The Golan Home

I guess anyone that is in the process of building a house encounters many new words. In the past couple of days a learned a bunch of them as I pocked around online.

Here are some, all related (to the best of my knowledge) to Adobe style houses:

• Kiva fireplace – A traditional Southwestern fireplace. Usually located in the corner of the room.
• Vigas – A round roof beam made of a peeled tree trunk whose end projects outside an adobe wall.
• Latillas – thin peeled sticks used as a ceiling material spanning the vigas in an adobe home. Traditionally latillas supported the dirt roof above. Today they are part of the adobe ‘look’.
• Corbels - typical of southwestern design, they are a horizontal element that helps distribute the weight of the beam as it rests on the posts. Also serve as a decorative accent
• Lintel - the wood beam that spans the window and door openings. According to New Mexico contractor David Peterson (www.davidcpeterson.com), the width of the opening, and the load of the roof it will be supporting, determines the size of the lintel.
• Saltillo - natural clay tiles, hand-made in Mexico, with a rustic character resembling terra cota.
• Gypsum Plaster – A type of plaster used on exterior walls

*Checkout the construction of David C Peterson’s award winning house Adobe by the Rio Grande – www.nmbuilder.com. It pretty much has all these elements and he explains a lot about the adobe construction process.