Some Degree of Separation

Speaking generally, our house has three rooms: bedroom, office and living space. When standing in any of these three rooms, it has been possible to look through the trusses into the ceiling space of the adjoining room. The view is a beautiful reminder of the months of hard labor of previous years.

Several friends have suggested that we put glass in the open spaces of the king trusses in order to preserve the sense of openness. Although we do love seeing the result of our work, we prefer to clearly define each room by filling the openings in the trusses with a partition, thus providing a degree of separation from the activity in the neighboring the rooms

We considered using a variety of materials, but, not surprisingly, again opted for bamboo...in fact, the same bamboo we used for the ceilings in the kitchen and sun room.

Because the bamboo mats are flexible, we needed a solid and substantial surface to which to affix the bamboo. We chose oriented strand board (OSB) for this.

It was a simple task to cut the bamboo to fit the OSB.

Next we stapled the bamboo to the OSB. Through a mistake, we realized that the bamboo has a specific orientation that creates an obvious pattern. It is important for the pattern to be consistent across the truss. Otherwise it would look unprofessional. And, even though we are amateurs, we don’t want the house to look like it was built by amateurs.

Scott was happy that we were completing this part of the finish work because we were on ladders over a dozen feet above the floor.

The result was perfect! The bamboo is reflective enough to bring even more light into each room. In addition, it ties the sun room and kitchen together with a “bridge” of bamboo in the trusses. Even better, we can more precisely control the temperature in each room, the echo-y sound in the house is diminishing and, finally, it looks lovely.

Thanksgiving Bonus

Because setting the bathroom tile went so smoothly, we had plenty of time to work on a few more projects.

We installed all of the light switch and outlet cover plates.

We make and installed trim around the kitchen and entryway doors. Here is the kitchen door before trim.

Here is the kitchen door with trim.

We also installed trim around the bedroom door.

Thanksgiving

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we made a trip to Torrey with one goal in mind - to install the tile on the bathroom floor. This needed to be done because our cabinets should arrive sometime after the first of the year. To our great pleasure, we completed the task without any gnashing of teeth or pulling of hair.

First we measured the floor, determined the layout of the tiles and snapped chalk lines to guide our work.

We began laying the tile in the corner farthest from the door so we would not tile ourselves into a corner.

Here Mary applies thinset mortar

and carefully sets a tile in place.

Scott measured

and cut tiles as needed.

After one and half days we had all of the tile set. We left a narrow space of untiled floor on the right because the cabinets will cover this space. The cabinet maker will shim the cabinets to accommodate the height of the missing tiles against the wall.

Scott applied the grout.

We chose a color that was as close to the color of the tile as possible.

Here Scott is removing the drying grout from the surface of the tiles.

In the book, Setting Tile, by Michael Byrne, we read that a poor grout job can spoil a good tile job. 

We hope we have the best of both.

The Help

Finish plaster. Finish plaster. Finish plaster. This was the mantra of the summer. Now that fall has arrived, I keep walking from room to room in order to convince myself that it really is true. The interior plaster is completely finished. And, thanks to Scott’s experiments and ultimate successes in creating the perfect color palette, the walls are even painted.

Scott's Work Station

Looking From Scott's Work Station to the Storage Area

Looking from the Storage Area to Scott's Work Station

It wouldn’t have been possible without Cali and Jerry. In June, when they arrived in Torrey, they had just completed a straw bale internship at Community Rebuilds in Moab. After an entire summer of day-in and day-out plaster work, they have become true plaster artists.

Cali and Her Last Tree

Jerry's Last Day - Exterior Plaster

Artists always sign their work.

Home Depot Treasure

When we moved Dad’s table saw and joiner to Torrey, we realized we now had the tools to turn the wood left over from timber frame construction into window and door trim. Even though this do-it-yourself capability extends our building timeline, it also helps us achieve a goal of minimal construction waste. It also allows us to match wood types to the rest of our house.

Door and windows before stain

Door and windows after stain

Looking the other direction

However, one day, on a field trip to Home Depot, we perused the millwork aisle to get more ideas. Despite our own milling capabilities, we couldn’t say no to the beautiful vine and ivy pattern we saw. It will grace our interior walls as door trim and baseboards. The green man corner block came from Heartwood Carving.

A Little Help From Our Friends

When Bryan and Jean showed up in Torrey, three times now, it felt as though the Lone Ranger had arrived. But instead of a horse named Silver, he was riding a motorcycle and there were two of him. During their first visit, Jean used her extensive family finance Ph.D. skills to cut burlap. This we attached to the timber frame in order to prevent cracks from developing between the wood posts and the plaster walls. Bryan exercised his previous building experiences installing the sheathing on the south bump out. This sheathing would eventually contain our icynene insulation.

The second time they arrived, they spent their energies painting interior walls, scrubbing plaster from interior posts, wiring outlets, attaching switch and outlet plates, and hanging sheet rock in the kitchen.

Last weekend, once again, they wielded brushes and painted the bedroom closet walls. In addition, they initiated our newly installed shower, and they spirited Scott away from the job site for a hike to a local petroglyph site.

Once again, Scott and I continue to be the beneficiaries of the generosity of friends.

Ceiling Choices

Like moths to a flame, Scott and I are also drawn to light.  As a result, we decided early on to make the interior of our house as light as possible. In order to achieve this goal, we needed to consider not only the light fixtures, but the reflective nature of the ceiling surfaces as well. The kitchen and the sun room have been of particular concern because we undoubtedly will spend a great deal of time in these two rooms.

For the kitchen, we selected light fixtures that would illuminate the work areas; add depth, dimension and interest to the environment; and, at the same time, provide gentle light to fill the room. We chose light fixtures for the sun room that would allow us the option of filling the room with light when we were entertaining or directing just enough light onto the pages of our latest good read.

We also wanted the ceilings to reflect as much natural light into the rooms as possible. The architectural plywood we used to cover the insulation was extremely reflective, but we never planned for it to be a final surface since it didn’t have the “look” that fit with the natural character of the house. After several false starts we decided to return to a material we have fallen in love with - bamboo. A thorough internet search led us to Creasian Bamboo where we found a product that was beautiful, reflective, and reminiscent of the straw underpinnings of our entire house.

Using a staple gun, we attached the bamboo panels to the plywood ceiling and then fabricated the battens which prevented the panels from sagging and, at the same time, covered the seams. Here is the finished ceiling in the the sun room.





Had we known we would eventually be using these bamboo panels as the ceiling surface, we most certainly would have tried to place the light fixtures in such a way as to avoid the intersection of battens and  lights. This would have saved us the many hours of time spent on detail work, but that’s the way it goes when you are making things up as you go.

Here I am tracing the arc of one edge of a light fixture.

Using a grinder to shape the edge of a batten to match the curve of a fixture.





The kitchen ceiling with several battens in place.









In the end, I believe we achieved our goal of creating spaces with good light that incorporate reflective ceiling surfaces. It looks good too.