Post Frame Gabion Wall Berm House Build

Im currently in the process of building and thought it might be fun to post and discuss and bounce ideas off people here about the build.  

What im building:
I really like the idea of using things right off the land to build with and like the efficiencies of earth homes.  Much inspiration taken from Mike Oehler as well as the wofati buildings.  



Im getting the lumber from the property and lots of stone as well.  Im not opposed to using a little concrete to ensure my posts never have any rotting problems and im ditching Oehlers wooden earth wall in favor for another material which, in my opinion is a better interface between the posts and the dirt, that being stone. Doing this by the use of a gabion wall structurally integrated with the wooden posts of the berm walls.  I also will be using a metal roof, seen to many leak issues with the underground stuff and metal is cheap enough.  I want this house to actually house my family comfortably, be very efficient, be extreemly afordable by using local materials, not go too far off into building something that will be problem prone with leaks and such and also have natural building beauty.

Interesting. Do you have a render of the gabion/berm wall arrangement? If it's just caged loose stone, I might worry about inward frost heave over time. Also wondering about the wisdom of what looks like an attached garage there blocking your winter morning sun, in a space that probably wants all it can get of that. Maybe attached greenhouse instead?

Ok so here is the big idea of how the earth wall works.

I start off by pouring concrete piers, i got mine every 6 feet.  This anchors me to the ground.  Then on top the piers i pour a concrete grade beam, tied into the piers with rebar, its not very big, 1 foot wide by 6 inches deep going the length of my building which is 48 feet, one #4 rebar going down it.  This uses very little concrete, it is specifically designed that way so that one guy with a small mixer can do all of the concrete work himself and uses no fancy formwork, just a few 2x6s or 3/4 ply strips will do.  I realize there are many ways this could have been done, this is what i chose.  I set heavy steal flat bar every 32 inches for my timbers to be set on.  I had also set the gabion wire into the pour however am going to end up cutting that out for and replacing it with a tighter wire mesh panel, oops.   I also went down the top of the concrete with a brush and sponge to expose the rock aggragate in the concrete as this will be the top level of my floor and exposed so i wanted it to look nice.

I like the general plan so far; The piers are good to possibly eliminate wood rot. The grade beam looks good for tying the piers together, but saying the post connections are 32" apart while the piers are 6' apart is concerning. A small grade beam like that is definitely not going to transfer the considerable roof loads to the piers without cracking badly and probably settling. If you are planning a heavy timber horizontal sill to carry the posts, that might work safely.

Ben, the front of the house is actually the north side, i know a lot of windows, but that is the good view this location has and i wanted to see it.  Yes the wall is just loose fill large river stone.  I dont think i will ever get any frost problems the way im insulating the berm, similar to how the passive annual heat storage homes do, just not going so far out with it.  Im extenting poly down the berm to keep the whole mass of soil mainly dry.  Ill keep showing more detail of it as we go or as questions come up, its hard to get it all in one picture.  Highly appreciate any feedback, not claiming to be an expert in anything myself, but i know a thing or two.  

One really great thing about this wall system, in my opinion, is that if any leaks ever happen through the poly, the gabion wall will behave exactly like the stone under a basement floor allowing the water to drain away without coming in the house.  It will just drain down the wall and out the drain pipe, protecting my timbers and rest of house.  Not just from leaks but also from possible condensation from moisture inside the house hitting the cool earth wall.  Also i wont have to worry about mold and rot like on oehler type walls, i believe one of pauls people said they seen a mushroom growing on the wall of their wofati.  And its also a lot of free local material, im getting the stone from our creek.

Thanks for the thoughts Glenn,
The way this is designed, the piers are not intended to be support for the  grade beam or posts, a 1' wide grade beam should be more than enough of a footer for posts spaced at 32 inches.  In my area 12" to 16" cookie footers are regularly used under posts which are spaced 8 feet apart.  Perhaps grade beam is the wrong term to use because its more of a footer.  I really wasnt sure what to call it.  The piers are so that the (grade beam/footer) doesnt slid when i backfill the earth up to the wall, it anchors the beam/footer.  I realize this could have been done other ways, but this is what i came up with to allow me to use small amounts of concrete poured on different days to lessen the work each day.  Perhaps there are better solutions though

The footer wasnt dug down into the ground like usual, It was cast on top the ground.  This was done to keep the top of the footer/beam the top of my finished floor, so that my posts were sitting on top the floor.  Well, anyways its a lot of details...  but i suppose i could have just poured a deeper thicker footer and done away with the piers but that would have been a lot more concrete in one pour and would have probably required a concrete truck which i am avoiding as they give me terrible anxiety

At the very end of each footer/beam thingy, there is a concrete post, i didnt want to use a wooden timber here to avoid rot issues of how the wall terminates to the outside, and again using just a little concrete where it matters most instead of the whole wall.  I also finished these off exposed aggregate style as you will see these and i want them looking nice.  They got a beefed up footer under them.

Here i am putting my cedar posts in place, we had a lot of cedar on the property.  Each post has a flat cut going all the way down the back of the log where it contacts the gabion to keep the gabion wall flat.  The bottom of the cedar posts are plunge cut with a chainsaw to slide over the steel flat bar in the footer.  The top of the cedar post has a notch cut into it to sit in a rail cut into an oak beam that sits on top of them.  The beam transfers the load of the earth pushing on the post through the ceiling joists over to the other earth wall on the other side, similar to Mike Oehlers wall.  

I probably need to post some more pics so to help visualize it all.  I tried to strip this down, removed the front porch and garage and also removed the rafters to expose the bones.  The east and west walls are the berm walls and the north and south are just post frame.  Here you can see the ceiling rafters making a continuous run from the top wood beams on each berm wall.  All my posts inside the house are on their own pier, not shown.  Also showing some finished stuff inside.

When i came up with this idea, i didnt even know what a gabion wall was.  I have since learned about them, and i have also learned that i am not the only one doing similar construction.

And here is a few pics i found on the net to show how good these things can look in a finished house.

The north and south sides of my building are post frame walls.  But unlike regular post frame i have developed my own system for the foundation/ground connection of the wall.  I developed this system on my last house i built and it worked out great, it is further improved on this house.  A major benefit of post frame construction is not needing a full concrete foundation, saves cost and time.  This works out great for a barn, not so good for a house.  The reason being that you need something to contact the ground between the posts, most are just using a treated wood skirt board and gravel.  I think this system i developed would be great for a lot of folks

Here is how it works.  It is very similar to what i did on my berm walls, with concrete piers and a 6"X6" grade beam poured on top.  However in this case the 6" wide beam isnt a big enough footing so the piers are actually carrying the load of the posts/building and the grade beam is just a filler between the wood and the ground, this gives you a foundation that is rot proof, easy to build and cheap and uses minimal concrete, no fancy formwork.  It also includes a perimeter skirt of insulation built into it, as is commonly done on regular concrete frost walls for the buildings thermal efficiency performance and to keep any frost heaving from going on under the grade beams, it works like a shallow frost protected foundation.

Here is how its done:

1.  Dig piers (i chose every 6 feet apart)  Make sure your piers line up so that you have piers aligning under your posts for the structural load.  I make 12" holes with a tractor auger going down below frost line and bell out the bottom for a larger footing.

2 Pour concrete in piers, set height of piers 8" below the proposed top of the concrete wall. Allowing 2" of foam plus 6" of grade beam on top = 8inches

3. push a rebar down the pier and let it stick out a foot or so

4. after the concrete sets up, install 2' wide perimeter foam (the pink stuff) laid flat on top of the ground and  piers.  I pushed mine to hang inside my building (see top view picture below), as my locations climate can get away with frost protection like that and that will protect my foam from being outside the building.  

5. Cut holes in the foam over the piers.  This allows the grade beams concrete to connect with the pier and tie in the rebar.

6. Pin down the foam with some rebar stakes, this keeps the foam from moving while you are setting up forms and pouring on top of it

7. Pop chalk lines down the foam where the wall/grade beam goes

8. screw a cleat board into the foam down the line where it needs to go, the foam is strong enough to hold it if you are careful.  

9. to the cleat board attach your 6"X6" concrete forms, using the same boards used on the earth berm wall pour.

10. install one #4 rebar down the inside of the forms

11. pour concrete into the form

12. set in concrete j bolts (any bolt works really) into the concrete every 6',  Make sure to set some next to where your post will be located.  These hold down your sill plate just like on a regular stick frame wall.  My posts sit on my sill plates and are tied to it with cheap metal flat straps.  I do it this way because its cheaper than buying post anchors, but you could choose from a number of anchoring strategies to suit your preference.

And this grade beam is tied into the grade beams on the berm walls with a rebar, they are poured at the same height.  Anyways, i never seen anyone else doing this, but i really like this system for the wall/ground contact of a post frame.  Maybe i should name it something.  Pier and insulated beam post frame or something like that i dont know...  Ill have to get some better pics of it but its covered in snow right now

Down the center of the house on the ceiling is a large oak beam.  These are carried by large oak posts in the center of the main room.  These sit on 2 stone pillars.  I found the stone in my field.  I made a plywood form which makes building these pillars really easy.  Its a 2' by 2' box, 18" tall.  I start filling the box with cement (small aggregate mix) and place my rocks around the outside carefully as i go up, filling in the middle with more rocks to use minimal concrete.  I stick a rebar down it and also a flat bar near the top which my post will sit on.  I then take the box apart after the concrete sets up enough and clean the soft concrete out the rock faces to expose them nicely.  After it sets up more i reinstall the form and add a second form on top that which extends the form up 3 inches.  I caulk around the edges, let it dry then fill it with concrete and smooth it off for the cap.  The caulk keeps the edges rounded nicely.  They will get cleaned up more and grouted later.

Easy peasy, cheap, and looks fantastic!

Have you considered instead of removing the "too large" wire, just adding a second layer of smaller wire in the inside?

The current wire looks like pretty strong stuff, so my thought was to slide the other down the inside and then you wouldn't need to find a way of fastening the smaller stuff at the bottom.

Jay that is an excellent thought.  Yes i have considered this idea.  Ok here is what happened.  What you see there is 2 layers of cattle panels, i used two because that just looked right to carry the load, one layer just seemed kind of iffy.  I originally i was planning on just covering the wire panel you see with chicken wire and stuccoing/ ferrocement overtop of it.  But it kept bugging me reallly bad that the wall might leak a little as is totally possible with any construction, and i didnt want my posts right on the cement where the leaks might happen.  I almost tore the whole thing down to replace it with a cement block or poured cement wall.  But i really wanted to build with materials off the land and not concrete.  Then i had this idea that if i used the panels as a cage to hold back a layer of rock, any leaks would simply drain down the rocks to the footer drain and out, a bullet proof wall imo.  That led me to discovering gabion cages online and seeing how others where building them.  I realized i had the wrong panel for the job and yes i could use a smaller wire inside it, i currently have  a small section of the wall exactly that with the rocks behind it just to see what it looks like.  Here is the thing though, it is already 2 layers of panels stacked on each other, and adding a third layer just adds to that mess.  Structurally yes is would work, but visually it really starts losing its appeal.  And i believe this building technique could be very valuable for the alternative building community and i want to make it sexy and look good to help sell the idea, so i have decided to bite the bullet and replace them with more appropriate panels for the job.  And the new panel already has double the steel as the cattle panels so it wont need 2 layers.  

Another idea i had would be to continue my plan of ferrocementing my current wire i already have up and also making it part of a gabion cage, that way i wouldnt have the worries of water leaking out the ferrocement.  This wall from the inside would look something like the old european walls with timber and lime, also a good look.  So its kind of a toss up between those ideas for me.  The gabion cages are just so interesting to look at though.  But everything has its drawbacks, im imagining im going to have issues with spider webs and bugs living in them.  I wish there was someone who i could talk to who has already done this to see how big of a problem the spider webs and bugs are.  So i think im just going to start with the gabion cages, and then if the bugs are too bad ill just ferrocement over the wire.  What do you think?  

This is some lovely engineering.
The wall detail  reminds me of an above ground rain screen system, with water resistant material holding a waterproof drainage plane.
The stones protecting the timbers is something I've seen used in post holes, and I've used it myself
The walls seem to have a slight tilt, like a retaining wall, which is kinda what it is, but I've never seen this in an underground wall design.


I wouldn't like the gabion  stones exposed to my living space, too many opportunities for 4 legged pests to move in.
Smaller stones could address this, but might also affect drainage.
That said,the gabion cage could easily support metal lath or screen for stucco or ferrocement.


(Edit: I wrote this last night, be fore Cody posted about his plans)

I like the idea that you have an option to ferrocement the gabion if it turns out to be the nest for insects and storage for dust. Cleaning the stones would not be an easy (if possible at all) task, probably with pressure washer, but it's in the interior.
It would be safer/more durable if you were putting normal rebar cages in the posts and the beam on grade. The column cage would be attached to the horizontal cage and you would have really strong frame to infill with anything you like. It's something that is being done once and rather can not be improved later.
Are you going to build a masonry heater/stove? I'm asking, because it would be a good time to think about its foundation and chimney.

Thanks William,
Ok so we got one vote for stuccoing over it.  I get it, yea mice could move in.    I havent shown this detail yet but i have it planned for them, i have planned to use a 2' wide roll of aluminum flashing down the foam outside the wall at the top, and also landscaping gravel as my critter protection strategy.  I would think that would stop them but i know they have their ways.  So it would mainly just be from the inside they might get into it, which hopefully i dont have much of a mice problem...  And yea im not sure how hospitable these walls are for them, but i could definitely see them hiding in there.  Again i would really like to hear from others who have had gabions in their house to share their experience.  Oh and the wall isnt tilted, the posts themselves have a taper because the tree gets smaller as it goes up, but the flat cut i make on the back of them is set at 90 degrees to the floor.  Actually my first designs used a tilted wall and im still toying with that idea for a future build, dry dirt on a good enough angle dont really go anywhere even without any support so that idea could have some major benefits.  Worked for the natives in their pithouses.

Thanks Cristobal,
Well i would say you are probably correct about the rebar cages.  I have worked in a number of the housing fields but never had a gig doing concrete, so i have limited knowledge there.  I do got a rebar going up the columns but not a cage,  they are tied together end to end on top with my oak beam to keep them from spreading out and they are tied to the opposing wall with my cieling joists to keep them from pushing in.   And yes i am thinking about my stove, havent made up my mind yet exactly what im doing there.

And as far as cleaning it goes, yea i dont know for sure.  All i can say is that other people have put gabions in their houses, but i have no idea how it worked out for them.  

I know it isnt exactly the same but, in every house i have ever been in with a basement wall, i litterally dont know one person that has cleaned their cement basement wall other than maybe brushing off cobwebs.  That is the closest experience i have to such a thing.

Another thing i would add is that i have my berm designed with poly going down it to keep it mainly dry, so the wall should not be experiencing the loads that many earth homes typically do.  It should just be a brick of earth sitting there.

I wanted to show this to William since he brought it up.  This is actually what i was going to build there first, i even had a lot of the berms up and the rock retaining walls up, i found some nice big rocks on this property.  I had some more models finished but i must have erased them.  But you can see the walls are just bermed earth.  Doesnt get much simpler than that as long as you got equipment and dirt, which i do.  And no body going to be arguing weather or not the wall will collapse, its just a berm, where could it go...  So to put on a roof, you could do it just like the indians putting log rafters on top the berm if you had a plastic earth roof the settling would not matter, or i was going to put piers down to virgin ground and do my beams set across the piers and build on that.  Roof overhangs and plastic down the berm keep the water out along with other details...  I would probably do a gravel drainage layer and plastic on the inside then finish with whatever, probably more earth and rocks.  Anyways, very radicial i know but this would be so easy for building earth homes without worrying about the walls collapsing or rotting  or leaking and so forth.  You would also have tons of storage room because what else you going to do with those sloped walls...  I suppose i do still have the option to do this on my berm walls, its not too late really, it would just be set up slightly different than this.  

found some more things i drew up on it but cant locate the actual picture of it being put together

I contacted one of the youtube guys that did this in his greenhouse (posted above) to ask his opinion on using these in a house, here is his opinion.  I would disregard his comments about moisture, he isnt considering using a poly layer.  So that is another opinion to plaster over the cage.  Well if that is the route to go then i can just keep my current panels combined with a smaller mesh to hold in the rocks and apply the stucco.  I suppose i would have the option to cover with an earthen plaster now that i would have the gabion rocks drainage plane as a barrier from the earth and moisture...

All the recent discussion has had me toying around with adding my bermwall  idea to this house.  It would just be an angled berm between my retaining walls.  It would have a drainage layer/capillary break and finished off with whatever.  Since i could only dig a pier so deep i would use my allthread beam system i posted above to adjust for settling of the pier on the backfilled berm (i suppose i could put in the piers before i backfill to get them down to virgin ground so they would not settle, but i think they might get knocked over while backfilling).  I would sure have lots of closet space, could probably use part of it for a root cellar too.  And i would just have to cut out the wire i got up and maybe take out a few of my timber posts as there wouldnt need to be that many anymore...  Well its a thought anyways.  Not sure if im going to do it but want to get the idea out there, its so simple i dont know why i havnt seen anyone doing this.   Of course, everything has its benefits drawbacks, this system would have them too.  

Cody, are you certain you need piers in the berm?
As long as the edge of the roof extends past the peak of the berm, you can extend the building envelope from that.
The space between the inner slope of the berm and the vertical  walls of the building is available for diagonal braces, if they are needed.
The brace could go from the eaves down to the posts and grade beam.
With only the peak of the berm exerting any pressure on the


Ferrocement or nylon cement could be part of covering on the inner surface of the berm.
Either would be durable and relatively low cost.
A layer of stone with concrete for chinking, like one might do on a stone pathway could also work,and use less purchased material.
Cement board would be a covering that was more expensive but lower in labor.

That triangle of space between the berm, walls and eaves could be filled with stone for thermal mass, while remaining a drainage plane.
If this was also the mass of a rocket mass heater, you would be storing dry heat where it could warm your interior and your surrounding ring of earth.
This could be built like a version of Paul's pebble rocket mass heater, only with bigger "pebbles".
It could also be a great place to store solar gain, either directly via skylights/clerestory windows or indirectly via dedicated solar thermal air or water heaters.
During the hot seasons, circulating cool night air through that mass could help with daytime comfort.
I'm sure you know about earthtubes, both their pros and cons, and you are well equipped to install them, if you see fit.

Using some of that triangular space for some utilities chases seems ideal.
I'm a big fan of the chair rail that doubles as the face of an electrical wiring chase

I'm looking forward to see more of what you decide to do.
You seem very skilled and imaginative.

William that is a fantastic idea!  Simple, efficient, easy, cheap.  Its ticking all my boxes for sure.  As far as earth walls go i mean how much easier and worry free could it get.  I mean, all those people pounding tires....geez..  You could basically just put up a pole barn frame with the braces and extended roof, get yourself roofed in, and then get a machine to rough in the dirt.  Just piers/posts set at 8' would have worked great, not much concrete needed at all for this, i dont actually need that concrete beam thing i made to do this wall.  The dirt would take a bit of fine tuning by hand though i suppose.  But the slope should even make finishing the inside easier since its not vertical.  I think i would use my creek stones and morter chinking or im sure even cob could work there since its above the vapor barrier.  Your braces are perfect because they would make attaching things into the space very easy.  Beds, closets, counters, benches.  

I havent worked out all the details yet but made a pic to start figuring it out.  Any suggestions are welcome, the main things im still pondering are: is the dangeling insulation going to be ok without backing all the way down it (trying not to have any wood contacting ground), and im thinking i should use a wider rafter on the overhang part to get a deeper cavity for roof insulation out there.

And the slope has been shown to last a long time

Great thread, enjoying it immensely, your project looks amazing! Best of luck.

Cody, I took one look at your diagrams and got excited, then I noticed how you titled them and got positively giddy😆
I had to show my wife, it really thrilled me!

The bed/closet/counter top/bench idea has me imagining a shop or greenhouse with built in living quarters.
I've always thought a tiny house would be fine, as long as I also  had a huge barn, but this could encompass both.

That aluminum flashing is also a nice detail, protective and reasonably priced.

Hey got to give credit and thanks where it is due  I may have come up with the overall concept but you and that brace made it easy.  Next we will take over the world......

Yea im excited too, I dont want to speak too soon but ive been busy designing.  This thing is probably going to go a whole different direction for me, i really wasnt thrilled with what i was building before.  I might have to start a different thread...  Yes, house, barn, greenhouse, garage, you could do whatever really.  It takes a little bit to really start wrapping your head around it though since its so different.  Im sure there are numerous ways to make the connections and the details, Im still cleaning it up even further from what i posted above but if anyone has any ideas for improvements on the details please share.  Yea i like the aluminum flashing, its cheap and should be long lasting and effective.  Im not interested in spending too much, i want this to be very affordable and efficient.  For instance im not going all the way down with the insulation because from my understanding you get the most bang for your buck just with perimeter insulation, no under slab or earthship thermal mass wall.  There already is tons of thermal mass in this building, no need to spend thousands more for foam but you could if desired.  That foam has went up a lot $$$.  I got the heart of the berm covered with plastic to keep it dry which will also act as thermal mass and insulation itself since its such a huge mass of dry dirt.  Actually, in my build, i really want that wall to preform as an airconditioner.  The earthship earthtubes are cool and all, but again its another expens$e.  Earth homes can cool themselves if you dont insulate the wall.  I should just have to add a dehumidifier for my location.  Im posting the earthship details pic since we are basicly doing different versions of the same thing.  You can see their large overhang and how they waterproof and do the foam.   The thing about the earthships is though, they are so labor intensive with those tire walls, and they end up spending just as much if not more than conventional construction.  The structure im planning on building is going to be pole barn cheap and still extremely efficient.  Even cheaper since im getting my lumber from the land as well as a lot of the other materials for flooring, cabinets and so on.  
https://youtu.be/ybBXr7xlX7o?si=UurbvJyAT1YD9ocK
https://youtu.be/DJMiNi06VuM?si=FYrI7lALwvuxsX-c

Ok here is what it might look like configured more like the earthships.  You could extent the foam all the way down and be achieving the exact same thing as an earthship if you want.  

Here is another configuration i came up with.  I think this one is the cleanest of them all.  I like how it gets the foam completely secured so its not just dangeling in the dirt.  Also, some variation of this design has the potential to eliminate the need for retaining walls, saving another time consuming expense.  However, since the foam isnt vertical, you would probably have to keep an eye on the gravel pushed up to it at the top as the berm settles and keep pushing the gravel in the gap as it settles.  

This would make for some very interesting angles if you tried to do this on 3 sides of your house!

However, I recall that there were winter pit dwellings in the Canadian Rockies that used this concept - smaller foot print with walls angling outward for stability, and I believe it incorporated a bench wide enough to be a sleeping platform.  I also recall that some vardo wagons had walls that sloped outwards, so maybe it's time to revisit this approach to improving the efficiency of small spaces?

Exactly Jay, you could wrap it around the house, you could have it taper down to half height in sections with windows across them and things like this too.  Im currently playing with an octagonal building design with it wrapping around.  

Yea we are basically making the modern updated version of a pit house.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit-house

I was thinking about another way we could adept to settling and also eliminate the retaining wall.
I propose  chain link fencing.
Suppose we take 10 foot lengths of fence and hang them from one end,side by side, affixed about 8 inches down the face of the aluminum clad insulation wall.
After you knit these together with wire, measure about halfway down and wire a slotted pipe horizontally across the face of the fencing.
As the fencing lays on the slope, we place the stones above the slotted pipe, stopping every foot to tie a short length of wire to the fencing.
We keep pile stones right up to the aluminum wall,then we fold the rest of the fencing up over the stones, securing with the wires every foot.
This is kinda like a gabion, but it is flexible, like a pillow or mattress.
Because it's flexible, it could ride the settling earth of the berm.
My only hesitation is protecting the poly from the chain link.
Boron treated cardboard is my tentative answer for that issue.

The gabion mattress could potentially go right under the eaves, and have the insulation board under it.
The poly would go under that board and be protected from the gabion mattress.
This would be for more of the umbrella insulation effect.
It might be something that could be added onto as more money becomes available.

Sounds like an interesting idea William.  Would be easier to visualize if you had a drawing of some kind.  As far as settling is concerned, I think this is where the insulation in a vertical orientation would out outpreform.  Everything you do has its pros and cons.  As i believe the earth would just slide straight down the vertical insulation and still maintain its contact just at a slightly lower elevation.  I would anticipate the interior wall would also be moving slightly down over time causing an increasing gap between it and the brace boards but that shouldnt really matter as long as you dont try to connect your finish to the braceboard or figure out something else.  Im not really sure it would even be a problem for the sloped insulation as long as you had enough maybe peagravel landscaping gravel up to it, it would probably just fall in the gap as it forms.  At least the insulation is pretty accessible at the top of the berm, so i would think no matter what you do it would be pretty easy to remedy any settling issues causing gaps with it.

Ok here is the design im currently working on.  Im thinking its looking pretty freaking cool!  And i came up with this idea to use my gabion wire cages for these crazy obelisks set in my stone pillars, never seen anyone do that with a gabion cage.  Look at that crazy stuff, its like we making a  whole new world (or maybe remaking an old one).   I got something cool planned for the inside too.

Hey William, what are we going to call this building style?  Im thinking, you know how people call pole barn houses barndominiums, we could call it a BERMdominium... get it.. pole barn house.. and berm.. bermdo