Retreat Home at Diamond Mountain
Bowie, Arizona, October 2009 – Present
Beyond Adobe and many wonderful volunteers are working hard to build a retreat home in the remote foothills of the Chiricahua mountains at Diamond Mountain University. The 1100 square foot structure will serve as a refuge for two Buddhist Lamas dedicating their lives to a three-year silent retreat for peace beginning at the end of 2010 (retreat4peace.org).
In total, 8500 unstabilized adobe bricks were made locally and slurry stacked in the thick 14 inch walls. Locally harvested lumber is used in the project. The final finished coat of earth plaster is done and painted on the interior.
Finishing work will be taking place over the next few months. Please check this page periodically for new photos and updates.
7/2/2010
Seffy and Razia make some finishing touches on the custom trim boards.
Adam works his way around the house with plaster while talking shop with Keith.
The tile pattern is laid out by Will in the front entry.
The tile is finished in the bathroom.
Arnon is happy the kitchen is coming together.
Continuing with the first coat of lime plaster.
Razia and Seffy detail the finely crafted upper wall trim boards.
The lime is applied and then kept moist with water until it cures completely.
Erik and Adam plastering with lime.
The first coat of lime plaster on the exterior.
Galia and Razia stain the ceiling boards while Adam preps the windows for plaster.
Ilan thinks there is no possible way this could be the right piece.
Will placing tile in the bathroom.
Arnon and Ilan piece the kitchen kit together.
Will showing off his no look tile sawing abilities.
Adam sets up for lime plaster on the exterior.
Galia, she's like a machine.
Arie says hello.
Razia staining the ceiling boards with joy, always.
Ilan installing the porch joists.
Seffy is ready to put some color on the walls!
The exterior porch.
Securing the porch rafters.
The job site fashion keeps improving everyday.
Yaeli getting in those tough corners with primer.
Galia priming up the walls. Love the sunglasses.
Erik and Ilan work on the porch and discuss the weather.
The final coat of paint dries in one of the meditation rooms.
A jolly good time.
Reut rolling on some color.
Seffy primes the earth plaster.
Priming the ceiling.
Drywall is almost done!
Ilan setting the porch posts.
Eden checking the post hole depth.
Some of the happy and dusty crew.
Arnon, drywall leader.
David, drywall crew.
What? Lunch time already?
Sylvan rounding off the corners with plaster.
David digging for the porch posts.
Limor practicing new construction yoga techniques.
Yaeli the plaster master.
Erik shimmin' it up.
Mira staining the interior doors.
Ronit with a happy to be done with sanding drywall smile!
Ilan and Liran laying out the screened in porch.
Reut with a big hidden smile.
The walls are painted with primer.
Mira in an enlightened moment.
Liran, drywall crew.
Ronit, drywall crew.
Limor, drywall crew.
6/12/2010
Sri Jinendra Swami from the Caribbean enters the home to offer his blessings.
Staining the interior wood doors.
The windows are installed!
David wonders if it is actually hotter than in Israel.
Limor filling in the screw holes.
Installing the first window!
Ceiling to soffit wood transition detail with final earth plaster.
Razia blessing the home with every sweep.
Hilla sands the first layer of drywall mud.
Erik adds the trim board.
Assaf applies drywall tape in the bathroom.
Volunteers organize scrap wood to be used in the home's wood stove.
Ilan hanging green board in the bathroom.
Learning from the elders.
6/5/2010
Finished earth plaster.
Nailing up local Arizona ponderosa pine ceiling.
The next generation adobero.
Hanging drywall.
Materials waiting to be installed.
Workers plastering the interior.
Digging a trench for the water line.
The earth plastering begins!
Preparing the interior and exterior adobe walls for plastering.
Workers figure out the best earth plaster mix.
Galia fills around an electrical conduit run with plaster.
The plywood sub-floor is almost complete.
Lunch just got a lot better.
The volunteers return! Here adobe earth is sifted for the interior plaster.
Sylvan preps the walls for plastering.
Adam prepares some test batches of lime plaster for the exterior.
5/25/2010
The torch down roof is complete and is commercial grade quality rated to last 30+ years.
Look out, this coatimundi smells lunch!
Lots of love going into this project.
Foam insulation was sprayed into the ceiling and floor cavities to create an extremely tight and energy efficient building envelope.
The finished marshmallow insulation product.
The foam comes out in a liquid, and expands very rapidly.
Seconds later... The expansion rate for the foam is 1:120.
Erik can't believe how much this foam grows!
5/6/2010
Workers take roof measurements in this wide angle view.
The home awaits windows and final coats of plaster.
A beautiful view from inside one of two meditation rooms.
The interior is ready for final coats of earth plaster.