We had great weather for our cordwood party today… low 60’s! And it is supposed to be like this all week. Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish like we had hoped we would. We had problems getting the lime mortar to the right consistency. It was too wet and mushy, no matter what we did. We think the sand was just to wet, so we are going to try to dry it out a little before we mix more mortar. I know, it’s my fault for wanting the white lime walls instead of the gray concrete mortar. If we used concrete, it sets up much faster, so we wouldn’t have to worry so much about freezing weather, and you can control the moisture a lot easier… but the lime mortar is so much prettier (and it’s better for the environment). The inside of a cordwood house is already so much darker just because of all the wood, so the white mortar brightens it up a lot!
Still, we were able to completely seal up 2 walls on the outside (there’s still a little work to be done on the inside) and build up on 3 other sections. Lesson for today: Cordwood will take longer than you think it will, and if you plan on that, it will still take longer than you plan!! I will post more pictures tomorrow when we’ve had time to do a little clean up. The picture below is the finished sections. We will ‘point’ them tomorrow (clean/smooth the mortar) and sand the wood later on so it isn’t all messy with mortar.
This section will be above the kitchen sink… I love the variation in color in the bottles. Kristine, that’s your blue triangle, and Yia Yia Shannon, that’s your green triangle, Mom, the teal one in the middle is yours and the brown rectangle is an antique brandy bottle I gave to Toby.
We also picked up our stove and got some help unloading the very heavy thing into our home. Here it is happily nestled in it’s little crate. (Kaia looks very festive, doesn’t she? She’s wearing her mermaid suit, but you can’t see the tail in this picture 🙂
The boys couldn’t lift it, so I had to carry it in myself! 🙂
I know…. the pictures aren’t great, but I hope to post more cordwood and stove pics tomorrow! Maybe we will have the stove hooked up!!
Thanks to all our friends (old and new) who came out to help!
It’s so much fun to see all the progress – those walls are going to be gorgeous, and I agree that it looks SO much nicer than grey concrete! Ever since you posted about your stove I’ve been dreaming up a place to squeeze one into my tiny condo. The board would never approve it, but I like to dream of all that lovely heat and coziness.
i recognized my bottle before i read the post! i love the variety that you have.
that stove is going to be sweet. someday, we hope to have one like that.