A little bit of history. In our Great Weekend of Desperation we were determined to end the search for land once and for all.

During our search we’ve travelled through a good part of Belgium and a bit of France. Trying to determine where to look was half the battle won.
Of course, getting a feel of what we would need was a good start.., during our first trip we realized that this was not going to be easy. Then, during our second trip, we decided that Belgium was no longer an option, mainly because of the prices. It seemed the further we got from Holland the cheaper the land became. We did, however, decided that the Ardennes would be the area we’d focus on.

We visited countless sites (seriously, I have no idea how many). We came across very nice lots, and not so nice lots, expensive lots, lots with a beautiful location, but facing the wrong way.., lots not big enough, lots to big.., lots filled with tree trunks.., you name it. Luckily we had a process to guide us. If the lot did not meet the criteria, we’d leave it. With some lots it was hard to determine, others were quite easy.

One lot in particular tickled our fancy, a great view, kinda steep, big enough, out of town, sort of facing south. But, after a revisit we, together with Lotte, concluded that the tree orchard next door would grow on for another 20 years and in another 5 year would block out the sun completely, and that was a very big no no. So, we let the Sleeping Slope lie…

Somewhere in early November 2008, after nine months of searching we hit pay-dirt. We found what we were looking for.
In a desperate attempt to “get it over with” we planned a whole weekend, rented a room in Bastogne, wrote down a list of potentials and decided to drive around until we found a piece of land or die trying (not really, it’s just to illustrate the seriousness of the weekend).

Our first stop on Saturday morning would be Chenogne.., and that’s all she wrote.

We found what we were looking for and the video documented that first, and now historical, visit (it really is kinda cool that we taped it).

So, how does one go about building a house?

Usually you get an architect and a builder and then you stand at the sideline looking pretty. Or at least I imagine it would be this way because I have no clue.
So how the hell do you proceed when the only thing you have is a drawing of a house? (and a beautiful drawing it is) and you plan to build your own house?
Well I am even more at a loss on that one.

Common Sense

Using common sense we of course have talked about it a lot and decided there needs to be a planning and a budget.
We need a building manager and a budget manager and it would be best if these where separate persons.
So it was decided earlier on that Niels will be the building manager/builder and I would be the budget manager/taking care of volunteers/cook/managing supplies/translator.

Funny enough I started with the last part. Since we will be living in the French speaking part of Belgium I thought it was a good idea to go to Brussels to learn French. We have been having lessons from a private tutor at home, but you know how it goes, when you work the whole week, doing your homework is not top of your list.
So 3 weeks in Brussels was an excellent start to explore the language and I feel a bit more confident that I will be able to order supplies etc.

Budget

As for the budget, well we of course talked to people who have done similar projects and it is very very hard to get an exact estimate of how much this is going to cost. It could be between the 600 and 900 euros per m2, but every house is different.
This winter I will try and find out how much the foundations and roofing of the house will cost. The walls will be the cheapest because we will be using rammed earth and straw bales.
I want to make a budget for a watertight house, and see how much that is. It is very important to have the house watertight before the winter starts.
I also want to make sure we have enough money to build a watertight house because it would be real bad if we ran out of money with the roof not yet finished…

Then there is water storage and filtration, sun boiler, solar panels, batteries, wind energy, septic tank, floor heating, heating etc etc etc

Fulltime

Since I am in between jobs right now, I have been searching the Internet for information. I have asked for price quotes on water storage systems and roofing. For now things are not going that smoothly, companies don’t really respond to email, which I think is pretty weird. Why would you mention an email address on your website if you wont respond to it?
But I am determined to go on and if we have to, we can go to Belgium or Germany to knock on their doors.
There is one thing for sure, you can make it a fulltime job, searching the web and researching!!

Anyway, I would like to know if you are interested in following my progress in finding out more about the do’s and don’ts of building a house yourself.
If you are, then please leave a comment (if you have questions or suggestions) and I will blog when I have found out more information.

written by Niels

So, I went back to tire pounding. My muscles from the Zwolle Earthship job were wearing thin and so was my skin. Blisters on day one, calloused over on day two, torn up again by day four, but only then because we were rained off the site on day three. Welcome to Scotland, where the good people of Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park in Wishaw, near Glasgow, are building a community centre Earthship. Mikey Reynolds style. And frequent readers of this site should know how the Four Elements people feel about that particular style.

Why still building Earthships

So, why am I still building Earthships? (And why do Rogier and Laila still want an Earthship builder to build their house for them?) Well, because I like building them. I might stress and rant about the sloppy insulation, the ridiculous amounts of cement used, the waste of perfectly good glass and aluminium and yes, also about the horridly unskilled volunteers getting in my way, but I still like building them. I love the hard work, the sweat you produce and the undisturbed sleep you get. Wake up, eat, shuffle, pound, level, tamp, get some more food in, repeat once or twice, take a swim, cook and eat together, play some ultimate frisbee and fall asleep. Repeat for twelve days straight. Consider yourself lucky you didn’t play rugby at night.

And I love the people I work with. My colleagues are crazy enough to do this job and that should be enough said. Besides the ones I knew from Zwolle I got to meet some of the first European tire pounders, involved in the Fife, Brighton, Normandy and Brittany Earthships and they clearly know what they’re doing. At some point we were well fed by volunteers and the three of us must have slapped up 25 tires within an hour. Hammers weaving in and out, the three of us locked in some arcane and violent dance. Marvelous. May I mention I swung the heaviest one at 10 lb.?

Volunteers

I even like the volunteers (a little). When there’s just a couple I can actually take them along and teach them something useful. And when there’s a lot I can appreciate the speed they bring to the site. Without pneumatic hammers, bigger diggers and conveyor belts, getting up the walls with just a small team is a bit of a physical and psychological struggle.  “Aardewerk is paardewerk” is what the dutch have to say about moving dirt around, but they probably don’t know about Glasgow’s alcoholic rehab plan. They (and we) were quickly renamed the chain gang, but thanks a lot guys. Seriously appreciated.

Kicking Mike

But most of all, I like the fact that we’ve kicked Mike. Yes. The Guru’s out. No more hit and run buildings. No more ‘looks good from Taos’ remarks. We’re open to criticism and change now. We’re all experienced Earthship builders, so we know about it’s pros and cons, but we also know about other styles and techniques. We’re ready to mix and match. We know about rainy climates and drainage. Instead of telling clients how damn lucky they are to be allowed to spend hundreds of thousands on the presence of Mike, hallelujah, we’re telling ourselves how lucky we are to be building peoples well considered ecological dreams.

And that’s also what I keep telling myself about the Four Elements House.

And so it hits us, how can it not.
We do not want credit, we hope not to need credit. And still, through all the cogs that keep our economy turning (or not), we are inevitably affected.
The Build of the Shed, and consequently The Build of the House is postponed.

We won’t be able to generate enough cash to start the build next spring. The whole project is postponed for a year, which is OK. Like Laila says, “what’s a year when you build something for a lifetime”.

We will continue, of course. In fact, it might be a good thing, it will give us more time to organise further. Get more into the details, spend more time on preperation.

And we will conitnue to blog about our progress, we all have to have a bit more patience.

A while ago, actually almost two years ago, I posted about our decision not to travel through Africa and why. The reasons for this decision also made us reconsider where we wanted to end up living. New Zealand and Spain were traded for France which eventually became Belgium. Not to far from Holland, and not to far from Margo, our mother(in-law).

Bad News

Margo had to be admitted to hospital due to respiratory problems, that is where she died 2 days later. We (Leo, Laila and Rogier) were with her.
We are now more determined than ever to make it all happen.

Goodbye Margo, we’ll miss you…

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Last Thursday we visited the local government in Vaux-sur-Sure. These are the people we have to convince that we have a good idea . We were a bit nervous about the whole thing, it was our first talk and everything hung in the balance, they could say no to pretty much every idea we had.., they didn’t.

Shed

The main thing we wanted to ask was, if we can build a shed before we build the house. Normally this is not done, but because we’re such nice people we can. Condition is that we put the shed into the final drawing, we will.
The only thing is, we have to build within the building zone, we wanted to build it in the agricultural zone, but hey, who’s complaining. 

So, for now it seems that the shed build for August is still on!

Design

Lotte’s design of the house is also on par. There should not be a problem. Just a few minor alterations, but mostly, the design stands.
The alternative materials, extra windows for sunlight and solar panels are not a problem, either. Just as long as the house fits in the neighborhood and is finished within 2 years.

Windmill

This is the only thing we have to drop. We cannot build a windmill (or turbine) in the agricultural zone. The highest, and clearest, part of the land is in the middle. But, we can only build in the building zone and a 6 meter high windmill may not have a building within a radius of 6 meters… on top of that, the turbulence of the building would render the windmill practically useless.

Good Start

We are very relieved that the first talks (which were in English by the way, not French), went so well. Nice and helpful people.
We still have a green light on the project. Now, for building the shed, our second challenge (finding the land being the first).

The Four Elements House Team has been on a mission to Norfolk.
The mission was to find out if and how rammed earth can be applied to the house. We (as a collective) already new quite a bit about rammed earth and it was to be an interesting weekend, because although we had theoretical knowledge, none of us ever did anything practical with rammed earth.., now we have.

Michael Thompson and his girlfriend Bridget created a great course. Very well organized with delicious vegetarian lunches (the best food we had in England actually).
Michael barely finished the build on the shed while starting with the course. He can talk passionate about his shed and all the labour that went into it. The course is mainly focused around his experiences during the build, the research he did for the build and the lessons learned.

Sid

So, what did we learn, well, we have to get our own Sid.
Sid is an invention of Michael. Sid is the Great Sifter, I’m sure other (in the history of the world) have crafted similar devices, but Michael did build this one and it works beautifully. Our student friends are already thinking up ways to improve it, if possible.  
Michael’s design sifts the soil in three parts. Rough stuff (+25 mm), medium stuff (+12 mm) and the rest, which is to be used for the mix. Good show, saves a tremendous amount of time.

Soil

We also have a challenge with our soil (in Chenogne). We believe it to be rich in clay. We’ll have to bring in quite a lot of sand in order to get a good mixture, and a good mixture is the basis for everything. And although Michael uses cement (only 5-8%) in the mixture, we’ll try and not use that. The cement is used for that extra bit of strength in the walls, we hope to come up with an alternative.

Shuttering

Michael uses “regular” formers, create a segment and move the former. He also created a much lighter version than the ones he found on the internet. Made out of plywood, so it can be handled by one person.
We might use a shuttering system, where one builds up a wall to full hight in one “former”. This is used quite often by larger projects, the Australians favor this method. 

Ramming

During the build of the shed Michael went manual for the ramming, he did pretty much all the ramming, about 60m2 of walls, which took him about 180 hours (double that time for mixing soil and handling the formers).
My student friends, who are always thinking, are considering mechanical ramming. Although we might have the help of volunteers, more hands is less work, then again, we’ll have more wall to build, and thicker.

Conclusion

Rammed Earth is a very viable method of building, and you can build, well, nearly anything. History shows it’s not only (relatively) easy to work with, but when properly build, it will last a lot longer than the occupants of the dwelling. And it is “green”.

For us, as a team, it was also a good investment as we got to know each other even better and we all got a sense of what it was that we are planning. Plans are already set in motion by our TU Delft friends to build a showcase shed near the university. We are very interested in that project, it will give our friends even more experience which can be utilized while building the Four Elements Shed in August.

So, thanks Michael and Bridget for a great weekend.

For more information on the Rammed Earth Course, please visit Michael’s website. Or contact us. You might also want to read a small interview with Michael on the “Rammed Earth is for Everyone” blog.

First, there will be a house, and then..,  yes.., then what?

Then we have a wonderful beautiful house and a humongous piece of land to do “something” with.
What that something is I will try and tell you.

Size Matters

I guess by now you have all seen the lay of the land.
At the front of the land, the first 50 meters are for building the house the rest of the 150 meters is “farm” land.

I have to admit it looks a bit weird, small and very long but I can tell you that I ran the 150 meters to the end of the land and I was out of breath after doing 3 quarters of the land. Now, that can mean that I am out of shape, which is totally true, but it can also mean that 150 meters might not seem so big on paper but is huge in real life.
We had this romantic notion to make a terrace at the end to enjoy the view, but I am pretty sure that when you take a cup of tea from the house and walk to the terrace, the tea will be cold by the time you get there.

Growing Stuff

So what are we going to do with all this:
At the end which slopes a bit down we are going to plant some willow trees. Willow trees have long thin branches which are fantastic for weaving fences etc. which is what we want to use it for, sure it will take a while before we have enough willow to weave a fence but who cares, we’ve got time.

In front of the willow trees, ( where the land is not sloping down) we will plant an orchard with apple, pear and plum trees. Maybe even a cherry and walnut tree. Although I am not sure about the walnut because it will take a very long time before we can harvest walnuts.

will try and plant these fruit trees this winter because it will take a few years before they will produce fruit. This way we will get a head start and they won’t stand in the way while build of the house.

Somewhere between the willow trees and the orchard we will have bees, I know next to nothing about bees so I don’t know yet which spot would be best for them but there is still time to learn about that and enough land to find a decent spot to settle them.

Animals too

In front of the fruit trees we will have the chicken coop and maybe in a much later stage, goats (still not sure about the goats though, I need to read more books on that subject).

I haven’t calculated how much land we will have left but I guess it will be plenty for a good size veggie garden a shed and a greenhouse.

I am so very much looking forward to the veggie garden. Right now I am trying to grow some vegetables in pots on a balcony and a 4×4 garden with 4 hours of sunshine a day.

There is a good chance that we still will have enough land available for a natural swimming pool but that is last on the list. We might be able to enjoy it for 3 weeks in a year but it would be fun right?

So there you have it. Bold plans but doable.
It will take lots of hard work, but if I close my eyes I can imagine how it will be like.

If you have any suggestions or ideas, please leave a comment.
And if you have a green intrest and want to help with the garden, instead of building, you can do that too. Again, please leave comment, or subscribe to the site.

For starters, being 100% self sufficient in our society is nearly impossible. You have to be insured, you often have to pay mortgage, you might need a doctor, you probable can’t grow you own rice or wheat or you might need a car.
But, there are some things you can do and they create good reasons to be, or get, as self sufficient as possible.

1. Utility Bills

   We, currently, pay about a gazillion euros per year on utilities. This is for water, gas and power. Plus a whole lot of taxes (actually more than half). We intend to reduce this to nothing (after investment of course).

2. Food

   Grow your own, we spend about 25 euros on groceries a week (this is what we can grow our selves). Again, you need to invest, but you can easily reduce this to a fraction. Especially if you have a nice garden, but you can grow food anywhere, all you need is water and sunlight.

3. Health

   Reduces the amount of supermarket food will invariably be beneficial to your health. Unless you buy everything organic, and then it would be an even better idea to grow your own, because organic food is expensive.

4. Outdoors

   You’ll spend so much more time outside (when you have a garden). It does take effort and quite a bit of work. We plan on having a fruit orchid, bees, a vegetable garden, chickens and a fair sized greenhouse (and that’s for starters).

5. Independence

   A study in Holland showed that the reliability of the grid will go down while the costs of energy will go up as a result of privatizing the sector. This is contrary to what the government promised (of course). Do you want to rely on a faulty and over expensive system?

6. Challenge

   Depending on how far you are willing to take it, it is without a doubt, a huge challenge. We intend to build a new house, designed to be as energy efficient as possible, build in a sustainable manner, grow our own food (and then some) and generate our own energy. Putting it in one sentence, it sounds easy, actually living up to the challenge is a whole different matter
   But you can pick some items and do a few things, everything helps.

7. Satisfaction

   But when you harvest your first batch of tomatoes, or see your windmill turn, or feel the sunlight and you know that when you turn on the radio in does so because of it. Does it get any better?

8. Eco Friendly:

   If anything, we need to rethink the way we live. It just has to become more sustainable. Every food item you grow is produced locally, it doesn’t have to come from far away and you know it is grown organically. All the energy you get from the wind or sun or water doesn’t have to be generated by coal or garbage or gas or  something nuclear.

So, there, my two cents. Like I said, you can work for one or for all of these things, the satisfaction you’ll get, or the money you’ll save will depend on how much you invest. We happen to go all the way (or at least 80% or so). But having one tomato plant in your window will be a good thing, you’ll see…

Any additions, any thing a forgot or got wrong? You can leave suggestions in the comments.

As our architect continues her study, writes her thesis and builds the models, we get a first glimpse of how the house might end up. As we’re told upfront, this is, by far, not the final design. But this will illustrate the concept. Of course, during the coming months the design will be altered to our wishes, or to fit in certain necessities or by the judgement of the architect.

So, what do we have. Well, I’ll sure try and make some sense of it.

The idea is that every room, or space in the house has a function and contributes to the whole. Lotte has designed the concept in such a way that it not only follows purpose, but it also suits our personal needs.

What you see above is the front of the house, the street side. The right half houses a workshop, storage, bedrooms and at the back a studio/office.

In the middle is a kitchen and bathroom. This is good, it’ll keep the waterworks concentrated. The left side is a living area.
And the back (left side) is a winter garden (orangery) where we can keep our exotic plants and it also provides a buffer zone for retaining heat. The living room looks out over the orangery/greenhouse.

Split Level

The house has various levels and stairs are never higher than 1 meter. The studio, bedrooms and bathroom are low, then the living area, and the kitchen is the highest. We recon we spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen. It will be the heart of the house and it will have a view of the entire garden/land.
Also, the kitchen will open up onto a terrace, which is above the studio.

The orangery opens up onto a terrace on ground level, at the back of the house, from which we can go into the garden.

Now, we still have a lot to do, we’ll have to give the systems a place in the house and we need plenty of storage.
The design is not finished, but the concept is clear and we love it.