We choose to learn how to build a house.
This summer David and I are forgoing the typical luxury vacation to take a course in alternative building techniques. A six-day intensive, we pay them to get ourselves covered in mud, stuck with straw, and up to our knees in alternative foundations. And even though the workshop is just 45 minutes away, we intend to camp on site for the whole week.
Trust me, this is so us.
Anytime we get annoyed with the California housing market, we talk about buying a little bit of land and erecting a yurt until we can afford to build a little cob house.
Our shared dream is to build a green-friendly home out of sustainable materials, off the grid, and with no septic system (opting instead for greywater reuse and composting toilets). I want to eat from our garden and orchards. I am so ready.
So, to David and I, this workshop as an important step in achieving our life goals.
We can’t wait. It’s going to be so fun!
(Above are Siobhan, Amanda, and David inside the cob cottage at the Kenyon College Environmental Center taken on our trip to Ohio earlier this month.)
Carrie,
I am so impressed and in awe of the environmental practices that you and David do and aspire to do. You are a role model! A true ecosexual. :)
Carrie,
“This is so us” or more correctly, “this is so ON us “(like mud)!!
Enjoy,
love
daddy
I wonder sometimes whether building materials like adobe, cob, or rammed earth really are sustainable. I mean, they are all essentially soil, right? And so they require digging in the earth, which is pretty invasive, to acquire, plus soil doesn’t replace itself anytime quickly. How is that different than a rock quarry or a gravel pit? Seems like something like straw bale housing might be more sustainable. It still has the soil on the outside, but most of the thickness is straw bales, which are easily replenishable. What do you think?