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Summer Camp at Rabbit Rock 2005
A Photo Essay
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Larry L. Dill's
New Hope Journal
Personal Essays and Public Opinions since 1979
September, 2005 |
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ParisBlog
Paris to Provence, 2006
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The Zen of Personal Architecture
The Building of Rockledge,
"Le Petit Salon de Roc"
A Photographic Essay byDeborah Gaddy with Commentary by Larry L. Dill
Page Three |
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It is now July, 2005 and Deborah and I laughed about the way the erection of a single ridge pole across the second floor made the whole cabin project look like a hastily built gallows in the wild west. It has been one of the rainiest summers on record in Western North Carolina and If you look closely at the two locust posts in the foreground (especially the one on the right) they have sprouted new growth despite having been cut and and placed in the ground over 2 months earlier. Just beyond me in the picture the sun is shining on the weeds now growing on the unfinished front porch 2 feet below where I am standing. |
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By the time I was ready to put up the rafters and put the roof on, Rabbit Rock was so overgrown that it was nearly impossible to go deep into the woods in search of 14 straight logs, 14 feet long of roughly the same diameter. Timber Rattlesnakes are out in force this year and they are nearly impossible to see in the dense undergrowth. So I opted for store bought 2x4s just to get on down the road. I had intended to use 1 inch dimension lumber on top of the rafters, then styrofoam insulation and finally tar paper and corrugated steel roofing. But I am operating on the most minimal budget imaginable and so I forgot about the styrofoam and opted instead of 1-by lumber for a plywood with embossed faux beadboard exposed on one side. In the foreground you can see the tar paper partially covered by the the Tin. The roof pitch is 12/12 which means it is a 45 degree angle. Good for rain protection and steep enough that snow cannot build up on it, but very treacherous to install. |
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| I leveled out the dirt floor and laid out the flattest rocks in my collection. Deborah had a few big flat rocks left over from the hearth in the big cabin and graciously donated them to the cause. Eventually I will fill in the cracks between the rocks with mortar. The unfinished portion in the foreground is where I ran out of rocks flat enough to place a rolling desk chair which will sit where the bucket is sitting. By the time of this writing I had filled all that in with poured concrete textured to look like stone. The ladder on the left leads to the sleeping loft where I am standing in the previous picture. It will be replaced by a hand made wooden stairwell. Where the little wood bench is sitting a cast iron wood heater will sit. Next to it in the far right hand corner will be a sink and counter down the front wall to the door. In the lower right hand corner will be my desk. |
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| This photo shows the rock walls going up and framing out the front windows. One of the books I read on building masonry walls, suggested I reject any rock that is not flat on at least 2 sides. Any time I found a rock that was flat on even one side got used for the floor. The rocks you see in the foundation which are merely dry stacked and the walls that I have mortared in are jagged, round or some other indescribable shape. Because they are so irregular their formal masonry name is "rubble." When building a rubble wall only one rock thick with no backing ( that is, the inside of the wall is just the otherside of what you see here) you can only stack from one to three rocks on top of each other on a given day while the mortar is wet or they will just fall off. So I worked the equivalent of what would be called one or two "courses" all the way around the cabin each day and then did something else until the next day. The mortar I used is type S brick cement mixed with water and sand from a load of sand that Scott Black brought me. |
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Go back to Page One of Salon de Roc
Go to Page Two of Salon de Roc
Go to Page Four of Salon de Roc
Go to Page Five of Salon de Roc
Go to Photo Essay Summer Camp At Rabbit Rock 2005
Go to Paris Blog
Go to August New Hope Journal
Go to July New Hope Journal
Go to June New Hope Journal
Go to May New Hope Journal
Copyright 2005 by Larry L. Dill
All Rights Reserved
larrydill@newhopejournal.com
www.newhopejournal.com |
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