Monday, March 16, 2009

Not So Big House Yet Again


After the foundation was poured, one concern we had was how far out of the ground the house appeared to be. It made our intentionally small footprint house look like a much larger house. When we were planning our house, we read some of Sarah Susanka's "Not So Big House" books in earnest, enjoying her perspective on designing a house for how we really live and using each room daily. Anything else is would be unnecessary extra for us. You can learn more about Sarah's philosophy, which we certainly share, here: http://www.susanka.com/.

Now that Bartley installed the window wells and did the rough grading around the house, the home looks like it will be a much more management size. What a difference a little dirt can make.

When the weather clears later this week our Contractor, Aaron, will be on-site to test the dirt/sand/cement mixture in order to make the Compressed Earth Bricks for the walls. Then the team will get into full swing with brick manufacture! We're looking forward to the demonstration of the brick-making this Saturday. If you'd like to come by and need our address, please email me at flybymike at gmail dot com. (replace at with @ and dot with a period).

One more note - the HUGE pile of dirt in our neighbor's yard is now a much smaller pile of dirt, which will be used for making the CEB.