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I am SO excited for you. As you know, I took the big plunge a few months back. We are completely off the grid with no indoor plumbing or electric. We have been living there one month today!!! I have absolutely ZERO regrets. Although I did a different style of housing than you, choosing this lifestyle presents so many wonderful challenges and the making of beautiful memories. It is wonderful and the hard work you invest into your home will all pay off one day soon. So far I am loving life and have no desire to return to the grid!
Good luck and I look forward to reading your stories. (be sure to learn form my mistakes...my goodness we made them but nothing catastrophic as we have weathered several storms in that little house so far and it is all just a beautiful experience!)
This is really nice to read, Forest Breath. It was a lot of fun watching you go through your building process, as well.
I hope that more and more folks document with pictures and journals their conventional or unconventional building and remodeling adventures. It is great for those of us still in the planning stages.
I am so happy to hear that you are really enjoying your new home and that it has worked out so well.
Status:
"Time To Start Building:):)"
(set 21 days ago)
Location: TN Mountains
13,747 posts, read 12,079,680 times
Reputation: 67351
ForestBreath- Congrats on your one month anniversary off grid. I am so happy for you. You must be enjoying the peace although I am sure you have plenty of daily work.
Tinman- Thanks- but we are so far from done with the roads. Our main objective was to get the concrete trucks in so that Mike and I could start working on the house. The roads will all be paved eventually.
Thanks for the radon site. I'll check into it.
VB- thanks for the info on radon.
Tonight I will be posting chapter 3 with more pictures. I have to get all of you up to date. I have to get ready now. We are going to the property to do our front walls(oh you weren't supposed to know that yet ha,ha).
Location: Not far from the "Little Obed River" on the Cumberland Plateau TN
9,540 posts, read 8,485,814 times
Reputation: 7734
No problem... I figure you would have mud bog places and shale works great because it breaks down and compacts easily plus it allows the water too seep threw......
Another question Is the home going to be a Earth Home or Envelope Earth Home ?
Hey Lisa and Mike,
my name is Jon Fox and I too live in Johnson County, TN near a place called Laurel Bloomery. My neighbor and I are very concerned with some of the same things that you guys are probably concerned with, such as the economic and political downfall that this country faces. While neither one of us totally live off the grid, it is a priority of mine and I'm always looking for like-minded friends and neighbors.
I own a small cabin and a little land, but not much. I bought my place about 5 years ago, but have not been there too often due to the fact that I have traveled a lot. (I play music) This past winter I did spend up there, and I plan on living there for the next 6 months or so as well. Anyways, I was thinking that we could keep in touch since we both live in the same county. I can e-mail you some pics of my cabin (don't know how to include them on this post) and answer any questions you might have. You can visit my website at JonFox::Home and contact me from there I think. Anyways good luck and hope to meet you guys soon,
Jon
Status:
"Time To Start Building:):)"
(set 21 days ago)
Location: TN Mountains
13,747 posts, read 12,079,680 times
Reputation: 67351
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinman313
No problem... I figure you would have mud bog places and shale works great because it breaks down and compacts easily plus it allows the water too seep threw......
Another question Is the home going to be a Earth Home or Envelope Earth Home ?
Tinman
I don't know the answer to your question. Mike and I don't follow any rules. We designed everything ourselves and we have never seen another home like ours will be.
So- what is the difference between Earth Home and Envelope Earth Home?
Keep watching our pictures and you will see what we end up with
Status:
"Time To Start Building:):)"
(set 21 days ago)
Location: TN Mountains
13,747 posts, read 12,079,680 times
Reputation: 67351
Hi everyone. It's time for chapter 3 in our story.
This is from the week of June 9.
Let me start out by saying- cows are very nosy and we have learned to block everything off when we leave at night. There were hoof prints all around the shipping container, they pulled out the stake we had marked for the well, and they were also inside the house. It's not fair that they got to spend the night before we did.
We finally have the roads good enough to get the concrete trucks in and the homesite is also ready for concrete. The Concrete Company delivered their form boards on Monday and they will be doing footers Tuesday.
Over the weekend Mike and I brought supplies and tools over to the new place. So on Monday morning Mike got to play. He hooked up our battery system for the solar and he also installed our wind generator: Ourwindgenerator.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
We will be adding one more wind generator. We would rather have 2 smaller wind generators than one because they don't need as much wind to spin.
One of the worst things about developing raw land is all the grass that was torn up is now dirt. It must be covered before it turns to mud. Mike and I always used to rake out the land(get the big rocks up), seed it, and then put straw on top. This time we found a great new(to us) product called curlex. It is an erosion control mat that comes 4' x 180' or 8' x 90'. So we started seeding and working on our largest hill of dirt. You just seed, roll out the mat, and staple into the ground(the staples rot away). Sounds easy right?
Well, Mike and I got the bright idea that one of us(Mike) would stand with the roll, 4' x 180', and roll it down while the one at the bottom(me) would stop the roll with my leg. All I can say is ouch and my leg is still tender. So the next couple of time Mike was at the bottom. It didn't work much better.
The other mistake we made was not stapling the mat as we went. We decided to both stand at the top and unroll all the mats and let them go. Huge mistake. When we got back all the mats rolled down the hill into one big mess. It took us forever to unravel the mats. Needless to say we didn't finish the hill that day. This is what the hill looks like now(well before the cows messed with it).
On Tuesday the concrete crew showed up to work on the footers. The pump truck and the concrete trucks had to make it up our hill. We were all holding our breath but everyone made it to the top. And it's a good thing we made all that flat land up top because it got really crowded up there. .
That night we had to get a solar electric rope to keep the cows off the footers.
Wednesday and Thursday
We went to town and ordered our patio doors for the front of the house. When we got to the house site I almost gave Mike a heart attack because I was yelling and pointing because our windmill was spinning like crazy. Mike had to take me inside the building and plug up a light to it to show me how it works. That was so... cool. I can't wait until we have "all of our own power".
On Thursday we ordered our trusses for the roof. When we got over to the property the place was hoppin'. The crew was putting up the form boards for our walls. They poured the walls that afternoon. Now it's starting to look like a house.
What a great day. This concrete crew is the best we have ever seen.
Friday we ordered our metal roof and we had to put the plumbing in the house because the slab will be poured next week.
We had a great week so we took the weekend off.
I hope you enjoyed chapter 3. If you have any questions or comments please post.
Hey Smokymtngal,
I moved out of Austin last fall and spent the winter in TN, where I plan on staying for a while, or at least making my permanent residence. Johnson County is a cool place if you like the outdoors and are sick of city life. I believe Johnson County is the poorest and least populated state in TN. I do a whole lot of hiking when I'm at the cabin, the Appalachain Trail and Iron Mountain Trail both run through Johnson County. I live in the shadow of the Iron Mountain Trail. Anyhow, I'd like to connect with like minded people near me, so anyone in East TN or Western NC feel free to contact me. I'm especially interested to know what part of Johnson County Lisa and Mike are building in, the pictures look great!
Jon
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