Work In Progress

A few pics to show what I was doing the last two months off-line:



As explained in an earlier post, a free-standing roof was first erected over the old farmhouse. The new house was then built around the old one and the inner walls were knocked down or modified as I completed each section.

The pic above shows the S-East corner with the last piece of the old farmhouse still standing, exposed.



My first task was to complete the inner-shell of an en suite shower/toilet - the roundish structure to the left in the pics.

I still haven't decided how to do the roof of this bathroom; a corrugated sheet roof is simplest but will look ugly; a thatch roof would be ideal but expensive.

Perhaps I'll do an elaborate dome if there are enough rocks left-over after finishing the walls.



After the wall of the old house was broken down I built the inner wall for the new room with brick and installed a larger window frame.

For strategic reasons the old roof inside has been left intact until I've finished the outer wall and am ready to plaster the inside walls and install a new ceiling.

You can see how low the old ceiling was and how much more spacious and light the new room will be.



After the inner wall was done, I started building the new outer wall with rock. Slate is used on the insides around the window frame.

When I started building, my intention was to only build a rock fireplace on the N-east corner but, after discovering a nearby source of beautiful stones, I decided to do the whole house with them.

There are no architectural plans or drawings - everything is in my head and I get new ideas and adapt as I go along. Looking back at my earliest work, there are some things I would do differently today.



It's sometimes physically-demanding and I'm glad the heavy work is almost finished - it's taken me more than 10 years to get this far.

There's still a lot of work to be done inside; plastering, ceilings, bathroom and kitchen fittings etc. - the expensive stuff.



Each of the four corners of the house has a different feature.

The pole attached to the roof is my telephone antennae - my useless internet connection.

In order to be more self-sufficient, I intend using solar water heaters for the bathrooms and kitchen - there's no shortage of sunshine here.



... and this is as far as I got. The final grouting between the rocks must still be done but that can wait awhile. In October I hope to finish all the outer rock walls.

So what do you think, how should I do the bathroom roof?

Related Posts:

OneStonedCrow's Stoned House

Pics To Illustrate How I'm Building With Rock

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