Still going...

So I'm two weeks past my official deadline to finish my house...this only matters in financial sense as the bank charges a higher interest rate on the construction loan than the mortgage for the finished house. Feeling pain in most parts of my body as the past few days have been dedicated to plastering, much of it on ceilings, bathroom and hut. Major changes this week as I moved everything out of the dome that I've been living in for the past five years. Yesterday got a hit of plaster on the entire interior of the dome, ceiling and walls. It looks much more shapely and contiguous now. This is a project that I was going to leave until later as in the eyes of the Taos County Planning office, the dome is a "storage unit" and would not need to be super finished for the oh-so-crucial Certificate of Occupancy. But the timing was right, the materials were cheap and hot damn it looks GOOOOOD...getting to be 'spectable...

Tomorrow am going to Santa Fe to pick up the kitchen countertop from Southwest Metal who wrapped the whole custom thing in stainless steel. Once this is in we can put in the sink and faucet for the kitchen which will enable me to, good God, WASH DISHES in my house!!! Have all the materials to acid etch the bathroom floor (teal) and the rest of the floors throughout the house, minus the bamboo in the bedroom, ("antique amber"). This project will be a massive four day push, painful and messy and methodical...knee pads and buckets and buckets of water and respirators...will not be able to stay in the house at all during this time. Finish plastered the bathroom ceiling on Friday and Claire finished the bedroom ceiling on Saturday...still plugging away on slick troweling around the zillion bottles on the bathroom. Bathtub finally arrived!! The second one. Am not sure about the color but think it will look great in the finished bathroom. Basically I own all the appliances now, just need to get them in place. Much of that involving a plumber. That being kinda a sore subject after my first plumber went crazy, bailed to Cali and left me in the lurch.

Am so close now. As Mike Reynolds said, "You're there. No one gets to this point and doesn't finish." Good to hear from him but whole scene is still kinda sketchy as I STILL do not have enough $$ to finish...this after doing 4 cost breakdowns over the past year. (Advice to potential Earthship builders: Double your estimate. Then double it again and then add 25% for unforseen expenses and overages.) On the plus side, the Hybrid Earthship just to the south of me just sold for $355K, potentially doing wonders for my next appraisal...huh...we'll see...after my experiences with the official Centinel Bank appraiser...well, we'll see...

The upshot of all of this is that I feel so good about the progress and product that for the first time ever, I am going to offer my home to be on the tour for this month's Earthship Seminar. Anyhoo...here's a couple pix!!!