Wow, where did the summer go? I have to say that I enjoyed the work on the house more last summer than this, as last summer it was all out in the open air, stomping the cob and putting up the walls. This summer was a lot of experimenting with different paints and plasters, and the kind of detail work that I'm not particularly fond of. It was very comfortable working inside the house throughout the summer, however. It was always cool, and sitting on the rocket bench was especially refreshing after some outside work on a hot day. We fired up the rocket stove on one cool day in September, and it quickly warmed everything up. With only an hour or so of running, it was cozy in there for 2 days. We are all getting very anxious to experience life within the walls that we built with our own hands out of mostly materials from our own land. We are also looking forward to this project being finished, so that we can start or continue work on so many other homestead activities that we have planned.

The cob mortar has held up very well through its first year, especially considering that it was left exposed without a roof for much of last summer, while it was still fresh. It wasn't our intention to do things that way, but it's how it worked out. Despite the abuse, the cob mortar showed very little wear. We patched shrinkage cracks with clay/sand/manure/hemp oil and then oiled the whole exterior this summer with hemp oil. A few logs were loose so we tightened them with shims and patched gaps as well. Adding hemp oil to the patch mix really makes the patches stick like glue. I have patched some floor with the same mix with great results as well.


Living room and loft view from front door. Earthen floor after 3 coats of hemp oil.


Wall above rocket stove.



Looking down at staircase from loft.


Looking down into living room from loft.


Earthen floor in master bedroom (4 coats of hemp oil applied, experimented with waterglass in this room as a precoat prior to oiling, will get one more coat of oil and one more oil/beeswax).


Loft bedroom (1 of 2).


Activity room/loft over living room.