We're a bit reliant on others for photos at the moment owing to a mishap with our camera. All these photos have been offered for our personal use on the blog but not necessarily for you to re-use. Thanks to
Mark Wessels for this family shot, which shows the house with bitumen gum unceremoniously draped over the roof. Our cobbing team learned to sew the waterproofing together (with the aid of a blowtorch!) Of course the cob insulation is totally fireproof, which came in handy with a south-easter pumping all week we were putting it on. Doing it ourselves saved a bunch of rands and gave our guys experience with a new skill - on a very complicated roof.
This one's thanks to Esa Alexander of
The Timeswhich did an article earlier this year.
Here's a view from the roof, when we were covering the leichtlehm with a simple clay/sand mix for smoothness. It looked beautiful until we added the bitumen-gum waterproofing on top! (Thanks to Ian Evans from the UK
Independent).
Here's another shot (thanks to Linda!) of the side before the front door went in. There's supposed to be a wood panel above around a built-in cupboard: all our hold-ups at this stage are around carpentry, and although the cobbing and plastering took over a year in total (including inside plastering), it would have been no quicker any other way given the amount of specialist wood in this house. YOUR cob house could involve a lot less wood to speed things up and cheapen them; although the wood is, of course, very beautiful!
We're a bit reliant on others for photos at the moment owing to a mishap with our camera. All these photos have been offered for our personal use on the blog but not necessarily for you to re-use. Thanks to Mark Wessels for this family shot, which shows the house with bitumen gum unceremoniously draped over the roof. Our cobbing team learned to sew the waterproofing together (with the aid of a blowtorch!) Of course the cob insulation is totally fireproof, which came in handy with a south-easter pumping all week we were putting it on. Doing it ourselves saved a bunch of rands and gave our guys experience with a new skill - on a very complicated roof.
This one's thanks to Esa Alexander of The Timeswhich did an article earlier this year.
Here's a view from the roof, when we were covering the leichtlehm with a simple clay/sand mix for smoothness. It looked beautiful until we added the bitumen-gum waterproofing on top! (Thanks to Ian Evans from the UK Independent). 
Here's another shot (thanks to Linda!) of the side before the front door went in. There's supposed to be a wood panel above around a built-in cupboard: all our hold-ups at this stage are around carpentry, and although the cobbing and plastering took over a year in total (including inside plastering), it would have been no quicker any other way given the amount of specialist wood in this house. YOUR cob house could involve a lot less wood to speed things up and cheapen them; although the wood is, of course, very beautiful!
