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
7 comments:
Just located your blog. We live in SE Texas and hope to start building in the next couple of years. Your home is beautiful and hope you will let them post some pictures on the website. I have been wanting to build an earth shelter home for a few years and couldn't decided on the type..dome or this square, I have only seen a handful that I thought were beautiful. Your just went to the top. I love the color the design...everything! Would be interested in how many sq ft you have. Just beautiful!!
Renee
fricano@datarecall.net
The house looks great.
Texas is supposed to have a earth sheltered/bermed subsidy, right? Did you run into that with the permit?
Also, you said you revised your design based on how the house would be constructed. How much would you say your newer design saved you over the cost of a more "normal" sprawling layout?
Have you visited any other homes in the Austin area with a more passive approach to heating/cooling?
Thanks so much for your blog.
Jeff
Hi Mike,
I'm interested in the cost per foot to this stage.
Also, do you know anything about this being mortgageable? Someone in the mortgage industry told me that since it's not common and there are no comps in the neighborhood that getting a mortgage would not be possible.
This won't stop me, but resale might be a problem.
Everything looks really good and I can't wait to see the interior.
Rosie
Thanks for the comments and questions, everyone. I will reply to all here rather than by pvt email.
Renee: The total under the roof is about 2500 ft, with about 2200 conditioned. The garage is not conditioned, but is designed and built to become a 3rd bedroom if someone wants, with hvac ducting, wiring and exit requirements already in place.
Jeff: I have not found any TX subsidy, so if you can guide me to one I would certainly appreciate it. (By my experience with this house, TX is still in the dark ages of encouraging green or design that minimizes resource use. Of course, I am from OR, which has a very strong interest in encouraging conservation, etc.)
We built in Bastrop County, which has no permit reqirements (other than septic), does no plan check, and performs no inspections. Just boggles the mind.
I doubt the design change resulted in any added cost or savings. It was necessitated by the layout on the lot and the property lines being in a different place than anticipated. It did result in a better home, though.
We have not visited any Austin homes with a more passive approach, though ours is relatively passive and will become much better when the trees grow to shade the west windows.
Rosie: The cost will be about $108-110 per square foot once I finish installing the rest of the flooring and counters. Don't know how much we will save by doing all the painting, floors and countertops, but expect it could be as much as $5-10,000.
We were fortunate that we could use our OR home to finance this one, so do not know about a mortgage. If I were going for a loan I think I would contact one of the small local banks (in TX they are everywhere!)and work directly with the bank officers. You would have a better chance to educate them, which is really what it is all about. I have already had one bank loan officer stop by for a tour as a result of a client who wants to build a home like this. He left much more impressed than he was when he arrived.
We hope to have an open house in Aug once everything is done, to allow anyone who is interested to see how it looks and works. So far the builder has had us give tours to potential clients from AK, NM, and FL. If there is any interest from blog readers I will post it here. What would you thik if we have an admission charge of food for the local food bank?
Mike
Mike,
To answer your question, I would come to the open house with lots of canned goods! What a great idea. I would love to see your house and listen to anything you have to say, good or bad, that might help us when we start ours. Just a super idea with the admission!
Renee
Hi Mike,
You can add Louisiana to your list of tours. My sister and I visited with you before the floors were built to get an idea about the size of the modules.
You might check out SB-90. It's a fed thing that gives a tax credit of 50% of the first $25,000 for windpower and solar. Louisiana has approved this. I don't know about Texas.
Also, I heard from an electrician in Waco of a meeting to be held in January in Austin about alternative stuff. Maybe, they'll be discussing this credit.
Would love to come visit your home when finished. I'll bring lots of canned goods as well.
Rosie
Mike, Can you post the kwh you used for this month?
Thanks,
Rosie
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