Going Off Grid in East Tennessee (motorhome, design, install)

[younglisa7]

My husband, Mike, and I finally found our piece of paradise in the TN mountains. We are building a berm house, covered by earth on 3 sides, that will be solar and wind powered. We will have no electric. We are so excited about building a self sustainable homestead.

We closed on our property the end of April but we couldn't get any trucks in because of the existing bridge:



We did get lucky since that bridge is on a county road so if we paid for the culvert the county would install it. We paid for a 24ft x 14ft x 8ft culvert:



The county installed it on May 20. This is what our new bridge looks like:



This is the entrance to our property:





And the view from our future Homesite:



I hope you enjoy our story. We are a little farther along but I don't want to give you too much too soon.

Lisa and Mike

[fntintn]

wow - it is beautiful! i look forward to hearing more - good luck to you!

[SPLIT]

L&M; Sweet story, We have a Lisa & MIke on the other side of our cove. Weekly paper did a profile story on them. Nice pics, Have a Name for your Jeep .? or dozer owner.
.. Sure there will be a TV show when you are ih home-stretch.

[jabogitlu]

Very, very lovely piece of property you got there, with few neighbors to boot. You might not want to give away too much about yourselves, and if not, I understand, but would you tell us what county that's in? A lot of it looks like southeastern Greene to me, but I'm not sure there's that much unspoilt land left in Greene.

Oh, and I hope your off-the-gridding works out well. I find this sort of stuff fascinating, so pleeease keep us updated with pix!

[Pam& Bill]

L&M,
I wish you both well. I am looking forward to following your story as I have gotten involved in Forest Breaths story as it unfolded.Is a berm house made of earth? That is a slice of heaven you have.
Please keep us updated with pictures as it unfolds.
All the best,
Pam

[younglisa7]

Thanks so much for all your good wishes.

SPLIT- who knows maybe at some time there will be a show but I would rather keep my privacy.

jabogitu- We have 40 acres in Johnson County and we can't see anyone. The property is a valley and we own all the surrounding ridges. There is only one way in and one way out. It is too steep on the ridges for people to just drop by- I am very thankful for that.

Mike is designing our whole off grid system and he's is great at making things people friendly. We are also building the house ourselves except for the concrete.

Pam- Our house has 3 walls that are 10 inches thick and 10 feet tall of poured concrete and then it is backfilled with dirt. We also have a concrete floor. The front of the house which overlooks the mountains will have 2 sliding doors. We will have a white metal roof.

I will add more pictures tomorrow and get caught up.

Lisa

[Tinman313]

Beautiful.... If I may ask where abouts in East TN you don't have to be to specific...
How many square feet...?

Bergey Windpower Co., the world's leading supplier of small wind turbines

[younglisa7]

Tinman,

Thanks. Our property is in Johnson County TN. The house will be 30x38 with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Mike and I have been traveling in a motorhome for 3 years
so this house will be a "mansion".

Lisa

[Tinman313]

Originally Posted by younglisa7

Tinman,

Thanks. Our property is in Johnson County TN. The house will be 30x38 with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Mike and I have been traveling in a motorhome for 3 years
so this house will be a "mansion".

Lisa

I stuck a link up their for you, for what it's worth. Talk about a vista..!! I can just imagine that place when the leaves turn....... Thanks for sharing. And please we want to know more..... when is the second edition coming out?

[Grizzlybear34]

Lisa - Great story and mission! Nice job with the pics, keep'em comin'!