Birdstump Barn

Plumbing

We've spent the last several days very busy complicating things...;-)  For the dual purposes of 1.  getting the practice/experience, and 2. having somewhere besides the tick-infested woods for going potty, we've decided to rough-in the shed for a half bath.  It won't cost much in materials to do so (we're up to about $60 in pipe and pipe glue stuff and fittings and such), and so the big thing will be learning how to do it...which we'll need to do for the house anyway, so why not now?

So, it's homeschool time for mom and dad!  :-)

Our curriculum that we've ordered and received this week:

1.  Building with Awareness  - a book and DVD set that discusses many green and/or cost-effective building techniques, including rubble trench foundations, concrete floors, strawbale exterior walls, adobe interior walls, earthen plasters, passive solar positioning, photovoltaic solar panels, and rainwater catchment systems.  It takes you through the building of one home that was built this way, so not lots of different examples of the same techniques, but still a great resource, and one that we've really enjoyed.  There are hours and hours of video...we still haven't finished watching all of it! 

2.  More Strawbale Building - haven't even had much of a chance to read through this one yet, but it looks to be very thorough.

3.  Three DVDs from strawbale.com: "How-to guide to building a concrete monolithic slab foundation, "How-to guide to building with straw bales", and "How-to guide to plastering with Natural Hydraulic Lime plaster".

4.  Plumbing (For Pros by Pros series) by Rex Cauldwell

5.  Wiring a House (For Pros by Pros series) also by Rex Cauldwell.  These two books by Cauldwell are both published by Taunton Press, which has a really good reputation; they should arrive today, and I can't wait to see them!

6.  The Complete Guide to Home Plumbing: Newly Expanded Third Edition (Black and Decker) - this book has really great incredibly detailed and good quality photographs, and is new enough that it includes plenty of information about using PEX tubing.

So, there's our study list....time to crack the books now.  I'm not really a huge fan of the Thomas Jeffereson Education model - more of a Charlotte Mason follower, myself - but hopefully all this modeling of learning will pay off some with the kids' education, especially since our own formal schooling has slowed down to  a bare trickle what with all this builidng going on.... 

WOW!

02:27, Friday, March 30, 2007 .. Posted by melm

Now that's a doozy of a reading list!

Untitled Comment

08:53, Friday, March 30, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Have fun reading & learning, carrie!!

gloria