"Earthship experience: ..."
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Posted by David Schott (+18527) 13 years ago
Earthship experience: 8 weeks, 650 tires, thousands of pop cans
DONNA HEALY Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:00 am

Tucked into a bluff above the Yellowstone River, an architect known as the "Garbage Warrior" built a home with walls made from cast-off tires and empty soda cans.

The home's south face, an angled wall of glass, rises over a greenhouse bathed in sunlight reflected off the snow-covered hills east of Miles City. Its other three sides are sunk into the hillside.

Last summer, a work crew and volunteers rammed dirt into tires to create 650 steel-belted "bricks," which were stacked in rows, nine tires high.

Empty soda pop cans and beer bottles cemented side by side and covered with adobe mud became the interior walls of the eco-friendly home built by longtime Miles City residents Scott Elder and Karla Lund.

The two-bedroom house, built in eight weeks last summer, is the latest prototype of an Earthship, a form of self-sustained housing built by Taos, N.M., architect Michael Reynolds. Reynolds, a white-haired hippie, was dubbed the "Garbage Warrior" in a documentary film portraying his iconoclastic approach.

. . .




Full story here:
http://billingsgazette.co...002e0.html
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Posted by Christen LeBlanc Ramsey (+277) 13 years ago
i just read those articles and now i really want to build one of those homes!
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Posted by Josh Rath (+2324) 13 years ago
If I ever build a home, It will be made with recycled wood and things like that, along with having the roof covered completely with solar panels to cover the cost of my electricity usage..


But knowning me, I will probably get into a small studio apartment with a huge glass window and a loft bedroom...
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Posted by Bob Netherton II (+1910) 13 years ago
Or a Frigidaire box.
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Posted by K.Duffy (+1814) 13 years ago
What an inspirational story! Having grown up in the middle of absolute NO WHERE w/o running water, I can appreciate the having to be aware of how and how much water ~ and by extension electricity ~ you use. This was a perfect winter for Scott and Karla to see what they'll be up against. If they were able to stay comfortable through all this, they've got it made.

Oh, and to Bob N.'s remark on Josh living in a fridge box..yeah, but it'll be behind a Long John Silver eat your heart out!
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr (+15484) 13 years ago
From the Gazette article:
Elder pegs the cost of his prototype Earthship at about $200 a square foot, about the same as new, conventional home construction.


That seems really high. Most of the new construction here in Gillette is running $130 / sqft. The earthship looks like a nice place.
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Posted by Tucker Bolton (+3857) 13 years ago
Anyone interested in hands on experience? Contact me as the weather starts to warm up.
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Posted by David Schott (+18527) 13 years ago
Most of the new construction here in Gillette is running $130 / sqft.

$127K for a new 14x70 trailer house sounds a bit expensive to me.
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr (+15484) 13 years ago
Nice try. There are some pretty fancy houses being built here.
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Posted by Cindy (+392) 13 years ago
Tucker - do you need any more bottles or glass? We have been stockpiling all of our glass in hopes that EMI would accept it again someday. So right now we have beer bottles, wine bottles and just random glass items.

Let me know. I would much rather give it to you than run it to the landfill.

And I guess another question: does anyone know who takes glass to be recyled? We've checked in Billings but maybe we missed it. Any information would be appreciated. Again, I'd much rather run it to someone in Billings for recyling (unless Tucker takes it) than throw it out.

Thanks!
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Posted by MilesCity.com Webmaster (+10013) 13 years ago
Having built a bunch of houses, the price per square foot is higher for smaller houses than larger ones. I didn't read the article though, I seem to have a short attention span and a problem with clicking and/or Googling -- unless I'm forced to.
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Posted by MilesCity.com Webmaster (+10013) 13 years ago
This is the house I'm most proud of building. I designed it so the daylight basement fit the slope of the hill, as there was no lower floor originally in the plan. It was about 4,500 sq. feet.

Before ...



During ...





After ...



I have better photos, but those were easiest to upload right now.
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Posted by Josh Rath (+2324) 13 years ago
Nice larry! That looks like one hell of a home. Are you living in it now?
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Posted by MilesCity.com Webmaster (+10013) 13 years ago
This house won the most awards, it was a tour home, took the most of all categories ... it was pretty nice. About 2,300 sq. ft.

Like the previous, I have better photos, but these were easiest to upload.

Stamped concrete (the garage floor was pretty cool too) ...



Yeah, that's under lighting on the floor there ...



That's pine ...



Etc ...



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Posted by MilesCity.com Webmaster (+10013) 13 years ago
Josh Rath wrote:
Nice larry! That looks like one hell of a home. Are you living in it now?

No, those houses are in East Wenatchee, WA. I live in a crappy 1700 sq. ft. house in Snohomish, WA.
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Posted by Josh Rath (+2324) 13 years ago
Jeeze. You should upload some current pics.
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Posted by K.Duffy (+1814) 9 years ago
..jumping on the, 'bring back old threads' bandwagon..

I see the DIY network (channel 157 on cable) is doing a show on Michael Reynolds tonight at 6pm. The Earthship in Big Sky, MT will be featured.
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Posted by Richard Bonine, Jr. (+15484) 9 years ago
Is this the Mike Reynolds that used to be the Principal at SHHS?
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