Hello! I have stalked the permies.com forums for years, and we are in place now to begin building. Our land and the opportunity to build came upon us quite suddenly so we are not as prepared and thoroughly researched as I wish, and we do need to get the project underway pretty quickly. We have a large family, so as much as I adore the idea of tiny-we need about 1500 sqft of space for our family realistically. My desire was to just go as "amish" and old school/simple in building as we can, but we do have a family member with asthma who does poorly at times with the hottest and most humid days and we have to avoid mold at all costs as well, and we need to be able to cool the home a bit for them or have a small unit to sit in front of if need be. I have researched earth tubes as well, and we will be on a hill-but I am concerned with the condensation in the tubes and do not want to be reliant on a mold/mildew cleaner every month to ensure we aren't bringing in moldy air. But the idea is so lovely, with a solar chimney or whole house fan-I just don't know how to make it work exactly for our SE America environment. I need thoughts with that please.
We have a great spot picked out-we will get full-shade on the house with a grove of beautiful oaks to our west, for afternoon heat relief. It's on a windy hill so ventilation should be good. We have been trying to decide if a walkout/partial basement on this hill (south facing), coupled with a more "airy" feel upstairs (not super airtight construction, windows open often, etc), would result in a horribly moldy mess during humid summer time in basement. I initially wanted to build up on short stilts to mimic the traditional construction you find in places like the Smokies, and it would allow plenty of air circulation underneath the home, with the intent to insulate the minimal water pipes. We were thinking of avoiding AC, instead installing a whole house fan and drawing in air from the cooler shaded north side and west, but I'm afraid with a walkout basement, when we open windows to get that airflow in the summer-we will get nothing but condensation in the basement (which would be well ventilated itself with no closed off interior walls-just an open living/rec room space that we hope is a little cooler of a space than upstairs in the July-August time frame).
Years ago we remodeled a 100 year old home and loved the concept of the balloon wall construction (it was wood siding, wood boards inside- the whole "shiplap" look, with a few inches of unobstructed empty space between,all the way up the wall to vents in the side of home for the chimney effect, along with the whole house fan that they had installed at some point, silver reflective roof, all living spaces to south for plenty of light, with rare need for artificial light, deep west facing porch, bedrooms on northside were always cool, etc... Just lovely. We want to combine as many of these wise historical elements as possible. We will have a small solar array, a shaded cool concrete or light brick patio outdoor kitchen to the north for summer cooking/canning and laundry, our bathroom and mud laundry porch in a well ventilated lean to-to minimize the moisture from laundry and showers. My kitchen will have the sink and oven on an exterior wall for moisture ventilation right outside. No dishwasher. Hubs thinks walkout basement will be ventilated enough to not worry about the condensation and mold, though I think it will also not become as cool as would be desired because south facing-so it may not be a big deal.
I also love the idea of using elements of the dogtrot house-with a central sheltered gathering space that can be opened for breeze, separating living spaces from sleeping spaces. But I'm new to that thought. Winter heat and cook with wood (we have plenty). Sorry so long! Thanks for your thoughts!!
