After years of searching out the best way to hand build an alternative structure to live in, I have finally decided upon a plan of action.

 

This project orrigionally started out based upon houses I saw being built at calearth.org. These are based on domes built of sandbag rings which eventualy close into a domed cieling and are then covered in oncrete or adobe.

I did a test structure which went up about 3 feet a felt that it just wasn't going to be what I really wanted and abandoned the project until I could figure out what was missing.

I am not just looking for some functional room or house but a sculpted home which also meets my artistic needs and represents the type of structure which I would like to continue building for others. It also needs to fit in with the type of artistic furniture I build as well. Not to mention inspire my creativity and overall sceenity on a daily basis.

So I went back to surfing the web and trying to find something which really grabbed me. I found just what I was looking for in the Hobbit house at simondale.net.

Built almost entirely of locally found materials it was a great representation of just the type of thing I wanted to build off of. The tree trunk and branch framework was the perfect way to tie in my furniture.

It also left a great deal of room for me to take the basic idea even further. So my project has begun again. Allthough I will not be using the reciprical cieling the simondale.net hobbit house uses, I am using fully round trees and branches to frame in the house and build all the furniture within it.

One of the main changes I am making is that instead of the self supporting reciprical cieling, I am instead building furniture so large that it can support the roof and cieling. This means bed posts the size of full trees. Desk, couch and clost frame uprights all built of full sized trees all tied together with motice and tennon branches creating a web of support throughout the cieling.

Once this is acomplished and all the temporary supports can be removed, the entire roof structure will be covered with heavily starched and damp bed sheets which are stapled to the outside of the frame. Once this tent is in place it will be duplicated with chicken wire and some rebar. After that, a light coat of concrete will be spread or sprayed over the now stiffened sheets and wire. Just enough of a scratch coat will be applied to tie in the wire and give a stiff base to build the rest upon.

Once the initial coat has been applied and dried, progresivly heavier coats will be laid or sprayed on. Once this is complete, if I can afford it, I will spray two or three inches of polyeurothan foam over it. This way the thermal mass is on the inside of the insulator. Then a sealer will be applied and the structure will be covered with a plastic/rubber pond liner. Over that will be landscaping fabric or net and then earth. In the end the roof will look like a hill covered in plans or grass.

The roof will extent, in a slope, completely to the ground. The walls of the structure will be made of stacked sandbags around 16 peeled cedar trees until they reach the cieling. Between the walls and where the roof meets the ground will be a tunnel shaped walkway which allows a person to walk completely around the house while still being under the sod covered roof.

This will keep the sun, rain, snow and wind from ever touching the walls. The walls will then be covered in chicken wire and concrete, inside and out. The interior will be shapped with wire around the trees and branches and also covered with concrete. Shelves, cubby holes and various other storage and display areas will all by sculpted into the walls this way. Often arround cedar furntiure and accesories.

In the end it will apear than the 26' semi circular room is a cedar tree puzzle grown or built into a cave. The lighting will be recessed, the layout is designed to fit my lifestyle and patterns of movement. Allthough this first studio apartment type room with not be all that large, it will hold most everything my wife and I use on a daily basis, be easy to navigate and easy to keep clean.

Eventually I will be adding more rooms on in the future. This first one is a grand experiment and learning experience. In the end I hope for a home which is comfy to live in and looks great in pictures so I can begin to build these art homes for others as well as teach families how to get together and build thier own homes.

Most of this house will be build with a chainsaw and hand tools. So far I have used a very small winch but I easily could have used a comealong or cheap chain hoist as well. Or I could have used some pullies and a cable clipped to my truck bumper. In reality, I don't expect many people are going to use trees as large as I have done here. This style of house can easily be constructed with materials which two or more people can lift and carry.

In the end I hope to completely remove the trailer which can be seen in the pictures next to this first room. Once this initial room is completely I am going to ad a bathroom. The end of the trailer seen in the pictures is the present bathroom. I will be building a new one just to the left or behind the existing bathroom so all the pipes are easy to get to. Once the new bathroom is complet. I will physically cut off the old room from the trailer and plywood over the end of it to seal it off.

Then I will build another room in it's place. In this way, one room at a time. I will cut off and replace the entire trailer untill a burried above ground home sitts where it used to.

I will be using this site to post my progress. eventually I will ad a blog or forum where people can ask questions and request information and resources or even hire me to create homes or furniture for them.

 

I am building this in Ozark County in Southwest Missouri. An ideal location since there are no building codes or permits required here which saves on lots of red tape an money. If you decide to do something like this, please keep in mind that in many parts of the country world/ this will nto be the case.

My advice is, if you can work from home or the internet, find land in the country with a trailer on it. This means the well, septic and power have all been installed already. The trailer keeps the price down though. It also gives you a place to stay while you are building. I suggest finding the best piece of land with the worst trailer you can find on it so the price stays down.

Make sure you pick a place arround people you can tolerate. The more remote, the less exspensive the land is. Try to be up on a hill which can see the nearest town. Chances are you can get internet if you have line of sight to the local water tower with a microwave dish setup. Otherwise, hope for cable or satalite.

Internet in remote areas is going to run arround 50-100 a month and not be enarly as fast as DSL in the city but the price of everything else is going to go down in a huge way so for me it's worth it. I'll save twice that much or more in heating and cooling alone.

These houses are the epitome of green. They are easy to heat and cool. Cheap to build. Require minimal maintenance. You won't be putting on a new roof or painting it or worrying about new siding. You can install water flushing composting toilets. They are perfect for solor or wind power. Still, one of the best things you can do for you and the environment as a whole is get out of the city and quit commuting to work.

If you can work out a way to work at home or out of a shop on your property in the coutnry, your are making a huge differnce in not only your carbon footprint but the levels of stress you endure on a daily basis.

I came here from North Hollywood California. I used to live under the flight plan of Burbank Airport. Cars, hellicopters, jets, sirens, traffic to go anywhere, traffic to get back, the entire city would go berzerk on wheels any time there was the slightest bit of rain. Long lines in every store, schools which ran more like prisons and levels of violence all arround which you just think you get used to until you go where it isn't a 24/7 concern.

Now I live in the woods. The noises I hear are whiperwhills and woodpeckers. Coyotes and crickets. Wind, rain or maybe some hail a few times a year. I only see people when I want to. Traffic here is when three cars get on the same road at one time. There isn't a traffic light for miles. The abulance is basically a helicopter which has access to great heathcare facilities.

The school could certainly be better but for what they lack in teachers, music and art, they make up for in a lack of gangs and other annoyances. My kids use the internet to fill the gaps where the school doesn't come through academicly.

Overall, the move to the country has been a positive one. The harest part is making a living but if you are an artist or internet worker or retired or a craftsman with a market you can ship to, the city just doesn't compare.

Now admitedly, it I was in my 20's again I would have to seriously reconsider living in a place like this. I was really big on dancing nd night clubs and street racing and chasing women back then and the city does seem to be the perfect place for all that. I also worked in the film industry back then and all that work was in the city as well.

These days though, I am in my 40's, married, doing art for a living and very tired of neighbors, barking dogs, helicopters looking for felons in my back yard with a search light, taggers spray painting my neighborhood and so on. Ya know, if the taggers actually had some tallent and coul dpaint a nice creative picture, I would even mind. It's that marking of teritory, showing off your name crap I am mostly sick of. All 24/7 problems I no longer even think about.

So, if you find yourself wanting to get out of the grind and into a life where living for yourself is actually an option, read on. Learn, imagine and then figure out how to do it yourself. Ultimately it just realy isn't that difficult to have a nice, affordable home which doesn't just drain your life dry.