Well, we’re into winter now - Halloween has come and gone and we’re buckling down to get to the plaster stage. We have zipped up the house with tarps to protect the straw from winter moisture. That was a mini-project in itself - happily, the bales are staying dry and they keep asking about the much-awaited layer of mud.

 

Lorin has finished the bulk of the electrical wiring. Seth and Michael with lots of Lorin’s help have completed the installation of the windows. We even had Jacek, Kirby and Roger help with the big 10 foot window and the french doors - Man, were they heavy - five guys to lift these suckers into place!!! The upstairs framing is complete including the storage lofts in each of the bedrooms. We’re now down to completing the list of about a million things and then we’ll be ready to apply the plaster.

 

Haven’t decided 100%, but it’ll probably be clay from the excavation sprayed on with a stucco gun - interior and exterior. In the spring, we’ll apply a solid layer of lime plaster to seal the building in a super-hard, weather resistant skin. We want to make sure that the lime plaster cures properly so we’ll wait until the danger of frost is mostly gone and temperatures stay above 45 during the day. We’ll still probably need to use propane heaters...