May 15, 2008: The exterior is finished and Ralph, Conrad, Jose and Russell are done. They did an outstanding job, with only a few hiccups along the way. We will be doing the rest of the finish work over the next several months. Finally we have our house!

I will continue to post to the blog, but they will be normal interior posts, with nothing to do with earthsheltering. When I get the landscaping done I will post that, but it may be a year from now, given the quality of the soil and the climate.

If anyone is interested, the house is featured in the May issue of Earth Shelter News (http://www.earthshelternews.com/)

Thanks for your support

We are finally getting the color coat of stucco applied. I designed the trim so the difference in size would result in changing appearance as the sun moved due to variance in the shadow lines. At noon there is nearly no shadow, with the shadows increasing as the sun is lower in the sky. It will, of course, also be different with the changing seasons. This angle displays clearly the effect of the shadows. The left wall faces west, with the right facing south. This photo was taken in mid afternoon.


Finally, a chance to see what the home will look like when finished. The entire color coat should be finished around May 15.

Jose is applying the styrofoam trim to the front of the parapet walls. The top one is 4x4 inches set 8 inches down from the top of the parapet. The other is 2x4 inches set 12 inches below the upper one. The wall is prepared with a layer of bonding cement, with the foam stuck to the wall. Then a layer of yellow netting is bonded to the foam and wall, making the entire structure strong enough to stand up to the elements.













The top trim is ready for final stucco, the second awaiting netting and the final layer of foundation cement. You can see the difference in the sizes of the trim pieces.

I just got the large Sun Dome lens installed. It took some planning since it is a 21" reflective tube inside a 24" plastic sleeve. The resolution was to order a special trim ring from the manufacturer which holds the lens and is large enough to cover the entire sleeve. I then glued the lens inside the trim ring and attached it to the concrete ceiling with tapcon concrete screws and caulked around the edge. It does an excellent job of lighting the kitchen/dining module.



These photos do not show it very well due to over exposure, but the lens changes during the day as the sun moves. It actually looks like alabaster glass with a changing pattern. I think it is probably due to the reflection changes caused by the joints in the reflective tube. We were fortunate that we needed only one reflective tube in addition to the top section, which results in more light into the house. (Anyone need a 3' section of highly reflective light metal tubing?)

These photos are for my friend Kim, who collapses with laughter at the mere thought of me rototilling the roof. Had to rent a large tiller and get used to handling it without falling off the edge.

We needed to till a couple of inches deep in order to be able to plant the grass (though at this point anything with roots is allowed to live to prevent erosion). We planted a special variety of Buffalo grass known as Cody, which was developed by the Univ. of Nebraska. It likes full sun, little water when established, and only grows 2-4 inches high, which is perfect, since I do not intend to own a lawnmower. The grass is now up, though it spends most of its time developing roots at the outset. I may plant annual rye for the first year to help control erosion. I think any earth sheltered buyer/builder needs to plan from the outset to control erosion, since it will be a problem no matter where you build. Fortunately we back into the hill, so the main problem is only on the two sides behind the retaining wing walls.

The test board for the dining/kitchen floor, designed by Chris.










Ed, from the Permacrete company, starting to apply the color on the floor design. It was laid out first with tape, visible by his knee, which defines the design. At this point the base coat had already been applied to the floor. It is the white surface, which will act as an anchor, leveling out all unevenness and will show through as grout lines when the tape is finally removed. It is also used to give the final surface texture.

This is the final design after application of all color. It will cure for a day, then sealer will be applied, which will result in a rich, matte finish. (The kitchen island is on the left) This room is about 24x24.

At this point we are confident that the Permacrete system will solve our initial problems with the concrete floors.

Two views of the 4x5 shower, showing the concrete and greenboard walls before we begin treating with the Permacrete mix. The floor has the first layer of Permacrete in which we have placed river pebbles.