[Cob] even the professionals make mistakes....

[Dognyard]

I know that I make mistakes. But I do my best to make them on smaller
projects where I can fix things and learn. 

As I mentioned before, I'm building a pumphouse. Stick built mostly from
materials we had laying around (recycled from an old deck we tore down
and/or surplus from other projects) plus materials I have been able to
scavenge and recycle. This scavenging produced some good cedar siding
from a house being torn down. The house was painted a hideous grey, so
I'm using the back side of the siding - the painted side is hidden. I
want the pumphouse to be the best darn little pumphouse I can make, so I
am sanding the back side of each peice of siding to remove any gray
paint that might be there. 

My partner (bless his patient heart), helps where he can, but he and I
work differently. I don't create exact plans. I make rough sketches and
then I think things out as I go, and I tend to overbuild - meaning I may
waste some material by adding it in where it isn't needed, but it does
make for a stronger building. He is a planner, and it makes him nuts to
help me when I can't tell him what's next.

Yesterday, while I'm putting the siding on (and carefully sanding each
piece as I cut them), my partner makes a comment (and probably rolled
his eyes) that I'm putting way too much effort into this - seeing as how
it's only a pumphouse. "You should be doing that on the house, not the pumphouse".

My reply?

I'm learning with this pumphouse..The house is next!

And I'm proud to say that we had a big storm last night with high winds
and the pumphouse is still standing :-). This bodes well for the house.

It's ALL about learning. Without constantly learning something new as I
go along, I feel I am just wasting time in my life. 

I also mentioned that I'm making a simple cob garden wall which will
will nestle along the side of, and shelter beneath the eave of the
pumphouse. More learning.

I doubt very much that I will ever get to build a cob house - but -
there is a small horse barn in my master plan that will hopefully be
cob, possibly sheltered beneath a pole shed. It's still a maybe, but if
the garden wall works out as I hope, then it becomes more of a
possiblity. 99% of my roadblock is convincing my partner that it is a
viable option without becoming a candidate for Life Network's, "Wierd Homes".

Karen in Alberta