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

[drainl]

Our mudpit crawlspace we dug out for the bathroom was washing away a bit , so we decided to get the floor and walls up sooner instead of later. It had filled up at least 18″ with muddy water. Instead of renting a pump, we got this shopvac. We weren't sure how well it'd work, but it was pretty impressive! It took over an hour to get the water out (you had to suck the water in, then let the water out of the hose). It should come in handy next time we want to drain our spring. Jeff also cleaned out the car - woohoo!

Here I am working hard getting near the bottom of the mud pit.


Then on to the shoveling. Fun stuff!


Finally we got it all raked out and put some stone down.


Next was the plastic. Then Jeff hauled a couple loads of sand and stone from our piles so Jeff would be ready to pour the floor the next day. It doesn't look like we did much, but we were wiped out!


Yesterday morning Jeff decided to do the floor in two pours. Partly because he was worried about getting all the cement down before it started to dry.




And here's how it looked today. Much nicer than the mud! We should get the inner part poured by Friday. Then on to stacking block for the crawl space walls.


I put in a little time tonight stacking block. It was too rainy out to attempt finishing the floor pour. Here's how the site looks now.




We did end up getting a diamond tipped saw blade and that is much nicer than pouring the gaps. Especially since Jeff does all the cutting for me. I'd probably lose a limb. Jeff's only got one show this weekend with the band so hopefully it'll be a productive one. He's been busy this summer and September looks hectic too. We'll cram in work time when we can - the benefit of building 4 miles from your house!

[EcoHeliGuy]

In the first image there looks to be a hole in the wall right behind you, what is this hole for?

[Mike 870]

Most of the pictures are broken for me. Could be my setup though.

Edit Fixed!

[speedfunk]

I've noticed that our hosting company is slow.  Hit f5 if you don't see pics. 

[speedfunk]

One hole is for the incoming cold water from spring.  The second hole is for the hot water to come in.  Between spring and house there will be a T off main water pipe so that the water can gravity feed through solar collector and into water heater to heat up rest of the way.

BTW debbie I don't believe "mud pit" is the correct term, its more like our in house swimming pool!  Ahh the good life!

I also wanted to add the reason for pouring the floor in the manor we did.

1. make sure the floor was level , by using first leveling the 2x4's and then leveling the concrete from there
2. give me a space where I could trowel and smooth out the concrete.  

[drainl]

Jeff and I spent the day stacking block. He worked on the crawlspace and I got the whole house up to 9 rows. It's nice to see it all one level and it feels good to clear another pallet. We took a little time to dry fit the double hung windows and all looks good. I'm estimating 6 rows left. That doesn't sound too bad!
Before we stack any more, we're going to core fill around the entire house and finish the crawl space floor. It'll take some time mixing and pouring all that cement.
Here are a few photos from today...

[ListerD]

What are you going to core fill with?

Looks great and you're coming along a lot faster than I'd thought.

[EcoHeliGuy]

In your crawl space I see you have cut part of the center of the blocks out, why is this?

[ListerD]

Bond beam is why you normally do that.

[speedfunk]

Lister:    Concrete ( 1 part portland cement, 2.5 part sand , 3 part rocks and horizontal rebar.  Is that the answer your looking for?   Thanks , that's good to know, were trying.

EcOHeli:  Its what lister says, a bond beam.  It takes the pressure from the surrounding earth and distributes it along the whole row to a stronger corner.  

Update:  I really like this diamond saw blade, it was not cheap ( 60 dollars ), but it cuts like butter compared to the 3 dollar blade for concrete

[drainl]

Added up a bunch more receipts. The biggest ones were the delivery of blocks and SBC ($1324.89) and site work ($780). Other bigger things we got were the windows from the auction, a ladder, and shop vac. There were also a lot of small trips for the SBC. I noticed it's $1/bag less at Home Depot compared to the block store (where we also get charged per pallet and delivery), so it'd be best to just take the trailer to HD from now on.

Electric $1,513.80
Materials $5,385.66
Miscellaneous $1,238.69
Paid Workers $30.00
Plumbing $507.77
Septic $1,000.00
Site Work $6,019.17

Total $15,695.09

The roof (and school taxes!) are probably going to get us to the point where we need to get a loan. Plus we'll need a woodstove once the roof is on. I saw a great deal on Craigslist, but the stove was a bit big for our space. We want to get as small a stove as possible.

We spent the day working on the crawlspace and core-filling. Tucker is getting easier to have around the worksite as he gets older, which has been a huge help on the weekends and weeknights. It doesn't hurt when the tractor is around to play with...

[Bishopknight]

Looks great Jeff and Deb! 

[EcoHeliGuy]

I would suggest a bigger stove, growing up in a house which used wood heat primarily. It was always easier to build a little fire in a big stove, then to build a big fire in a little stove. Also if you want to use the stove to cook the larger stove with a smaller fire regulates heat better. the small stove will make large temp swings.

We had a large old style cook stove on the first floor in the kitchen (was build in the 80's even though it looked turn of the century), we had a large stove in the basement. the large stove in the basement was all we needed in fall and spring at night. Out in the work shop we had a small stove, and the building was insulated well, but we could never get a big enough fire going for mid winter. 

[Squirl]

I sympathize with the mud this past week.  It seemed to rain everyday.  I was caked in it and worst of all a logger came through and destroyed my road.

  Speaking of costs, I spent a day this week shopping for materials for my spreadsheets and two areas that I tried to cover were roofing and heating. Maybe this will help you. Most of the $ are off the top of my head but pretty close. It seemed that the best price I found for wood stoves and equipment was tractor supply (on rt. 23).  I was looking at the smallest glass front wood stove.  I think it is rated for 1000 square ft. It was $425 new.  It is just slightly smaller than the ones at Lowes and Home Depot that sell for $700.  I don't know if this is the stove you are referring to on craigslist. They also have a smaller box stove for $170 that has been discussed every few months on this forum.  The chimney kit was around $200 and black pipe was $7 per 2 ft. piece.  I calculated for the entire system new from tractor supply would have been $650.

For metal roofing the best price I found was pickett's building supply.  It was $2.29 per ln/ft. ($76/square) painted. Plus they have a dozen colors to choose from and cut it to length. Lowes only has 2 colors (white and green.) They also only have it in 8 and 12 ft sections at 3.47per ln/ft. ($115/square)

If I am missing anything or you found a better deal, let me know.

Speaking of taxes, did they change your assessment this year?  They assessed mine at almost double what I had paid 1 month before.

[Dog]

Congrats on the diamond blade saw. Having the right tool is 99% of the battle IMHO.

You guys are rocking the house! 

[drainl]

Thanks for those local prices Squirl!  That's a big help.  We're thinking of doing some stove shopping on the next rainy day.  Did you happen to check the specialty stores (one on rt 23, one on rt 7).  We'll let you know if we find anything cheaper, but Tractor Supply sounds pretty good! 

Thanks for the stove feedback EcoHeliGuy.  I've only heated with wood for one winter, so I don't know much about it.  Just remember being freezing cold because we always let the fire go out.  Jeff grew up with it though.  I like the idea of a smaller stove since we have a small space.  If all goes well, in a couple years we won't need to use the stove too much.  We'll see what we find!

[ListerD]

You could always surround the smaller stove with some sort of thermal mass. One of the sites, it may have been Dancing Rabbit, showed how to turn a conventional wood stove into a thermal mass system (kachelofen).

I'll see if I can dig up the link.

[speedfunk]

Lister:  That is something I've been keeping in the back of my head.  We will see , we also just found some stoves on craigslist for 450 with all metal chimney accessories.  So maybe that might be something we end up getting .  

BTW Dancing rabbit has some neat stuff on it doesn't it.  I can't help but admire the groups of people that get together and experiment with different ways of living and document it so we can all learn.  The sharing of knowledge is such a powerful thing.  It allows us all to be less dependent on money and the trappings that come with it.  I'm not sure I could live in one though, like most of you all I like privacy and space to be me

Squirl:  Sorry to hear about your drive,  It's supposed to be nice for the next week so maybe it will dry out and be better  Thanks for those prices very helpful!  

Our assessment has not changed.   We pay like 800 in taxes on the land.  this multiple property stuff sucks , b/c you can't claim star on the "other" property.  If they do change our assessment I'll start pursuing a 2nd business , an auto salvage yard ..bring that back down

Thanks Dog:  If were basically building this whole house then we need the right tools ( the way we figure it anyway)  I wan't this to be a pleasant experience    I just hope that is doesn't wear out EVER!

[Squirl]

I did not check the specialty stores.  I checked HD, Lowes, Tractor Supply, and Picketts.  Let me know if you find anything better.  I decided to not install a wood heater right away.  The heating device inspection issues and the fact that it cannot be a primary heat source for code put the breaks on that.

I noticed a few signs on Rt 7 in the town to the west and complaints from my neighbors.  I heard your area was higher than some to begin with.  $800 for your acreage is pretty good.  I was paying $300 for half the acreage.  Not sure what it is going to be now.

[speedfunk]

We will squirl.  There is also a buy and sell yahoo group for the area that's active.

I can't believe you can't use wood for primary heating.  That's just insane, I've not heard of that in this area. 

Update: were another row up and I finishined round one ( 5' up on the house all around on inside and outside) of the surface bonding cement. 
Pics when more progress occurs.

[MountainDon]

I can't believe you can't use wood for primary heating.  That's just insane, I've not heard of that in this area. 

That is NOT uncommon. Some building depatments demand you have a "reliable" source of heat, like natural gas, propane, oil, electric. Ditto for your insurance companies. Their reasoning, I believe, is that those sources of heat do not require requent filling of the stove to keep the heat going and the pipes fromfreezing.

There's no real reason you can not use wood as the primary heat source as long as you also have the "backup" source that is more "normal"; fas, electric or oil. That could be baseboard electric in many places.

[Squirl]

That is what I meant. In practice you could obviously turn down or off the fossil fuel and use the wood stove, just on paper it needs to be different. You are in the only other area in the county that has it's own inspector, but I believe the wording from the county for a Certificate of Occupancy it has to be an "automatic" heating source.  It may not apply to you because of your location.  In addition to what don said, non-fossil fuel (ie electric baseboard) heat increases the required insulation to R49 roof, R24 walls, R30 floor. Checking the insulation guide it is only set up for fossil fuels and electric, not wood.  I cannot find the reference where I had originally found the wording, but it changed the planning for my house, so I researched it pretty heavily at the time. I am not from the area and you have built a house here before.  If I am mistaken, please let me know.

BTW thanks for the Yahoo tip.  I didn't know that one.  I am just happy to see that they added a local craigslist 2 weeks ago.

[MushCreek]

In SC, you have to have central heat capable of keeping the house at or above 68 degrees (not hard to do in that mild climate). It doesn't specify 'automatic' though. For right now, a wood stove meets their criteria. Personally, I don't like being told I have to have central heat, but then I'm like that.....

[speedfunk]

I know your just stating the code Don.  But in my case the "normal" heating options  all depend on electric in some form (thermostats, fans, Automatic ignition,or batterys that will expire). When the weather is really bad what has the greatest chance of going out?  Wood is the simplest and has been proven far longer then any other way of heating.  This nothing much more reliable then using wood you have stacked to heat your house, unless you live in a desert lol.

I believe strongly this should not be up to code to tell you what's best in your situation. Now if you leave for a time then in your situation then you would want to have propane or oil something that didn't have to be monitored so closely but they should have no right to tell you what would work best for you.  Now in the case of the bank , if you using their money  you have to play by their rules.

I love this permitted  freedom that people say we are always fighting for (aka expanding our global empire) off topic...sorry just really don't like being told how to live. I'm quite capable of making informed decisions for myself.

[ListerD]

I love this permitted freedom that people say we are always fighting for (aka expanding our global empire) off topic...sorry just really don't like being told how to live. I'm quite capable of making informed decisions for myself.

Amen