Plans and Dreams
Jun. 28th, 2014 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodsong1So, this earthship thing. It's really taking a hold on me and SLB is also very, very interested. I think we could make this a reality in the next 5-7 years. Getting IDK out on his own is pretty much mandatory, I don't want a 3 bedroom earthship, two is enough. This is going to be a retirement home, as it were, so we need to get cracking.
I'm working out a preliminary budget. I THINK that one property on Dodd Rd in Vestal would be really good, once we clear out the brush and timber, saving as much as possible for heat, cooking and roof beams. Earthships use tree trunks of a certain size and length and if memory serves, there are several trees on the property that would fit the bill, thus saving us who knows how much money. Sooo, let's see.
Freeville Earthship used roughly 800 tires, 15k cans & 3k glass bottles. This was for a 90' long, 3 bed, 2 bath earthship. All 800 tires were used for the load-bearing walls, with cans, bottles & concrete making up the non load-bearing walls. All the walls were packed with more concrete until smooth and level, then plastered and painted.
I only want a 2 bed, 1 & 1/2 bath, so we will need less materials, but not sure how much less. Cans & bottles can be gathered easily, tires not so much.
Blueprints for 2 bed 'ship: $7,000
Land to build on: $35k as of now. (Listing is good until May 2015 and given it's an estate situation, can stay available indefinitely. Gods, the lot has been for sale for AT LEAST 4 years.)
Earthship.com 3 week build help (roof, power & water modules, structure, plumbing, electrics plus food & lodging for crew): need more info
Concrete: $6-$14, 50-80 lb bags, need more info
Concrete mixer rental: no rates given on Home Depot website, WTF?
Tampers & sledges for pounding dirt: 6-10 lb sledges, $20-50, why can't I find the flat tampers?
Shovels: $10-20
Rebar: $3-10, need more info
Trowels: $5-25, packing out can be done by hand though, only need trowels to finish and plaster, unless we hire professional plasterers, which should be added to the budget at some point.
Wheelbarrow: Might be able to borrow indefinitely.
Power & Water modules: need more info
Solar panels: need more info
Hot water heater: $500-800, possible $1-2k if doing on demand
Washer & dryer: $1500-2000
Stove & stovetop: $500-1000 (unless we build a wood fired pizza oven like Freeville Earthship did, in which case wood would need to be factored in)
Cisterns: need more info
Greenhouse glass & roof vents: need more info
Doors: need more info (one door seems to be an airlock system)
Toilets: $250-350
Shower: $1k-2k
Tub: $1-2 K (I can get a clawfoot tub w/attached shower! Squee!)
Refrigerator: $1k-2k
Tile: need more info
Bamboo flooring: need more info
Countertops: need more info
Cabinets: need more info
Sinks: need more info (I can get the bowl sinks! Squee!)
Mirrors: need more info
Electricians & plumbers: need more info (although I know a Bostonian who's a licensed electrician and might be willing to come out for free food, alcohol & a reduced hourly wage)
Grout & thinset for tile: need more info
Food and decorative plants for gray-water systems: need more info
Permits, inspectors & any other requirements: need more info
A lot of this stuff can be worked out once I know the rough dimensions I'd be working with. However, in order to GET those dimensions, I have to invest $7000 for the blueprints or some kind of image cleanup software that can un-blur the PDF file available online. Obviously, when it comes to the appliances, we'll need to go with high efficiency, which is getting cheaper as it's now much more popular.
I also want to invest in guinea pigs as a reliable protein source. Sheshanaga would be right at home in the greenhouse, provided we plant enough dwarf trees for him to hang out on and provide clean drinking water and keep a VERY close eye on him. Or maybe we could section off a bit of the greenhouse for his habitat. Actually, that's what we'd have to do or otherwise he'll eat Izzy. Or she'll kill him. Or both.
Offhand, I'd say I'd need about what I paid for my current house, around $80k. That's with us doing as much of the labor as we can, with rounds of begging & bribing others to join us on weekends and holidays. Neither one of us are teachers, so we don't get the whole summer off. SLB says he wants the entire thing DONE within one year or he'll get bored. Freeville got the house livable in 9 months, working straight through the summer & with the build crew from Taos for 3 weeks, but they spent about another 6 months or so finishing up. SLB does not want to do this. SLB also states we'll need more batteries or a generator or something, as he needs his computer and video games. We won't need new furniture, which will help. The other difficulty is the current house. SLB wants to live here until we're done, but the housing market is not great up here and houses can sit for years trying to sell. There's still improvements that have to be made to this house before we can reasonably sell it, like fixing the living room floor and replacing the outside stair rails and making sure the porch won't fall off. We did the roof this year, we'll be replacing the furnace in September and SLB swears to me he'll get that unusable door made into a proper wall before summer's over.
Still, something to work on.
I'm working out a preliminary budget. I THINK that one property on Dodd Rd in Vestal would be really good, once we clear out the brush and timber, saving as much as possible for heat, cooking and roof beams. Earthships use tree trunks of a certain size and length and if memory serves, there are several trees on the property that would fit the bill, thus saving us who knows how much money. Sooo, let's see.
Freeville Earthship used roughly 800 tires, 15k cans & 3k glass bottles. This was for a 90' long, 3 bed, 2 bath earthship. All 800 tires were used for the load-bearing walls, with cans, bottles & concrete making up the non load-bearing walls. All the walls were packed with more concrete until smooth and level, then plastered and painted.
I only want a 2 bed, 1 & 1/2 bath, so we will need less materials, but not sure how much less. Cans & bottles can be gathered easily, tires not so much.
Blueprints for 2 bed 'ship: $7,000
Land to build on: $35k as of now. (Listing is good until May 2015 and given it's an estate situation, can stay available indefinitely. Gods, the lot has been for sale for AT LEAST 4 years.)
Earthship.com 3 week build help (roof, power & water modules, structure, plumbing, electrics plus food & lodging for crew): need more info
Concrete: $6-$14, 50-80 lb bags, need more info
Concrete mixer rental: no rates given on Home Depot website, WTF?
Tampers & sledges for pounding dirt: 6-10 lb sledges, $20-50, why can't I find the flat tampers?
Shovels: $10-20
Rebar: $3-10, need more info
Trowels: $5-25, packing out can be done by hand though, only need trowels to finish and plaster, unless we hire professional plasterers, which should be added to the budget at some point.
Wheelbarrow: Might be able to borrow indefinitely.
Power & Water modules: need more info
Solar panels: need more info
Hot water heater: $500-800, possible $1-2k if doing on demand
Washer & dryer: $1500-2000
Stove & stovetop: $500-1000 (unless we build a wood fired pizza oven like Freeville Earthship did, in which case wood would need to be factored in)
Cisterns: need more info
Greenhouse glass & roof vents: need more info
Doors: need more info (one door seems to be an airlock system)
Toilets: $250-350
Shower: $1k-2k
Tub: $1-2 K (I can get a clawfoot tub w/attached shower! Squee!)
Refrigerator: $1k-2k
Tile: need more info
Bamboo flooring: need more info
Countertops: need more info
Cabinets: need more info
Sinks: need more info (I can get the bowl sinks! Squee!)
Mirrors: need more info
Electricians & plumbers: need more info (although I know a Bostonian who's a licensed electrician and might be willing to come out for free food, alcohol & a reduced hourly wage)
Grout & thinset for tile: need more info
Food and decorative plants for gray-water systems: need more info
Permits, inspectors & any other requirements: need more info
A lot of this stuff can be worked out once I know the rough dimensions I'd be working with. However, in order to GET those dimensions, I have to invest $7000 for the blueprints or some kind of image cleanup software that can un-blur the PDF file available online. Obviously, when it comes to the appliances, we'll need to go with high efficiency, which is getting cheaper as it's now much more popular.
I also want to invest in guinea pigs as a reliable protein source. Sheshanaga would be right at home in the greenhouse, provided we plant enough dwarf trees for him to hang out on and provide clean drinking water and keep a VERY close eye on him. Or maybe we could section off a bit of the greenhouse for his habitat. Actually, that's what we'd have to do or otherwise he'll eat Izzy. Or she'll kill him. Or both.
Offhand, I'd say I'd need about what I paid for my current house, around $80k. That's with us doing as much of the labor as we can, with rounds of begging & bribing others to join us on weekends and holidays. Neither one of us are teachers, so we don't get the whole summer off. SLB says he wants the entire thing DONE within one year or he'll get bored. Freeville got the house livable in 9 months, working straight through the summer & with the build crew from Taos for 3 weeks, but they spent about another 6 months or so finishing up. SLB does not want to do this. SLB also states we'll need more batteries or a generator or something, as he needs his computer and video games. We won't need new furniture, which will help. The other difficulty is the current house. SLB wants to live here until we're done, but the housing market is not great up here and houses can sit for years trying to sell. There's still improvements that have to be made to this house before we can reasonably sell it, like fixing the living room floor and replacing the outside stair rails and making sure the porch won't fall off. We did the roof this year, we'll be replacing the furnace in September and SLB swears to me he'll get that unusable door made into a proper wall before summer's over.
Still, something to work on.
