Building separatism

So the walls in my house have a lot of damaged areas, some where the plaster fell off on its own, and some where the ex owners started hammering it down and then never came back to fix it. I can see the big areas of wall separating and falling apart from the bricks. When I knock on the walls, it feels hollow, disconnected. So that's not great.

For now I only want to fix the holes in the plaster, and I've started some experimenting with a mix of clay and the powder created by the rubble on the floor. I've managed to cover a damaged area with a rough mix, and after it dried, smoothed it out with clay alone to create new plaster. This wasn't perfectly even or smooth, but I don't have a problem with that, I'm partial to enrichment of bumpy clay walls.

Since I've worked with clay before, I know it shrinks with drying, so it was going to crack in the drying process. I waited for it to happen, and then smoothed it out with some water. The result was nice! When I tried knocking on the repaired part, it wasn't hollow, it was proper firm wall-knocking sound.

Then I wondered, is it really that easy, can I just fix my walls with just my hands, using clay and remains of the plaster, because at this point it very much feelt so. Encouraged by my success, I continued repairing the more damaged areas in the same way:

I know this looks a bit ugly, and I do have some wall paint, so after this dries I'll try and cover it up. I feel like wall paint is a bit toxic and smells bad so it's a shame to put it over the nice smelling, perfectly healthy and natural clay. Would it be hostile to human guests if I just covered all my walls in clay and then refused to paint them? Like hello welcome to my house, I covered the walls in mud, I swear I'm normal. I just think it smells nice and feels nice to touch. We're not underground and I'm not a zombie.

This is a great closet; it has shelving, it has some hanging space for coats, it's good in size. I can keep my every-day clothing in there and maybe adjust it a bit for the seasons, I love it. 10/10. It doesn't have a functional handle but that's not its fault.

Shelves! This is the shelving space I've been dreaming of. I can keep my linens in here, my extra blankets, my yarn and craft supplies, big sweaters, paintings, there's no end to things that could fit in there. 11/10 I love shelving space so much. I was confused by the hanging stick up there, like what could be so tiny you would hang it above the first shelf? Then I realized it was there so you could, if you liked to, remove the shelves and use it as a hanging closet. I will not be doing that but I like that there's options. Also wish I knew where the bottom shelf was, I want more shelves.

3/10. Only one shelf and too high up. Can be used for winter coats and maybe some shoes. No variety, no fun, this is a one-use closet. Oh and I forgot that I put jesus in there. I threw it in there yelling 'see how you like being in the closet!' and closed the door. I thought I was hilarious.

If you were reading my latest posts, you know I purchased an abandoned house I intend to live in, and it doesn't have a kitchen, or a bathroom. So you might wonder, where do I go for bathroom stuff?

Let's start with the easy stuff, showering! I've already gotten used to not using a real shower. For a year now, I've been heating some water, putting it in a bucket and washing with that, I love it. However I couldn't really do it in the house, as there is no drain, floors would get wet and dirty. And outside, well. Illegal.

I looked around and realized I can do it in the shed. I'm sheltered from view, and the floor is ground. The water will evaporate. Showering in the shed felt amazing! You basically get completely naked in what feels like outdoors and then pour a lot of water on yourself, it's freeing, refreshing, feels like doing something crazy even though it's normal. The well water is freezing cold so it feels incredible in the heat. I'm happy with that solution for the summer, will think of something in the winter.

The property has a field toilet, and before you think that's weird and outdated, the neighbours also use a field toilet. So it's normal here. It is however, very old, and I just peeked in it once. It didn't look great, the sitting place was a styrofoam board with a hole in it. I decided not to use it.

My plan for a toilet was to build up a compost toilet, I had already picked a location, I'm just waiting to gather up enough bricks to put together a composting area protected from the animals. I also need to gather enough leaves and hay to make it into a proper composting pile; this also takes care of the smell. I've been reading 'the humanure handbook' and if what it says is true, composting can eradicate any pathogen and bacteria given enough time, and create the perfect fertilizer for the garden. I'm excited to try it.

The neighbours actually asked me about this, and I suggested the term 'composting toilet' to them, assuming they've never heard of it, but to my surprise, they told me they actually use all of the stuff from their field toilet for garden fertilizer. With one catch; they don't compost it first. They just gather the stuff in the fall and dig it into the soil. From what I've read that's not the ideal way to use it, because there's still going to be pathogens and bacteria harmful to humans, but it's also how they do it in some areas in asia, and it's kind of okay? In the way that there's more chances for infections, but most people do just fine. The neighbours were very proud of this and bragged about how beautiful their garden gets after getting so much nitrogen.

Keep up the great posts!!!! And make sure to take breaks when needed, don't overexert yourself :)

Thank you! I am in love with the house, and with the blue. I know walls need the be re-finished and repainted but I don't want to touch any of the blue walls, they're too beautiful.

But I will have to clear some of the area in order to plant something. I comfort myself in the knowledge there will still be plenty of tall grass left over, I won't completely destroy the bug ecosystem.

Inspired by my 'use the ground covered by a pile of wood to plant' scenario, I thought of a plan. What if instead of cutting grass, I use all those rotten boards to flatten and cover it. That way the bugs can just relocate where they like it best, it's not a violent action. The soil will receive some moisture from it, the grass will eventually die and become food to different types of bugs, turn to compost, and as the end result, I will have a perfect gardening space for my fall garden.

Inspired by this, I braved to finish unraveling the big pile of beams and boards, it was easier now because some of it was just getting dragged to the grass! Here's how much grass I covered:

I did step on a nail once, but since every board had like 7 nails sticking out and beams had 30 each, this went well. It didn't pierce deep into me and I'm vaccinated against tetanus so I feel fine.

Here's all the wooden beams I stored into the shed:

If you wonder why I put them together in this specific way, I learned to do it as a child but now I can explain why.

Putting a row of sticks inbetween rows of beams ensures that every beam has access to air, that means it's less likely to start rotting or spreading moisture in the structure. The second reason is weight distribution; every beam is putting weight on the sticks, holding them firmly in place and making sure the next row has a flat structure to lie on. As a result, this is stable and won't topple over, nothing can fall down on me, I can climb it safely and store other stuff on top. This is also a good way to store wooden boards you want to protect from rotting.

I did find a few wooden boards that aren't rotted yet, and could be used as shelving or maybe an outdoor table. I'm excited thinking about that! I don't have to use a hammer, I could just arrange bricks to hold them up. That way they're easily re-used too.

There's a lot more rubble to clean; looking at it from afar I assumed it was all bricks, but they looked yellow and dirty. I figured I'd just clean them. Once I climbed on top of the rubble, I grabbed a yellow brick and it simply fell apart in my hands.

It was not bricks. This ex barn was built using unbaked raw clay! Clay was mixed with wheat husks and shaped into bricks. I immediately got so excited, because I didn't know people used to do that, and how awesome is that. This means two things: one, I have a nearly unlimited supply of clay directly in my front yard, most of it brick shaped. Two, if I don't clear it before the rain, it's going to melt into the ground.

I'd rather not convert most of my soil into a clay area; even though it's better at retaining water than siga, it's still not the best for gardening, and it would take many years for wild plants to want to grow in it. It takes sturdy and deep roots to push through clay, most garden plants wouldn't manage it. It is good as an underlayer beneath the fertile soil, but imagine trying to remove all soil to install an underlayer? You can do it in a raised garden but it would disturb the ecosystem if done on a wider level.

I didn't really know what the furniture was, except some looked like closets. I like closets, I like when they have shelving space.

It was on my third day I realized I had never even seen the entry room, I don't know how big it is or what the walls are like, due to the pile of furniture. So I started to pull things apart.

This is when I was met with the horrible recognition. I own 4 large, vintage, heavy, multiple elements connected, display case cabinets. Or how we call it, vitrine.

I had never liked them. I didn't like that they had glass in it. Or how many locked parts that I couldn't get my grabby little child filgers in. As an adult, I'm opposed to how huge they are. It's going to dominate any room you put it in by its sheer size. What I feel the most opposed is how heavy and difficult to move they are. It takes 100% of my power to move it half an inch, followed by dry heaving.

But, it's real wood furniture. It's heavy because it's quality wood. No part of it is plastic or badly made. Some have detailed decorated parts. They're all still in one piece, some looking unscathed because of how well made they are. It is quality furniture.

Since I barely moved some of it, and I cannot move them outside, I'm doomed to keep them from lack of other options. If anyone in croatia would like to travel to get one, you can have it. But you would need a truck, and 8 people who could pick it up and move it outside, one of which will die on the mission, flattened by the moster cabinet.

Okay now you've listened to my complaining, I'm going to share with you how to restore such old furniture so it no longer smells bad. You know how old houses get that 'old house smell' and no matter how you wash them it just doesn't get removed? I can remove it.

The old house smell is mostly lingering in all the wooden features. Walls can be cleaned, aired out and repainted, windows can be cleaned, but the wooden furniture retains it; it comes from mold that the wood absorbed. I learned this trick in my last rental because the old smell was so bad I couldn't breathe.

First you need to wash the wooden furniture throughly; for furniture as old as this I needed to do it 3 times. Then you mix 50%water and 50% vinegar in a small container, grab a clean cloth, dip in the solution so it's damp, and wipe thorougly. You have to reach every corner, behind every shelf, top and bottom. Then you leave it to air out for several days until all the vinegar evaporates.

The mold will get neutralized by vinegar and your furniture will smell neutral or pleasant!

If you wanna go a step further and remove any scratches on your furniture, and make it look shiny, mix oil+vinegar 50/50 in a small bowl, take a small cloth and rub it into scratches or damaged parts. It will darken them to the point of making it look undamaged.

I've decided to take out all the glass from the awful vitrinas and try to make a greenhouse out of it. What else would you expect from a plant lover with access to some glass.