Building Badboulder with Steel Framing

One of the "greenest" aspects of constructing Badboulder's main house may be our use of steel framing. Because David erected the frame during his off-duty time, approximately eight days per month, we couldn't expose bare wood framing to the harsh weather of a high desert climate. Many wooden studs start to curl and warp during the hour necessary to transport them from Prescott Home Depot to our site.

So, David read about steel construction, he visited some home sites under construction with steel, and then took his house plans to a structural engineer in Scottsdale to specify necessary weight bearing requirements. In all applications, David met or exceeded the specs.

We bought the steel products, studs and beams, from Thunderbird Steel in south Phoenix industrial area. (Felt like we had SURVIVED when we loaded and cleared that area). We hauled a few loads back to Yarnell using our old blue Chevy Caprice and a (quite appropriately) trailer made of steel. T-Bird delivered some huge loads on Saturday as we are conveniently located on the way to Prescott. No air or water transport involved in procurement of product.

Badboulder's steel was recycled from old car carcasses by a company in Kingman AZ. Again, China or round-the-globe shipping weren't a part of Badboulder's construction.

Just exactly how David, alone, fastened all that steel into a two story home, thirty-two feet at its highest, has intrigued many of the village citizens (some report the of use of binoculars). This was not an act to be viewed by a person afraid of heights, so I went to work. Carefully, methodically he planned the different erection systems and climbed the scaffolding thousands of times to put the steel members in place. Much of this placement was done hanging in the air; no cranes, no carpenter helpers--just David.

The framing took about two years worth of weekends and vacation time. Friends and strangers alike have stopped in to marvel at the construction. We hear comments like, "If we're ever bombed or Palo Verde melts down, etc., we know where we're coming" or, "you could land a 747 or park semis on this house" or best one, "you could build an Olympic-sized swimming pool on top of your house." Fortunately, we've only experienced a couple of eighty plus mile-per-hour storms but can report no damage done.

Steel framing afforded us the opportunity to build our own home in our own good time, was a recycled American product and any termite that eats this house has some morphing to do.

FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Hey, remember me, I'm up here, dangling from a beam with one hand and holding a screwgun with the other. Residential construction using light gauge metal is within the capability of the DIYer who has a basic knowledge of carpentry. The skills necessary to build with wood are transferable to building with light gauge metal. There are 2 basic tools for building with light gauge metal: a screwgun and a nibbler. I used a DeWalt screwgun and a Trumpf nibber. There are many good brands of each on the market. If you are interested in light gauge metal construction, I suggest you visit a project in progress. Most of the trades--electrical, plumbing, drywall, etc.--can adapt their skills to working with light gauge metal. If you choose to fasten sheathing such as plywood or OSB to the steel studs, you may either use screws and a screwgun or a steel pin driver. A steel pin driver will make the job quick and easy, but the steel pin driver and an air compressor will cost you several hundred dollars. If you decide to go for the steel pin fastener, I suggest the Aerosmith brand. Stay away from ETF fasteners as they have the absolute 1000% worst customer service; I found out the hard way.

parting shot from bbman: keep all your possessions in one bag.

Monsoon Madness

Two rainy days in succession makes for great weather to pull weeds from our gravel driveway and to save lupines from certain smashing.

I grew up in the Ozarks with many native plants: thanks to the U.S. Army, I've lived in many different plant zones but I had never experienced the beauty of a lupine until moving to AZ. I first viewed them along the Carefree Highway mixed with other wildflowers. What a surprise it was to find one thriving in a brushy area at the back of our property. Blowing wind is constant here in our little mountain village and we now have native lupines all over Badboulder's trails and iris beds.

A friend from California calls them lupins (short i) and another from Texas says they are definitely lupines(long i). Webster says long i if it's a noun, short i if it's an adjective, so I'm going with my Texas neighbor. I've read The Lupine Lady, by Barbara Cooney, to a multitude of children and don't want to spend my retirement thinking I've led them astray. The book is a great piece of children's literature, by the way. I don't remember a single primary student who didn't like it. NC, if you're not acquainted with it, try a quick read.

Lupines bloom here at Badboulder in spring along with the iris; however a good monsoon season with enough rain can bring about a few late bloomers. We have a lupine with bloom pod in our driveway.

Our gravel driveway is a most inhospitable planting bed but that's where several new lupines have sprung up. I'm taking advantage of overcast , rainy, monsoon days to do transplanting. Lupines are wonderful companions for yellow iris with their blue, spiky blossoms, and neither requires much irrigation here in the high alpine desert. So, that's where the driveway lupines are going.

FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Hey, remember me, I'm the guy who lives with the lady who transplants lupines. Lupins with a short i, lupines with a long i, please, they are everywhere on our property. They are taking over. Badboulderlady cannot endure the loss of a single living plant. We have a potted lemon tree that is 11 years old. We have geraniums that are over 20 years old. We have a rubber tree that is older than the geraniums. We have old jade plants, old mother-in-law tongues, old daffodils, old miniature palm plants. We never dispose of any living plant. We are being pushed out of our home by plants. Please, can somebody help me?

parting shot from bbman: don't buy airline stock.

Maria's a Soldier Now!

Sunday, July 25, we arrived in the Valley of the Sun in time to enjoy a scorcher of a day and to enjoy the company of Leslie and Jim who joined us at a family favorite restaurant in Tempe to see Maria off for basic training in the U.S. Army. We speculated that she and her fellow "battle buddies" will probably suffer withdrawal symptoms due to confiscation of all electronic devises. Apparently that part of training has begun as we received no early morning texts today.

The induction process began early Monday morning. When we rolled out of bed at 4am we found Maria up, Army backpack ready and coffee in the pot. She had us parked in a Central Avenue parking lot before we could mumble or grumble (much) and we waited for her recruiter to arrive at 5:30. Maria then went off for medical processing (weighing in and a pregnancy test) and we were to arrive back at 8:00 am for her swearing -in ceremony. There's not much to do at 5:30 am in central Phoenix; we managed by hopping on the light rail and visiting a Sheraton on Central that we had stayed at for a medical trip. We enjoyed some coffee, then made the trip back in time to get through security for an 8 am oath taking. The family waiting area was clean, spacious, offers bathrooms and a vending machine for water and comes with quite a list of rules. The rules are sensible but do require some sacrifice for today's society: cell phones off, no picture taking and no food or drink. We became acquainted with the facilities, the processing procedures, and conversed with other families -because we sat there until 12:15. David was seated by the purse and briefcase screening conveyor belt. Boredom set in and twirling the rollers of the belt was a distraction--until he caught the attention of the greeter sergeant who had a lull in his welcoming speech and asked him to kindly cease. Later, David said he would like to do an "Angie" and twirl everyone of those rollers as fast as he could if he could catch the sergeant away from his post. Angie is now 6 years old and resists that type of behavior and so did her grandfather--so we got to stay for the ceremony.

There was another Herbert swearing in that day--a male-- some of his and Maria's records got switched about, however that mistake was easy to discern and rectify. Maria's group was one of the last to be sworn because they were not flying out until early Tuesday morning. The last was no doubt best, as the MEPS commander made the ceremony personal for each soldier, was sincere in manner and gave their oath taking the respect and dignity it deserved.

We hugged and left quickly. Much later in the day, we aided Maria in the purchasing of last minute travel-sized liquids and a burrito. In response to my statement, "Maria, I think you've found a good match" she replied "I've found a great match". Her positive attitude will see her through the throes of basic training, despite the possibility of being the 'granny" of her outfit. Maria is now at Ft Jackson receiving her uniforms, buying the special shoes and getting fitted for the only part of the uniform she dreaded--the BC glasses--specs so ugly they're referred to as birth control glasses.

Maria has joined the ranks of her father, brother and one sister. True, Leslie only served a few days due to adverse reaction to a bee sting (you would have made it Leslie).

FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Every soldier has their own personal story of their unique experience in the military service. For me, the whole story can pretty well be summed up with one word: Viet Nam. For Matt, my son and Maria's brother, I would guess that much or his experience could likewise be covered with one word: Iraq. God only knows what Maria's story will be. But it is very likely that some major event or sequence of events will form the nucleus of her military experience. For now, whether it be for days, weeks, months, or years, we salute you Maria. Thank you for your service.

Spiral Staircase, DIY of course, Comes to Badboulder

David built our small guest house first, providing him with some home construction experience and giving us a place to live, rent free, during the years it has taken one man to build a 4000 sq. ft. home. The second story of our guest house contains a small bedroom, smaller bath, and the smallest of closets. It comfortably sheltered us for eleven years while building our main house.



To save much needed space and hasten the guest house construction, we agreed upon a steel spiral staircase kit. We chose a manufacturer in Houston TX and the kit was soon on its way to Phoenix by rail; a semi was scheduled to haul it up the mountain to Yarnell. Big problem was, Badboulder was reached only by a one-lane dirt road with a 90 degree curve--impossible for the semi.



David arranged for the kit to be delivered to my work site--the local elementary school. The stairway components were neatly piled on the roadside adjacent to the school yard at day's end. The steps and connecting pieces were conveniently boxed ready to toss in our trunk but that fifteen foot long steel column posed a transporting problem for our old Chevy. I rushed home, anxious to bring the kit in and start the assembly. David kept finding a multitude of shores to do.



Darkness comes early in the mountains and darkness was what David needed.



The fifteen foot steel column was too long for one man to carry for one mile on his shoulder. Viola! Out came a "shoulder pillow" that David had designed for me that afternoon. I soon saw exactly how the transporting was to be accomplished. A full moon and a daughter driving behind us with our big blue Chevy Caprice lights blazing illuminated our packing home the heavy column.



The kit was easy to assemble and we enjoyed the staircase so much that we installed a two-story spiral in our main house. Road improvements saved us another moonlight trek, as a semi made that delivery.



Sixteen years later, David admits that he didn't want the citizens of Yarnell observing their school marm carrying home a steel column.



FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Hey, remember me? I'm the doer, the guy who puts all this together. I am the Bob Villa-Frank Lloyd Wright-Martha Stewart of Yarnell all rolled into one. How do you like my spiral staircase? It's a two story job. Goes all the way from the bottom of this in-the-boulders structure up to my crow's nest. I'll show you that someday. Regarding the spiral staircase, my brother-in-law said bad planning. Like, how are you going to get up and down that thing when you are old? And, he suggested an elevator. Well, this is not the Mayo Clinic, this is not the old folks home, it is more like Curves. We try to stay young around here. Badboulder lady calls it our fitness home. If you are interested in a spiral staircase, Stairways, Inc., in Texas does a good job. Okay, see you next time. Headed up to my crow's nest; that's where I keep my Old Crow.

DIY Ornamental Lemon Tree from Seed

Eleven years ago, while surveying science projects for primary students in preparation for the annual science fair, I tried one that worked. I took three lemon seeds from a freshly squeezed, store-bought lemon and gently pressed them into an eight ounce jelly jar half-full of wet sand, screwed on the lid and left them in peace indoors for about ten days. Upon sprouting, I transplanted the seedlings to small pots of soil. One of the three survived and thrived.

For nine years we found a shady spot outdoors that provided filtered sun as well as periods of direct sunlight for the duration of AZ's scorching summer. Then we brought our thorny friend in for the winter--which can get as chilly as zero here on the mountain. The lemon tree required semi-annual pruning to keep its size manageable for its time indoors.

Two years ago, we moved this patient plant into a more spacious and permanent home. The lemon tree is housed on the second floor of our entry tower, benefiting from three windows allowing natural light from "every which way but north".

The tree has flourished but never bloomed. Its beauty and lemonade fragrance keep it safe from the compost pile. Pruning is still necessary to keep it below ceiling level. The pruned branches of lemon leaves grace all our wildflower and daffodil bouquets.

The alkaline soil, late spring frosts and hungry critters have foiled much of our gardening efforts here at Badboulder but a child's science experiment has provided us one of our greater gardening successes.

FROM THE KNOTHOLE: Hey, all you wannabe gardeners, botanists, and landscape artists, this is a note from the guy around the house, you know, the guy who actually does most of this stuff. If you want a lemon tree, take Martha's advice and go to your local tree nursery, buy a potted, well developed Meyers lemon tree, and wa-la, without waiting 11 years, you got it, lemons and all. Because this tree is a lemon, you know, no lemons yet. So, I'll see you next time. Still be here slugging it out.

We Hiked the Mountain

We're back from a scorcher of a vacation to Phoenix, taking advantage of Maria's willingness to pet sit as she finished packing her belongings to stow away while she drills through basic training and learns the skills necessary to be a health care specialist in the USArmy.

In preparation for slugging through basic with eighteen year old recruits, Maria has run and walked the hilly streets of Yarnell and mastered a rocky mountainside path. Recently, David decided the time was right to hike a little used, rolling -rock strewn road locally called the water tower road. Maria and I donned our doc martins and made several evening treks.

Yarnell's businesses border Highway 89, which sits in a narrow valley. Badboulder is located at the base of Boulder mountain to the west. Our hike took us a distance up one of the Weaver mountains to the east of the highway. Thus, after trudging a mile or so up the Weaver, we had a great view of our house. Due to medical conditions I had not made the hike since completing the exterior of our house so it was rewarding to look across and view a home that looks complete. We determined that we would come back during morning hours for more ideal lighting to use our camera. Today we made the climb, thankful for some cloud cover, a cooling breeze and no rattlesnakes. We did encounter a baby horny toad and wished him luck, as the terrain offers no water.

I'm back to working on my tile and pebble mosaic, along with painting the deck in Santa Fe grey, when I'm not at the blender whipping up fruit smoothies and frozen mochas.

DIY Multi-media Mosiac

Today I'm applying a smooth layer of drywall compound as the base for a mosaic of two peacocks to be made of small pebbles, small bits of tile, stained glass, and stained glass leading. I have made patterns by rubbing the antique carved wooden columns that support our bathtub surround. I used a crayon on sketch paper, then highlighted the edges and features with magic marker. A copy of the tracing, to be cut apart, provides the pattern for the small details such as the peacocks' tail spots, eyes, beak, and crown.

The construction of Badboulder has never been about resale; and yet I paused a bit for input from daughters about my decision to add the mural to our master bathroom wall. The bathroom is 16 X 16 with a cathedral ceiling that reaches 17 feet in height; the size allows for a spacious vanity and tub. Both of these necessities are tiled in Tuscan stone, 6 inch tiles from Lowes, with a band of large, smooth pebbles collected from travels (Paris, Greece, Macedonia, Del Mar Dog Beach, and Germany) with family. The walls are painted in a taupe color, the tile also taupe. I am counting on green plants to add some pizazz. The wooden columns are mahogany and the door surround is painted in Wild Horse which is compatible with the columns. The door surround features 6th-14th century Macedonian icon pictures, part of an artist's portfolio purchased in an antique shop in Skopje. The pictures are awaiting polyurethane, the final part of the decoupage process. I admired the peacock murals in some Roman ruins in the south of Macedonia and felt they would ad to the old world decor. David describes it as out Temple of Doom bathroom decor but to each his own.

Leslie gave me the confidence I needed with her comments about this being an "over the top bathroom" and then a clincher of "your grandkids will never say, my Baba really knew how to choose a nice shade of taupe but they will always remember a peacock mural". This project requires my best as masonry is most difficult to scrape off one's wall.

I'm excited to have an indoor task today as the temperature may reach 115 degrees in PHX; this means 100 for Boulder Mountain. Wish me luck.

DIY Fish & Frog Pond

While we were constructing our own home there were periods of time when I couldn't contribute much to the process. Landscaping (keeping the chaparral cut) kept me busy; but local fish ponds were so much more appealing than brush cutting that I began to read Sunset articles proclaiming that fantastic ponds could be built in a weekend. We discussed and discarded the idea of commercial liners, bought Sunset's pond book and laid out the area. I volunteered to do the digging. Two summer vacations later, I had pick-axed the required depth through a decomposed granite boulder and we were ready for cement blocks. David laid the blocks for the rectangular 4 by 8 by 4 deep pond, holding a bit over 400 gallons of water, coated it with a masonry product, and I sealed with specialty coatings . After hearing stories about saving fish in the driveway during a raging monsoon storm, we created an overflow in our pond. The overflow has seen our fish through many a flooding rainstorm. We filled the pond to check for leaks and waited a month before subjecting any plant life or fish to any toxins the new masonry products might emit.

The pond has been a source of delight for me as we continued the long time-frame that the construction of Badboulder has taken for one person--David. We were the grateful recipients of twenty or so large fantailed gold fish and one huge Koi when a neighbor moved . Old Spot, the Koi, soon came to have his head petted while consuming his twice daily feedings of pellets. It was a sad day for us two years later when we learned the dangers of herons (guess it might have been a hawk). A horse training ranch 4 miles away boasts a "lake" complete with herons.

Through the years, I have rescued tadpoles from becoming crispy critters when their small pools of water began to dry. Frogs are such ingrates and usually hop off, but a few remain loyal to sit in the pond and be admired. We can now sit on our deck and hear nightly croaking from a bog that we recently created.

Our water lilies have been spectacular this year. We started with only two, gifts from a neighbor in return for a week's pet sitting. She also supplied us with water plants that keep our pond clean. Through the years David has re-potted the newly propagated lilies and we now have all our pond size permits.

Please enjoy these pictures.

Airshow late for 4th of July

This afternoon the noise level outside Badboulder reached such great heights that I thought a commercial plane was landing in the southwest part of our yard. The blast was too loud for phone conversation, so I went out on the deck to check. Twenty fighter jets from Luke were flying in horizontal formation, then broke into five groups of four. Each group performed perfect curving dips from the horizontal line, three going west and two toward the east. The white patterns remained in the blue sky for a few minutes. I wish this dramatic presentation had occured during our wonderful 4th of July celebration together--certainly outclassed the fireworks display, which like many in these difficult economic times was done too soon.

This isn't the first time we've marvelled at the powerful flying machines that Luke Air force Base sends our way; however it has been quite a long time since I've seen such spectactular flying. The eerie, empty skies following 911 were broken only by Luke pilots. No one complained of the noise level during those dark days as they flew in low and loud over the Congress/Yarnell area.

Badboulder's early history

The purchase of Badboulder was finalized July 21, 1994; Hilltop Realty, owned and operated by Larry and Sandy Oldman, who conducted our process. The information that we received about our property was sparse. We did learn that it had been sold off of Senator John Hayes ranch many years ago to a prospector from Texas. He, in turn sold it to a couple from CA who were planning to build a retirement home. Before they made any changes to the land, the husband died and we bought the land from his widow.In the spring of 2009, Mr. Crosswaite from the state of Nevada stopped at our gate while I was giving an early morning shot of water to our lupines and iris plants. He introduced himself as an eighty year old who wanted to see, just one more time, the home he helped his mother build of local stone when he was a mere six-year old. That house neighbors Badboulder to the south and is still standing.Mr. Croswaite was a wealth of information about Badboulder's early homeowner's history. The prospector owner from Texas was referred to as Price, a last name, by Mr. Crosswaite so I will take that liberty. Price "had money" compared to his neighbors. He built a small home of wood and dug the best well in the neighborhood. Price was fond of drink, so much so that he once mistook a large prickly- pear cactus for a man trespassing on his land and proceeded to punch him in the eye. The neighbors assisted him in removal of the spines the following day. The large amount of whiskey bottles we've found in between boulders would lend support to this story. Mr. Crosswaite also related that his mother and he panned for gold in our dry wash most every Sunday afternoon along with "the Chinese". At that time, Chinese workmen were completing the railroad lines from Hillside to Wickenberg and living in the Congress area. He reported finding many nuggets in our wash. Mr. Crosswaite said that he had no fear of mountain lions because there was a bounty on them and the government took care of them. He was astonished to learn that we are visited by javalinas, sometimes large herds of javalinas, on a daily basis.

Build your own Home--The Beginning

We started the house on a glorious, blue-skied day --two dreamers, one wheelbarrow, a concrete mixing hoe, indigenous materials and a 90 pound bag of $1.97 cement. With a disdainful disregard for the inaccessibility to the chosen site by any means of product delivery or engineering assistance—think crane or caterpillar here—we began the foundation nestled in and over the age old boulders.

When we purchased Badboulder, our house site was lost in a thicket of cats’ claw, mistletoe-infested scrub oak, witch hazel, and holly oak. On a quirky October morn when a light shower turned to snow I assured myself that rattlesnakes would most certainly have retreated and crawled belly down (there wasn’t nearly as much belly those days) through an animal tunnel toward the magnificent stones that would become our home’s anchor. With a vengeance I began the clearing process that will take my lifetime. Bow saw and a pair of manual hedge trimmers were and still are my tools of choice. After subduing the chaparral the exposed boulders became my focal point of the property. David assured me that a house could indeed be built above the boulders, the tree growing in middle of the site was not a problem, see it has a lot of damage in it, it’s sure to come out easily. Yes, those are some sizable boulders that will need to be covered by the foundation but that’s not a problem either. And so it was settled, we would build a small house on the site to live out our retirement days.

The left picture is of Matt as he removes the remnants of the troublesome tree; the boulder on the right became a major player in the construction of our wine bottle window located on the first floor. The picture on the right, was taken July 13, 2010, a front view of our small retirement house.