Archive for the ‘Green real estate’ Category
Green home construction - Day 25 in the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
The water catchment is taking form. In the next few days we will tie the finish coat on the middle dome into the gutters and cistern. We’re sloping the flow at 1 inch every four feet.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, san juan del sur, sustainable construction, sustainable housing
Lot signs are going in on Day 24 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
It’s midway through the week and it looks as though we will accomplish our short term objectives. Today we saw two hits on the dome and both gutters built up significantly.
Although the inside of the building is not currently a high priority, there are enough hands that we are able to continue with “packout” and adobe plaster. The vapor barrier is partially up in both domes as well.
A green real estate community south of San Juan del Sur
All around us things are happening. The community itself is truly developing. Lot signs are up for the remaining six lots and the road has already received its preliminary grading and compaction. The signs mark the sites for new Earthship buildings in this growing green real estate community located a little south of the town of San Juan del Sur.
The roads will be to high standard. Tim is using a very experienced crew and the material he’s throwing down is quality grade that should compact down nicely.
Green building - Day 23 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
The middle dome is ready to receive it’s first coat of plaster. Inside the building, Seth has been discussing the art of adobe plaster with the local Nicaraguan crew. The plaster work is coming along well. Lot’s of busy hands all around us.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been only 23 working days.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green building, green real estate, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingDay 22 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Monday, January 28th, 2008
Monday is always a natural time to lay out goals and expectations for the week, and with the addition of Phil and Seth, two of Earthship Biotecture’s finest, we decided to set our goals high.
All in all it was a decent Monday. We were able to get a skeleton of rebar up and supported for the form of the dome. The arches are glommed and scratched, ready to receive a shaping/final coat. And the wing walls are only two tire courses short of being done.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingNicaragua real estate: The buzz about the Nicaraguan Earthship is building
Monday, January 28th, 2008We’ve been keeping a daily blog on the construction of a house made out of tires which cools itself passively, creates its own power and harvests its own water. Known as an “Earthship” the house design was conceived by architect Mike Reynolds from Earthship Biotecture, in Taos, New Mexico.
Ever since the construction team arrived in Nicaragua and teamed up with the local community of El Carizal to begin the building, the buzz has been growing:
- Steve over in Newcastle, England updated his readers about the Nicaraguan Earthship
- Closer to home, MyBootsnMe visited the site and took a couple of great shots
- La Prensa, Nicaragua’s daily national newspaper wrote an article about a house made out of a thousand tires and thousands more bottles and cans (Spanish)
- And Dave Kniffen from Casa Llanta reflected on the vision behind the Nicaraguan Earthship initiative in a thoughtful article written on Day 16 of the construction.
There’s also a You Tube video for those who want to see a day by day demonstration.
We are proud to market this Earthship community to our network. The location is great (only 15 minutes south of San Juan del Sur), the logic of green building can’t be faulted, and the construction quality is top class.
Download the floor plan from our property listing, spread the word, contact us for more information, and help kick start what could be the beginning of a green movement in Nicaragua real estate.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingGreen real estate in Nicaragua: Day 21 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
The west dome has received its final coat. This morning we were hit with about a twenty minute downpour and decided that pounding tires would need to wait due to all the fresh mud. And since the dome was already wet and needed to be done eventually, we decided it was a sign.
So with Camilo sifting out the sand, Eliseo on the mixer, Eduardo and Faustino making bucket runs; Marlo and Fernando led the charge. The local community of El Carizal here are very familiar with concrete since the majority of the structures in Nicaragua are done with little more than rebar, cement, water and sand.
Every day we get more excited about the potential for green real estate here in Nicaragua
On Monday we will see Phil and Seth (Earthship Biotecture) as they have decided to come back down for another week of working on the Earthship, training the local Nicaraguan crew and, ultimately, “putting housing back into the hands of the people.”
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingGreen real estate in Nicaragua: Day 19 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Friday, January 25th, 2008
The greenhouse wall is ready to accept the bond beam. Fernando, Eliseo and Marlo will spend the first part of tomorrow plastering around the few bottles that are left while Eduardo, Freddy, and Miguel Angel (who has re-joined us for a few days) will pound out a few tires to channel water away from the building in the rainy season.
Although cleaning bottles is slow and meticulous work, I am still pleasantly surprised with the progress considering that this is really only the 19th work day on the site of the first Earthship to be built in Nicaragua.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingGreen real estate in San Juan del Sur: Day 18 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Thursday, January 24th, 2008It always feels good to have work for someone. Today Frederico and Eduardo re-joined the work force. We are now six from the El Carizal community just south of San Juan del Sur and myself, a lucky seven for the rest of the week.
Today the greenhouse wall received a nice smooth (floated) coat. The exposed bottles were continuously cleaned to prevent the fresh concrete hardening on them. It really is a beautiful wall.
We have a nice rhythm going now. More supplies are set to arrive tomorrow. We’ll see what gets done…
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingNicaragua real estate update: Day 17 of the construction of a Nicaraguan Earthship
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008Today was the first day of work on the site after the holidays. Of the original 13 workers from the community, I am beginning to separate out the best of the best. I invited the top three (decided on when I left on December 23) to help me get started. Fernando, Marlo and Eliseo will likely be “junior foremen” through the remainder of this project.
We spent some of the morning reorganizing and reacquainting ourselves with the tools, reminding each other that between the four of us we are ultimately responsible for Casa Llanta equipment. Thanks to some timely donations I was able to bring down two “bucket belt” tool organizers and some tools that are now “ours” and it seems like they take pride in that…
The first priority in this week will be raising the greenhouse (front) bottle wall. Once that has been set to bond beam height, we will plaster and float the final coat of the West dome. Other things we plan to cover this week are a complete burial of the cisterns, complete the gutter (for water catchment) on the west dome, and MAYBE a finish (floated coat) on the greenhouse wall…
Good first day back.
Technorati Tags: Earthship, green, green building, green movement, green real estate, Nicaragua, nicaragua property, nicaragua real estate, sustainable construction, sustainable housingDay 16 of the Earthship Construction – A reflection by Dave Kniffin
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007Since the conception of this project, people have asked me what we are doing here, “What is the vision?” or “What is the goal?” And at any given time, the best I can do is offer a snapshot of where we are, and where we are going. It’s an evolving dream. Still, at the base of it all, it’s about community, responsibility, ecology, and logic.
Developments happen everywhere, so we’ve made a choice on how we are going to develop. If we don’t do it this way, someone else will do it their way. Maybe our way helps the local community, instead of using them to help ourselves. Maybe our way is a little better for the environment than the conventional build. At the end of the day though, it’s a logical decision.
We live in a world, especially in Nicaragua, of limited resources. A sustainable home gives you total freedom and independence. The decision to build or live in an “off grid” home is not moral, it just makes sense. Who you rely on is who controls your life.
Create your own electricity, capture your own water, treat your own sewage, and grow your own food and then you are not talking about ideals of independence or freedom, you’re living them.
And if you build a community where everyone earns the ability to provide themselves with life’s basic needs of clean water and food, you create a safe place where neighbors look after each other. We don’t give to the community, we build capacity within the community.
And this community is exceptional. I know that theft is a constant struggle in every part of the world, and I’m sure it exists here as well. But we did not lock up tools at our job site. We had no incidents of theft or vandalism. I don’t think there are many developments anywhere that could say that. It is about the community, beyond even what the locals understand, and it seems that they value that.
The crew itself is great. Eliseo and Camilo are all that anyone could ask of a cement mixing team. The pride and ownership that Eliseo has taken for the mixer is an example to even the Earthship crew. The speed at which Camilo works allows him to get ahead of schedule from time to time, and he is quick to provide comic (often mischievous) relief to the crew.
Miguel Angel and Eduardo are another great team. They both have experience in construction, but no real specialty areas. Despite any lack of knowledge, these are two guys that no one has had to tell to get to work. They are both quite, though quick to smile. And from shoveling dirt, to cleaning bottles, to lifting trusses, we have yet to find anyone more efficient.
In this last week it has been fun to watch leaders emerge. Marlo, 35, with a family of five is an exemplary figure to the younger boys both on the site and in the community. He neither smokes nor drinks, and goes hard everyday. He is often the last to leave at the end of the day, refusing to depart before the tools have been properly cleaned and stored.
Fernando Contreraz, son of Efrain, is another strong presence. He is both intelligent and determined, a gentleman with a firm handshake and skilled hands. One of the few literate men on the workforce, I hope that he will continue to develop his building skills while taking on more of a managerial role with the crew.
Jose is the youngest on the crew at 16 years old. He has just graduated sixth grade which means is now attending school only once a week. My understanding is that this is typical in the community since at this point he is expected to start working. Although his age limits his ability to lead, his work ethic is exceptional and his smile is priceless. Someday he’ll grow into that red baseball cap that still slides around on his head.
There are others that have shown strengths and overall it has been a very productive time. Mostly though, it’s about the community. Getting to know these people has been a pleasure. From here, most of them take next week off for the holidays and then begin the endless quest for obtaining temporary jobs to support themselves and their families.
When I return, I look forward to getting as many of them back onboard as possible. Realistically, work will slow slightly as we move into more complex systems and the finer details of the building, so I’ll probably take five to seven and train them as we plan out the next phase. Maybe if this first project gets sold, I can start on another structure or two and have the crew on a permanent basis. We’ll see what the New Year brings…
We’re currently talking about moving forward with five “Tire House Cabanas” (for sale or rent) in an effort to get more people involved in the community and project. I think we’ll run an internship program/tour this spring where we can use the funds to bring a few members from the Taos Crew back down for a week or two. The itinerary is evolving, but could consist of a few days of work, a day of surfing, and a canopy tour, amongst all the other local activities and great food of course. Anyone interested should contact casallanta@gmail.com. We’ll lock down dates in the next few weeks.
Whatever happens, we’ve started something pretty special here. I’ll move forward with that. The rest will take care of itself.
Saludos,
David Kniffin
www.casallanta.com