KITCHEN CABINETS 

Another big item checked-off the list - kitchen cabinets and an island!  It was some what of an early 20th anniversary present for us as they were installed in the morning and we left for our anniversary trip to Flagstaff that afternoon.  

The team from Arizona Cabinets were well aware of the precarious wash crossing and brought the cabinets out in thier small truck.  We have had a couple of the bigger box trucks get stuck in the wash because their wheel base it too long and rear wheels can't get enough traction.

The small truck

The cabinets are constructed in sections so they can be more easily transported and will fit through the door easier.  Once they had all the cabinets unloaded it was time to get them in the house and installed.

Unloading the truck

The first couple of cabinets are brought inside

And some more

Now this is a puzzle!

With all the cabinet sections inside it was time to start putting the puzzle together.  Lew, the owner of Arizona Cabinets, came out first thing in the morning and marked on the floor where each cabinet was supposed to go according to the plans. They have to be spaced correctly so we can fit in all the appliances.

Lew (center) trying to solve the puzzle

Once they were in the right spot they had to be leveled and anchored to the wall.  And for the island, which was actually made up of four separate cabinet pieces, it had to be anchored to the floor.

Lew's crew working on the install

Initial leveling of the cabinets

Things are starting to take shape

Getting things exactly level!

We couldn't stick around to see them finish up the install as we had reservations in Flagstaff that night.  The bonus of picking the Flagstaff area for our anniversary trip was we were able to visit the sawmill where our ceiling planks were milled.  We needed a few more live edge pieces for the exterior window sills so Silas, the owner of AP Sawmill, let us stop by and we were able to watch him mill the pieces we needed.  It was fun to actually see where our wood came from and how it was produced.  

Silas and his sawmill

Silas working the sawmill

Running our pieces through the sawmill to get them the right width

Silas cutting our pieces to length

We had a incredible anniversary weekend!  A night in Flagstaff at an historic hotel and then a couple nights at an off the grid Hip Camp trailer just south of the Grand Canyon.  We have had 20 wonderful years together and this house build has only made our bond stronger for the many more to come.

Beach sand or desert sand ... the woman still makes the dress!

Have we really changed that much in 20 years?

We stopped by the new house on our way back from Flagstaff to see the how the install went and we were very pleased.  The house is starting to feel like a house!  With the cabinets in place the plaster team can now start working on the interior finish plastering.

I think Nancy likes this anniversary present!

A couple weeks after the cabinets were installed they came back out and installed the countertops.  The counter tops for the normal cabinets are quartz.  The one on the island is Ice Stone, which has small pieces of recycled glass incorporated into it.

The countertop for the cabinets along the north wall was too long for one piece of quartz so they split it into two pieces.  The joint is in the middle of the sink.  It is amazing how they can make the seam almost disappear.

Can you see the seam?

The long north wall countertop with the kitchen sink

The 90° bend at the end of the long countertop

The short section between the stove and refrigerator

The island with mood lighting to highlight its character

The finished look

After the countertops were installed we realized the angle in the northwest corner of the kitchen wasn't a true 90° angle.  Since it was already installed and it was over 8 ft long, it wouldn't be feasable to take it off and re-cut it back at the shop. Lew's crew came out and sliced off a small sliver of quartz and then polished the edge.  They did an great job as you can't even tell they did anything to the edge.

Cutting and vacuuming up the dust

Grinding the edge 

Buffing the edge 

Polishing the edge

We have had the countertops covered with heavy duty paper to protect them during the rest of the construction so we haven't been able to enjoy them or for that matter remember what they look like.  It will be a nice surprise when we finally uncover them for good.

 NANCY'S PROJECTS

Although we decided not to tackle the building of our house ourselves, we did want to contribute where we could.  In addition, we also wanted to incorporate some repurposed items in the build. To this end Nancy has taken on two huge projects.

Way back in February of 2020 we were in Bisbee, AZ for an orienteering race and found a dresser on the side of the street that someone was trying to sell for cheap.  We had been on the look out for one to repurpose for the vanity in our main bathroom.  We quickly reorganized our gear in Jeff's car and drove home with a dresser hanging part way out the back of the hatch-back.  We found a place for it in our garage and there it sat for a couple of months.  

Our road side find!

At the start of 2021 Nancy decided it was time to start the transformation process.  With Jeff's car being gone every other week, she was able to turn the garage into sanding central.  The top and the fronts of the drawers, once the knobs were removed, were the easy parts.  All the little edges on the molding proved to be a very tedious process.  She tried multiple different techniques and wore out a power sander (sorry Alex) in the process but all her hard work paid off.  

It all had to be taken apart

Left side drawers are done

Sanding complete!

Once the sanding was complete it was time to move it out to the new house and make sure our measurements were right and that it fit between the tub and the wall. 

It fit!

Once we knew it fit, the next step was choosing a stain color and getting it stained.  Nancy did a ton of research to make sure the stain met our environmentally responsible standards and chose a gorgeous chocolate brown stain.  She turned our future living room into a stain booth and went to town. 

Nancy getting started on the big staining project

 Once the majority of the staining was complete it was time to

enlist Lucas's carpentry skills to rebuild a couple of the drawers that were damaged when a dust devil hit the property (note to self do not have the back door and the main garage door open at the same time as it turns the garage into a wind tunnel).  Two of the drawer faces were damaged beyond repair so Lucas devised a way to mimic the other faces using his table saw.  It turned out perfect!  Since the sinks will be under mounted the top two drawers will become unusable.  These drawer faces will be permenantly affixed to the the vanity.  We wanted to maintain the reclaimed furniture look so we decided to keep the original molding on the sides.

Nancy forgot that she had stain on her gloves when she had a nose itch

Nancy doing some final staining after the vanity was screwed into place

Staining the new drawer faces

Nancy's staining dance

The next step in the process will be when the quartz countertop is installed and then the holes cut in the top of the vanity for the sinks. 

The other big project Nancy has been working on is refinishing the interior window and door for the craft room.  We were incredibly fortunate to find two large glass paned pocket doors at Originate, a local repurposed and environmentally responsible building supply store.  They came out of an old Victorian style house in San Fransicso.  One will be installed horizontally as the interior window and one will be installed vertically as a barn door style door.

Our lucky find!

The first step in the refurbishing process was to mask off each pane so that the doors could be sanded.

13 panes down ...

46.5 panes to go!

Then Nancy had to sand the doors.  The first step was using the power sander on the larger flatter surfaces.  

Power sanding

The second step in the process was a little more tedious as the muntins (the wood between the panes) were not smooth.They had several bevels each. The muntins proved to be quite the challenge.  It was too difficult to get the finish off with only sanding. Nancy had to use a spray stripper that dissolved the surface sealer and then after it dried she was able to scrape it off. 

Stripping spray technique

More stripping

Scraping after stripping

After that Nancy had to use a very small manual sanding tool that was about the size of a pencil. It took a long time!

Cowgirl sanding

Nancy hand sanding

After the stripping and sanding was complete Nancy refinished the doors/windows with a coat of tung oil cut with some mineral spirits.

The final product!

Check back later to see the vanity and doors/windows when they get installed in their final locations.

Nancy's little helper from the North

 RV PORT

Throughout this whole process our goal has been to design a homestead that fulfills our needs and dreams for the future.  One of our big dreams is to have a small travel van and use it on some amazing adventures.  So with that in mind, we designed our garage to have an attached RV port.  

The large metal poles that will support the northern side of the roof were erected back when we poured the concrete for the garage foundation.  It reminded me of Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima except no one was wearing a helmet and the pole was much thicker and heavier.

The first step was getting the posts cut to the correct height which was done with an angle grider.  The next step was welding a plate to the top of the post (which is hollow) in order to provide a stable platform on which to set and weld the cross beams.

Getting ready to weld the caps to the top of the posts

Welding the plate to the top of the post

The cross beams are hollow, made of steel and very heavy.  Dwayne and his crew had their job cut out for them when it came to lifting the beams into place.  It was an all hands on deck operation.

 

Stage one of the lifting process

Stage two of the lifting process

Close up of the western cross beam

After the cross beams were welded into place they had to weld brackets onto the cross beams to which the C-channel rafters would be welded.

Welding the brackets to the cross beam

Once the brackets were all welded into place the C-channel rafters, which were almost 29 ft long, were lifted into place and welded to the brackets on the cross beams.

Lifting the C-channel rafters into place

It took a couple of days but Dwayne and his crew did an amazing job in a very tight space.  Now we just need to get a roof on it!

The RV Port framing is complete

A panoramic view of the homestead

 INTERIOR PLASTER PHASE II

With the ceilings complete it was time to start the prep work for the next phase, the interior plastering.  The first step in the process was installing the J-metal flashing where the walls meet the ceiling.  The lime plaster will "dive" into the hook of the upsidedown "J" providing a clean look for where the walls and ceilings meet.

J-metal flashing installed

At the corners the J-metal has to be cut and then bent to get the clean look we're after

Once the J-metal is in place the tar paper is stapled on to cover any areas of bare wood.  The tar paper acts as a barrier between the wood and the lime plaster.  Next comes the blood lath, which is installed in areas where the plaster needs more surface area to which to attach, such as corners, door frame edges and overhangs.  The majority of the walls only required basic chicken wire like lath since the earthen plaster already had some grooves raked into it, thus providing the additional surface area for the plaster to adhere and bond.

Tar paper covering the upper portions of the casita wall that is wood

You can see the tar paper covering the box beam which caps the strawbale wall, the blood lath covering the tar paper since there is an overhang, and then the chicken wire lath over the earthen plaster

The kitchen has a lot of intricate overhangs and corners, areas where drywall abuts earthen plaser, and will probably be the most used room in the house, so it took more tar paper and blood lath than some of the other rooms.

The kitchen took some extra prep time

Close-up of the door jamb for the front door looking down the north wall of the kitchen.  Notice the blood lath on the door jamb which is curved?

This is not an easy plaster job by any stretch of the imagination.  It may look like a very basic house design, but there are some elements that will really test the plasterers skill and patience.  We have a lot of areas where the plaster dives into exposed wood, walls that run right into the window frame (see picture above of the kitchen's north wall for an example) and the wall spaces themselves are quite large which when it comes time for the final coat of plaster will be a challenge to get a uniform color and texture over the entirety of the surface.

First coat of plaster over the exposed beam in the casita

First coat of plaster over the wall of windows in the house

The small alcove in the living room is quite the challenge for our plasterers as the wall goes straight into the window frame and the space is very narrow.  But the morning light in the summer just lights up the wall!

One of the looks we are going for is a traditional southwest farm house where the rounded walls dive into the jamb of the front door.

First coat of plaster providing the classic rounded look around the jamb of the front door

The north wall of the kitchen

Adam taping down the tar paper in order to protect the floors prior to the second coat of plaster

Juan masking off the exposed beam above the wall of windows to protect it during the application of the second coat of plaster

Juan masking off the ceiling

Plastic is hung to protect the wall of windows

Overview of the kitchen and living room

Adam applying the second coat of plaster on the living room wall

Before applying the next coat of plaster the previous layer must be wetted.  This helps the new coat bond and stick to the prior coat.  It is a very messy and wet process.

Tito wetting the first coat of plaster in preparation for the second coat

Adam applying the second coat of plaster above the wall of windows

Adam showing off his master plaster techniques

The plaster for the rough coats are mixed in a motor driven mixer.  The plaster is then shoveled into a wheelbarrow, wheeled to the area of application and then shoveled onto large "trays" from which the plasterers scoop the plaster onto their hawk.  Every plasterer needs an assistant or two to keep the process from slowing down.

 

The mixer

The plaster mixer in action

While the interior was being plastered the exterior was taking the brunt of the late season monsoon thunderstorms.  For the most part the north and south walls of the house and casita were protected from the main force of the wind and rain due to the bigger overhang of the eaves.  The east end of the buildings were another story.  With the third wettest monsoon season on record the earthen plaster just couldn't withstand the assualt and started to erode.  Thus we had to jerry rig some tarps to protect the walls.  The hard part was we had to let the walls breath so the tarps couldn't be tight against the walls like they were last summer.  So we came up with the idea to lean some 2 x 4's against the wall at an angle, screw them into the box beams above the strawbales and then drape the tarps over the 2 x 4's.  This did the trick and kept the walls from eroding any more until we could repair the walls after the monsoon season ended.

Tarps were hung to protect the earthen plaster from the monsoon thunderstorms