A Johnson

Hi Sally - I’m in East Corinth. I have 10 acres of pasture with a gentle slope toward the south. I just closed on it so now working on getting septic and well and was thinking about getting an RV hookup for someone like yourself ~ which I will try to have before the snow flies. I am in the process of getting Ben Falk to design a plan for the land. Implementing it will take many years I am sure...in the meantime there is plenty of room for someone to grow a garden. It is a beautiful area with many organic farms....Moon Castle, Crossmolina, Blythedale.
Anya

Hi Sally,
I have some land in Vermont that I would like to rent to someone with a tiny house - and someone who cares about land and wants to grow on it...but I don’t have a tiny house.
Anya

R Scott wrote:Living roofs are typically VERY expensive because you have to build them so strong to deal with the weight, but your house is small enough it might be possible for not a lot extra.  I do know one guy that built a tiny house with a flat deck roof and then put a greenhouse on top as his second floor.  But it was tiny, like garden shed tiny.

I really like your layout.

Thanks R :)

Yes - that makes sense. I got the book “Building Green” which showed the structure in a cutaway - complex. Great book though.

Hehe - I’ll probably end up in garden shed tiny just so to stay out of debt :)

Thanks for the doc on waste water rules Anne!

I also found this: https://www.uvm.edu/~vlrs/Environment/WasteWater.pdf

Apparently constructed wetlands (reed bed, as John mentioned) are more expensive than regular leach fields to install :/ disappointing.

I will probably go with a composting toilet and conventional waste water system of a reduced size.

Thanks for the info John - I will look into it!

Douglas Campbell wrote:I second the comment to go for a shed roof not a flat roof.
Also remember that rafters can form a cold bridge from the outside to the ceiling, causing condensation patches.

Thanks! Shed roof it is. I have a book coming that explains how to make living roofs. Do you know of any resources that could help me avoid those “cold bridges” you speak of?

Anne Pratt wrote:This is exciting!

As you imagined, Vermonters are going to have a moment imagining your flat roof.  A way to build almost as simply could be with a shed roof - simply higher on one side (ideally the south) and lower on the other.  This increases your solar gain, insulates you further against the north, and solves some of the leaking/ice dam/load-bearing issues you'll encounter with a flat roof.  

Have you looked at the building code in the town?  Do it before you get too far along, so you don't do many hours of work only to face great disappointment.

Thanks Anne!
Actually, one of the big reasons I chose the land is no zoning and no building codes
I agree about the drainage. Something to look into further.
Do you happen to know, being a vermonter, if there is any way to avoid putting in septic? I feel that low impact builders should be rewarded for not wanting to tear up the land, you know? I loved discovering from Emma in that youtube vid that her house was legal due to a low impact initiative of that country. Vermont is forward thinking in so many ways...I have not talked to anyone “official” about this yet...

Like Emma’s house, instead of having an eye catching facade, I’d like to blend as much as possible with my surroundings. What would be really cool is if I could put radiant heat in the roof as well as the floor, tip the roof toward the southwest and grow food there too Dreams....

Hello All ~

Well, here it is...a first try at a floor plan. I have looked into a pile of straw bale house books and have decided: too complicated for me!

The most important aspects of my design are, I want something that I, an unskilled builder can undertake with confidence. I also want something that I can afford without financing - tough! - so I need it to be small, one story, simple in concept and execution.

It is going to be cob. And I will make sure it has a moisture barrier, insulation and hydro radiant floor heat (propane) in the professionally installed slab. Since I want the roof to be as simple, strong and inexpensive as possible, I was thinking of doing a FLAT roof using 6”x6” beams - with sod on top. Yes, I live in a climate with heavy snow and I have not looked into this deeply, so shoot it down as nonsense if you must . I will probably have the slab and the roof made first by pros so that I can then do the cobbing myself.

So, the context of this plan is:
To the north, is the road and the driveway. (Around 75 feet away)
To the East is a wooded ravine with a stream at the bottom.
To the west is a view down the rolling 10 acre pasture (a long rectangle that runs east to west parallel to a dirt road)
To the south is the wooded edge of said pasture that goes down toward the stream as it wraps around the property as well.

My grid disappeared when I exported the plan from my program.
The best reference for size is my 5’x6’ bed in the northeast corner of the plan.

The bed will be raised off the floor 3 feet or so, and under will be pull out shelving (like a bookcase with a drawer pull on the end) to make full use of the cubic footage under the bed for storage.
To the west of the bed is the living room with a pair of out-swinging French doors facing south west
The kitchen has a floor to ceiling pantry made up of multiple (7, I think) vertical bookcase-like vertical pullout units side by side.
There is a Refrigerator and Freezer marked R and F.
Across from the East wall of the kitchen is a corner sink, a four foot prep counter and a couple propane burners in front of as many counter to ceiling windows as I can fit - I love casement style but on a budget, we’ll see!
Then comes the bathroom with a back door - on the East wall it has a top of the line composting toilet (I want as much ease as I can afford surrounding this process!) and across from it is a round tub under a window looking down the field. I want to embed a tiny round sink in the cob, as well.

Those bright orange dots are the ethanol burners I want to embed in spots around the house for supplemental heating to the radiant floor ~ and ambiance

Let me know what you think...
Thank you!
Anya

Brian Michael wrote:Have you considered Cord Wood construction.  It's on my list of "one of these days" projects.  Seems like it's often done in climates similar to ours.

Earthwood Website

As for over-heating the house - I guess that might be a concern, but it will be easier to open a window in a hot house than trying to find heat that isn't there.

Thanks for the video - does that really last a long time? I would think the ends of the wood could be easily infiltrated by pests...True about the heat.
Thanks!

Daniel Ray wrote:
Any specific questions about balecob feel free to ask or shoot me a purple mooseage. Good luck! and have fun.

Not late at all - thanks for the input! I will take a look - both at your building and cob cottage stuff.

My house will probably be around 200-300 sq. Ft. with no loft - So I’m a little worried about over-heating it - I saw a you tube video about the batch heater - loved the gothic arch on the top - so pretty. He said his building was poorly insulated tho. Using cob bale - even in zone 4 I feel I’ll probably have to be careful and have something I can really turn down. If I go with propane I am  considering Woodstock Soapstone’s Mini Franklin Stove - so pretty!