productive birthday weekend

The recycled blue-jeans cotton batt insulation in interior walls for acoustic properties.

Insulation begins! Formaldehyde-free. R38 in my ceilings.

I pulled out a birdnest from the adobe wall joints, including skeleton of mama bird and two eggs intact.



































Green Materials: recycled blue jeans cotton-batt insulation. no VOCs. great acoustical properties. Awesome stuff!














Prepping floors for refinishing... very worried about what will be revealed.



















crackhead bum piss, mouse and cockroach nasties, etc scraped out by hand of each board. omg.

















ahhh, floor patching.... good times.

































this is supposed to show how covered in sawdust i am. i just look tired.






























Floor Refinishing Begins! Sanding with coarsest grain possible.



















Look what's beginning to be revealed...















Stripping and Sanding (never ending)... sanding out the years of abuse to the red oak floors.



















My view on life for two days. including my 25th birthday.



















Two Tone Brown x2.


















brown dog and demo pile.


The perfect end to a hard day. Marble microBrewery, just a few short blocks from the casa.

...more updates...

Mariessa and I doing some framing.

Electrical is just about done, ready for inspection today.

The exterior insulation I added to the adobe walls to increase the R value by about 10

New scratch coat of stucco.

Replacing water-damaged floor joists in bathroom. (Don't worry, Patricia, I used joist hangers.)

New bathroom and closet sub flooring.

Stripped and demo'd kitchen floor to subflooring.




















Saving and reclaiming existing building materials: carefully prying up old hardwoods to use for repairs elsewhere in casa.

...updates...

view of coyote fence from porch

coyote /buffalo fence steel pipe

wiring on latillas

stucco guys (the ones that show up) at work


















'brown' scratch coat of stucoo almost complete...
(or so I thought. Had to fire and hire new crew)

construction is progressing

Working hard every day...














demo'ing the lath and plaster to prep for framing final, floors and sheet rock.

More time on knees...

-----
Now that back foundation is poured,
HVAC is 90% and another inspection soon.

Dad helping with the power sander.

Stripping and sanding years of (lead) paint from window sills and frames. Thank god, decent wood is indeed being revealed...































I demo'd some more. Fun times. Down to adobe is spots.

Plumbing and Electric and HVAC are all at least 90%

The super energy efficiency goal is in the details.
I sprayed foam insulation in cracks, frames and small spaces.

Scrubbing walls: years of grime, grease, smoke, graffiti and who knows what nasties. See the black water coming from the sponge!?!



Late summer monsoon sunset...

Ganesha's Birthday

Work has officially begun on the house as of today. Back foundation poured, major site cleanup and HVAC and plumber tomorrow...

The day I closed on my house was the 'elephant god' - Ganesh or Ganapati's birthday. He is an Hindi God, and is considered the Remover of Obstacles... here is a little blurb about him from a Google search (the dog to the left is my pup Ender):

"Ganesha is the god of Wisdom and Prosperity and is invoked before the beginning of any auspicious work by the Hindus. It is believed that for the fulfillment of one's desires, his blessing is absolutely necessary. According to the mythology, he is the son of Shiva and Parvati, brother of Kartikeya - the general of the gods, Lakshmi - the Goddess of Wealth and Saraswati-the Goddess of Learning. There are numerous stories in Hindu mythology, associated with the birth of this elephant-headed god, whose vehicle is the Mooshak or rat and who loves Modaks (droplet shaped Indian sweet).

Legend has it that Parvati created Ganesha out of the sandalwood dough that she used for her bath and breathed life into him. Letting him stand guard at the door she went to have her bath. When her husband, Shiva returned, the child who had never seen him stopped him. Shiva severed the head of the child and entered his house. Parvati, learning that her son was dead, was distraught and asked Shiva to revive him. Shiva cut off the head of an elephant and fixed it on the body of Ganesha."

I bought an adobe casa today

The adventure begins....

Three months ago I began the search for my first casa with the assistance of an oustanding real estate agent, Mariessa Sanchez. (This exciting project wouldn't have been possible without help from my Aunt Lucia and mis padres.)

My goals for the property investment were informed by my interests in urban and historic redevelopement and green design, as well as a desire to do remodeling myself. And so I set out looking in the older parts of Albuquerque: Hunning Highlands/ EDo, Martineztown (my current location), Wells Park (former location), Barrelas, Downtown and Old Town. I didn't want a "stick frame" house. Rather, I preferred original adobe for its intrinsic environmental friendliness of thermal mass qualities for energy efficiency, and because mud is a simple, local material that will be completely recycled back to the earth.

After seeing dozens of various types of houses in a range conditions (from substandard/ condemned to newly renovated), I was ready to make an offer on my ideal house within my price range: a pre-1920s original adobe bungalow with a pitched roof, vaulted ceilings, old hardwood floors, southern-orientation, full length front porch and a decent sized lot of agriculture soils in the historic downtown neighborhood of Wells Park off of Mountain Road NW.

The property might be an eyesore for most, but with an artist's / idealist's eye, it's a jewel! It was condemned and listed as substandard for six years due to numerous violations including pests, water damage, roof and structural problems, outdated MEP systems, and general neglect. Demolition and rebuilding had been begun by the sellers, including about 80% of mechanical, electrical, plumbing; framing, a new roof and windows, and structural repairs. The current condition of the 980sf (+230sf porch) space is essentially a core and shell - a blank slate for building out.

And so here I go on my adventure/ project... aiming to move in in two-three months and complete work in 4 to 6 months, in time to put it on the NM Green Built Tour of 2009... !!!