GO UNDERGROUND IN MICHIGAN
After researching various earth-sheltered homes, a local architect, Tom Halbert, was enlisted to help with the project.
November/December 1978
By the Mother Earth News editors
Daniel Rinker wanted to build a special home for his daughter, a house that would be easy to maintain, inexpensive to heat and cool, and compatible with the landscape. That's why he decided to...
RELATED CONTENT
Hi-Ho, Come to the Fair July/August 1982 Only a "simple Simon" would willingly pass up a chance to ...
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star energy-efficiency program gave its certification ...
If you're stuck in the city and long to move to the country, a home-based moving or trucking busine...
Buying or building a small home is a great way to significantly reduce your energy use, and you don...
Mother staff experts answer questions on building an in-ground, passive solar home and the pollutio...
The Rinker house is certainly beautiful on the outside and really does seem to belong in its lovely wooded setting . . . no matter which angle you pick to view the dwelling from. And inside . . . the home is just as comfortable (probably more so) and "modern" looking as any conventional aboveground house. Note the clever way in which the Rinkers have disguised some of the building's vents as "stumps".
You've heard tales about eccentric old gentlemen who bury their money in the back yard. Well, I went one step further . . . I buried my daughter, Joyce, along with it! The story isn't at all gruesome, however, because the "back yard" — in this case — is 4-1/2 acres of forested sand hills in Michigan . . . and Joyce is happily "dug in" there in a modern three-bedroom, earth-sheltered home with an attached two-car garage.
Joyce decided she wanted an underground dwelling about four years ago, after she read about one that had been constructed in Massachusetts. But, of course, we didn't jump right in and build the house immediately.
However — during the next few years, as my wife and I enjoyed our retirement — we traveled around the country to investigate all of the earth-sheltered structures we could find. We visited the library at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, an underground elementary school in New Mexico, and a goodly number of other partially or completely subterranean homes and institutions. And we talked to homeowners, realtors (to see how these buildings affected area property values), janitors and principals in the belowground schools . . . in short, just about anyone who could answer our many questions.
Once we'd gathered all the data we could find, we enlisted the services of Tom Halberg, a local architect. Tom agreed to check the relevant building codes, design the house (with some "back-seat drafting" from me), and build it.
Halberg first suggested that we use an all-weather, pressure-treated wood construction rather than concrete or cement blocks. So, I researched further and found that an Indiana firm had built more than 60 homes with all-weather, wood basements. When I found that the cellars stayed dry despite that wet Indiana clay around them, I was convinced.
Page: 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Next >>
