Toilet Hand-Wash Basin

One of the space-saving features in my bathroom is that there is no sink.  There are toilets for sale that incorporate a hand-wash basin in the back of the toilet (check out caromausa.com).  When you flush, the water that refills the tank is routed through a faucet, giving about 30 seconds to wash your hands before the tank is full and the flow shuts off.  The basin simply drains into the tank, meaning the grey water from washing your hands is used for the next flush.  There are also kits for sale that allow one to retrofit most toilets in a similar fashion.

I ended up building as solution that functions the same way using an Ikea salad bowl as the basin.  I like that I have a shelf the entire width of the bathroom to maximize the amount of available horizontal space.

Building Codes require that a bathroom have a sink available with warm water.  This turned out to be the only sticking point in getting my building permit since a conventional toilet is only plumbed with a cold water supply line.  The solution was to add a mixing valve so the water that fills the toilet tank via the faucet is automatically mixed to come out warm.  This should have the benefit of keeping the toilet tank from sweating as much in the summertime.  One unintended and undesirable consequence of this is that the valve seems to reduce the pressure to the faucet, so it is pretty much just a trickle when it comes out.  The video shows it in action, but be aware that I didn't shoot for the entire 30-second fill cycle in case you don't have sufficient bandwidth to download a long video.

Miscellaneous Interior Tasks

After getting the water and sewer connected in February, I've been ticking off the list of things that need to get wrapped up before I place the final layer of adobe floor:

1. Trowel on and smooth out the finish pigmented coats of clay plaster on the wall
2. Have the plumber fit out the water heater, toilet, shower, etc.
3. Have the electrician finish installing plugs, lighting, etc.
4. Fit and install the ceiling panels
5. Install the threshold at the entry door
6. Hang interior door (there's only one!) and install door handle

These tasks are not quite wrapped up, but I'm getting close.  Here are some visuals:

Ready for action

I just need a rod and shower curtain and I'm ready to go.

Bathroom ceiling before curtain rod.

This part of the ceiling is finished--just a few more
panels to fit behind the camera.

Oak threshold at the entry door.  You can see that the final layer of adobe mix
will bring the floor level up about 3/4" to be even with the threshold

Clay plaster walls are finished.  Note the truth window on the right side,
where you can peer into the interior of the wall and see the
light straw clay infill between the wood studs.

A New Appreciation

Most of us have a tendency to take everyday things for granted.  Like when you sprain an ankle--the ability to walk comfortably anywhere you want seems like a luxury when you're hobbling up and down stairs on crutches.

I found the same to be true regarding a flush toilet.  Roughly nine months after I initiated my sewer and water hookups, I have a newfound jolt of satisfaction when I push that silver handle down.  

Sewer and Water

I have to say... building mall does have its disadvantages.  Take for example, the site work to connect to the public sewer and water mains.  I lined up a site contractor before I ever broke ground in July 2015.  He was a couple weeks later than I'd hoped in excavating my foundation, but no big deal.

Fast forward to Fall 2015: I had my plumbing roughed in inside the house and I requested that the contractor proceed in connecting the sewer and water services.  After a couple months back and forth, he wasn't able to fit me in, so I made do for the winter.

2016 kept me busy with work, so I only made sporadic progress on the house.  At the end of summer, things were finally moving along and I set the goal to move in around Thanksgiving. Mid September, I scheduled my connections for the following month  Long story short, my small job was evidently a lower priority than the bigger, high-dollar jobs.  He started on the sewer November 23 and finished the water on January 31, 2017.  Granted, there were many weather-related delays in there, but there were also plenty of fine days with the machines sitting idle.

Sorry for venting.  Thanks for bearing with me, but the lesson learned is to budget way more time for contractors to do their thing than you would expect.  It is classic for them to be juggling multiple jobs at one time.  Here are the photos:

The existing sewer main was about 8' below grade.  The excavation gets pretty deep at the connection point!

My lateral had to run under an existing storm drain.  You can see that water was
filtering into the excavation, complicating matters.

They dealt with the water by excavating a little deeper and dumping stone in the bottom of the trench.  By running a pump buried in the stone, they kept that area they were working in dry.  This shows the 6" trunk line (green) and the 4" lateral connecting in from the house.  The trunk line will extend farther to allow a future connection for the main house to be built sometime later.

The water meter pit is in the foreground, with a 2" polyethylene service pipe.  In the old days, 3/4" or 1" was adequate, but with the new sprinkler codes, we need a larger pipe to feed the fire protection system.

The 2" lateral tees off to a 1 1/2" house service.  For now, I have a freeze-proof yard hydrant near the end of the tee.  When the main house gets built, this will be removed and the 2" line will be extended.

Bathroom Tadelakt

Tadelakt is not a well-known term.  Simply put, it involves making lime plaster water repellent by working in olive soap.  It is an ancient Moroccan technique that is simply gorgeous within a certain aesthetic.  For more info, you can learn a lot from an internet search or image search.  Feel free to start with this link.

 For better or worse, I am not at the level of craftsmanship to create a showpiece: I am basically treating tadelakt as a substitute for conventional tile because it is a low carbon, natural material.  I wanted the walls to have some color and not all pigments are "lime safe", and I found Earth Pigments to be a great resource.

This shows the final layer of plaster, including the green pigment, being applied to the north wall, below the blocking for the cabinets.  This layer is a couple millimeters thick (about 3 credit cards), which made it much simpler to mix.  Instead of the mortar mixer, which takes an hour to clean, I could do it in a 5-gal bucket.

With such a simple wall, I was done applying the plaster by 10:30.
It took the rest of the day to apply the olive soap, although it was not a continuous process.

FYI, I bought my olive soap from Black Soaps.  The info that comes with the product describes it as a very versatile product, so although I only used 1/10 of the little tub I bought, I'll be able to use it to clean throughout the bath, kitchen, windows, silver items, copper pots, the barbecue, boats, etc.  They even say it makes a great pet soap!

I used a four-step process:

1. Brush on a 1:20 mix of olive soap mixed in hot water. Polish vigorously with a semi-precious smooth stone.  This step was pretty time consuming (about 2 hours) and actually involved some muscle.  Take frequent breaks to avoid repetitive stress injuries.  Unfortunately, I didn't allow myself enough time to find a proper stone.  This is probably why my tadelakt isn't as shiny as many of the photos I see.  That's not important to me, though: I took a local rounded river-rock stone that had one nearly flat side and polished that one side to be reasonably smooth with wet/dry sandpaper.  Pretty low-tech, but it worked.  I found that my plaster dried pretty quickly, so my polishing was more to burnish the surface of the plaster, rather than to smooth out the larger irregularities.  I was never expecting a shiny, flat surface like a marble counter top, but I'm happy with the slightly irregular, mottled texture.
2. Brush on a 1:15 mix.  I used an older 2" natural bristle brush that was somewhat frayed and not suitable to cutting in clean edges anymore.  This quality, coupled with a circular motion worked well to ensure that the soap penetrated the complete texture of the plaster, rather than just sitting on top of the high spots.  I did another light polishing with the stone, just to be sure there were no remaining high spots.  Each layer dries progressively slower than the last.  After the first coat, the the top of the wall was  ready for the next coat by the time I finished at the bottom.  The second coat dried a little more slowly, so I used a small plastic bag filled with flour to smooth out the wet spots of olive soap so it would dry consistently
3. I didn't have to wait long between coats 2 and three: enough time for a snack, stretch, and sit-down.  The third layer was a 1:12 mix and took more time to work in with the flour bag.
4. By the time the 4th coat came around (also 1:12), the olive soap was sitting on the surface quite a while.  I'd brush on a section around 3-4 square feet, then move on to the next section.  Then I'd backtrack and use the brush to lightly smooth out the olive soap and move on to the third section.  Back tracking again, I'd smooth out the first section with the flour bag, and move on.  After the fourth section, the olive soap had mostly dried, but I'd do a final wipe-down with the flour bag to ensure there were no more wet spots.  Progressing in this way, I'd be working on 4 sections simultaneously.

After the walls were done, it was on to the floor using the same processes.  The only major differences were that this layer was about 3/8" thick (the max thickness for air to properly cure the lime), and I didn't add pigment.  Since this house is partly for demonstration purposes, I thought it would be nice to have some natural-color lime.

Note the extreme texture in the previous floor layer to ensure adequate grip for the finished layer.
I've taped the walls using a laser level to help get a level floor.

More than half done!  The left side, where the toilet goes, is level, and the shower drain on the right is depressed about 1".  I took the time on the previous two layers to depress them in order to keep the finished layer a uniform thickness.  

Done and treated with olive soap.  I used a sponge the next morning to get a rougher non-skid surface that is suitable for a shower.  There was some minor cracking, which I repaired over the next 24 hours by pressing down on the crack and smoothing out the lime.  That's one of the cool things about lime is that it is self-repairing for small imperfections  This process left the floor a little less uniformly smooth, but better to have a non-leaky floor!  

In the end, I can't expect perfection or professional results from myself since I've never done this before.  But after I take a step back, it's just fine and I end up with a special sense of accomplishment!

Lime Plaster Floor

It turns out I didn't take any photos of the lime plaster straightening coat; only videos that are too large to post.  But that's really not particularly interesting since it's basically just a reprise of the clay straightening coat, complete with burlap reinforcing over the studs to avoid cracks.  You can sort of get an oblique look: it's the darker plaster on the walls in the photos below.

A component of the straightening coat included the first layer of plaster on the floor.  I wanted to make sure the walls and floor were laid in one day so the corner joint would cure in one piece.  This should go a long way to avoiding leaks.  Given the extra stress on the floor, I've screwed down expanded metal lath with the screws tying everything into the underlying adobe floor.

EML screwed down and the floor is ready for plaster.  The EML will then be sandwiched between the first and second plaster layers.

The first layer of floor isn't 100% cured, so I knelt on foam blocks to spread my weight out.
By spreading the plaster on the un-cured first layer, I'm hoping to get a better bond between the two layers to effectively encapsulate the EML.

Second layer is complete with groves creating a good key for the third and final layer.

Overview, showing the still-curing straightening coat on the wall to the left.  The other walls only have one coat, which is fully cured with the exception of the bottom few inches.  This bit was done at the same time as the first floor layer to ensure a continuous corner joint (see above).

Lime Plaster - First Coat

First off, a word of caution: lime plaster is caustic and you won't even feel it burning your skin.  It's not instantaneous, so you have time to neutralize any lime that gets on your skin with vinegar (which is acidic and neutralizes the basic lime).  Keep a bucket of 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water at the ready to clean yourself at regular intervals, and your tools before the lime starts to harden on them.  Wear eye protection when mixing the plaster, thick chemical gloves when working with it, and long sleeve shirts, and long pant at all times.

This is not intended to be a complete list of safety precautions: you MUST research how to work with lime plaster safely before embarking on these techniques.  Hopefully I have instilled a respect for the material and the importance of knowing how to work with it safely.

Now, on to the fun!  There were two aspects to the first coat.  First was to coat the light straw clay (LSC).  This was done the same way as the first coat of clay plaster: take handfuls of plaster in your gloved hands and mash it onto the surface of the LSC.  The intention is to get it fully bonded into the straw; we'll worry about making it flat in the next step.  I didn't take photos of this step in-process, since it is the same as clay plaster.

LSC covered in lime plaster.  Note that the wood sill and lintel have been taped off--
a precaution that I didn't need to take with the more benign clay plaster.

 The second task was to get a coat of lime plaster bonded to the lath.  Starting from the top, each trowel-full would get worked up into the last batch.

Note that I taped off the blocking at the top of the wall to maintain a clean line.

Make sure to press hard enough to squeeze the plaster through the lath.

Plaster is finished and relatively smooth.  Grooves were cut into all plaster
with a hair pick, just as I did with the clay plaster (Thanks again for that idea, Bob!).  Those pipes are stub-outs for the shower fixture.

I didn't plaster all the way to the bottom of the wall so I could staple the expanded metal lath to strengthen the
wall-floor transition.  I'll want to make this in one continuous pour  to minimize the potential for leaks at the corner.

Interior Framing

The interior walls are pretty minimal.  

 This shot shows what it was like to work on foam blocks in order to avoid blemishing the adobe floor.

The floor was too soft to screw into, so the bottom plates are not screwed in yet.  As a result, I have diagonal bracing that keep them aligned.  After the top plates were fastened in, the wall were quite secure and those diagonals were removed.

Ready for the rough-ins!  The bathroom is on the left, and the utility closet is on the right.

For some reason, I'm really excited by the attic.  I guess I just gravitate toward quirky, intimate spaces.  (That may explain why I enjoy camping in tents and cruising on small sailboats!)  It was unnaturally gratifying to cut out the hatch to gain access to the attic.