Monday May 16th 2005
We're now in high gear but still riding the roller coaster…
After studying our sketch and the details of our project, the architect made a quote for his services. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to find another way to proceed. Our requests are too different from the other earthships he's done so far and that warrants a price four times higher than originally quoted.
In total despair, we considered modifying the house, for one thing by keeping it all on one level which would greatly limit the expansion possibilities because of the terrain. But on the other hand, a house is for life, we've fought for a year just to get the by-laws we needed… no way we'll start making such huge compromises now!
I remembered an American that had suggested building out of tirebales last year and how the picture of his house resembled what we're looking for. Since building his own as per Michael Reynolds' original technique, he's designed close to thirty others, including some with tirebales. I contacted him by e-mail and the discussion as been very encouraging. We've also located a local draftsman here who would be willing to revise the plans and to have them signed by an engineer for a reasonable price. We're still having discussions back and forth to figure out what the best way to do this but we can certainly be more hopeful. I did verify a few details with the municipal authorities to make sure we're not headed in a wrong direction but everything I described is fine with them.
Alain now works only 2 days a week so we went on our first scrap yard outing for recycled construction materials, nothing so far. He came back from the lime plaster workshop in great spirits, it's exactly what we need for the interior walls and the samples he brought back are beautiful. There are many advantages to clay walls covered with lime plaster. The wall becomes a buffer, absorbing and releasing humidity while being resistant to mildew, furthermore it's doesn't create static like normal painted walls so there's less dust.
As for the roof, we're now leaning strongly in favour of engineered wood trusses. It's less complicated for the engineer, saves time, lots of effort and the environment by reducing the use of rigid foam insulation since we can use sheep's wool. That means that our nice logs will be turned into boards and that they'll end up on our ceiling anyway. It'll be less heavy lifting to install them that way instead of using them structurally, also we'll save the time it would take to make them all level. Michel Cajolet will bring his portable sawmill on May 26th to do the deed. We'll have lots of sawdust for our composting toilet this summer!