The Earthship is cleared for landing! We received word today that the permit is all ready for us. We are quite excited and I know that Chris has been sorting shovels, starting equipment up and worrying about our tire count.
We do have to pay an additional $904 for our permit. The building authority bases the permit fee on square footage AND cost to build. Of course, I put $60,000 down for cost to build (that is what we are aiming for, as we have heard of others building for a little less and a little more). However, even that won’t fly with the building authority. So based on 2250 square feet and $100/square foot (which the building authority decided based on some figures out of Michael Reynolds books).
So the entire permit fee is $1544 which includes a refundable $200 if we complete the house within 2 years.
Please stay posted as we begin to make plans to start construction!
Hi There
You and your family are very brave to have done this.
I bought the books in 1996 and I am still just talking about it.
You are talking about plans and I wonder if you did go buy plans or are you just using the books and making your own design and plans . I am glad I found your site is more informative than most because you talk about all aspects of rural low impact sustainable living.
That is my biggest problem is getting my family on board. I have a 7 yr old daughter and a 11 year old son and we live in Calgary so we are very much city dwellers.
Thanks
Brian Simpson
The hardest part is definitely starting. Once you’ve started it is hard to stop.
We did our own plans based on the three earthship volumes. (See https://www.darfieldearthship.com/plans).
Hello!
I am currently building an earthship with my Boyfriend in New Mexico. I’m just browsing the internet and finding many others are blogging about their projects too! How exciting! You can feel free to check out my blog.
My boyfriend and I are using a few homemade techniques, some new earthship techniques that aren’t in the books yet, but for the most part, the same techniques you’re going to use. I wish you the best of luck. Let me know if you have any questions, and let me know if you could answer any of mine (like, why didn’t we hire a back ho instead of digging out the hill by ourselves///? just kidding) !
GOOD LUCK!
-AMANDA
My earthship building blog is: Raisehightheroofbeamcarpenters.blogspot.com
We will check it out! It’s all quite the adventure, isn’t it????