On the lookout for glass bottles!

Google search image result for "glass bottle walls".

Like most earthships, our home will include some glass bottle walls. Using a glass cutter, we save the bottom couple of inches of each glass bottle, pairing them up and taping them together to form glass "bricks". The different patterns you can create are endless, including a mix of square, large circular, and small circular bottles, and pairing up a coloured bottle with a clear bottle to get lighter colours (you don't have to pair bottles based on matching colour---they need to be paired based on size and shape). We've got plenty of green and transparent bottles. The earthship community has told us to keep a look out for blue bottles. They are very beautiful when the sun hits them. If anyone in the Western Manitoba or Regina region is into Bombay Gin, or certain wines that come in blue bottles, please save the bottles for us! We can arrange pickup in Regina, Brandon, and Winnipeg.

The design

Exterior front wall with windows.

Floor plan.

Bird's eye view.

Here are some pictures of the final design. A greenhouse spans the length of the house, windows face SSE and are angled to the winter sun (passive solar gain). A sloped metal roof allows for rainwater harvesting. The walls are used tires rammed with earth. Before we can even start the house, we have to bury pipes for radon. There's a lot of radon in the soil here in the Prairies, which is the #2 cause of lung cancer (#1 is smoking, naturally). We need to lay down pipes to divert the radon so it doesn't leach into our house and kill us :) In fact, the Brandon Sun just did an article stating "More than 40 per cent of homes in the Prairie Mountain Health region contain higher than accepted levels of radon."

It has begun!

We have our building permit to build our dream home---an "earth-sheltered" house that uses a lot of sustainable architectural techniques similar to the Earthships that have been getting lots of attention lately. We'll be breaking ground in spring/summer 2015 as soon as the snow melts! Super excited!