After agonizing over the Strawbale house project my wife and I had been planning for almost two years, we decided to kill the project for a number of troubling reasons. We sold the land and bought another property in an area known as Horse Gulch. The lot has a great southern exposure that begged for a good passive solar design. We hired local architect Greg Madeen who is well versed in all forms of natural building including; strawbale, adobe, and rammed earth, to design a passive solar adobe home that would nestle into the pinion, juniper, and oak covered south facing slope towards the front of the property. The wall profile will consist of two 10 inch adobe blocks with a four inch gap between them filled with perlite. Greg's first pass design was very close to what we had invisioned and, with a few small adjustments, was ready to be detailed out. We began excavation work in early November with hopes of getting the drive, septic, power, and cistern in before the snows made progress too dificult. We decided to use a geothermal mechanical system in the house so the first project became digging a hole 105' x 36' x 7' for the source field.
The house project progress entries begin at this point
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