Building With Us

Bags, Barbed wire. Bags, Barbed wire. Repeat. The gist is that earth filled bags are stacked like bricks. With just enough technicality to break the monotony of filling and laying bags. At 7,500 ft elevation in our high mountain desert, the days are heating up quickly. The race to beat the snow is on more… Continue reading

Our main door, entering through the west porch. The floor will eventually be filled up and flush with the bottom of the door. After much deliberation and planning, here is the resting place for the SE door. It will be half glass and the first winter sun will shine right through. Both door frames are… Continue reading

Another victorious day as the first bags are laid. We chose lava rock as our fill material for its insulating capabilities. The small holes throughout the stone allows for air to be trapped keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. (That’s the idea at least!) The bottom courses are double bagged for extra… Continue reading

This rubble trench foundation ranges from 1ft to 5ft in depth. Here we are looking South with the round house on the left and porch on the right. We didn’t plan for it at the time but one roof will cover the entirety of the space you see here. The porch will be our mudroom,… Continue reading

Our region is incredibly rocky and well, just plain ‘bouldery.’ We weren’t sure what would stop us from going as deep into the ground and as wide as we needed for our 30 ft abode. We were hoping for a 4-5ft earth berm on the north. We did a lot of crossing our fingers through… Continue reading

Though we considered numerous nooks on the land, this old favorite became our beloved build spot. Here we are clearing some Saskatoon bushes to get a better view of the earth’s grade. We knew we wanted to berm on the North side (left) to protect from winter winds, with the Southern side of the house… Continue reading