Son bought a underground house

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Lazy Gardener

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I grew up in a house built into a berm with Northern exposure. The kitchen/family room was down stairs, with bedrooms and living room upstairs. That basement area was cold, and we kept a dehumidifier running constantly, also had a wood stove. But, it was great in the summer. Naturally cool! If it had Southern exposure, it would have been perfect. Especially if a garage could have been placed in front of the open upper level North wall to block the winds.
 
wyoDreamer

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I was researching the Earth berm homes a while back and really liked some of the layouts. My favorite had a greenhouse along the front with glass walls to the house. They were all situated to make the most of the winter sun and had skylights into most of the rooms. Above the greenhouse was porches for the upstairs bedrooms - yes it was a 2 story earth berm house. If the skylights are built at the time of construction, I believe they would have better odds to be leak proof. Most of them were built in the dessert areas so humidity wouldn't be such an issue, I guess.
 
GypsyG

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wyoDreamer said:
I was researching the Earth berm homes a while back and really liked some of the layouts. My favorite had a greenhouse along the front with glass walls to the house. They were all situated to make the most of the winter sun and had skylights into most of the rooms. Above the greenhouse was porches for the upstairs bedrooms - yes it was a 2 story earth berm house. If the skylights are built at the time of construction, I believe they would have better odds to be leak proof. Most of them were built in the dessert areas so humidity wouldn't be such an issue, I guess.
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Can you remember where you found that? It sounds beautiful and I'd love to check out a link!
 
baymule

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I like the look of cordwood houses. Maybe I'd get ambitious enough to do a SMALL storage building....
 
wyoDreamer

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I would like to build a round sauna with the cordwood technique, with bottles randomly placed through out. But our place has 9 buildings already, so its not going to happen anytime soon.
 
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baymule said:
I like the look of cordwood houses. Maybe I'd get ambitious enough to do a SMALL storage building....
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I like the looks of those also but I always questioned how the could remain in good shape over the long haul. Wood shrinks and swells with change of the seasons, I fail to see how cement which does not shrink and swell remain stable or effective at holding logs in place over the long haul. Now if you could cost effectively use another material that remained stable and flexable over the course of many sessions it would be doable. But the cost of such a material far off sets the cost of cement by leaps and bounds.
 
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