I recently returned from a 2-week trip to Kyrgyzstan where we built houses with Habitat for Humanity. Kyrgyzstan is an extremely beautiful country with over 90 percent of the land covered by high mountains. The country shares a border with China and is part of the silk road, an ancient trade route between east and west.

Our construction site contained only 1 power tool, an electric drill. The most used hand tool was the hatchet, which was used for chopping tenons or shaping a wooden beam to fit. We built duplex houses on a concrete slab. The frame consisted of rough sawn lumber that was nailed to the mud sills and anchored to the concrete by 3/8" rebar. The mudsills were hammered in place using a sledge hammer on top of the rebar. The rebar was then bent over to keep the mudsill in place. All wood was cut by hand using a short western style hand saw, a task that took two members of our team several days. Interior, exterior and the ceiling contained reeds that were helped in place by a few wooden slats. Clay resembling stiff mud was applied using wooden floats to the outside and inside walls and to the space above the ceiling. The walls were then covered with wire mesh and outside walls received a second coat of clay followed by stucco. The interior walls received a second coat of clay followed by a final coat of plaster. The roof was covered with metal roofing. This method of construction is very inexpensive and provides a lot of insulation for the cold winters and hot summers. A house cost approximately $10,000 to build including materials and labor. Although most of the construction is done by volunteers, the plumbing, electrical and a radiant heating system were installed in the concrete slab floor by professionals. Our team of 12 people along with local volunteers framed two houses and almost finished two other houses during our 2-week stay. Our team made many new friends and showed the Kyrgyz people the friendliness of the American people.

On the way home, we stopped by Paris to visit relatives and I was amazed to see a recent kitchen and bedroom remodel which exposed the 300-year old oak beams. The beams in the house were covered in clay similar to our construction methods in Kyrgyzstan. All joints consist of pegged mortise and tenon. I enjoyed visiting the cathedrals and museums in Paris which contained outstanding examples of finely crafted Oak and Mahogany furniture made with hand tools.

Working today with power tools allows us to build houses and furniture faster. But only time will tell if some of what we build today will last as long as the houses and furniture built over the past several centuries.