Permits are in here, there, and everywhere for all the lovely things we are trying to do and so now we wait.  Well, we don’t just wait: I have continued to collect rocks for the gabion walls.

Speaking of which, I have had a small revelation regarding the interior gabion walls.  It is that instead of trying to build a mesh from floor to ceiling to hold all the rocks, I will instead build a series of rectangular baskets that I can set in place, fill with rocks, stack on each other, etc. This way, the walls will be more stable and I can add nichos, shelves, variation, an so on and so forth.  This will also resolve two issues that I had been grappling with.

The first was a concern about how to make the wall stable enough to rise 8 feet in the air and not risk that it might, just might, collapse.  I had resolved to run rebar supports every few feet on the outside of the mesh as additional support.  I was uncertain about how that would look, and if I didn’t like it I could try something else, but I figured I would have to try something.

The second was the posts. Specifically the beautiful recycled barn-wood posts I will be using to both hold up the west loft (that lies above the gabions) and to look great.  Nailing or stapling the mesh to the posts would sully them.  Attaching the mesh to the insides of the posts with some form of hook does not seem feasible for many reasons, and would look iffy in any event.

This new idea solves all problems.  It also opens an additional possibility that I had not thought of earlier: ease of revision.  I could switch out the stones; add an interior pass-through or door; or any of a number of other possibilities on the fly.  It is something to keep in mind.

But little of this is more that academic until we get the plans approved.  And people wonder why I am a libertarian.