Guns a Blazin': Building a Rifle Range Backstop... Sure, Why Not?!
While this may sound strange, I think our naivete has actually proven itself a strength. When we initially talked about building an earth-rammed tire home, we were concerned with just how likely this prospect would be. However, after speaking with our consultants and gaining the support of so many, I think we were pumped up just enough to send us flying in the face of conventional practices with enough gusto that when knocked down, we were in too deep to back down. All we had hoped for was to end up with a home that allowed us to live life according to principles we believed in. And yet, this goal has become something greater to Zac and I.
We have already had our share of ups and downs but my lowest point thus far occurred this past week. For the first time since we began working toward building our earthship, I wanted to escape a bit and forget what we were doing; live a day in the life of our past selves. My 27 year-old self, now a mother, wanted to run home to my own parents' house and have all my needs and wants taken care of by someone else. This was all too much for two people to tackle in such a short amount of time! We've been assured that preparing to build even a conventional home is like giving birth to a child and that there are extreme highs and lows to be had. While this has been of comfort to me, our future home isn't conventional and it feels like an uphill battle to actually work toward each of our unconventional wants for our future home.
Zac has been working since October of last year on our house drawings and with the help of our family friend (an architect) and Alice Emmons, an architect based out of Cincinnati, he was able to get them into shape to submit to the county. We submitted them last week knowing full well that we should have submitted them months ago to provide an adequate buffer before the proposed build begin date. As I had said in a previous post, had we known in October what we know now, we likely would have hired an architect to create our drawings for us as it is difficult to attempt to learn all of the necessary skills of an unrelated trade when you work full-time in another field... at least under crazy time constraints. We want to do things by the book to demonstrate that there is a desire for a more responsible, sustainable way of living and to show local officials that it can be done effectively and up to snuff with Ohio Code, but boy is this exhausting! It would have been more sensible to have planned this out for years but we have only been at this for 9 months and are serious about making this happen now.
The long and short of it is that we have everything submitted to the county and are working on obtaining the additional information they will need to move forward with the building permit plan review process. However, we were concerned because we have workshops lined up for April 12th and 13th and wanted to be sure that we didn't ruffle any feathers by moving forward with our build despite not having the permit just yet. So, after a day or so of sulking about, feeling concerned that we would need to reschedule our workshops, we decided a Hail Mary was in order if we were to begin the build as planned. With the help of Jay (our consultant from Blue Rock Station), we hatched a backup plan to be enacted should we not have the permits in time for the first workshop.
The plan is to build a "rifle range backstop" in the meantime as this structure isn't something that requires permits of any kind to be built... that's right, a "rifle range backstop"! An individual can use up to 1,500 scrap tires without a permit from the EPA in building this structure, and so regardless of whether or not we have the EPA Beneficial Use of Tires permit and the building permit from Greene County, we will be able to proceed lawfully in building our earthship, er, I mean "rifle range backstop."
Because we want to be transparent in our efforts, we decided it would be best to disclose our interim strategy to both the EPA and Greene County before committing to this hare-brained plan. So, I phoned a representative from the local Ohio EPA office yesterday and after speaking with her supervisor and another colleague, she gave us the green light to move forward. This morning, I met with the Greene County Building Official and gave him the rundown and he was also incredibly open and helpful; giving us the go-ahead to move forward with our build should we not have the building permit in our hands at the moment of breaking ground (for our "rifle range backstop", that is).
We will likely have to have someone onsite throughout that first building weekend to ensure that we are achieving adequate compaction rates for each tire rammed with earth, but we feel good about being open and honest about our intentions and have been pleasantly surprised by how wonderful all the local officials have been in working with us.
I can't tell you how many road blocks we have come up against thus far, but what keeps us pushing forward is that we are in love with our future and aren't willing to back down or settle for anything less than an earthship as our future home. We couldn't help but laugh hysterically though; thinking about how silly this loophole of building a "rifle range backstop" was but hey, whatever keeps us pushing forward with guns a blazin'!
As a reminder, there are still spots available for our first Earthship Build Workshop (Tire Foundation Workshop) on April 12, 2014- April 13, 2014 and you can sign up here. The cost for each full weekend workshop is $35 and basically just covers the cost of food both days (breakfast and lunch- both meat and veggie friendly). Participants are more than welcome to camp on our land each workshop weekend as well. Also, as a reminder, if less structure is more your thing, we will also be hosting less formal "work weekends" in between the workshops that are free of charge but don't include meals. Just email me to sign up for any of these weekends!
We have already had our share of ups and downs but my lowest point thus far occurred this past week. For the first time since we began working toward building our earthship, I wanted to escape a bit and forget what we were doing; live a day in the life of our past selves. My 27 year-old self, now a mother, wanted to run home to my own parents' house and have all my needs and wants taken care of by someone else. This was all too much for two people to tackle in such a short amount of time! We've been assured that preparing to build even a conventional home is like giving birth to a child and that there are extreme highs and lows to be had. While this has been of comfort to me, our future home isn't conventional and it feels like an uphill battle to actually work toward each of our unconventional wants for our future home.
Zac has been working since October of last year on our house drawings and with the help of our family friend (an architect) and Alice Emmons, an architect based out of Cincinnati, he was able to get them into shape to submit to the county. We submitted them last week knowing full well that we should have submitted them months ago to provide an adequate buffer before the proposed build begin date. As I had said in a previous post, had we known in October what we know now, we likely would have hired an architect to create our drawings for us as it is difficult to attempt to learn all of the necessary skills of an unrelated trade when you work full-time in another field... at least under crazy time constraints. We want to do things by the book to demonstrate that there is a desire for a more responsible, sustainable way of living and to show local officials that it can be done effectively and up to snuff with Ohio Code, but boy is this exhausting! It would have been more sensible to have planned this out for years but we have only been at this for 9 months and are serious about making this happen now.
The long and short of it is that we have everything submitted to the county and are working on obtaining the additional information they will need to move forward with the building permit plan review process. However, we were concerned because we have workshops lined up for April 12th and 13th and wanted to be sure that we didn't ruffle any feathers by moving forward with our build despite not having the permit just yet. So, after a day or so of sulking about, feeling concerned that we would need to reschedule our workshops, we decided a Hail Mary was in order if we were to begin the build as planned. With the help of Jay (our consultant from Blue Rock Station), we hatched a backup plan to be enacted should we not have the permits in time for the first workshop.
The plan is to build a "rifle range backstop" in the meantime as this structure isn't something that requires permits of any kind to be built... that's right, a "rifle range backstop"! An individual can use up to 1,500 scrap tires without a permit from the EPA in building this structure, and so regardless of whether or not we have the EPA Beneficial Use of Tires permit and the building permit from Greene County, we will be able to proceed lawfully in building our
Because we want to be transparent in our efforts, we decided it would be best to disclose our interim strategy to both the EPA and Greene County before committing to this hare-brained plan. So, I phoned a representative from the local Ohio EPA office yesterday and after speaking with her supervisor and another colleague, she gave us the green light to move forward. This morning, I met with the Greene County Building Official and gave him the rundown and he was also incredibly open and helpful; giving us the go-ahead to move forward with our build should we not have the building permit in our hands at the moment of breaking ground (for our "rifle range backstop", that is).
We will likely have to have someone onsite throughout that first building weekend to ensure that we are achieving adequate compaction rates for each tire rammed with earth, but we feel good about being open and honest about our intentions and have been pleasantly surprised by how wonderful all the local officials have been in working with us.
I can't tell you how many road blocks we have come up against thus far, but what keeps us pushing forward is that we are in love with our future and aren't willing to back down or settle for anything less than an earthship as our future home. We couldn't help but laugh hysterically though; thinking about how silly this loophole of building a "rifle range backstop" was but hey, whatever keeps us pushing forward with guns a blazin'!
As a reminder, there are still spots available for our first Earthship Build Workshop (Tire Foundation Workshop) on April 12, 2014- April 13, 2014 and you can sign up here. The cost for each full weekend workshop is $35 and basically just covers the cost of food both days (breakfast and lunch- both meat and veggie friendly). Participants are more than welcome to camp on our land each workshop weekend as well. Also, as a reminder, if less structure is more your thing, we will also be hosting less formal "work weekends" in between the workshops that are free of charge but don't include meals. Just email me to sign up for any of these weekends!
Comments
Post a Comment