lauren, our good friend from Green Gulch who's been helping us out the last week and a half.

One of the many skylights...

Balin'

John Di Fruscia, our general contractor, and Lydia, baler extraordinaire from Portland.
Megan, a Portland baler, fitting a strawbale into a downstairs wall from outside. The bales are made from rice straw, and we had to get them from the Sacramento area. We ordered 500 bales, which was about 200 too much.
Shaving the bales with a chainsaw, to get them the right size.
One of the walls, viewed from outside, with window in the middle.
Bringing more bales to the building site.