Documenting a personal quest for non-toxic housing.
Monday, July 14, 2003Site and Project Update
A persistent bought of bronchitis brought on by the extremely damp Spring weather here in NJ has suspended my work on this site. I'm hoping to soon pick things up again. In the mean time I've been trying to continue research and, while continuing to explore the car port adaptation concept, I found that there is a large variety of pre-fab pavilion structures being offered by the manufacturers of park shelters -the open sided roof structures frequently used to shelter picnic and lounge areas in public parks and theme parks. Available in some very large sizes and made with galvanized steel, these have apparently already been used for housing applications and are easily adapted for this in much the same way I intended to adapt car ports. They apparently cost about $10 per square foot but this does not include the assembly costs or the added foundation slab, window/wall panels, added insulation, and suspended ceiling system. But this does appear to be a strong prospect for a turn-key approach non-toxic housing.
I also recently learned that the famous Colorado Earthship home of Dennis Weaver is apparently up for sale, and has been for some time. The home can be seen here. This home is probably the most finely crafted Earthship ever created and why Dennis Weaver would put it up for sale seems to be something of a puzzle -especially at the price it's being offered at. Here in the filth of New Jersey the primitive tract homes in my area go for over half a million dollars -more than twice what this home is being offered at. I gather the homes remoteness may have something to do with it. Though it's southern Colorado climate presents a colder Winter climate than I'd like, this house would otherwise be well suited to my needs -if I could somehow afford it. There is some question about the potential for outgassing from the tires used in Earthship construction but the consensus among green builders working with this technique is that their encapsulation in adobe should preclude any problems from this. Not enough MCS patients have been able to afford these homes and so no information on their experience with them is available.
