Greetings all!
I have bought
land and moved to north of Springfield, MO area. Hoping to meet others in the Permie life, and really in need of
local help with a problem I’m having. Short version (so you can decide if you want to keep reading) is I’m trying to build a house (not “natural building”) and having a hard time finding local contractors who understand alternative construction. Other half of this is I’d LOVE to meet people in the area, I know there are others here, I haven’t tripped over them yet, and would love to connect!
On to the long version...
Me and my mom bought 4 acres, in a small town, and are going to build a house that we can live in for the rest of our lives. We love the little town, we haven’t met many people yet due to being very busy doing all of this, but we like who we have met. We love the property, it has a LOT of potential, and want badly to be living there. Currently in a rental that is basically nice, but NOT what we need or want at all. We both have health issues, me more than her, and the way this house works just makes us nuts. There isn’t enough room in the kitchen to cook the way we like to, there are steps that hurt us, we feel like we are living out of suitcases as most of our possessions are packed, etc. We want our own house!!
So we have designed one, that does what we want, and
should be easy to build. And are running into walls. If you take Paul Wheaton’s Eco-Scale
Wheaton Eco Scale and apply it to human nature in general you see a pattern I call “a half step past familiar.” Most people are only comfortable if something is familiar, or within a half step of that. For example, food. If you have eaten nothing but
chicken and
beef your whole life, and you are given alligator, it’s quite often too unfamiliar for your mind to accept as food. If, however, you have eaten venison, and crab, and rabbit, alligator isn’t as far of a step, and you are more likely to consider eating it. Now look at house construction. If all you have ever met is 2x4 walls and vinyl siding, a house that’s designed to be mostly passively heated and has odd air and
water systems to account for the microclimate on the property is quite possibly more than a half step past familiar, and you won’t like the idea.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair
So we need excavators, and
concrete guys. Who want to do what they are familiar with, because it’s easy and fast and they can make quick money doing it. And I want the foundations of the house to be what I need to work with the house design, with proper thermal breaks, good water control etc. So I’m wondering if anyone knows of people who can do the work I can’t do myself, if I could physically pour my own basement walls, I would. I WILL do the French drains, and the radiant heat piping etc, I can do that, but me and my itty bitty Kubota are not going to excavate a basement easily, no matter how hard I am willing to try. I’d LOVE to know of concrete guys who have worked on passive houses, excavators who don’t charge an arm and a leg, and hirable help who enjoy this kind of project. I KNOW there are people who have done this kind of thing, I know there are people who enjoy this kind of thing, I suspect there are Permies who know those people... Introduce me, please!!
Other parts of the problem are 1) I’m not using a general contractor, couldn’t find one who wanted to build what we wanted built, within our budget, and the % they charge is high enough to make our project unaffordable. I’m pretty sure I can do this within budget if we aren’t paying 12-15% off the top to someone I just have to argue with. 2) I’m not from this area, and am not part of the local social networks. 3) I’m female. 4) I’m a female with an IQ who knows what she wants, and have enough construction skills that it’s hard to bullshit me too deep.
This is not a complex project, I have deliberately made it easy: rectangular house, walk out basement, no weird corners or anything. The walls and roof are to be steel SIPs, like
wood SIPs, only instead of the panel being OSB<foam>OSB it’s steel<foam>steel. Structural panels, they should go up easily, and I’m looking for only general help with them, not for contractors on that (unless you know someone who has built with them, would LOVE to talk to them.) Most of the odd custom stuff in it is things I’m doing myself, the cabinetry and air systems etc.
The part that frustrates me is that it isn’t complex. I can’t imagine how messy this would be if it was complex, as well as alternative style. I read about people who build the awesome cutting edge houses, and I wonder, how do they find people who can and will do the work? And how much does it cost them? The main expenses on this house are the SIPs and the concrete. The rest is more creatively acquired, a lot of second hand and scrounged bits. I’m doing a lot of the work myself, mom is doing what she can, this is how we are affording a house that’s more than we should be able to. To be stalled on the basic parts is frustrating.
As far as meeting people, I’m a weird mix of brown and purple
permaculture, I love beautiful flowers, but know all the root depths, drainage requirements etc of the pretty flowers. I dream big dreams, and have the hand skills to make a lot of them happen. We are into alternative medicine, and I hope to have a lot of medicinals growing soon. I currently have a cat and a few
chickens (to eat the bugs) want goats once we have a house, putting a cheese aging cave into the basement. Hope to be growing a large percentage of our food soon, not much going yet, until the house is built I’m not putting in swales etc, so the major planting won’t be done until after that. I don’t want to do things first, then find out the house botched up my design functions, or the construction chaos damaged it. So more dreams than reality in my life right now, LOTS of
plans!!
So if you know people I should meet for work or fun, please PM me, I want to build a niche in this part of the world I fit into, and find people who are in similar niches :) And I don’t like to put my exact location out publicly, been stalked before, but if you drive down East Main in your town, and see a grubby lady in camo pants, tank top and a sun hat with an itty bitty Kubota, with
chickens underfoot, who is sheet mulching large areas, stop and say hi! :D
Pearl
1
