Earth-Sheltered Studio

Some study a few years back found that men think of sex something like every 45 seconds. Not me; I think of escape probably about every 20 seconds. Even with the mortgage paid off, living in an energy-inefficient house in the suburbs is one of my biggest expenses. If I can ditch the house for even the $200,000 I paid for it (before mortgage interest, of course), I'll be sitting pretty for the rest of my unholy existence. That is, if I can find somewhere else to live that doesn't cost too much.

Blah-blah-blah on earth-sheltered houses deleted to move this blog entry along.

Here is the latest in an, apparently, never ending series of earth-sheltered house plans. I call this one the Studio.



The floorplan is approximately 15' by 40'; it's approximate because with concrete block, it's obviously very difficult to get perfect dimensions. The room on the left is essentially a shed for the usual plus a generator and batteries. The center room is a storage room and dry kitchen. And the last room is the "Great Room" with a futon or Murphy bed.

This plan is intended to be built into a slope. To eliminate retaining walls, no attempt will be made to fully cover the side walls. This also allows installation of small windows on each side thereby providing both light and ventilation.

Note that there is no utility room nor bathroom. The great outdoors is one big toilet, so it makes no sense to have a bathroom. Bathing is performed, quickly when cold, outside. If that becomes too much of a hardship, a separate bath house can be built.

Heat is provided by that small rectangle in the center of the Great Room. It is rocket stove cum masonry stove. I don't have a design yet, but I was thinking of a floor to ceiling masonry stove with plenty of heat-retaining mass and a spot to heat a pan and maybe some type of water reservoir to provide warm water for the aforementioned bathing.

The roof will be concrete covered with 4" or so of growing medium to create an earth roof. The interior walls will be concrete block like the exterior walls so that they can help hold up the roof. The concrete roof is definitely overkill, but I'd like to do a little traveling and making the studio into a bunker will give me peace of mind that one of my white-trash neighbors isn't chainsawing his way in while I am slumming in London or Chicago.

I know of a nice secluded spot on my tree farm I could build this. So secluded that I'd be inclined to build it myself without permits. So after construction is complete, my tax and utility bill would be about $65 a year. Well, plus gasoline for the generator until solar panels are installed. But even at $4 a gallon gas, that won't amount to more than my current winter heating bill of $130 to $150 a month.