Kate has a wide variety of building experience from affordable residential home construction to technical scenic carpentry to museum-level fabrication.

Mutual Self Help

I worked with the Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah as a Construction Assistant from 2020 to 2022 to build 9 affordable homes with the USDA Rural Initiative’s Mutual Self Help Program in Moab, Utah. Homeowners spend 30 hours a week cooperatively working on the homes of their neighbors and their own homes. I was responsible for teaching tools and construction techniques and managing day to day construction tasks underneath the construction supervisor. These future homeowners typically enter the program with no construction experience and I had the opportunity to teach them blocking, interior framing, window and door installation, metal and asphalt roofing, soffit and fascia installation, flooring, tiling, finish trim work and much more.

6 homes at Windgate Village 1 being completed on the bottom left side, with 5 foundations from Windgate Village 2 being formed across the bottom.

First phases of home construction at the new Moab Area Community Land Trust with 9 homes being built by Housing Authority families.

Natural Building

I did a full-time, six month internship with Community Rebuilds during the first phase of their Living Building Challenge Projects at Mill Creek. These 2 strawbale homes were part of an aggressive regenerative construction certification and included the first residentially permitted greywater kitchen sinks and composting toilets in the state of Utah. Kitchen cabinets were repurposed from a local school demolition, the showers are tadelakt and the living space has an earthen plaster floor. The wall systems are a combination of drywall, straw bale, plaster lathe, wattle and daub, cob, and pallet cob. The internship was “foundation to finish” and included all parts of the building process besides mechanicals installation. Check out this news coverage from the Moab Sun News.

I built this section of the dry stack retaining wall between the two homes.

Process shot of brown coat plastering interior walls.

Pallet cob walls with a first lift of earthen plaster on the floor.

Process shot of an interior cob wall.

Plaster lath made from plywood construction scraps.

Wattle and daub truth window.

Tadelakt niche that I plastered in the shower.

Plastering the ceiling with a kaolin clay mix.

Forming the foundation

This modified post and beam structure uses the forms from the foundation as the posts to save material.

Beams and roof trusses installed.

Metal roofing

Stacked bales

Brown coat of exterior earthen plaster.

Initial coat of lime plaster on the exterior

Final pigment coat with tongue and groove siding on the mechanical room.

Kitchen cabinets were repurposed from a local school demolition. Countertops are poured concrete.

Angled bevels from the front door and a truth window with a frame I made from reclaimed wood.

High polish Limestrong finish on a curved drywall interior wall.

Final interior plaster finishes

Community Solar Dehydrator

The Moab Community Solar Dehydrator was a Bee Inspired Gardens project in collaboration with USU Permaculture Initiative, Youth Garden Project, and the Resiliency Hub. I was involved in all phases of this project from visioning, drafting, fundraising, building and managing a small group of volunteers.

This “downdraft” style dehydrator means that the sun heats air in a clear chute (solar collector) on the exterior of the dehydrator. This warm air then travels upward into the top of the dehydration chamber. As the air cools and gathers moisture insie the chamber, it becomes heavier. The air falls to the bottom where it is sucked out through a false wall that vents on the north side. The dehydrator is airtight, so this constant flow of air and heat sucks the moisture out of fruit, meat, or veggies.

A peer-reviewed fact sheet with open-source plans and instructions on building a community solar dehydrator, coauthored by Dr. Roslynn Brain McCann and myself can viewed here.

Moab Little Free Pride Library

The Moab Little Free Pride Library was a collaboration with Desirae Miller at her Adobe Garden Apothecary in Moab, UT. Almost all of the components were upcycled waste or found materials. The books were supplied by Back of Beyond Books and the paint job was finished by Des.

Habitat for Humanity

I spent a year as an AmeriCorps National Direct Construction Crew Lead with Habitat for Humanity MidOhio in Columbus, OH. I lead volunteers in the construction of 2-5 bedroom affordable residential homes in the Reeb-Hosack and Linden neighborhoods of Columbus. This included interior and exterior framing, blown-in and low-pressure spray foam insulation, window and door installation, vinyl siding, interior painting, click-lock flooring, cabinet and countertop installation, finish trim and landscaping. I was particularly proud to spend much of my time assisting with management of the Women Build project which was completed by at least 70 percent women and non-binary volunteers.

The finished Women Build house

Rear of the finished Women Build house.

This completed home was a Veteran Build house

Cabinetry installation on the Women Build house

Pump jacks aiding in installing the vinyl siding on this two story Women Build house.

Finished interior showing windows, paint, flooring and trim all installed by volunteers.

Gable end trusses installed as a package on the ground before being lifted into place by a crane.

Most volunteers come to Habitat for Humanity with little to no experience building before.

Installing blocking on the garage of the Women Build house.

A volunteer’s first time using a power tool.

Bike and Build

In 2011, I raised 4,000 dollars for affordable housing causes and biked from Maine to Santa Barbara with Bike and Build to raise awareness for affordable housing and build houses along the way. The 34 of us participants did the roughly 4,000 mile trip at an average of about 75 miles a day.

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Scenic Carpentry

Coming soon