Our Earth Sheltered Home | Page 11 | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

Boy does this take me back! We would have liked to have built a semi-bermed house, but the engineering and county building department gave us DIYers nightmares so we ended up opting for a 'conventional' style - adobe (which was understood in our location) -

We built pre digital camera days so don't have a lot of pictures to share re construction (shhhh - we left these in a 'time capsule' in the walls for some future discovery). But I so remember all the planning and hard labor - 99% done by our 4 hands and 2 brains. The beauty of (stablized) adobe is that the walls are finished when the laying is done. So the interior is a lovely as the exterior. And yes those are real beams - not laminated or 'boxed' finished plus real tongue and groove 2 X 8s for roof deck -

There was one project that I did by myself and wish I hadn't started but gritted thru - I built all the kitchen cabinets myself from plywood and formica finishing. (NEVER again!)

The clerestory windows not only provided light to the interior, they all opened (long pole) to allow lovely circulation and hot air venting in summer time. (note the stone under the wood stove - came from hill on the property)

And our patio was like wise all mixer made cement and hand laid -

We felt like Michaelangelo must have felt when he sold some of his own 'masterpieces', but like him, it just needed to be done. Actually we are happier for it so all's well that ends well.

KVR said
that is a beautiful home

Thank you and sadly the 'rest of the story' is that it WAS a fabulous place. Set up for homesteading too. However because it was bought as an 'investment' (central California), the buyer did NOT maintain it allowing all the 30+ fruit and nut trees and dry land landscaping (which isn't ZERO water) DIE. He also burnt out the deep cycle batteries for solar system because he didn't maintain the water in them. The next buyers put several horses on the 'lush' pastures which immediately ate those down to a dirt level that 20+ years of pasture management HAD reversed. We are very sad that this happened, but when something is sold, its no longer your concern. And it was DEBT FREE and probably now a mortgage owned property. People don't know the difference between owNing and owE-ing a home/property.