Windows

All the windows of my heart I open to the day.

 

John Greenleaf Whittier

 

 

 

window shopping in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

As a child I had an absorbing pleasure of drawing simple box houses.  I loved drawing the square, then the triangle and finally the little rectangles for the windows.  The real fun came with the windows.  I would make curtains or sashes or even a flower in a vase sitting on the sill.  Sometimes I would color the inside of the windows with bright yellow. To this day I love paintings of simple, block houses. 

 

 

Georgia O'Keefe   Barn with Snow  c. 1933

It is no wonder that I wanted a simple, box shaped house.  Built of straw.  But 2008 happened and no one would give us a loan for straw bale construction.  They would give us a construction loan for a stick house.  No bricks---earthquake country.  No straw---unconventional.  Just sticks.  This is getting to sound like Three Little Pigs.

 

There are some elements of a straw bale house that we were able to keep.  The window sills done in earth plaster, walls with lime plaster with clay paint and a few other things.  I love some softness that the windows provide, but I also love angles.  My eye needs some conventional space that provides a protective hardness, too.  A  stretched canvas board feeling.  Too much softness would swallow me up.  I need some framing solidness, too. 

first layer of earth plaster

The windows are in and we are happy with them.  I learned a lot about windows.  I learn that they are expensive.  We had to find windows with no UVA coating for the south exposure.  Which is harder to explain to salespeople why we want sun-damaging rays to fade our concrete floor than to get them to sell us non-UVA coated windows. We also needed hopper windows for the cupola (clerestory.)  Turns out that the bedroom windows need casement windows because of new changes in fire code.  We also needed hopper windows for the cupola (clerestory.)  Then hopper windows were switched out to awning windows which will open with old-fashioned climb up a ladder with a long pole and hook method.  I might add, with cross-fingers and someday a very tall visiting grandson.

  

At noon the winter solstice sun streams through this window!

south side

Where thy art, that is home.

Emily Dickerson

hand hewn logs-slight arch--has a very torii (gate) look

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same...

(music & lyrics by Malvina Reynolds--photo by Thomas Hawk)

Finding a little bit of dirt to build a house in California is not a fast process.  First, land here is premium.  In dollars.  I'm sure it's true most places, but in the state with $800,000 little boxes on a foggy hillside...it is hard, hard, hard.  Why do people live here.  Here in the fog.  Here where they never stop painting the bridge a golden red.  Here where you are room temperature nearly all year.  Here where a morning drive can bring you to snow, desert heat, redwoods, Big Sur, Yosemite Falls, an ocean and two dormant volcanoes (maybe more!)  It costs to stay here. We had to figure out whether or not to build a home in this state.  Why stay in this state?  Until we found this and knew the answer.

Because it's home.

Building a house.  A simple, small house.  Passive solar.  Natural insulation (denim.)  With a large loft and quiet reading nook.  Small cozy bedrooms with dome ceilings.  A breezeway that can work as an extra sleeping area.  The living areas face south.

cupola

 

reading nook

Tim, the architect, and I discuss the flow in the rain

The above photos were taken in January.  All the native grasses and irises were moved to containers for replanting.  Trees that had to come down as they were leaning are finding their way into this house. The remaining logs, mainly fir and bishop pine, were donated to an organization that cuts it up and gives it to seniors on limited income in the area.

  

In March, the cupola and outside walls were up.  There are so many decisions to make.  Bathtubs, windows, roofing, etc.  I am still trying to keep everything with a quiet elegance, but quiet elegance can get costly.  Natural it is.  Simply Home.