Walking With Buttercup: February 2011

Today I attended a speech by artist and Texas A&M University of Commerce alumni, Charles Michael Reid. He presented a series of slides with different pieces of his work, each with the recurring theme of indiscernible words on art. You could tell that he spent a lot of time and effort on each piece and that they all seemed to tell some sort of story of his life. His art reminded me of the art done by Michael Miller, and his Gallery Today I am Thankful For All I Have. Both incorporated words in their art in layers over and around the art, melding them into the art itself so that the two are one. Personally I do not prefer words on art, unless it is a poster found in a classroom, to me it makes the art appear cheap and impersonal. Many others in attendance really enjoyed the art and raved about it, but I guess to each their own.

Lets begin with Earth Sheltered Homes...my dream home in reality.

Im sure you are asking what on earth is an Earth Sheltered Home, well other than being the most awesome type of house on the planet it can also be defined as :the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. (credits to wikipedia.com for this definition, as these are not my own words.) Ok, so what does that mean? By building your home to be protected by the earth you will reduce your expenses, heating and cooling costs, not have to worry about damage from tornadoes, hail, earthquakes, and other forces of nature, and can build for very very cheap. Here are a few examples of Earth Sheltered Homes.

Some of you may be saying, HEY! I recognize that last one, its the house from The Lord of The Rings. And yes, it is. The family who built this house spent $4,000 on the entire construction of it and when the people of L.O.T.R saw it they decided to use it for the film. So now you are asking how did it only cost 4k? Easy. The frame of the house is made trees from the surrounding woods, the cost for the roof consisted of nada, just time spent covering the concrete frame with the dirt instead of expensive shingles.

The windows and doors are mostly recycled or rescued from dump site/ demolition sights. All in all an inexpensive build. And it is a safe earth friendly home. Good for the planet and good for your wallet.

I believe that the crew of Extreme Home Makeover should build these types of homes instead of the monstrosity homes above ground they build, it would save money initially and post-build as well. Just an idea.

Another way to lower expenses is to find land with well water and use that as your water source instead of having to pay the city month after month for water from them. And as for lowering lighting costs, place windows on the north, east and west sides of the house so that you get the most amount of lighting throughout the day. If you incorporate the spiral tunnel sunroof that these lovely folks of the hobbit house did then you truly cut out the need for artificial light during the day, unless of course it is cloudy, then you can use a solar panel (yes, expensive but saves so much! and keeps you off grid). On average the temperature of the house remains between 60-70 degrees fahrenheit so if you prefer something a little warmer I suggest an investment in a wood burning stove, dutch oven, fireplace placed safely so, or something of that manner. I plan on having at least two big windows in my kitchen as well as an oven of course so that portion of the house shall be cozy warm.

An interesting aspect of these homes is that you can mow the roof...plant herbs, vegetables, fruits, flowers, whatever you want (save for trees of course) on the roof. If you have a "two-level" house then you can look out your upper level window into a flower bed, even climb out and get right to gardening. So your roof gives back to you in protection and food instead of just sitting there waiting for a rainstorm or hailstorm so that some shingles can fly away or get damaged.

All in all Earth Sheltered Homes are amazing and everyone should at least consider building one of these if they are at all environmentally awake.