A Closer Look at the Materials and Construction

These are exposed adobe bricks in the attic. If you didn't know, you would think they were baked or fired bricks because they are rock-hard. See how soft - like frosting - the mud mortar was when they built the wall?
Compare the attic adobes to this damp wall in the cellar. You can carve at these adobes because they are so soft and crumbly. Here you glimpse the stone foundation. See the one dark brick, the black sheep of the wall?
Now we are in the cellar looking at the stone foundation - oolitic lime-stone with earthen mortar, earthen plaster, and white-wash or lime-wash flaking off. You see how soft and compatible the materials are after 150 years of settling?
A view of the cellar showing the cement block retaining wall that was put in when there were some structural issues in the 40's?

This is the exterior where I removed some of the stucco to investigate the materials. Here you see that the wall is becoming hollow as the adobes turn to dust. There is some stone stacked horizontally to the left, and mud plaster buffer coats nestled up to the stucco to the right.