Sahalee Off Grid

Mud Walls = Mighty Fine Living

Published on June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by beamingtoyou

This adobe rehab project in the back room at Casablanca took about nine months, from August to May, and spun off the bonus endeavor of installing a french/curtain drain along the exterior wall to help divert moisture away from the adobe (stay tuned for a future post). In the end, we are pretty happy with the results that addressed years of neglect and water intrusions and put us one step closer to having a more functional space. Read on to see the transformation!

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Super Ger Urgh Replacement DIY

Published on May 19, 2023July 19, 2023 by beamingtoyou

One of the benefits of living in a yurt is the many options for DIY repairs that can save money and exercise practical skills. While authentic Mongolian gers are made of traditional natural materials not found at the Home Depot, our ‘Yurt Daddy’ Yves encouraged us upon set up of our Super Ger in 2016 to not be afraid of innovating and making fixes with more conventional hardware store items. As much as we’d love to keep the authenticity of the horsehair ropes and other original equipment for time eternal, this was one more repair where we took Yves’ advice (after upgrading to ratchet straps). Read on to see what we did this time!

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Super Ger Canvas Replacement

Published on October 30, 2022October 30, 2022 by beamingtoyou

Traditional Mongolian gers were covered with animal hides with a regular cycle of replacement. The modern version from Groovy Yurts offers water resistant canvas with a lovely decoration. This natural cotton material helps the yurt to moderate humidity inside when combined with the natural felt insulation (and an optional modern moisture barrier in our case). We first setup our Super Ger in 2016 and then moved it to the big deck in 2017. Left in place under the intense New Mexico skies for the last five years, the canvas on our yurt started to show wear in a number of ways and required a total replacement. Read on to see more about yurt life.

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More Adventures in Adobe

Published on October 14, 2022October 14, 2022 by beamingtoyou

Completing the bathroom renovation at Casablanca to include some basic self-taught adobe repair was truly gratifying, but I knew there was a lot more to learn about finishing earthen walls (without special treatments for wet areas) since we have several more rooms to renovate. I decided to enroll in a proper adobe plastering class (online) and live owner-builder workshop with Adobe in Action at the end of September. Read on to see the pics and find out more about what I’m learning now!

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Skipping to my loo, installment deux

Published on August 3, 2022August 14, 2022 by beamingtoyou

If you were following us in 2016, you might remember the bathroom breakthrough we had when we brought our outhouse online. Since taking on the little project we are now calling ‘Casablanca’ in town right before the orders to shelter-in-place came down, we’ve spent a considerable amount of time learning about indoor renovations and plumbing. Almost exactly one year to the day, we’re finally able to reveal our second perfectly posh potty- complete with running water!

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For the love of dogs DIY

Published on October 17, 2021August 14, 2022 by beamingtoyou

There is no way we could live life on the daily without a dog door. Like, really, no way. We had a dog door in Florida, and at Sahalee, we keep the door open almost year-round and the pups go freely in and out as they please. When we started working on Casablanca, there was no fence and no free will allowed for any of us. We worked to remedy this immediately after Sweet Pete came on the scene. Mostly just to preserve our sanity during lockdown so the young one could be out of the house as much as possible and not feel neglected if no one thought to let her back in.

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Tearing Down Walls at Casablanca

Published on August 31, 2021May 31, 2023 by beamingtoyou

A major component to the passive solar sun porch project was letting all that warm, bright sunshine fill the main living space so that we can save costs on direct natural gas or electric heat in the wintertime. There was a plastered wood plank wall between the living room and kitchen dividing the main living space into two rooms with a small passageway, making it real hard to circulate warm air without having a heater in each room. Simple solution – Tear down this wall!

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Super Ger Toono Window Repair

Published on May 30, 2021May 30, 2021 by beamingtoyou

After five years, the vinyl windows in our Super Ger toono (the compression ring or dome) finally gave out. We had a little spring hail storm roll through and the brittle vinyl couldn’t take the abuse. With more rain in the forecast, we had to hustle to make the fix. Check out the step-by-step below!

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One heck of a year

Published on May 2, 2021May 3, 2021 by beamingtoyou

Hmmm… It’s 2021. The Earth tilted over a year ago and we managed to hang on. How about you? What’s been your handhold?

We gave our last update about off-grid life at Sahalee last May (though we will continue to add post-dated content to help maintain a chronological timeline). That now seems like another Universe and in a lot of ways it is. Last February marked a major transition for us, not just because of COVID, but because we essentially left Sahalee for Ben to pursue his fire career and for us to renovate a traditional adobe home to be a rental property and office in town. You can catch up on that news at https://www.sahaleeoffgrid.com/blog/2020/05/01/on-again-off-again/.

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