Today Greeno and his lovely wife, Pat, invited a lot of friends over for an open house in their beautiful Earth Home. FANTASTIC...I will post a lot of pictures as I can't get enough of this house...and besides...I proomised Darius!
This is Les and his DW Pat....
Farizona (Frances), Les (Greeno) and Jo (RR). Tombstonejan was to come but had to work...poor Jan. Jo
Now...on to the house......
This is the left side wall of the living room...Pat has such great decorating skills!
The right hand wall of the living room....Jo
Master Bedroom......
WOW! Master Bath.....Scrumptious. Jo
Pat might be the decorator....but Les is the gardener! This is one of the Brugs I gave him this past spring....he did a great job! Jo
The pool table in the Game Room is an unusual color...goes so well with the decor. Jo
I had to show you how much they love their cat....this walk is against one wall of the center court yard...and the cat can go right into the house this way. Jo
I took this picture just because....just because I want to copy it! LOL Jo
The solar panels...and they have a lot of sky lights. We certainly enjoyed our visit...not just because it was so nice to meet Pat, nor because they had so much FOOD....but also to see such a fantastic house! I didn't post their guest room or their son's room...just not enough room here... Jo
Great set of pictures. Do they heat with the one fireplace??. Do they live near your. Did they build it themselves or was it commercially built. Very interesting. Donna
Donna...they are near me...about 15 miles...they had the first of the work done and then Les did the finish work....Les will have to come by and tell you about the heating. I was more interested in the decorating...LOL Jo
That is fascinating. Thanks for letting me know about this thread, Jo. I think you were very lucky to get to visit such a fascinating home and such nice folks. That bathroom is wonderful. I was most interested in the way the kitty enters the house. That is really a cool idea. Lucky cat!!!!
Les and Pat, thank you for letting us all see your lovely house. It must be awesome. Jo, thanks for posting and letting me know of this thread.
Donna
ps, hi Frances :-)
Please tell me ALL about this house!!! I need to know! Its beautiful inside but I want to know about the entitre process.
Daisy....when you come by to see me we'll go over and let Greeno tell you and show you around. Jo
Jo, Thanks! Somehow I had the impression it was an earthship. http://www.earthship.com/
I love earth-sheltered and passive solar housing. I have lots of books on the subject(s), and have done lots of research. Even built one in Boone when I was teaching construction up there.
Do you have more photos of the exterior?
Lovely decorating!
Wow! What a neat house.
Darius...here's one...
and another...of the roof...
OHHHH! I forgot to show the lovely Dinning Room! Pat said they couldnd't find a long, narrow table for this hall-like dinning area so she had it made in Mexico. As she didn't want a rug under it she had the tilers lay tile in a rug pattern. Looks great too. Jo
Jo, it doesn't look like any part of it is buried or bermed. Why do they call it an "earth house"??
RR.. wow how nice all the pictures that you taken it is beautiful, thank you for sharing with us, you did doing good job took the pictures!
Thanks for the picture, very beautiful and wel managed home.
There are no windows in the house...except those that look out into the central court yad...earth is all around the outside. Jo
What a wonderful house!! So nice. And thank-you for sharing all the pictures with us. Binky:))))
Ahh, that's what I wanted to see, Jo. I see a bit of it in the photo posted above at 11:37 AM, now that I look closer. I think the concept of a central courtyard is wonderful.
Darius, I can't find it, so will you bump up the picture of your dream house so the newbies can see the design? My most favorite house design!
The HGTV channel had a series with earth houses and underground houses. Just spectacular! How lucky are these people to actually have one.
Pati
Pati, it wasn't a thread I started so I doubt I could find it either. At the risk of "stealing" this thread, I'll post it here, though. Jo will probably forgive me.
For those who didn't see the earlier posts about it, this house is based on a Chambered Nautilus and the Fibonacci (math) series of numbers, a mathematical progression abundant in Nature. It easily could be Earth-Sheltered up to high windows at the top of the rooms from bedroom to most of dining area.
Here is a link with some interesting info about Buckmeister Fuller's Geodesic domes including underground ones.....gives new meaning to the term roof gardening LOL
http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf/fuller-faq-4.html
Ahh, haven't read anything about Bucky's domes for years. There are a bunch scattered about here in these mountains.
Malcolm Wells did several totally underground houses.
Wow what a beautiful home. Thanks so much for the tour. Sounds like everybody had a great time.
Darius, thanks so much! Your house is so beautiful and unique, I hope you build it someday.
I think the discussion of the Earth Homes is what brought it to mind. I always pictured it with the BR and B snug up against the side of the mountain and the windows in DR and LR opening up to the view. The view I picture is the one from the front porch of the little cabins up on Pisgah.
Well, now that I've made myself completely homesick *sigh*, I'll return the thread. Thanks roadrunner.
Pati
By Earth Home, do you mean, Rammed earth?????? I saw this once on This Old House and it was ever so fascinating! More and more, we're making use of Mother Nature and that's a good sign...up here, more and more homeowners are incorporating Solar Panels around outdoor swimming pools for extra warmth. .....hpy gdning,.........Elaine
Elaine,
...........you beat me to it , I was just gonna ask the same question about rammed earth .This is what it looks like to me.
Up here Earth homes are built into a hillside with only the front exposed. Even the roofs are covered with earth and grass .
You may see an occasional goat mowing the roof around the skylights ..... lol
Well I am computer illiterate. I just responded to Ya'll,pushed a button and eveyrthing disappeared into a Parallel Universe!
I'll try again.
Yesterday I had lucnch wih Roadrunner and she told me I'd better go to this site and answer some questions ya'll had. I'll try, but if I don't, feel free to email me at greelpt@juno.com with any question or comments you have.
I got the idea for this house when I was working for the ARMY CORPS. of ENG. building concrete ammo. bunkers. They were warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
It is my understanding that their are 3 kinds of underground houses:
1. is a house that's built into the side of a hill. ( usually having a southern exposure)
2. is a house that's bilt on top of the ground and then the earth is placed around and on top of it.
3. is an Envelope House, ( like ours ),where you dig a whole and build the house and then cover it.
The roof of our house sticks out of the ground a foot. It is metal and insulated to an "R" factor of 60. It also has 11 skylights
The reason the roof is exposed is I designed the house to have NO inside support columns. The house is so large, (4,000 sq.ft.) that the roof span became so great that in order to support the weight of the earth that was going to be on it the concrete was going to have to be so thick, it became cost prohibitive.
The walls are constructed of concrete filled styrofoam blocks. There is 2" of styrofoam. 5" of concrete, 2" of stryrofoam, a 3" air space and a 4" stuuded and sheetrocked , inner wall for an "R" of 30.
The floor is a 7&1/2" slab, covered with ceramic tile to act as a heat sink.
Heat is provided by two propane fired, soapstone stoves.
Propane fuels the 2 hot water heaters,the 2 stoves and the range.
Solar provides all the electric.
Because the house is so well insulated and in the ground when it's 28 outside it's 55 in and when it's 97 out it's 75 in. We have no cooling and only have to heat 17 degrees to bring it to 72. The stoves accomplish that with no trouble. We use about 500 gal. of propane a year and have no utilitiy bills but the phone. We have a well and a septic system.
It is bright and airy as there is an atrium in the middle of the house that measures 30X37 ft. and each room has one or two 6 ft. sliding glass doors and skylights.
The only exposed portion of the house is 27 ft. in the front where the entry and the kitchen are. The remaining front is protected by an oversize,3 stall garage.
I hope this answers all your questions, but if it doesn't,feel free to contact me.
How'd I do, ROADRUNNER?
Wow! Ya done good, lgreeno!
Quite a project you had there, eh? Sounds like your place will be around several lifetimes!
Enjoy it. Thanks for the info!
