Living on the Edge (of self sufficiency)

This is the first post of a commentary on designing and building my own home, that has consumed much of my time and many dollars over the past several years.

In 1977 I purchased a piece of land by a lake with three other people, since then the people have changed and I am still on the title. Three years ago I began to design the home that now ocupies a place withing the boundary of that land.

My goal all along has been to use as much of the material that was present on the land as possible, and that I would also try and use as much recycled material as I could while staying within the boundaries of the Alberta Building Code. The home is close to completion and is a combination of passive solar and radiant in floor heating. The walls are insulated with R42 on the west and north sides and R35 on the east and south sides. The ceiling is a work in progress with some at R63 and other areas still at R28.

I have been building this house for the most part by myself, this is a luxury that most of the animal kingdom chooses of neccessity and we humans choose as an exception, most of us do not build our own homes, and if we do it is often only a token build.

I hope that sharing some of my experiences might inspire more people to think about building their own homes, by looking at the possibilites for using unconventional sources of materials.