Building our Adobe Home: Let the fires begin!

Fireplace here?

Friday we had a fireplace foundation and a blank space in the northeast corner of our living room. Today we have a fireplace. Over the weekend Joe Tibbets of Southwest Solar Adobe held a Rumford Fireplace Workshop and our adobe home was the host site. This was a hands-on, working class. Our fireplace was the class project and everyone worked really hard.

Deborah gives a hand.

The class consisted of masonry contractors, builders, adobe professionals, and owner/builders. It was great to see how the women were so eager to jump in with their trowels, get their hands dirty, and lay bricks. As the fire box began to grow and was capped by the unique throat sculpture, the class left our signatures on it for posterity. But three professionals from Soledad Canyon Earth Builders, guided by our instructor Jim Buckley , were at the heart of the creative design and construction effort. They built the arch forms, pieced together the brick trim (fashioned after a similar fireplace spotted by Sassy in Santa Fe), and dressed up the masonry. Thank you Jim Buckley and Soledad Canyon!!!

Artists at work.

Signed throat.

The unique thing about the Rumford Fireplace (named after Count Rumford who wrote about them in the 18th Century) is that they are tall and shallow (ours is only 12" deep), and engineered with a sophisticated streamlined throat to eliminate unwanted turbulence and exhaust smoke without loss of heat. No grate is used in a Rumford, the fire is built in teepee fashion against the back wall of the firebox. The fire burns hot and clean, minimizing the buildup of creosol in the chimney. Ultimately, stucco will encase the body of the fireplace, leaving the brick arch outline the firebox. A matching brick ledge above will give us a place to hang Christmas stockings. So, fun was had by all and we have a beautiful, super efficient fireplace to warm our living room during those cold winter nights in our Land of Enchantment.