Decisions, Decisions...

So we have changed our mind once again as to what type of home to build, which is why I said in the last blog that we were "currently leaning toward building an earth-bermed Earthship home using earthbags."  We have been working on determining what type of home best suits our needs for over a year.  We have settled on a few, researched and bypassed a few, and changed our minds.  Currently, we are thinking of using shipping containers on the second floor, concrete columns for structural support on the first floor, hempcrete to fill in the walls, and ISP boards for the roof with a flat, living roof.

Over the past year, we've perused earth-sheltered, concrete dome, straw bale, geodesic dome, your typical Earthship with tires, cob, cordwood, rammed earth, yurts, and papercrete as possible building styles/materials.  They have all been ruled out for one reason or another.  No matter what we do, we plan to make use of passive solar as much as possible.  We are hoping to not have to heat this home.  We plan to put in an old-fashioned wood cookstove to supplement.

Otherwise, we have been working on getting the septic and well (that are already in place) approved.  It's been a tedious, frustrating process and I won't drag you through the bureaucratic details.  Hopefully the building won't go so badly, but I have my doubts.  We also are planning to move the two sheds that are currently on the property.  One is 14' x 24' and the other about half that size.  We'll document this and share it when we do.

Mathieu jacked up the large shed to check it integrity, and all looks good.

Luckily we have a neighbor with a back hoe whom we are hiring.  We were going to rent or buy (and then resell later) and do it ourselves, but we realized it was a better deal to just pay him to do it with his machine.  He's helped to expose the septic and clear some stumps from the growing area.  He'll be coming out soon to level the area for the sheds.

This was taken a few months ago when we first had the septic dug up for inspection.  Yes, that's how long the process is taking!  Septic is finally passed, now onto the well issues... (or should I say lost paperwork issues).

The Beginning

Well, we purchased some additional property last month next to our existing house and property (now totaling almost 5 acres).  We plan to build a house on the new property and eventually use our existing one as a studio (for art, dance, luthierie, herbalism,...).  We're currently leaning toward building an earth-bermed Earthship home using earthbags.  We also plan to cultivate around an acre in organic food production.  The rest of the property is forest.  We plan to be off-grid ultimately, or at least be set-up to survive off-grid if, or should I say when, needed.

Our current house:

An A-frame nestled in the lush forest of the Virginia moutains.

The newly acquired land facing South:

 

The newly acquired land facing North:

This is really only about a third of the new property; the rest has 3 vehicles, 2 sheds, and other junk on it.  Right now we are working on getting the junk off the property left from the prior owner, moving a 14' x 24' shed out of the growing area - which we will document here - and getting the already installed septic checked out.  We also need to remove a bunch of stumps from when the prior owner cleared years ago and take down a few trees to let more light into the future garden site.  We plan to utilize the wood for building the house.  There will be some substantial Oak beams.  I had a hard time coming to terms with cutting down 100 year old trees and decided I would sit with them to see what they had to say, letting them have the final word.  The strong message I got was "Life goes on."  I felt the trees were okay with what we were going to do.  It's for a good cause, is going to be done with respect, there will be no waste, and the rest of the property is a woodland sanctuary where there are some old trees that I made a promise to years ago to protect.  Life does feed upon itself and taking life is necessary for life.  What matters is that it is done with respect, without greed and gluttony, and nothing is wasted.

You can see from the pictures that the property is full of plants of all sorts; I'll be going through and determining what to save and then we'll transplant them to their permanent locations.  As Mathieu says "It's hard to weedwack when you're married to an Herbalist!"  We're saving the important medicinals, the natives, and the plants good for wildlife.