I am not fully sure on the blog etiquette here, but I wanted to show you a blog that I found and their “contact” link is broken. I am guessing they won’t mind, but they can always contact me if they want this taken down.
This is a cobb and straw-bale mountain cottage with an earth sheltered (green) roof…
Take a look at this cobb and straw “mountain cottage” with an earth sheltered roof. I am not sure I really trust cobb or straw-bale construction in my SE Michigan climate, but their location in New Mexico is pretty cold and wet also… I don’t plan to give up my shotcrete cement plans and I could never take this long to build my house (although my overall timeline is already really long), but I think it is a real work of art worth showing to you all…
Elevation drawing
One funny side thing I noticed… It may have taken them 4 years to build their home, but their architect went from concept to permits in less than 4 months, which is pretty fantastic. I would have liked to have seen more of the drawings. I guess my home is more complicated and larger.
I also liked the condensed timeline layout, so I am adding a timeline to my site… It will make more sense then the blog when things start happening.
Here are a handful of pics from their site, you can find many more and even a bunch of other projects that I have not gone thru yet.
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Elevation drawing
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They hauled much of the earth up to the roof in buckets… Wow.
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This is a cobb and straw-bale mountain cottage with an earth sheltered (green) roof…
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Many hours of hand labor went into this home.
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The majority of the house was built by hand, I love the thick walls, the wood, even the colors.
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Keeping the new plaster misted…
Again, here is the link… http://www.claysandstraw.com/projects/mtncttge/mtncttge.htm
Earth Sheltered Timeline, 2006 thru 2011
2006: Started seriously thinking about and researching the idea of more sustainable living (Earth Sheltered Origins) and started discussing it with my wife… She liked the idea, so the research got more serious.
2007: Shared the idea with my friends, I am sure a few thought it was wacky, but not many said so, and a few were down right encouraging. Some how, it is all more serious when you say it out loud. But life got in the way, I lost most of my nest egg, then the crash of 2008 cost me my home equity… Plans went on hold, but the research continued (the library is free).
2008: Books, books and more books. I read 28 in 2008. With all that reading combined with my own engineering and management degrees, I decided that, If I ever overcame my deplorable lack of experience, I could probably write my own book when this is all done. I started taking notes, book summaries, etc. I started working on early plans for the house…
2009: I decided that the financial crash could be a good thing if I bought land before the market bounced back. (and here is a link to my suggestions for anyone else looking for land). We spent the whole summer driving around and looking at properties. Wow, that was tiring. Eventually, we found a great piece of land for a great price, and tossed in a very low ball offer, they agreed… Meanwhile, work progressed on the house design.
2010: More reading and working on the house plans… We decided to flip the whole design around to take advantage of the site. This included taking advantage of the easier driveway access to the south and the nice view to the north east and required major changes to the passive solar earth sheltered design). I also planted hundreds of trees. This was long before my website, so I didn’t manage to write down as much of this as I should have.
Since I never took care of the “tree story” elsewhere on this site, I will sneak it in here. I had ordered several hundred trees from our county conservation authority for about $80. I called and asked how big the trees were and the guy told me they were 3 years old… I imagined them being in at least a 1 gallon bucket each and did some quick math… Wow, I was going to need some help. My brother-in-law bugged his boss to get permission to use a big van and trailer, both of which he had to empty and clean out first. When we got to the county fair grounds to pick up the trees, we discovered that they were bare root trees in bundles of 25 or 50 and all fit in a single garbage bag that I could hold in 1 hand… Oops, over prepared. Here is a pic of Sherri holding a couple bundles. The only person not laughing was my brother-in-law.
2011: more reading and house plans… More land taxes to pay. Washtenaw is an expensive county, plus the our share of the cost to repave the private road… Ouch.
2012: Things start to get interesting…
So you want the short version?
2006-2011: We were learning, purchasing the land and designing/redesigning the home
2012: We tried to get started in 2012, but it didn’t work out.
2013: We started working with the architect and engineer to finalize the final design, but it was done too late in the year to start construction.
2014: We actually break ground and get the basement, septic, well and other key components in place…
2015: Start to make visible progress
2016: We get above ground, but still not done
