Home in the Earth Walk-Thru: August 2020

We have made a lot of progress since the last walkthru, so we were overdue for another. As you can probably tell, the thing I am most excited about is the earth tubes which appear to be working well.
To learn more about this project, check out our website at www.homeintheearth.com.
For more specifically about the design of earth tubes... www.homeinthee...
For more up to date pics of our progress, check us out on facebook at / homeintheearth

[@FreekHoekstra]

This is eventually Going to be the mud room, now we mix stucco in here... sounds like a mud room to me xD

[@SalemWoodworks]

Absolutely incredible. I get a little bit more amazed with every video. Those concrete arches are mind blowing.

[@juliemell2959]

Wow its looking good. I really like these walk through tours.

[@BenKoren]

Incredible work. Thanks for all the effort it takes to share this.

[@fintan3563]

The paint really brightens up the inside! 👍👍👍

[@Mrcaffinebean]

Wow it’s gorgeous and it’s huge! Love the ceilings they really are the best part. The free AC is awesome too. Thank you for sharing this journey.

[@brian7android985]

Really love the floor grill in the tower.

[@DrGonzosCondiments]

love this project. thanks for the update and congratulations on your progress!

[@TheGbow0704]

Thanks for the update and tour, this is really coming along nicely. Really beautiful

[@davidcummings6299]

Love the walk through I’ve been with you forever and it’s been a wonderful journey.... one you and your family can be vary proud of.

[@tomgolden8996]

It’s looking great, thanks for sharing

[@patkaiser6910]

Thank you for the education on how much air is restricted with the corrugated pipe. Back to the drawing board.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

When I hook up a single fan to both of those single wall pipes, I suddenly have twice as much cross section and half the flow speed, so the back pressure drops off and I get reasonable flow for the 70 watts. In any case, those pipes were doing double duty as the french drain, so the incremental cost for that experiment was negligible.

[@yummboy2]

Thanks for the tour. This is the most interesting residential design/build I have ever seen and I have seen several. If I had to choose a favorite room or area, it would have to be the rotunda. I especially like the concrete trusses, barrel vaults and the grate-covered oculus. Of course the skylight is sweet as well. I cannot wait to see the final result. I feel certain you and family are anxious as well. BTW, the earth tube cooling system is beyond brilliant. It should save you lots of $.

[@clintonneuhaus1818]

Such a beautiful design!

[@BorisFett]

Things are looking amazing. I watch allot of KZbin build channels but yours is the one i look forward to the most. Such a cool idea and it looks great.

[@robertbass5283]

I have watched all of your build video's up to present day and this is such a High Tech ...AWESOME ENGINEERED House !! Great Job, Can Not wait to see it finished !

[@fabiancbarrio]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing.

[@kostaskoroneos9999]

Thank you for the captions!

[@TarragonMom]

Amazing. It's really coming along! I absolutly love your house and have been subscribed for about a year. I can live my hobbit hole dreams vicariously through you! Can't wait to see it finished but each video is a pleasure to watch. Your family all works so hard. Nice job.

[@JosePereira-rl7tq]

It is the most amazing home I've ever seen.

[@MorganFreemanNIGGU]

I think I've followed this for at least 3 years now. These videos are always fun to watch.

[@geraldsmith7951]

What a great job you have been doing thanks for sharing

[@mferrarorace]

Great build project! Love it! You have a lot of energy apparently. Lol

[@elliotazus6258]

Hello Simon, Absolutely fabulous, intriguing, beautiful, well thought out design!!! Moving in by 2022? God bless and take care to you and family!!!🙏🙏🙏

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Shooting for 2021, but I have been wrong before. ;)

[@duanethieme4186]

Awesome and impressive!!!! Thank you for sharing!!

[@user-jc2ez6ig5z]

You are truly an artist. Looks amazing

[@maryleahmccarthyuecker4717]

Love captions!

[@barthanes1]

Nice, coming right along.

[@georgerydberg4393]

Fantastic home!

[@kevinwilliams8662]

Enjoying the show

[@BoomChild74]

"This is going to be the mud room, but for now we mix stucco in here"... Ummmm isn't that kinda right on the nose? LOL

[@BoomChild74]

I love it. You've come a long way since I started following your build!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, its our standard joke... I just didn't have as much time to flesh it out as I would on a real life tour ;)

[@BoomChild74]

Keep up the good work. I've enjoyed your videos and hope to someday build my own home

[@ttkddry]

Wow, just wow, quite some progress!

[@richardheinen1126]

What a beautiful home!!!

[@MrBeard-ig5zc]

Wow. It's come a long way. I have been watching your videos for years. Do you ever wish that you made it smaller? Thats a lot of house.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I thought I replied to this last week, but don't see it now. Yes, we have often wished we went smaller or less complicated. But we couldn't go too much smaller due to what we need to do in the house (we work from home, we need to house people, etc.) and I couldn't go less complicated because I am clearly crazy ;)

[@DomAviationChannel]

Simply *GENIUS*

[@ivinballen1251]

nice! great walkthrough, really amazing to see this project coming together.

[@reverendprophet]

Sweet captions, bro.

[@nothandybutcheap2086]

I’ve watched since the beginning and I absolutely love your house you have impressed me with your work ethic of you and your family it’s getting so close just wondering are you a architect? Cause you sir are brilliant

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, I designed it too. A more brilliant man would have designed something simpler ;) As it is, I have no one to blame but myself... And maybe A&E TV for making it look too easy. ;)

[@mattnigh5594]

looking great

[@tonyozimek2116]

Looks awesome!

[@jcadult101]

Wow, it is really coming along!!

[@AircreteHarry]

It's looking awesome!

[@TheKajunkat]

Thanks so much for the walk through

[@AndyFromm]

Looking good

[@petervogwill6499]

And the temple in chicago... church made of prefab concrete arch /Web trusses.. very interesting filigree and lattice effects...

[@petervogwill6499]

Your ingenious inclusion of water (in your embedded hydronics) : used as a heat /cooling medium...VERY SMART..! Used first as a circulating cooling medium...inflow while any draw adds cooling during use....AND .. HEAT is brought up to comfort in hydronic -- then this system supplies PREHEATED to hot water tank heater for use ---.DEFEAT DURING NOT HEATED SEASON ...? .... DRAWBACK IS WHOLE SYSTEM MUST BE POTABLE GRADE BUILD...BUT...IT'S VERY SMART...! Air tube deliver stable , modulate and buffer temp swings...seems stable enuff..! Economy overall may be low...upkeep ..? Installed parts seem cheap , and simple enuff , too... all in all ...BRAVO. .,!!

[@paulbingo1551]

Wow. What beautiful state is this in

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

South East Michigan, about half an hour from Ann Arbor.

[@dcampean]

You said you are excited about the free air conditioning - can you explain on that. Do you have underneath earth pipes? May be you have a link to how you did it - What pipe size is better and how you installed them, how many feet from the house etc...What fan you have on them. I am trying to build my house and explore different options.... IT looks like this works out for you. Great job

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, I put a lot of info on my website www.homeintheearth.com/tech_notes/basics-of-earthsheltering/ But yea, it worked well last summer. The earth tubes constantly brought in air that was in the 60's. It de-humidified the air also, but not as well as a proper ac unit. We ended up installing a small mini-split AC unit (12k btu) in the basement so the incoming air could be further dehumidified.

[@dcampean]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth thank you!

[@revolutionaryhippies6972]

A underground bunker with a escape hatch would be great in ur house

[@kjterz]

nice.......taking form......keep up the captions......

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Thanks, will do!

[@stephencaggiano1085]

The house is incredible. What will keep mold from growing in the intake ground tubes?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

The tubes are made of smooth HDPE plastic. Its not something mold can grow on (theoretically). There have been many studies of this, but I'll keep an eye on it anyway. If there is ever a problem, I'll pull a bleach soaked sponge ball thru the tube.

[@TheMarathonMama]

thanks for sharing

[@BenKoren]

Thank you for the video. I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming video detailing the earth tubes. Are all of the windows on the main level fixed? If so, what was the rationale behind this? Thanks again.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Nope, most of the windows open (are vented). Maybe you think they are fixed because they are casement windows and don't have a sash like a double hung window?

[@BenKoren]

Ah, that must be it. I didn’t see any hand cranks in the video which made me think they were fixed, but I must have just missed them. Thanks for clarifying! I appreciate it.

[@NarayanVigneault]

nice captions! ;)

[@WotanSkyFather]

Do you do voiceovers for NPR? They should hire you.

[@johnboldt5320]

Nice, and the captions help

[@michiganengineer8621]

I do like the captioning, sometimes you speak a _little_ too quietly for me to easily hear just what you're saying.

[@samnoerpel234]

Very nice! Love these videos, one question about the earth tubes, I noticed you were draining your water from the dehumidifier an the earth tube. As well as that the air seems pretty humid. Are you worried about legionella bacteria? Are there any countermeasures you are taking to avoid such issues?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I am not concerned about legionella specifically. It usually occurs in places where water is used for cooling or where stagnant water is kept warm. My earth tubes are nowhere near ideal for it. You should be more concerned about your water heater or hot tub or swamp cooler. Also, it spreads to humans when droplets of the liquid are inhaled. No droplets are coming up out of my earth-tubes. However, I was generally concerned about other "biologials" that could grow in there, along with a host of other potential problems. I describe my earth tube concerns and my mitigation strategies on my website. www.homeintheearth.com/tech_notes/earth-tubes/earth-tube-concerns/

[@imakexyz4968]

Looking good! I’m still intrigued by these earth tubes. Another question, how big is your office room. It looks rather small compared to some of the other rooms.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Its an apse, so a half circle, with a 7ft radius. So, not bad. Actually quite a bit larger than I really need for one person, but it was sized based on the back side of the dining room wall that it is attached to. It probably just looks small with that camera.

[@imakexyz4968]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Yep that is a lot bigger than it looked like.

[@B30pt87]

Why are you not saving the water from the dehumidifier? Several gallons per hour seems like a considerable mass of clean water. Do you not need it, or is there another reason? P.S. I've been watching this house be built - you've done a wonderful job.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I live in Michigan surrounded by more free water than I can do anything with. I have well water, rain water, pond water (1 acre flowing pond on my property, plus many adjacent), etc. The cost for water from the tap is 25 cents per thousand gallons. Saving condensate is just not worth the hassle. In the original plans, I had a big 1000 gallon buried water tank to catch the roof drainage. I have a spot for it in that fill region between the kitchen and the garage, but I ended up scrapping those plans because the water savings would never pay off the cost of installation.

[@B30pt87]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth; Makes sense, thanks! (I live in California- home of the super fires).

[@revolutionaryhippies6972]

When I get more puppies I would like to give u one

[@danjohnson3545]

Do you have a video on building ribs on site

[@martinrodriguez8363]

They look like the. ( colegio la esperanza in Tijuana bc mex )saludos

[@toddincabo]

Yes!

[@bradlong7166]

What did you use to cover and finish over the wire mesh on the interior?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

We used stucco. For the scratch coat, we mostly mixed our own from our onsite sand, lime and portland cement. Then we bought bag mixes for the brown coat.

[@BenKoren]

Who manufactures the temperature/humidity sensors used in the mechanical room?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

They came with the fans. AC Infinity Cloudline T6. Great fans. Highly recommended.

[@BenKoren]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Thank you!

[@mmac4047]

What did you use to glue down the vinyl sheet to the concrete

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

If you mean the billboard vinyls, those are not glued to the concrete. In some cases, they are screwed to the furring strips that are screwed to the concrete. Punching holes is not ideal, but I needed it well attached and then I put a rubber pond liner over the top of that and the rubber is not punctured by any screws.

[@mmac4047]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth so the billboard vinyl was just to prevent damage to the pond rubber liner from rocks? How do you prevent water flow from the edges of then pond liner?

[@craigmooring2091]

I do, indeed appreciate the captions. Your soft voice and rapid speech make it hard for me to follow you sometimes.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, its a problem ;) Thanks for sticking with me while I worked it out.

[@ianchmp]

So you have a target date for moving in?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Spring 2021? But all bets seem to be off this crazy year.

[@dirtychubbs]

this house is 6 years in the making? Edit: and is it mostly diy?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, slow build after work and on Saturdays. And almost all DIY. Exceptions include days when we shoot or pour a lot of concrete. In those cases, we make the forms ourselves, place the rebar, etc. and then call in a crew to do the actual pour.

[@adamfrbs9259]

That earth tube is gonna smell eventually...probably by now.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Nope, we live in the house and it all works perfectly well. Is about 60 degrees plus or minus a few degrees, year round. Fresh air. No problems. There is no where in the HDPE pipe for anything to grow.

[@adamfrbs9259]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth whew. That'd be annoying if it did.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

@@adamfrbs9259 Yea, I spent a ton of time researching to make sure I did it right. I also came up with several back up plans just in case it was a disaster. Fortunately it worked. You can see other videos on my channel with more details, updates on those tubes, etc.

[@777cygnus]

Do you collect rainwater ?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

I originally planned out a system and a tank location, etc. But when I ran the numbers, it didn't work financially. Water is very plentiful in Michigan and only costs me about 25 cents worth of electricity to pump 1000 gallons. The payback on a rain collection system is never. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Oddly, I do collect rain water at my place in the suburbs (where I currently live), because water here costs something like several dollars per 1000 liters plus 8$ per thousand liters for sewer. That is a lot more than I pay in the country.

[@paulczerner3286]

was looking great in the shotcrete phase, but finishing it it was made rustic conventional 😞, somewhat disappointed.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Its still not where I want it. I was going for "Modern Tuscan". This is a partial stage.

[@livinglife8333]

😳PLAY ROOM ? BY THE TIME YOU FINISH THIS HOUSE THE KIDS WILL BE IN COLLEGE. 🤣😂 You started this more than 6 years ago.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Then it is a good thing they have been playing in there for years. They roller blade in the living room, etc. As John Lenon said, "life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans..." Ironically, we could build it faster if I didn't take so much time for family days.

[@petervogwill6499]

Bahia temple

[@petervogwill6499]

Another fan of GAUDI..??

[@richardburgess5215]

Get back to work. You just couldn't wait huh ? 👎

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

No idea what this comment means ;). I critique your critique to say you should critique more clearly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@uknownsip293]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth could you do a video on how much cost total , a lot of channels are doing this aswell, helps your viewers get a range of cost , looking forward to it , house looks amazing!!!!

[@ihateoutube]

What a great update! It's really coming along now

[@KrisBunda]

What kind of metal studs are those? Is that pretty standard? They look very sturdy.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, they are stronger than most. They are "Marioware Stud-rite" They are not the flimsy stuff that you see used in office buildings for internal walls.