Drainage

A couple of things have had me pondering drainage lately.  When I dug the grave for Rob Anybody I was happy to  notice that the soil around here is full of clay - great for building with cob!  The other thing is that it has rained a lot here lately.  First it snowed, now it is raining.  Road closing amounts of rain.  The Huon River is swollen and running fast.  The combination of clay soil and huge amounts of water is basically sodden, puddly, water-not-going away ness.  For a cob house this is not good!

There are a couple of things I can (and will obviously) do to prevent the water damaging my house.  Good drainage in my foundations is one of them.  I plan to dig a deep foundation trench, lay gravel, ag pipe, more gravel then larger rocks and then the foundation.  I'll slope the trench so that it follows the natural downhill of the slope and runs into the creek that borders the  property.
I will also probably dig some french drains further up hill of the house to guide the water away from the house and to a more useful place.  I'll try and build the house as high on the block as I can , but also don't want it too close to the road so there will be a balancing act there. 

Another vital part of it will be making sure the stem wall - the part of the foundation that is above ground level and forms the "boots" of the building - is high enough that any water splashing off the ground doesn't get the cob.  I will also include a damp layer in the foundations to stop rising damp.  I will have eaves that extend a good way out from the walls too - generally a standard feature of Australian houses any way - and will be collecting rain water for drinking so any splashing from water off the roof will be minimal. 

The clay soil, while being great for building a house, will also be crap for the garden.  It will need lots of compost and aerating for it to easy to grow anything.  The Lancre Witch has suggested that we slash the grass (which is currently about waist high) and leave on the ground as mulch and do that over the next few years as the building process gets going so that the as the grass breaks down it is nourishing the ground underneath.

organising a small space

I am planning on living in a very small space - essentially one big open room so I lie seeing how other people do it. 
I plan to keep minimal furniture - my great grandfathers wardrobe, the bed my dad made, my beautiful coffee table and my spinning wheel and chair.  The rest will be built in - the couches for the living area built of cob (possibly hollow with a lid for storage space).  The bed in an alcove raised off the floor to enable storage underneath.  Bookshelves as part of the walls (the walls will probably be a bit thinner behind the bookshelves but books will provide insulating qualities which will counteract that.  Seating for the dining area will be also built into the cob, possibly heated by the flue of a rocket heater, will probably have to get a dining table though ;)  I'm planning on having lots of niches in the wall for candles and lanterns too.  The look of cob houses lit by candles and lanterns is so warm and homely.  I love it.

Random thoughts

- when building in windows and doors, gaps need to be left above them to allow for the cob to settle.  In "The Hand Scultped House"  they suggest waiting for the cob around the window to settle, then instal the lintle allowing room for more settling between the lintel and the glass or door .  One of the bookmarks I have (I'll sort them out one day, I swear!) has another method however - putting straw above the window/door and cover it with cob then continue building - this allows for movement and settling, insulates and would allow for quicker building.

- quick building is potentially an issue.  Depending on the weather during the summer I am building I may need to be able to have the house weather proof quicker or drying/curing conditions may not be optimal

-  because of weather concerns I will probably raise the roof first, supported on posts outside the foundations (the roof needs to have large eaves to protect the cob from weather anyway) and build the walls underneath it.  This should make it easier to build if weather is less than ideal, provide a space to store materials and tools and protect the foundations, walls and floors as we build.  The pay off for this is that finishing the walls up under the roof will be more tricky and potentially so will building the ceiling, unless the ceiling is built at the same time as the roofl