- 03 Jul 2016 18:45
#14698164
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in...
So, I moved to rural Alberta with the wife.
The plan is to live with her parents until we finish building a sustainable home elsewhere in the property.
Ths is actually a series of smaller projects, and is also a smaller project in a larger, more long term project.
The overall idea is to use this first house as a prototype for more homes to be built on the same property, with the goal of being able to have a small community of people living off the grid and learning how to live off the land in a traditional manner for the area.
The smaller projects are the little steps we will use to get there. The first step was to clear out the entire bottom floor of the existing house for us and the horde of daughters. This took several days and the help of many friends and family.
The second step is to finish the bottom floor and turn it into whole bunch if bedrooms. Fortunately, there are two bedrooms almost already finished. They just need mudding, painting, some acoustic insulation in the ceiling and one wall, and floor and ceiling finishes. In the rest of the space, we need to put up some walls. The exterior wall of the mechanical room also has to be redone. When I pulled out the existing insulation, I noticed the waterproofing has a hole in it large enough to let in a trickle of sand, which was used as backfill. That is going to be a nice little project later.
So, once the renovation of the existing house is done, I am going to start laying foundations for the new house. My father in law says the ground is awful for digging around here. Lots of roots and clay. I will probably need to hire someone with a backhoe.
The house will be a passive solar strawbale bungalow.
Elsewhere on the property, we want to look at allowing nature to reclaim the land, hopefully getting some more biodiversity. This involves cleaning up the centuries of garbage that are littering the property, up to and including whole buildings.
The plan is to live with her parents until we finish building a sustainable home elsewhere in the property.
Ths is actually a series of smaller projects, and is also a smaller project in a larger, more long term project.
The overall idea is to use this first house as a prototype for more homes to be built on the same property, with the goal of being able to have a small community of people living off the grid and learning how to live off the land in a traditional manner for the area.
The smaller projects are the little steps we will use to get there. The first step was to clear out the entire bottom floor of the existing house for us and the horde of daughters. This took several days and the help of many friends and family.
The second step is to finish the bottom floor and turn it into whole bunch if bedrooms. Fortunately, there are two bedrooms almost already finished. They just need mudding, painting, some acoustic insulation in the ceiling and one wall, and floor and ceiling finishes. In the rest of the space, we need to put up some walls. The exterior wall of the mechanical room also has to be redone. When I pulled out the existing insulation, I noticed the waterproofing has a hole in it large enough to let in a trickle of sand, which was used as backfill. That is going to be a nice little project later.
So, once the renovation of the existing house is done, I am going to start laying foundations for the new house. My father in law says the ground is awful for digging around here. Lots of roots and clay. I will probably need to hire someone with a backhoe.
The house will be a passive solar strawbale bungalow.
Elsewhere on the property, we want to look at allowing nature to reclaim the land, hopefully getting some more biodiversity. This involves cleaning up the centuries of garbage that are littering the property, up to and including whole buildings.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in...