Our House

Burners integrated into the counter top

I’ve been on a “small house” research kick.  I’ve run into some really interesting stuff (1)(2), but disappointingly, no built small houses that really use space as wisely as I think it could be used (note links with neat apartment stuff).  I haven’t seen very many Murphy or flip type beds or unconventional space saving stairs or . . . you know what I mean.  I don’t see a lot of people taking lessons from the Japanese on space management.  I’ve seen some really crafty stuff from that nation.

I did see a video of one guy’s apartment that really maximized the space using a custom built-in.  That was cool.  But I’ve seen a lot of tiny houses (marketed specifically as “tiny house”s) that used conventional storage to consolidate.  Ho hum.  And not very efficiently.

In some of my later wanderings through the www, I ran across a narrow house built from a stack of four 20′ containers.  In the corner was a fairly small circular staircase that punched through all four containers all the way to the bathtub on the roof.  <wince>  Yeah, I’m gonna throw my naked parts right out there for all to see . . . NOT.  The really brilliant thing I saw in that whole setup, aside from the really crappy use of space, was a counter with an ingenious integrated gas stovetop.  It was BRILLIANT.  Okay, other than if anything sloshed or boiled over it would run across the counter unchecked.  That could get really ugly.  That could be fixed by pressing a very shallow pan into the counter where the stove was installed or pressing a small gently rounded rib around the perimeter of the burner location.  Let’s say the burners integrated into a flat (unrelieved) countertop is a great idea, just not the best idea for people who really cook unless you’ve got a way to trap the spillage.

Modular gas, three burner or four

I saw one cook top that was set so everything would sink down into the countertop so only the nubs of the burners, knobs and pot supports stuck up.  That was pretty cool.  I don’t know how you’d clean any gunk out of the crevasses around the burners and knobs and the price was more than I could swallow at $4k, but it was pretty cool regardless.

Then I found a European company that made modular cooktops specifically designed to be integrated into a countertop.  NOW we’re talkin’!  And they make an induction top as well!  And they come with an integrated drip pan.

If you search on Foster gas hob you’ll see another couple styles, one with round burners in a curved stainless counter, another with three square burners in another curved stainless counter.

This shows the fence staple holding the reinforcing wire in place. The post is wrapped with tar paper and the staple is nailed right through the tar paper into the post. It's not nailed in tightly so the fill can wrap fully around the end of the wire.

Because we’re nearly to the top of the reinforcing wire, our next step is to add another section of reinforcing wire above the current layer.  I’ll do that after this course has had a couple days to set up and I can strip off the forms.

This is the last course of eps-crete I can add without putting up some sort of scaffolding to stand on.  That’s a pretty nice milestone!

Today’s mix went really well.  We’re getting better at prepping.  We’ve switched over to using two half-gallon stainless bowls as measures.  They’re easier to fill AND easier to empty and clean.  We’re using one for the wet stuff and one for the dry which simplifies things greatly.  I also pre-measured and pre-mixed the paint and water so I had no waste and no mess during the eps-crete mixing.

Cleanup was much easier today and the bucket of warm soapy water used to wash us up during the build wasn’t needed.  That says a lot for the improvement in our method.  I’m hoping this wasn’t a fluke because last time we did this, it was a mess.

West end of wall Top down section

We’ve gotten another section of the wall done.  This one’s a lovely celedon green.  Wadly’s off to shop and have coffee with a friend today so I’m not expecting anything productive to happen around the farm.

Here’s the west end of the wall as well as a top-down cross-section so you can see how the eps-crete infill wraps around the post.  In the future, when I extend the building west, the foundation will be extended.  I should have wrapped the foundation around the inside of the post as well.  Hind sight.  I also should have done my electrical run and fastened the four-gang box to the 6-6-10-10 before putting the infill in place.  Again, hind sight.  This stuff is easy to shape after the fact so I can run a channel for the conduit and box before I build the next wall.  It just would have been much easier to fasten it to the reinforcing wire BEFORE doing the infill.  This is definitely a learn-as-you-go project.