Cottekill Farmhouse

Our primary project last year was rehabbing an old farmhouse on a former dairy farm in Ulster County. It was a great job, demanding and rewarding. The house dates back to the late 1700's, and was added onto and changed over the years by various owners, farmers, carpenters. It was fun to discover the history of the place, the difference between original building, with ax-hewen chestnut timber frame. The next section, a pine or hemlock timber frame. Still hewn, finer with an adze. Then milled pine timber frame and finally a modern addition  with 2x6 studs.

 

The last major rehab was about 50 years ago, and the interior finishes were definitely worn out and dated. There were a number of structural problems to solve, like rotten sills, lacking or insufficient headers above windows and doors, and two hundred year old floor joists that were cracked, dry rotted and in desperate need of replacement.

A few before and after shots:

The homeowners hired architect Cassie Spieler to help modernize the layout and design the kitchen. We ended up removing two walls to open the kitchen up to the living areas, added a french entry door, and re-arranged the way a room on the first floor was accessed.

We did the demolition, framing, windows/doors, cabinets, trim, and all the miscellaneous stuff. Miguel and his team from Equinox construction took on the drywall, painting, and tile. I also hired subs for insulation, electric, plumbing, flooring, and mechanical work.

As a natural builder, I considered very carefully over how to best insulate the building. After much deliberation, we settled on a combination of spray foam under the entire roof, and dense-pack cellulose in the walls. I typically avoid foam insulation products because of their enormous greenhouse gas emissions and embodied energy. But the reality is that in a renovation, with existing framework to work within, and needing to provide a high quality product at moderate cost that is guaranteed to function well for a long time, foam was the safe bet. A significant amount of the roof was a cathedral ceiling, which are notoriously difficult to insulate without resulting in water damage from condensation. Foam provides high insulation and a vapor barrier, making sure this wouldn't be a problem.

We foamed this dormer also because there was no sheathing, only siding over the few studs, and it was incredibly air-leaky and problematic. 

The centerpiece of the kitchen is the large kitchen island with a custom concrete countertop. I opted to cast the counter in place and grind and polish the top of it. It was my first concrete counter, and it turned out really great!

There are a few more custom touches, like this door I made from boards found in a barn on the property

Cordwood

Here's a photo of the cord wood arch I built last year at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. I just received some recent photos of the arch, and I'm excited to share them.

Cord wood construction is practical in the way it uses a cheap, abundant material, in a simple masonry wall. It's easy to learn to do, doesn't require any high level technical skill or equipment more expensive than a chainsaw. It does have it's drawbacks though, as wood and mortar are not natural partners, as they expand and contract very differently with changes in moisture. There are techniques to learn that help mitigate these challenges. Rob Roy has written a number of excellent books on cord wood building, as well as other topics including post and beam framing, and underground houses. He also hosts workshops at his Earthwood Building School in far northern New York.

Earth Floor

Earth Floors are wonderful. They're beautiful, soft on the feel yet durable, made with abundant natural materials (just clay, sand, sometimes straw, and finishing oils). They are a lot of work to install, but well worth it in certain situations, such as low traffic areas, places you want to sit on the floor. Here are a few photos of the floors I've done in Krista and John's healing sanctuary. This space is perfect for earth floors, because it's used carefully and gently, for massage, yoga, meditation.

Workshop update

We've had to shorten the duration of the September workshop, which may make it possible for more folks to join us! If you're interested in participating email me at Michael@risingearthbuilding.com or call 919 685 0123.

September workshop - High Falls, NY

I'm looking forward to teaching the upcoming Natural Building Workshop September 15-21 in High Falls, NY. It's sure to be a rich week of natural and community building at Heart Song Sanctuary. They host a lovely workshop on their 45 acres, where a few hand crafted natural buildings sit among the woods, meadow, and creek. 

We're going to be finishing straw-bale and cob walls with cob, earth, and lime plasters. We'll also lay an earthen floor, and explore round wood carpentry.

Get in touch for more details. Call Michael at (919) 685 0123. or Email michael@risingearthbuilding.com

Cordwood Arch

This spring I had the great pleasure of returning to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC to build another fun, creative, and challenging natural structure.  
   

This arch functions as an entrance to a section of hideaway woods, a whimsical woodland playground. The museum exhibit developers proposed the cordwood masonry wall with two arches. I had to figure out how to build it and pull it off successfully!

 The detailed and labor intensive project took about 5 week starts to finish. I had help from a rotating cast of museum staff and volunteers, arch advice from master mason The Alvin, and I'm so grateful to all those that helped contribute! I'm very pleased with the result!

It was great to work with the museum staff again. Here are Jose and Christian.

Green/Living Roof

Here are photos from a visit to the community pavilion at Heart Song in Ulster Co. This is the first time I've seen the green roof after installation and I'm thrilled to see it so happy and green! The soil is is about 4" deep and is a mixture of top soil and dry straw. We seeded with lots of wildflowers and were fortunate to have a rainy spring. We built last year but waited until spring to add soil to roof, so plants could grow and stabilize the loose soil to prevent erosion. Worked great!

Barn Loft Apartment

Here is the apartment I built in the attic of the house at the Vague Estates. This house seems to have started its life as a barn, and this was the hay loft, a dirty unfinished place with lots of potential.

John, the owner/architect designed a high energy efficiency approach. Foam insulation in walls/roof and careful air sealing around windows and doors have produced a very tight, comfortable space. 

I introduced a natural building touch, with a lime-sand finish plaster on the gable and knee walls. I'm happy we did, it contrasts nicely with the vast area of ceiling. I think the space turned out great!

Cob Kitchen Workshop

Hey folks! I'm finally getting around to updating the blog with some of my activity from the year. Here are photos from the cob outdoor kitchen workshop Mark and I taught at the Vague Estates in Troy, NY this summer.

This little open air building was designed to shelter a wood-fired earthen bread/pizza oven, and utilize the abundant raw material found on site; including wood, stone, and clay.

We started the week-long workshop by completing a stone and rubble foundation for the cob walls. In a small gesture of regenerative building, the foundation material was harvested from trash dumps around the past neglected property. Clay subsoil was procured from an adjacent cemetery. Diseased or crowded trees were taken for the timber frame.

I've always based my oven designs on Kiko Denzer's outstanding book, Build Your Own Earth Oven. Above you can see us applying insulation material over the inner shell of dense, heat-storing cob. The insulation was a mixture of sawdust, straw, vermiculite, and just enough dried pottery clay mixed in to stick.

Here's Sandra compacting the sand form that defines the oven interior before we apply cob.

Layout lines for cutting the tenon on top of a round-wood post. And yours truly in the background.

 

Round wood carpentry is tricky, but doable. Looks great in a little building like this but would take a long time for a house!

Thank you Heather for the photos, Missy for the food, and the rest of the crew for a great week together!

Natural Building Workshop - Troy, NY

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming cob outdoor kitchen workshop July 17-23 in Troy, NY. We've been preparing the site, gathering stone, choosing trees to use for framing. There is still availability in the class, so get in touch if interested!

Outdoor Kitchen Workshop

Natural Outdoor Kitchen Workshop

July 17-23, 2016

Troy, NY

Join Michael McDonough and a group of natural building enthusiasts in building an outdoor kitchen with materials from the land! We'll use stone, earth, and wood to craft a small outdoor kitchen that shelters a cob pizza oven and food prep area.

We will:

• Create a stone and rubble foundation 
• Build cob walls with local soil
• Build and operate a cob oven 
• Learn about earth and lime plaster basics
• Learn carpentry basics

Three farm fresh meals will be prepared onsite daily. Camping is available and encouraged. Evenings are unscheduled, providing time to explore Troy or sit around the campfire.

The site: The Vague Estates is set on 48 acres remarkably located less than two miles from downtown Troy. Adjacent to a natural area with swimming holes and waterfalls, we have an outdoor shower and big beautiful garden.

Registration: $850, email risingearthbuilding@gmail.com. Group rates or work/trade may be available upon inquiry.

Springwood Manor

This spring signals a big transition, as Melissa and I begin our first year in Troy, NY.  We enjoyed a very sweet life in Durham, and I mostly built my building career there, but I've always wanted to return home to New York. We found the perfect spot for a new start on an old homestead in the upper hudson, a place called springwood manor, in Troy.

Here are a couple old Polaroids John found to help illustrate the beauty up here. We've found ourselves quickly at home, putting a wood stove in the house, cleaning up the barn, making garden beds. I'm looking forward to finding my niche in the ecological building community, and have a few little projects in the works.

We are lucky in spring to witness the burst of rebirth and luckier still if we have the sense to recognize out place in it and imbibe in a little of the seasons eternal optimism... Let's see what we can come up with this year.. :)

Log Stairs

 

One final touch in the treehouses was creating this log staircase. With the help of the Durham parks department, we located the perfect log standing dead in a city park. Post oak is known to be quite rot resistant and as its name implies, traditionally used for fence posts. A standing dead tree was really perfect because the wood was off the ground and dry, limiting decay. It had dried enough that checking and warping of the wood was limited after carving, and was ready to accept fungicide and finish.

The first step after the log was on site was to cut it to length, and peel the bark off. Then I power-washed to remove the fibrous inner bark. After drying, the log was treated with timbor fungicide to lengthen it's useful life outdoors. With a chainsaw, I cut out the notch where the log bears on the treehouse deck, and cut the bottom flat. We installed the log with a bobcat, and after cutting the steps, I poured a concrete footing underneath. Fun stuff!

Cob Garden Wall

Now that the treehouses are complete and Hideaway Woods is open to the public, I have more time to post other projects from the year. One highlight was working with the kids at the SEEDS educational garden to build a cob wall at the entry of their new garden plot.

This project was a great combination of so many aspects of natural building that I love. The work was done by wonderful people, for a great cause, and in a public location where the beauty of natural building has the opportunity to inspire many hearts.

We had different volunteers and friends helping every week, and I enjoyed introducing folks to cob and providing their initial natural building experience. The youth gardeners were the impetus behind the project, wanting a beautiful way to accent the gate in the fence of the new garden. It was a joy to build with kids taking pride in their work, and having fun of course.

Hideaway Woods Treehouses

It's been a wonderful season of working on the new exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Hideaway Woods. The centerpiece of this unique exhibit is a series of nine treehouses, connected via cable and rope bridges, from six to twenty five feet up in the pines.

Rising Earth is fortunate to have been one of many great partners in the creation of Hideaway Woods, a whimsical, inspirational, and educational woodland playground. We provided local custom carpentry while Pennsylvania treehouse builder Dan Wright and his company Treetop Builders were the treehouse experts on the job.

We're only a few short weeks away from completion, and I'm looking forward to enjoying visiting after the public opening. It's going to be easy to enjoy this project, playing along with excited families, kids, and museum guests.