Caution: Mimes at Work
Holly and Ben are parging the walls of our new building. They are doing such a good job that I hesitate to tell them about the Emperor’s new clothes.
Another View of Blocks on Slab
Here’s looking back at the building and slab from the opposite direction to give a different perspective on the project. Ben, in the far back, is at what some might think of as the entrance which is really the exit. More about that later.
Working with concrete is rather being so permanent, so this playing with blocks is important. Over the past year and a half I’ve drawn plans and plans and plans. Revisions upon revisions. Finally with the slab there I have a large enough flat space to actually layout what the building might look like. Making a full scale mockup has given me more ideas and senses of space resulting in further refinement of our plans. I like to keep it flexible until it’s truly set in stone. Even then I don’t promise not to make changes…
Will using Sky Hook
Will, on the far right at the back, is pointing up at the sky hook in our new building. Contrary to some of the wonderful guess it won’t be a huge ice cream refrigerator (sorry, Holly) and it won’t be a skating rink for a production of “Swine Lake“. Although, the sky hook would be a great way to help levitate the sow ballerina should her massive weight prove too great for her partner. These fresh photos might give you more ideas for our new venture. Keep on guessing. Everyone who gets it right gets one point. Creative plausible or even fanciful guesses get bonus points!
Possible Layout Outline
I’ve drawn in the walls for one layout along the concrete blocks to make this particular design more visible. Looking at it here reminds me of one of those children’s mazes from books. Can you get from the entrance to the exit? I suppose you would need to know where they each are… Okay, so a clue: enter in the lower right. Now where’s that darn exit? Remember, you have to visit all the right rooms in the right order. Keep on with the great guesses in comments about what this is all for…
Tiny Cottage: 75°F/65°F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
I've been wondering if you will go with dry stacked block or another building style for the walls?
Are you going to start butchering your own meat? Processing plant? That wouldn't make sense unless you were going to be doing very large numbers of animals. So that answer isn't very likely. I don't think you would be going to confinement hog raising, so it can't be a barn. Still scratching my head trying to figure out what you are building. Can't wait to see what others think it is.
I am so reminded of the water management under the floor of the cottage.
Now what I want to know is did you sign a contract with those elves before you built them a vacation home in such a wonderful southern location?
I think you're about to start doing your own butchering…
slaughterhouse
Okay my bet is slaughter house too but I cant figure out how you can do it since they cost millions to build. There were several articles in the news papers about the need for more but nobody building one because of the complex regs and high investment costs in capital and all that. The only other thing I can think of is a big cooler for your farm producs but it seems too big for that and I dont understand the rooms fitting that. You do like to draw out the mystery. Okay I will make a wild guess too. You are building an old fashion ice house and that middle room is the actual storage room and all the rest is for ice so the middle room stays cold and it is a zero electric energy system using just your winter cold. That would fit with how you do other things to. Keep us posted! I cant wait to see it grow up.
Are you making a slaughter house. Wow, you would have to have a lot of those hooks in a cold storage room to hang the hogs on, and then one to freeze the meat until it was delivered. You have me stumped as I have never been inside a "slaughter house". It's very interesting watching the progress you are making. A lot of hard work is going into whatever this building is going to be, WTG!!
It is obvious! It is the future secret laboratory of the reclusive mad scientist, W, arch enimy of secret agent 009!! World domination through organic pork!!
Show us the mock up you built.
Mary, the concrete blocks laid out on the slab are the mockup I was referring too. By laying out the rooms with blocks I was able to walk around inside with Holly and Will, discussing where things would go. This really helped with visualization and has resulted in some important design improvements. Monday (tomorrow) we pour again. I need to move all those play blocks out of the way before then! :)
Love the new sunflower and bee in your blog header picture up there! Our sunflowers are at their peak too.
Clearly it's an art gallery for gorgeous cuts of meat. You've got the wandering-through rooms and little nooks and everything.
It is….1. Hollys art studio
2. Guest house for interns
3. Wills "zen den"
4. Hopes Tiger rescue office
5. Walters "pigs r us "
exercise studio
6. All of the above
It is a milking parlor for your pigs. Organic pig milk! All the rage in DC. Erik
Hey! That looks too much like my addition. Right down to the closets off the main structure and the L shaped kick-out.
I can really relate to the mock-up idea. My husband and I are building a house – natural bldg., off grid, in TN – and it was very helpful to me to go in a "build" (and rebuild) our kitchen with straw bales. My husband is spatially gifted and can "see" all the walls, etc. before they exist, but I cannot. It IS different somehow than the paper plans. I just found your blog and have been reading it for a few days – love it! Thank you.
Does the room at the top corner really have only one way out – back thru the room below it?
We have to visit all the rooms, eh?
I too venture a meat processing guess…
EJ
Aye, there are several rooms like that – rooms that dead end. The visitor might go there and stay a while, just hanging around. Definitely sounds like an art gallery. :) I like that suggestion. Holly does her drawings and Ben does cartooning. We'll need all this space to show off all their great work.
The rooms are too small for it to be Holly's Dance Studio. The only thing I can think of is an addition to the old house… but I thought you planned to eventually tear the old house down or have it hauled away, so I am mystified why you are adding this building onto the end of it.
Did you ever finish the greenhouse by the way?
And we're still waiting for the story of how you killed your lovely wife, the first time…
Karen B in northern Idaho
I don't see any holes for drains. Pigs in – black pudding out.
Chinese characters in the temperature
Also… There’s a section that is suffering quite a bit. Instead of pointing out a single error, I’ve bracketed what I think you might have meant. Obviously, I might be wrong about how you want it written, but there’s definitely room for some fixes in the section I mention below.
**
Ben, in the far back, is at what some might [think] of [as] the entrance which is really the [exit]. More about that later.
Working with concrete [is rather] permanent[,] so