The up side of postponing the building of our house for a couple of extra years is that we have had a lot of time…
- Time to work on the floorplans
- Time to learn the day to day, month to month and season to season nuances of our chosen environment.
- Time to learn about various building techniques.
- Time to actually build something hands-on to see if it was something we even would enjoy doing.
The test building project we chose was our workshop/shed, and the test building method we chose was adobe brick. We not only built the workshop ourselves, we actually made the bricks ourselves too. And dug the dirt out of the side of our mountain to make those bricks. And built the doors. And made the stained glass window…
Our test building project was a success – we’re very proud of our little shed! But what it taught us was that although we love the look of adobe and loved the process of putting it all together, it was very time-consuming work. If we built our house the same way, by ourselves, while still busy working full-time at our business, it would take years and years. Considering we would actually like the opportunity to enjoy the house a bit sooner than Jim’s 85th birthday (coming up soon – only 35 years and 4 months and 1 day to go), adobe was not a viable building option! So the search was on for other building materials that would be a bit quicker and easier to build with…
Jim spent months and months over several years researching various methods and products. We knew the house needed to be strong, warm and quiet, so that the gusty New Mexico winds would not rattle the walls or make the house cold. So some form of concrete house seemed the most practical. Also, because neither of us possesses super-human strength and we will be doing the building ourselves, we needed something light enough to be manageable. There are several products which would have fit the bill under the broad category of ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) – each with a lengthy list of pros and cons…
After much consternation, research and anxiety, and after changing our minds at least 5 times over the last year alone, we made our final decision on a building material the same way all the best decisions are made; completely by chance.
A road trip in late January, 2011 brought us to Rocky Point Mexico. Along the way, we passed by a house that was under construction. It was built from a type of ICF block we had never seen before. Serendipity? We had to stop and learn more… The owner of the home was there, came out to chat, and ended up giving us the grand tour of this 7,000-square-foot-palace-in-the-making, plus his personal opinions of the various ICF products Jim had studied. This new block, he said, was designed by a builder who had worked with several ICF products and knew the negatives of each, with help from an engineer. So far, the new block had gotten excellent reviews. It is light enough to lift (37 pounds/block) and each block covers 5 square feet of wall space. We were intrigued! And best of all, the block is manufactured in Arizona, East of Phoenix.
ON the return trip from Mexico, a detour was made to Tempe, AZ, home of Earth Friendly Building Materials, or EFBM. Luckily Dan, the owner, was able to squeeze us in, gave us a tour of the plant and a bit of hands-on time with the blocks. We “got one to go” so we could show it to others whose opinions we trust. And so it is, our new home will be built from EFBM, made from recycled polystyrene and plastics. Glue them, stack them, and then fill them with concrete; sounds like a plan! (Well, maybe there’s just a bit more to it…)