May 13, 2007

1880's Adobe House

I've always said that if I lived in the desert, I'd live in a real adobe house. Three years ago I had the opportunity to buy one in Arizona and restore it. See the temperatures - that's why I like living inside adobe walls. If you manage an adobe house correctly, you have little need for air conditioning.




Both the exterior and interior walls in my house are between 12" and 14" thick. The worst of it is that it takes major planning to be able to hang anything on the walls. You decide, once, where you want something and you don't get to move that nail without having to do a lot of patching. My Brother-in-Law taught me the correct way to do it. You drill a 3/4" hole in the adobe, then pound a hardwood dowel in until it's flush with the surface. After that you can nail or screw into the dowel and hang a picture.


Nothing is very straight in the house and the cement floors dip in unexpected places. To my way of thinking, it just adds to the original charm of the place.




Packing Up - Closing Down

The large Nopal cactus outside of the beadroom window has bloomed and is busy putting out new leaf pads. It's time to sort the beads all back into their Plano boxes for their car trip East. My beading table looks bare with just a few projects on it. Now it's time to start down my "get out of town" check list and get ready to shut up the house. I'll be leaving Arizona Memorial Day weekend, heading for New Hampshire for the Summer. This trip will take a bit longer as I'm taking a side trip through Northern Arizona and Southern Utah to look at the rocks & beautiful scenery. I'll also stop and visit with at least five beading friends as I wend my way East. Once again I'll have a co-driver so I can gawk at what's outside half of the time. It's always more fun to share a trip like this.

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