[Cob] digging, round stone, cob bathtub

[JUDITH WILLIAMS]

I very recently joined this cob discussion group and find that to my 
amazement the topics being discussed are the very ones I'm dealing with now 
on my project. First of all the digging. I am just getting started on my 
house, working with a very small budget, planning carefully to conserve 
money and not run out before I'm done. The bid I got for excavation was 
$600, which seemed reasonable but if I can do it myself there's $600 more 
for other things. So yesterday I started digging and found it wasn't as big 
a deal as I thought it would be. Yes, it will take some time and I will 
probably have to enlist volunteers but I know if I just keep at it it will 
eventually be done. Second, I have an abundance of round stone on my land 
and love the look of it as a foundation. What I plan to do is use a slip 
form method described in The Natural House on page 190. I think I willl make 
it wider at the bottom and slope it in. Also will gouge out some of the 
mortar to expose more of the stone. Here in Santa Fe there are a lot of 
stone walls made of round rock and they are quite beautiful. Thirdly, the 
cob bathtub. I haven't researched this much yet and am not sure how or if it 
can be done. What I'd like to do is form the tub out of cob, use a very 
smooth plaster as the last coat,  embed broken or cut tiles into it as a 
mosaic, and waterproof the whole thing. My brother has told me he knows how 
it can be done and will help me when the time comes. If I come up with a way 
of doing it I will surely share it. I would like to know how to get a group 
up here to help me as a workshop. I welcome any input on this. I have not 
attended any workshops and have not actually seem any cob houses but have 
built conventional homes and feel I have enough knowledge to build a cob 
house. It's just that I would feel a lot more comfortable having someone 
experienced to advise me. And I'm sure it would go a lot faster with less 
much time being spent correcting mistakes. Thanks to all the participants of 
the discussion group. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from it.