Our land and cob house, exterior

A walk up our driveway to our cob house, then a quick walk around the exterior.

Some details about the house:

Construction took about 2 years. Inside area is about 230 sq. ft. (22 sq. meters), plus a sleeping loft bringing the total to about 325 sq. ft. (30 sq. meters). The foundation is rubble trench, about 4 ft. deep (below frost line). The stem wall is about 2ft. high, made of urbanite (recycled concrete chunks) and earth bags (polypropylene feed bags rammed with lime-stabilized earth). Walls are cob, about 2ft. thick at the base, tapering to 18 inches.

The outside walls are plastered with lime. The inside are plastered with an earth plaster (kaolin clay, manure, sand, wheat paste), and painted with a home made milk-protein (casein) paint. Floor is poured adobe (well, basically the same stuff the walls are made of), sealed with boiled linseed oil and beeswax.

Solar electric, wood stove for heat, gas (propane) refrigerator, hot water and cook stove.

We hired someone to do the roof, but the rest of the house was done by us, with some help from friends.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• cob
• house
• earth
• lime
• plaster
• owner
• builder

[tisilto]

Beautiful channel and videos!! Thank you very much for posting...I was wondering about the cost and capability or the electric system you have...I am in the process of building my own house in the country but I wanna go rammed earth instead....Could you let me know how much the electric system was and how much output you get from it??....Thanks in advance for your kindness and good luck in building your bigger house...

[redlever]

@tisilto The electrical system was about $9,000 about 3 years ago. It is about 650W max output from the panels, and we probably get about 4 kilowatt hours / day depending on sunshine. It requires some awareness about how much juice we're using, but it is good for our needs.

[redlever]

I like the word "austere" better. :-) This region is called the high desert plateau, and gets around 30cm of rainfall per year. But it does support life in many fascinating ways, and it can be painfully beautiful. Check this photo, for example: softmoth.com/18137-sunset-pano­rama.jpg

[TACOVAN]

Nice house and property. I really like the look of those big buttresses. What led you to include them in the design?

[redlever]

@TACOVAN We were unsure of how strong our walls would be, so we just overbuilt. Originally we'd planned to have a simple gable roof running the other way, so the ridge pole would bear down on the buttress between the two larger windows in the south. A major drawback of the buttresses, as built, is they block a lot of sunshine and really reduce our solar gain. If doing it over, I'd probably plan to use wood or steel supports in the south to maximize window area.

[BoldDesigner]

Do you work remotely or live close to work? Is this a getaway home?

[redlever]

@BoldDesigner i work from home, and my wife works part time in town about 12 miles away

[redlever]

@dtmbcorp: No, we're VERY fortunate to live in one of the few places in the USA where we don't have to worry about inspections. We do have septic, electric (if tied to the grid, which we're not), and plumbing inspections. We didn't borrow money, either, so that meant: NOBODY CAN TELL US WHAT TO DO. :-)

[MasterVeggie]

very cool.. thanks for posting

[blu3h0g]

interior ?

[singledad1234]

country single parent family LOOKING FOR A COMMUNITY to live and work in

we dont want to be homeless

or we can share the house we live in now

we pay 275 a month

[sbrebrown]

Wow, what an interesting house - and a great location!

[000Winter000]

Sorry if this is personal, but will you do if you decide to have a child some day (I'm assuming because you're a young married couple) and he or she wants friends to play with? The location doesn't look kid friendly at all..

[monkeyross]

amazing, thank you for showing.

I would love to do the same one day if I find a plot of land in the right area.

I don't like the idea of working all my life just for a house - if I can scrap enough to build my own cob house - I will!

cheers again.

[Brie217]

You should read the book "Humanure" and also put a tin roof on so that you could catch the rain water and harvest it. Nice though.

[calatis4u]

NOW YOU NEED walter veith TO HELP YOU DISCOVER TRUTH

[RCvolunteer1978]

you should plant more trees for more supply of wood later on in life