900 Sq. ft Earth Bermed Passive Solar Home in Upstate NY

[John Raabe]

I hope the season goes well for you and this great little house feels snug and cozy soon. You have done a fine job - something to be proud of. Lots of memories already and many more to come.

[Texas Tornado]

Man o man what an awesome place you have carved and built!!!!
TT

[SimonASNG]

I just joined and read thru your whole saga over the past few days.  I really enjoyed it and look forward to your move in day.  Thanks for including all the details and pics, it really looks great.   

[drainl]

Thanks for all the positive comments!  Now that we have internet at the house I can get up to date with our progress!  I'm sure Jeff will chime in with more details.  Here's August...

It's always nice to look back at photos and see how much progress we've made. The year has kind of been a blur!

We decided to utilize the space in the kitchen/bathroom wall to make a little medicine cabinet. Great way to get a little extra space!


Jeff did lots of work to get the septic tank & distribution box hooked up to the house and leach field. He put buckets of water in the box to make sure everything was flowing the right way and that there were no leaks.




This is a junction on our water pipe about 100′ from the spring. We want to be able to access this if needed, so we built a rock wall around it – here's the start of the wall.


A few batches of SBC and the outside of the house is parged! Nice to finally check that off the list.


We used the old school chalkboard we had to tile where the tub meets the wall. Jeff put it in with white SBC.




Machine rental time! We created more planting beds along the driveway. Possibly fruit trees here.


Covering up the leach field and septic tank – Jeff was very happy to wrap this project up. The septic was a lot of hard manual work!




Next we worked on getting a road up near the house. This will be our driveway as well, but we needed it now so we could get a concrete truck within 15′...

[Squirl]

Did you run the 4" sanitation type of pipe from the house to the distribution box?  I was wondering if I could run that or if it had to be schedule 40 pvc.  Is that a pond in the last picture?

[speedfunk]

I am not sure what you mean by sanitation pipe to be honest.  We did run the thick walled PVC schedule40 from bathroom to the septic tank.  From the tank to the distribution tank we also used the same stuff.  From the distribution box to leach lines we used the thinwall no perforated pipe.  The leech lines were thinwall perforated pipe , I believe made from a black poly center that is ribbed to increase its strength and covered with a pvc like material.  I tried not to put the excavators weight on the leech pipe as It does not seem to strong.  When I did have to cross it I did it at an angle to distribute the weight so it was not all on the pipe. 

B/c i have little faith in this stuff ,  I tested the distribution box to leech lines by filling up the d box with buckets of water and adjusting the 5 pipes that went to each leech line.  I wanted to make sure each of the 5 lines got equal amounts of water.  I then discovered some leaks at the joints of the non-perforated pipe that i added more nasty chemical pvc glue to and fixed.  filled under the non perferated pipe with crushed stone and covered with soil.

One thing I was warned about was the settling of the pipes after you back fill (the house to dist box pipes).  All the pipes are sloped down the entire system.  The perforated leech field lines have a 1/16th to 1/8th pitch.  To make sure the pipe going from the house to tank to distribution box did not settle I placed them on No 2 ( 2 inch and below) crushed stone.  The crushed stone is very stable.  I hope this will guarantee no settling b/c these lines go under umbrella/skirting/cape insulation so would be a pain to dig up and fix. 

BTW , thanks for all the encouraging comments

[drainl]

September Part I

We decided to use white SBC on the bathroom walls. It's very different than the gray SBC – much smoother. We put some concrete stain on it afterwards then installed the mirror and sink.





Next is the kitchen floor pour! We decided to go with a concrete floor with the color (brown) mixed in. Given how messy kitchens can be it seemed like the best flooring choice.





We had to reschedule the pour a few times due to heavy rain. The chute reached the kitchen door as planned. We used a wheelbarrow to get it to the far sides of the room. The mix was a little dry so we tried to work quickly! Luckily we had a friend helping out.







They drove in a stick of rebar in the center of the floor to help keep the floor level.



The finished product! At first the color had a purple tint but after a few weeks that went away. We later etched the floor and put a low gloss finish on it.  It's got some character, but we love it!

[Sassy]

Good to see you back - how's the baby?  I see your little guy is getting lots bigger...  nice progress!  Looking forward to seeing more pics 

[Squirl]

Thank you for the more detailed description of the septic.  You were right I was asking about where you ran the schedule 40 pvc vs. the thin walled pipe.  I believe they market the thin walled at the big box stores as "sanitation" pipe.

What did you use for the low gloss finish on the floor?

I hope you are staying warm.  I'm done for the season.

[drainl]

September – Part 2

I forgot to include this photo – Jeff found this old drain which was perfect for the earth tube in the kitchen floor!



Next project is the woof floor on the back wall. We got more red oak like we have in our bedroom, but this came from a different mill (closer) and the boards are various lengths.













We initially put the boards tight together but then had some problems with squeaking, etc., so we spaced them out some.

We'd been planning to create our own earthen plaster for the rest of the interior walls, but wanted to take the time to experiment with different mixes and materials. We don't have much time these days, so we thought a quick fix would be to cover the walls with a concrete stain.



It didn't look too bad at night, but daytime was another story. We started second guessing our decision. We took a road trip the next day and came home with this...



More American Clay! While it's not cheap we really enjoyed working with the product in our bedroom. We decided it'd be better to get the walls done right instead of the temporary stain. Plus it looks much prettier!

[drainl]

The kiddos are doing well sassy!  Luckily the twins aren't mobile yet.  Besides the challenges of chasing them around, we are far from baby proofed!

Squirl - on the floor we etched it and then put a Benjamin Moore finish on - I can't find the can, but I'm pretty sure it was this.


They said at the store they knew a contractor who always finished concrete floors this way.  So far so good!

[drainl]

October progress...

We decided to get three colors of American Clay for the rest of the interior – one for the kitchen, one for the lower back wall and one for the upper back wall and living room. Choosing colors is always so tough. After looking at the options for about an hour we went with Nantucket Sand, Chesapeake Bay, and Bluefield (I think?). We'd already used our favorite color – Jasper – in the bedroom and didn't want to repeat it elsewhere.



In various stages of drying – it lightened up quite a bit!






Electric and hot water-
Notice the light and switch above! First thing we did when we started building was get the electric to an exterior panel/outlet. We've run extension cords ever since. Jeff had already run most of the wiring at this point, but we didn't wire outlets or hook anything up to the interior breaker box. With some help from both sides of the family we've got the majority of the interior electric done and hooked up to our exterior box. What a luxury to have lights! The absolute best part was hooking up the hot water heater. I tried to be tough and take cold spring water showers, but ended up nearly hyperventilating.  It's super cold - maybe on a 90 degree day it'd feel good! We love the hot water heater by the way. We got the Stiebel Eltron Tempra 20 Plus (electric). Right now we're gravity fed from the spring – no holding tank or pump – and it has been working out great! The pressure is a little low for showering, but we'll play around with different shower heads down the road.

Anyway, back to plastering...
The next color was the Chesapeake Bay for the back upper wall and living area.


On the display the color looked dark green/blue.  It didn't look so bad when it was wet, but sadly it dried to a shade darker than our SBC.  I've got nothing against gray, but when you've been staring at it for the last three years, it's the last thing you want to look at.  We stopped before doing the living room and decided to try a different color.  We did use only 1 color packet/batch instead of 1 1/4 packets, which probably contributed to the color difference.  For the record, it was not my color choice. 

[CjAl]

I have had that water heater. You will love it

if you dont put a water softner on it scale builds up super fast tho.

[speedfunk]

Yeah so far the water heater works excellent!!!! 

I have heard people say that on-demands then to build up junk with hard water.  Is that what you mean by "scale"?  I think my water is pretty soft.  Its not well water and I dont see any stains on anything UNLIKE our firstday cottage where we had well water.

[MountainDon]

You don't have to see any stains to have hard water. The water from our city water leaves an incredible amount of white mineral deposit behind when evaporated. Even from just a few gallons of water there is a lot of minerals. Not sure what all is there as I've never had it tested.

We have a humidifier we run in the house over the winter. It it the type that heats the water to produce steam. If I do not clean the heating chamber every week, more than likely it will stop running near the end of week two. It's easier to have a weekly clean out schedule than waiting till we notice it has stopped functioning.

[Dog]

The place is looking really beautiful! I'm so impressed with the folks on here that can do what you guys are doing. Nice job 

[Bishopknight]

Wow the American Clay looks sooooo good!

You guys are an inspiration!

Amazing amazing job guys! I am so blown away by everything! 

[speedfunk]

This is Drainl .  I accidentally posted under wrong name


Thanks for the compliments!  We're still here and plugging away. Trying to get caught back up on photos...  Here's what we did in November/December.

Next up was the blue plaster for the back room. We love the color!




In this photo you can see how close the gray plaster is to the SBC gray. This is where we stopped the gray and decided to get a new color.



And here's the new color – Amber Grain.








We made some coat hangers and shelves with leftover oak. The lower hooks are for our little people.  You can see how great the plaster looks after it dried.  We're going to go over most of the gray plaster with the Amber Grain eventually. 




We had to get the floor under the wood stove set so we could get it installed. What better than rocks from our property!


And after much deliberation, we bought a Kubota! With the mild winter, Jeff's put a lot of hours on it already.

[pmichelsen]

Nice looking Kubota, I think I'm going to borrow one when I do my footings and electrical run from the pole.

[CoastalAlabama]

What a beautiful home!  I'm a big fan of the blue wall too, and love the calming colors you guys chose.  Concrete floors are awesome, and the plaster walls give a cozy old world feel (along with the fabulous wood stove).

It's been fun watching your little boy grow up in this thread.....he's such a handsome guy, and I'm sure he has learned a great deal in his few short years.

I have to hand it to you guys.....that is one labor-intensive home you've constructed, but I am sure it will outlive many future generations!  I applaud you guys for tackling the site work....clearing and establishing property is a J-O-B.  *NICE* Kubota.....you can't go wrong with one of those.  :-)

Beautiful job!!

[glenn kangiser]

The place is looking wonderful, Deb and Jeff.  So much work and you two just keep plugging away at it.  Nice job.

Congrats on the Kubota.  That is a real beauty. 

[speedfunk]

Just wanted to post a post I made on another thread.  Explaining the experimental floor stuff we are doing.


"Floor details.  I can only say that I'm playing and that its not really set in stone HAHAHA  

The bedroom seems to working well with rough cut 2x4 set in pea gravel.  The "joists" are set 2' on center. The floor boards (oak) were green when we put them in.  This floor seems to be good so far.  There is a gap between the boards which allow the floor to breath a bit.

The kids rooms in the main section we did with 2x4's as the "joists" from home depot b/c it was sunday or something and I needed to get it going.  I think the crappy wood from them hurt the floor a bit.  We bought kiln dried red oak wood for the decking.  When we originally set it we put it  in nice and tight (board against board) thinking it would be fairly stable and should not move to much plus deb wanted it without gaps.  We did not use a vapor barrier on this.  We had the floor buckle a bit as the decking boards expanded .  I guess it absorbed  moisture ( which could have also been cause we were experimenting venting dryer inside (trying not to punch a million holes in the super efficient house) and there still is not vent for bathroom area.  When I removed boards to reset them with a gap like the bedroom I found some growth on the bottom.  Its interesting to note that the green lumber seems much more resistant to growies!  We cleaned and put back.  Its been fine since.  All though when I put my nose to the floor it smells a bit musty still.  I might end up putting a vapor barrier down which wont be to hard b/c its all screwed down.  I can just remove a couple of deck boards to get the plastic under them.   I'm not sure though b/c once the rear cape/umbrella/skirting that goes behind the house is on it should take care of all the water/rain that is come off the gutters and getting behind the house.  We are currently still getting some water in our crawlspace below the bathroom.  The cape/skirting that goes around the house should take care of this b/c its only after hard rains not all the time.  I guess i'm interested in trying to make it work without a vapor barrier.

As far as good quality 2x4's as "joists" resting on the ground it been plenty strong. 2 ' on center seems to support the 1" oak well.

I hope thats not too much for ya   The floor has been an experiment.  I (we) did not want a concrete floor everywhere like you.  I'd be interested to see what you do.  I know conventional wisdom says vapor barrier on everything however when we were building I left a piece of black plastic down and there was water droplets on the underside when the pea gravel next to it had no moisture.  So in a way the plastic gave the moisture somewhere to hide behind.  In my head I also have the idea that in the winter when we lack moisture I'd like to be able to "pull" moisture from the ground lol ? When the gravel floor was still everywhere moisture issues were never an issue, the ground mositure was unable to wick its way up the pea gravel.  Still playing on this one but the floor is functional and has no remaining issues all though might be tweaked in the future."

[speedfunk]

Thanks guys for the awesome compliments   We have since gotten the living floor done will post pics soon!

The purchase of the Kubota was a great decision!!!  We spent quite a bit of time doing the math.  This puts us in debt but we have allready saved up half the cost and could pay it off quickly if need be.  I can not be happier, the thing this machine does is amazing .  While in retrospect it would have been good to purchase it long ago I at that time did not know that it would be the best tool for the job , which it is   For the longest time I was thinking to get a backhoe like BK.  That did on his earth-shelter would have  been a huge fiscal mistake b/c I dont think the backhoe would be very useful on this steep terrain.  Not to mention it does not have a dozer blade which is awesome for land shaping.  The one thing that the machine does not do to well is MOVE earth from one location to another.  I'm working on some type of skid to drag.  For now though I just take a lot of trips back and forth.

The renting of the mini works but when you have a busy schedule just setting the machine to be dropped off , hoping it does not rain and finding consecutive hours to work is a real challenge.  The mini has allowed me to re-sculpt the land around the house much better then the way it was left when the original earthwork was done by Tim and Vinney.   Renting allowed me to learn that this machine is bad ass and learn on something I didn't own :0) 

Am going to be starting on some of the solar stuff soon, so that is exciting.  We have also built some new raised beds for plants.  Deb almost has the stove in the kitchen hooked up. 

I think that's it..pics will follow soon.
   

[Redoverfarm]

Thanks guys for the awesome compliments   We have since gotten the living floor done will post pics soon!

The purchase of the Kubota was a great decision!!!  We spent quite a bit of time doing the math.  This puts us in debt but we have allready saved up half the cost and could pay it off quickly if need be.  I can not be happier, the thing this machine does is amazing .  While in retrospect it would have been good to purchase it long ago I at that time did not know that it would be the best tool for the job , which it is   For the longest time I was thinking to get a backhoe like BKNIGHT.  That would have  been a huge fiscal mistake b/c I dont think the backhoe would be very useful on this steep terrain.  Not to mention it does not have a dozer blade which is awesome for land shaping.  The one thing that the machine does not do to well is MOVE earth from one location to another.  I'm working on some type of skid to drag.  For now though I just take a lot of trips back and forth.
The renting of the mini works but when you have a busy schedule just setting the machine to be dropped off , hoping it does not rain and finding consecutive hours to work is a real challenge.  The mini has allowed me to re-sculpt the land around the house much better then the way it was left when the original earthwork was done by Tim and Vinney.   Renting allowed me to learn that this machine is bad ass and learn on something I didn't own :0) 

Am going to be starting on some of the solar stuff soon, so that is exciting.  We have also built some new raised beds for plants.  Deb almost has the stove in the kitchen hooked up. 

I think that's it..pics will follow soon.
   

Might look into something like this.  Was used on the farm behind a tractor or horse.  Pretty inexpensive.

[speedfunk]

that does look like it would work good..Tough to get an idea of scale .  Is there something its called?  Something I can google search for?

Thanks John.