We are Man, Woman & Toddler Enough!

Are you sure we live in Ohio and not the Rocky Mountains?!  We feel completely surrounded by mountains to climb and hoops to jump through and we haven't even broken ground yet!  This must be some sick, twisted test to see if we are man, woman and toddler enough to handle building an earthship home.  Because this is a non-conventional style build, there are, as to be expected, many barriers in place that need to be taken into consideration to ensure that we are taking the proper steps to build such a home and have covered all of our bases.

One big "to-do" was crossed off last week in sending off all the required information to the EPA for our "Beneficial Use of Tires" application.  Due to supporting documentation that we included as well, the document was over a hundred pages in all.  We will still have to send them the final drawings of our home once we have had them reviewed by the architect we are working with but at least it has been sent in and the process has begun!  Here is the mammoth document we sent in last week:

So now we wait to hear back from the EPA but aren't too concerned because a similar project was approved here in Ohio last year and used 20,000 scrap tires (it was a tire bale home)!  We are only looking to use 800-900 tires for our home.

Because many people we've met so far have mentioned an interest in also building an earth-rammed tire home in the future, we wanted to post links to some information that that has been provided to us by several sources that will hopefully make your road easier:  

State of Ohio's Beneficial Use of Tires Rules

Supporting Document: Testing and Analysis of Modified Rammed Earth Tire Walls

Supporting Document: Engineering Evaluation of Earth-Filled Tire Construction (Dennis Weaver Residence)

Our understanding is that the EPA wants information regarding your use of scrap tires as detailed in section "G" of the Beneficial Use of Tires Rules.  Thus, we outlined each section as listed in the rules and then input information as it pertained to our project.  We closed the document with our drawings, supplemental information, as well as a copy of the date-stamped receipt showing that the document was also sent to our local county's health department.  While tedious, it was a pretty straightforward process to begin.  Fortunately, every government agency we've been in contact with thus far has been incredibly supportive and excited to help in any way they can with our project!  

All the wheels to our project are in motion right now and I'm confident that we will climb every mountain and jump through every hoop because we are man, woman and toddler enough to build an earthship!  In case you have your doubts, look at the ferocious beast of a toddler my husband and I created:

The Craig Family Shall Prevail!!! 

(Elliot wouldn't have it any other way)

Oh, and if you haven't signed up for the Earthship Build Workshops beginning in April, you can do so here.