Earthships

[Richard]

Not what you think. But pretty darn cool, nonetheless.

Fully sustainable and totally off the grid homes built out of recycled material. I just watched a science channel program on these a few days ago, then Andrew Zimmer of "Bizarre Foods" did a really good piece last night. (noted on the front page of the main website)

http://earthship.com/

http://earthship.com/live-free-and-comfo...hship.html

Why more of us don't live like this is as thought provoking as why so few of us have ever heard of the possibility of living like this. Apparently its been an ongoing project since the 70's.

The site doesn't really go into construction costs that I can find. But I'd be really interested in a $/sq ft estimate.

Richard

[Parsons]

I am interested in this as well, coming from the horribly constructed rental I'm in currently. I always question, why is it so important for there to be trendy-aesthetics vs improving practicality in some way? I am not saying the "earth-ship" homes look ugly, I actually think they look really cool. I wouldn't mind living one, aesthetically.

Moreover, why build above-ground at all? What about these homes that I've seen/read about that are built into the ground. Its constantly in the 70's just below the surface, so heating/cooling(energy) problems would be solved. Plus, in areas where there are risks of wind disasters (hurricanes/tornadoes), they would be much safer.

[Richard]

From what I can tell from the website, the Earthship homes are more than half underground/

[SeekOne]

Earthships are Awe-Mazing. A friend of mine owns one about 30 minutes from where I am currently living. By far the most awesome dwelling I have ever stepped foot in during the last 25 orbits of this particular incarnation.

If you are willing to do all of the labor they end up not being terribly expensive to create. I would guess in the range of 10-20k.

They have an internship program here in Taos, NM where you come and work X amount of hours a day and are given food & housing. A couple of the residents who live at the community I am living at went and did the internship program last year... they certainly got a lot out of it. The reason we have opted to (at least for now) build one on our land is due to such a high amount of labor.. particularly filling the tires with cement. That can take a LONG time!!!

[Parsons]

Oh, my bad, I didn't have time to read the whole article, I just skimmed it this morning... Also just noticed Star Shine posted 11:11 my time.

[Parsons]

This looks really awesome, after reading the full article. I would totally do this if I had time to... Maybe if I get stuck in my lease until January I will build one of these in the mean-time as long as I have enough money or can get loans to cover the extra cost.

[hogey11]

I want an earthship.....

not sure the wife's down tho. Baby won't care; she's too little to not adapt

[Parsons]

I want an earthship.....

not sure the wife's down tho. Baby won't care; she's too little to not adapt

Should be an easy sell, just guilt trip her about the environment / about energy costs and being independent of the grid for reliability reasons (if power goes out, you wont lose power or water).

[abstrktion]

These homes are amazing--I want one! And we like the desert.... Thanks for sharing this!

[Richard]

I want an earthship.....

not sure the wife's down tho. Baby won't care; she's too little to not adapt

Same problem here. I think the water / sewage treatment thing would be the single biggest obstacle for my wife. I suspect the thought of flushing a toilet with yesterday's shower water would be too much, lol....and thats only a minor facet of the on premises sewage treatment.

Richard

[Parsons]

Richard, just educate her on how our current sewage system works. We get water from a river, which is used by the city, then the sewage is treated and dumped back in to the river for the next city to process and use... It actually might be less disgusting if you consider the whole picture.