Candy Johnson

Anyone in Arizona with land to share?

Glenn Herbert wrote:It seems the building site itself is flat, and the slope for drainage is 100' or so away. I just think it is a bad idea to intentionally depend on an electrical appliance to ensure the house will never flood.

You want your house underground... do you mean completely surrounded by dirt with a green roof? Or fully bermed with a metal roof that can serve for water collection? A point to remember is that you don't need to dig down 6' to have fully earth-covered walls. If you dig 8'  x 16' x 3' deep, you will have enough dirt dug up to berm three sides another 4' up, or 7' total walls, which is plenty for a one-person dwelling. Roof slope will make most of the space considerably taller. In your situation, I would make the bermed walls maybe 6' tall, with decent roof slopes making the high point(s) something like 9' or 10'. Digging for a sunken porch or a greenhouse on the south side will increase the available berm material with even less digging down.

Don't an on being"one person" forever.

And could you please all stop trying to sell me another book. Unless there is a herd(flock or bevy) of elves in there to do this NO THANK YOU. I have already spent thousands of dollars to see how others did it. Time to get away from the keyboard and Just do it!

My biggest issue is climbing a ladder. Second biggest is summer is hot and humid. My third biggest issue is winter is long and cold.
Let's be honest. We are not Amish. Electricity will be available in my lifetime(I am 50 and I already am a subscriber to an established coop. They suck but they are here) and I will always have to pay them at least $50 for the privilege of paying $6000 to get power.  
I want a tiny, efficient house cheap and something I can build basically by myself. I have lived in a van for two years so my needs are simple. Just trying to figure out how to get it done by the time it's too cold to live in an unheated van. How tough could this be?

Every response has been awesome! I knew I was asking the right people. I will take all the responses and do some serious research over the weekend. I will post pictures and progress as this evolves. Thank you all!

I have bought both Mikes book and Bill Mollisons. But those i lost when i lost the house. I do have more than adequate fall but it is about 100 feet to the creek. Also I am going to bury it all of the way to where my roof would start. If I have to use a pump to deal with drainage I will just have to do it. I do not want to deal with another cold winter. I have always wanted and underground greenhouse.
My parents(about 3 miles away)had a stick built house (built rather poorly) but they did build a full bathroom with a shower and a huge jacuzzi tub. They had the the concrete broken up and they put a sump/trash pump put in to empty into the septic system. They also had dirt work done to make it a walk out basement. It was below grade so it had steps going from ground level down to a large patio door. Their sump pump did have to run when we had heavy rains.
I am making my house 8x16 with an 8x16 green house. I  do believe I have decided on Mike's PSP design. If I use extra posts to support the walls would lining the walls with rigid Styrofoam and vinyl siding work? I would only use that for the greenhouse side. I am thinking pallet wood over the Styrofoam. Would Styrofoam be best or is there something else to insulate it? I was thgoingg the mylar bubble wrap with waterproof tape might also work.
I am planning on using a composting toilet. A shower is the only reason I would even bring water in other than the greenhouse. Also this is totally experimental. If it doesn't work its still got to be better than living in the car.

Thank you all for the responses. I do have a slope falling away to a small creek. The drainage line will have to be assisted by a solar or battery powered pump.. I am planning on using the PSP methods discussed here. I'm also doing the project alone and completely by hand. So the depth is still questionable. I do have a neighbor that built an earthbermed house on the same land but his is just bermed on three sides. Open to the east and totally buried on the back except for the roof. He built it forty years ago. I planned on opening the south side by digging down and putting stairs and a small patio. I think the walapini greenhouse is my instpiration. JUst need technical advice as the project progresses.
Also the grey water storage idea was similar to an rv tank. Just planned on storing it in times when drainage would be an issue like winter. Also this maybe a total failure but anything is better than another winter in my van.

I am a fifty year old woman. I have been homeless  for two years this October. I am also jobless so funds are nonexistent except for $194 per month in food stamps. I have lived in a 2001 Oldsmobile mini van. It no longer runs therefore it will not work as shelter for another winter. I have found a place to call home. And now I am trying to get something built by October. Today I started digging what will be my underground/earth berm house.
I am going to continue to dig until I am unable to go any further. At the present time it is 8x16. I am planning on digging down about 6 feet and berming the north,east and west walls. I was going to dig about 3 feet down on the entire length of the south wall and making a porch and the entrance. I am in zone 5. We get 44 inches of rain per year. Our water table is not very high. I do plan on having electricity to have some type of sump pump and maybe a French drain in case there is moisture
Could anyone offer any suggestions? The soil is solid with absolutely no rock. Would it be possible to use the walls as they are or do I need to consider PSP construction? Could I use some type of adobe to coat the walls? The roof will not rest on the walls. I am going to use 4x4 posts to support a shed type roof.
I also am going to dig deep enough to put four 250 gallon totes to store fresh water,grey water and produce biogas. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I do not have help nor a lot of tools. This is definitely a low tech,low budget project. I do have clay soil available for cob if that is something I should consider. I do also have access to logs. I am not planning on building this to last indefinitely. This is a down and dirty solution to get out of my car. Thank you in advance for the help.

Personally I cannot watch any YouTube videos because our internet is primitive. But when we do get a chance to download and watch them we don't mind the commercials in the beginning. Curated content beats the random crap on television any day plus you can skip most of them after a few seconds.
To get more views the watchers need to like and share them. Just liking them doesn't help grow your audience.Asking the viewers to like and share makes more sense than asking for them to subscribe. I subscribe to a lot but I don't always watch the new videos. Only if they pertain to something I am researching. And I only share them if they are relevant to my tiny group of good friends that give a shit about what I like.