Studio Construction: Finishing the Walls

Cameron on Stilts

At the end of the clip, you can hear Cameron ask me if I have been waiting for him to use his stilts. I answered "Yes, I had been waiting all morning to catch him in action on them".

Jordan and Cameron are tapers. They are doing an excellent job on the walls. They taped the joins, trowelled on wet plaster mud then left to wait for the plaster to dry. When they returned they sanded the plaster to a smooth finish.

Cameron holds a strong light at different angles while he sands so he can see any imperfections in the plaster.

Next, Marshall, the painter arrived. He wasn't long putting the first coat on every surface.

Everyone has done such a good job the walls and ceiling are perfect.

Initially, I looked into alternative finishes for the interior but drywall and paint have lots going for them. Drywall has high resistance to mold if kept dry. It has a high fire resistance rating, provides rigidity to the wall and its acoustic rating is OK. It is relatively inexpensive and can be easily repaired. When it is plastered and sanded to a smooth finish then painted in a light colour it is a highly reflective surface. In my working area, I need to have even light without distorting shadows. I want to make the most of the light coming in the windows and the walls reflection of that light so the minimum amount of electrical lighting needs to be installed to do the job.

Time for me to do another vacuum.

Studio Construction: Cedar Soffit

Dave is making the porch and arcade soffit from strips of rough finish, tongue and groove, western red cedar.

 It smells so good out near his saw bench.

I knew it was a special delivery when the truck arrived with its load wrapped in plastic.

The finished soffit over the arcade...

...and over the porch.

It gives just the right look and feel we wanted for the shed.

Meanwhile, we have finished backfilling the trench. I can now continue with building up the garden bed over the whole area.

Happy birthday, Donnel. Hi, Walter. 

My sister and brother-in-law read my blog every Saturday morning in a cafe over their flat whites.

Studio Construction: Time For a Site Clean up

Ron and I spent the day cleaning up the construction site.

Manufactured wood and concrete board went into the skip. Anything made with treated timber or glues we don't want to burn in the fireplace.

The cladding off cuts went into a recycling pile.

I stacked all of the shorter boards that can be used as firewood mostly as is.

Ron pulled out nails and stacked the longer boards that need to cut into shorter lengths for the fireplace.

I spend several hours once again vacuuming up construction dust. This time is was plaster dust. I needed a shower after I had finished.

Now the site is much tidier.

Back Yard Project: New Garden Bed

I am so pleased the trench is now filled because it means I can get going on establishing the new garden bed. It is actually an extension of a smaller bed that consisted of weed cloth and river stones around a Douglas-fir tree so the soil was deprived of its food source from above. A track came down the hill close to the tree compacting its root zone even more. 

I have marked out a new track that is equidistant between the trees. This track has determined the boundary of the new extension of the garden bed. I am defining this boundary by building a wall using the rock uncovered by the trench digging. It is granite that was blasted and dug out when making a space for the house foundations and lower living level. This in-situ sourced rock works with the geomorphology of the land, unlike the imported river stone. To my eye, a bed of river stone suggests a seasonal torrent of water flowing down the hill beside the house, which visually generates a most unsettling feeling.

The first step in making the new bed is to sprinkle glacial rock dust to stimulate the soil organisms. 

Next is to provide the soil organisms with food. A layer of paper is laid down. We collect all of our used paper for this purpose. Then a thick layer of cardboard is laid on top. Any cardboard with a shiny finish is rejected and put in the city recycling bags for them to deal with the non-organic ink chemicals.

The cardboard is food for the organisms, particularly the worms and wood lice. It also suffocates grasses which I am particularly keen to eliminate from the forest.

Next a layer of coffee grounds and coffee filters is spread over the cardboard. With the warmer weather, there are more tea leaves as people switch to cold drinks such as iced teas.

I have saved all of the plain cardboard and paper packaging from all of the materials, and equipment brought onto the construction site to build the studio. Now it is all flattened and under coffee grounds.

Next layer is made up from sticks/snags and rotting wood as a source of food and homes for another range of bugs. Tree litter that falls on the driveway is swept up and added to the mix.

While working on this bed I have made a new discovery. I really enjoy placing stones to make them fit together. When I have a spare hour I find myself outside building this stonewall.

The challenge with this new bed is keeping it watered so the soil organisms can do their job. The whole irrigation system was destroyed when the construction road was made so the new bed will have to be hand watered during our dry season. I have yet to decide about when and what to plant, but I do know the whole bed needs some sort of protective cover layer in the meantime.

Studio Construction: Meanwhile Back at the Studio

Dave has started framing up for the outside stair footings.

He said it was lucky he didn't make the framing any smaller because he woudn't have been able to fit inside.

I try out what it is like to have power in the studio.

The tapers are back adding another layer of mud and sanding it back.

Tapers' tool belts hold their own specialised tools.

And they wear stilts. I have been looking out the window on and off all day hoping to catch either Cameron or Jordon wearing their stilts.

Light fixtures have been installed in the crawlspace. Code requires the fixtures dangle and not be fixed to the ceiling. This is so the bulb will move and not break if accidentally walked into.

Studio Construction: Filling the Trench

I worked carefully around the tree roots while digging the trench. I covered the exposed roots with strips of wet, wool blanket to keep the roots moist. Luckily we had a number of drizzly days which also helped keep the roots from drying out too much.

The white pipes are part of  the irrigation system for the current garden beds. Most of this system has been broken during construction so we will have to get it redone. We would have had to anyway because the new back yard garden beds will be in different places.

Jason lines the bottom fo the trench with several inches of sand as required by code.

He then lays the conduit in the trench. Here he is gluing sections together.

The 2 conduits have to be kept 12" apart. This pic shows the 2 irrigation pipes on top of the 2 conduit pipes with the white water pipe below all of them. One conduit pipe is to carry the electricity the other is to carry cable, wi-fi or any future communications technology. I plan to not have any wi-fi in the studio, but it is there in case I change my mind.

I worked as Jason's assistant to weave the pipes around the tree roots. Jason said I earned some hours towards my journeyman electrician training if I wanted to pursue the trade.

Now the conduit was ready to have pipes and cables pulled through them. I wasn't present when this event took place and apart from using long strings I am not sure how it was done. To me, it is still another mystery of the electrical trade.

Meanwhile in the boiler/mechanical room connections were made with the power and communications cables. These went through the new holes drilled through the foundation walls.

I was very pleased when the back-filling started because it meant I could get going on establishing the new garden bed.

It is a big step to finally have power in the studio. We no longer need to drag extension cords from the house to the studio. There is still no light inside the building. Lighting is a whole other issue we are still investigating.

Studio Construction: Back To the Trench

A delivery truck dumped a load of sand that will go in the trench.

The trench will hold 2 different types of conduit full of different pipes and cables carrying all of the services to the studio. The water pipe has already been connected from the house main to the studio.

An early morning project meeting takes place between (from the left) Dave, lead carpenter, Ron, construction owner and lead trench digger, Jason, journeyman electrician, and Eric, journeyman electrician and owner of E M Electrical.

Eric decides the trench needs more work. Dave, Ron and I have to make it deeper and break up the huge rocks that would block the path of the pipes.

Meanwhile, 2 holes are drilled through the house foundation from the boiler/mechanical room to the outside. They are hard to see in this pic. This is where the power and other services will be taken from the house along the trench and across to the studio.

It was a wet cool day but the physical labour kept us warm. By the end of the day, we had the trench completed and ready for inspection.

Back Yard Project: New Garden Bed Prep

While the trench is being dug right through the garden bed on the east side of the house, I am taking advantage of the opportunity to redesign the whole bed. The tractor path coming from the front of the house too steep, slopes outward and goes close to the base of the tree nearest the house where it is causing the soil to become compacted around the tree's roots. 

I marked out the new path, lengthening it so it would be less steep and moving it equidistant between the trees.

Previously this area was a garden of river stone on weed cloth. The river stones were a problem. Litter from the overhead canopy continually falls to the ground, breaks down and turns to soil that supports new plants. These 'weeds' then need to be pulled out from between the river stones to keep the whole area looking tidy. Walking on river stones is difficult. Pulling weeds out from between river stones is tiresome and time consuming and needs to be done often. I feel the esthetics of round river stones does not fit with the forest ecosystem on a hill. The river stones were imported.

I have a big problem with weed cloth. It stops 'food' from falling down to the soil around the tree and produces sterile conditions under the cloth. 

I have lifted and piled up all of the river stones with the last few left to move seen in the image above. Friends have helped me with this big job.

I have pulled up all of the weed cloth to expose the lifeless compacted soil that now needs remediation.

I have collected up saw dust and shavings from the construction site and spread them out on the newly exposed soil

Rotting wood provides a host of fungi and insects to get working on the soil.

I collected up the blasted granite rock exposed when the trench was dug. This rock came from the area blasted out for the house foundation. It belongs to the site.

I collected up non-shinny cardboard and paper to lay down on top of the grass to smother it. 

The green-lidded container has rock dust to be sprinkled on  the ground to stimulate organic activity.

I have collected many bags of used coffee grounds to add as another layer.

I am ready. 

Once the trench is laid with cables and is back-filled I can start making the new garden bed.