Making a hot tub

I keep getting side tracked with little side projects. Now I am making
a hot tub like the Dutch tub. Both straight tubes go into a claw foot
tub. You build a fire inside the coil. Hot water rises, pushing hot
water out the top and pulling cool water in through the bottom. A
green, wood burning hot tub!
I will post more pictures when it's finished.

My DIY geothermal AC

For a winter project I started building a homemade geothermal air
conditioner. Our house is located only 20 feet from our lake. The
temperature of the water at 15 feet is 55 degres even in the summer. I
bought a radiator core from an old ac unit and soldered on some 1"
Hose fittings. You simply pump cold water from the lake, through the
radiator and straight back into the lake. A box fan placed behind the
radiator blows the cold from the radiator into our house. A nice green
and cheap way to cool your house. The only running cost is the fan and
electric pump. This thing is effective but ugly so I gutted an antique
radio we got last summer. The whole unit fits perfectly inside the
radio. My brother is going to wire it for me so when you turn the knob
the pump, fan, and radio lights come on!

We have a roof!

After a few nice days of weather in the 70's and the help of some good friends, we finally finished the roof. We are off to Canada for three weeks, and when we come back it's time to put the bales in! I will post more info soon on when the wall raising party will be.

Heavy Metal

Here are some more picts of the roof progress. We have moved onto the roof metal! I was always worried about the roofing, but its actually very simple. I got a 20 minute lesson on what to do from a couple of builder friends of mine then off we went. Carrie, my Brother, and I started putting the metal up. It normally wouldn't take more than a couple of days, but I am still moving very slowly with my torn forearms. It feels like a big step forward putting up the metal. So far I am still loving building no matter what the weather. I think I just love being outside after so long in a dark office.

Cold, but still going...

I finished the perlings tonight. My brother walked over and saw me on the roof. he said "you know its eleven degrees out, its almost dark, and there is six inches of snow on the ground don't you?" Maybe not the best conditions for roof work, but bring on the roofing metal!

Recycled Wood

Here are some picts of my last bunch of recycled wood. These were fifty foot trusses from an old church. We cut them up and got heaps of twenty five foot 2x6's and tons of 2x4's. Cleaning up the wood and removing the nails is a lot of work, but it is well worth it for the savings.

Most of this wood is already on the roof of my house as perlings. Almost every board will be used in our house.

Cold, but Sunny

Well, its well below freezing, but the building continues. I can stay up on the roof for about 3 hours before I need to go inside and thaw out. The roof perlings are the coming along. We have three sides done and have started on the last side. Once that is done, we can start putting metal on. There will be a roof on there someday! After that I can put tarps off the sides and a heater to do inside work like interior wall framing, floor work, and wire the house. The timing should work out perfect. When those pieces are done it will be spring and I can put the bales in and start plastering.

I am already planning the next house I want to build. I definitely want to build a container house somewhere. Stay tuned for that blog in a couple of years. :)