Found an Engineer!...

This is exciting. Fredl spoke to a structural engineer buddy and he has recently completed an earth house...and we are going to see it. About half an hour from here. What a find! I thought no-one here knew about this kind of architecture. Right on our doorstep! Is this the Law of Attraction at work I wonder:)

The earth house is built into a hill on a golfing estate not far from here. It is a beautiful area and it gets mighty hot in the summer and not too much cooler in the winter. The owner was very sensible to build into the earth. At about six feet under, depending on the latitude, the temperatures range from 45 degrees to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That is about 7 degrees to 23 degrees Celsius.

Of those to whom I have shown the photos of Peter Vetsch's earth sheltered houses...so sculptural and clean...most want one too. My across the valley neighbour and soul sister Louise is in love with them, my husband and daughter are so in favour and my good friends all want to come and visit when it is done. It has created quite a stir.

I'll get my spade...will you bring yours too?

Fredl has long wanted to master a TLB...you know, those thingys that dig up the earth and deposit it elsewhere? Tractor, Loader, Backhoe...TLB. Very useful. We will need one of those to take away the terraces and make a nice flat space for us to build our earth shelter. All the services need to be put in place before the earth gets loaded back over the structure and the TLB will be back to do just that. Then we will get on to planting the local indigenous grasses and field flowers on the earth roof.

But hang on! No land has been touched yet. The most important task still to be done is to drill into the earth and find out where the water table is. We don't want to build too low. So that will have to be handled before we start excavating land. My first challenge.

Now to find an expert.