Don’t worry; your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. In this month’s department, you won’t find any home specifications or comments by our Green Home Experts Board. And, yes, it’s on purpose. For our special Green Home issue, we wanted to give you a special Green Home Showcase! This month, you’ll find the story of do-it-yourself green builders. Maybe you won’t choose to go it alone during your upcoming build or remodel, but we hope Maria Muscarella and Toby Crawley’s story below will inspire you to at least get your hands a little dirty with your next building project.

NLJ: How did the process for building your green home begin? In other words, what prompted you to build, to build green, and to do it yourself?

MM: It’s hard to think of a beginning to the process. When my husband, Toby, and I first met, we both already had the idea that we would like to have a more sustainable home. It was also important to not be paying on a mortgage for many years. When we were first married, we wanted to put solar panels on our house, but restrictions in the neighborhood didn’t allow it. It wasn’t that the house was an energy hog, it was actually quite efficient, but it still relied too much on non-renewable energy. We read a book by Robert Roy called Mortgage-Free! and realized that to live in a sustainably built house with little or no mortgage, we would have to build it ourselves. We have had financial help along the way, but we hope to be mortgage-free in a few years.

NLJ: What were your initial goals for the project?

MM: To build a home using natural building methods that used little non-renewable resources, that was affordable, and that we could do ourselves.

NLJ: Have you been able to implement these goals, or have you had to make changes to your original plan along the way?

MM: We’ve made some changes. Our original goal was to be completely off the grid. As it stands right now, we will be getting our electricity from the grid, but we hope to be hooked up to solar electricity within a year or two. We also hoped to build with the finances that we had in the bank, but we have borrowed some money to finish the project. Our original estimate was 60-80 thousand, and we think it will probably be around 100 thousand when all is said and done.

NLJ: What was your level of experience with green building before embarking on the project?

MM: We had very little building experience, period, and even less with green building. But there are so many resources out there that it didn’t seem impossible for us to do.

NLJ: What do you think is the biggest thing you’ve learned about green building—that you may or may not have known before—since you began working on your home?

MM: Building with natural materials is fairly forgiving. It’s hard to make a mistake you can’t recover from. Natural building is of course different from green building; green building is all about compromise—compromise between cost/time to build/embodied energy, healthiness, quality and sustainability of materials. I think it’s really about the awareness of where your materials come from and what is in them.

NLJ: What has been the easiest aspect of the build to date?

MM: Spending money!

NLJ: What has been the most difficult aspect of the build to date?

MM: For me, the most difficult thing has been our current living situation. We built a small (390 square foot) cabin to live in while we built the house. The cabin has no bathroom (we have an outhouse) and didn’t have electricity for almost a year. For awhile, the pioneer way of life was fun. But it got really hard for me with the first winter in the cabin. If I had to do it again, I would change the living situation during the building process.

NLJ: What have you enjoyed the most about being a part of building your own home?

MM: Oh, there’s so much! We’ve dreamt this house up from the beginning! We designed it to be the perfect space for us. We have put our blood, sweat and tears in it, along with our love, creativity and passion. It has also really brought us closer to family and community, who have played a huge role in the building process. Plus, looking back over the last years and seeing what we have accomplished really makes us feel like we can do anything we put our mind to. It’s a fantastic feeling!

NLJ: What’s been the timeline of the project? When did you begin building, at what point in the build are you currently, and when do you expect to be finished?

MM: We began designing the house in October of 2006 and originally hoped to be done in a year from breaking ground. We poured the first foundation in early February of 2007, but we had to break it up and move the house 30 feet east because the soil was too soft. This set us back time wise, mentally and financially. We almost scrapped the whole thing. The second foundation was poured in early March 2007. Right now, we estimate being done in late March or early April 2008. So, not too far off track.

NLJ: Has anyone helped out over the course of the project?

MM: Oh my gosh, yes! We never would have been able to do this without all the help we’ve received! I have an extremely long list of names. But really, all of our family and friends have had their hands on our house at some point in the process. Seriously!

NLJ: Would you recommend someone interested in building or remodeling their own green home do it themselves? Why or why not?

MM: That’s a hard one! I think it completely depends on the person, their time line, finances, job flexibility and support. I think it’s completely possible for someone to do, but they may have to make some serious changes to their lifestyle to make it work.

NLJ: Please share with our readers a bit about the process. For example, how did you go about ensuring you were meeting codes, finding the cordwood, researching building processes, and creating the living roof? Do you have any tips or resources that you would recommend for someone about to embark on their own green build?

MM: We met with the county plan reviewer after our building plans were almost finished to get his opinion on what we would need to change/be aware of to meet code. He required us to get a structural engineer involved to qualify the structure for the weight of the living roof. We also went over the plans with a friend of ours (John Pulsifer) that has been building houses for many years. He has been a great resource for advice on how to handle many steps in the building process. He also helped with some of the more technical areas of the build: laying out/pouring the foundation and slab, building the foundation block walls and building the stairs.

All of the cordwood was cut from our own property (except for a few pieces donated by friends).

Our advice to anyone wanting to build their own home (green or not) would be to get a little practice (attend a workshop, help on a friend’s house, build something small first, etc.) to learn that they can do it. Building a house is straightforward. You just need time, patience and friends willing to help. Ask anyone you know that is a builder or has built a house lots of questions. The more you know about the process, the less intimidating it is.

Showcase Yourself
We know it’s not just builders and architects who are building or designing with the Earth in mind. And, we know there are more people like Maria and Toby doing it themselves. If you’re remodeling or building an eco-conscious home on your own, we want to hear from you! To nominate your project to possibly be featured in a future Green Home Showcase, visit
www.newlifejournal.com/greenquestion.shtml.

Look for the NLJ Board to comment on Maria and Toby’s home once it’s complete in a future Green Home Showcase. In the meantime, to read about more of their progress, visit their blog at http://dirtundermynails
.com/?cat=15. To learn more about their build with cordwood, read Clarke Snell’s Building Fundamentals column on page 36.

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