39.1 Scratch Coat Stucco (Shorter version) @SimonHomeintheEarth

Home in the Earth With winter setting in, it was too cold to work outside, but the temp was quite moderate inside, so we started working on the stucco.

This is the shorter version of the Stucco timelapse. Try this link if you want the longer version with all the footage... youtu.be/JWv2PUU_biU Don't worry, I still sped it up so it is only half as long as it would have been.

For more info, check out our Web page at www.HomeInTheEarth.com

updated 5 years ago

39.1 Scratch Coat Stucco (Shorter version)

Home in the Earth 2019-07-10 | With winter setting in, it was too cold to work outside, but the temp was quite moderate inside, so we started working on the stucco.

This is the shorter version of the Stucco timelapse. Try this link if you want the longer version with all the footage... youtu.be/JWv2PUU_biU Don't worry, I still sped it up so it is only half as long as it would have been.

For more info, check out our Web page at www.HomeInTheEarth.com

Maple Syrup Final

Home in the Earth 2024-02-13 | Well, I got the first batch done... I only used about half the syrup I collected, and I actually still have about a gallon of half reduced (so it throws off the math) before I ran out of charcoal.

Next year, I'll do it properly with steel pans over a brick oven burning cheap wood. But for now, it was an interesting psudo-success.

I had used charcoal this time because I didn't have enough wood or the time to chop more or the time to build the oven or keep it fed. Charcoal was something i could just top up ever couple hours while I worked on more important tasks. The three 16lb bags of charcoal cost 8 dollars each.

After getting the many gallons down to a small enough amount to fit in a pot, I finished up in my kitchen.

The time between the first hydrometer test and the second was less than 20 min, so I was glad I was watching it closely.

The final syrup had a very dark color and I wonder if that came from the charcoal? Maybe it was a terrible idea.

The final flavor is smokey sweet. I have tasted it on a spoon, but not had a chance for pancakes yet.

Maple Syrup Collection

Home in the Earth 2024-02-07 | This is Day 3 (really our second day of collection, although I did bring up half a gallon that first day). The video shows Day 2 and Day 3.

We got about 4.5 gallons on Day 2 (it was sunny)
Then we added a couple more taps (I only bought 10)

Today was cloudy (the tree's micro pumps are powered by evaporation (solar powered), but we had a couple more taps, so another 4 gallons today.

I'll start boiling it off this weekend and see if we can get a few quarts.

Maple Syrup Short

Home in the Earth 2024-02-05 | Now that we have moved into our underground house, I have some time for fun side projects such as making Maple Syrup. Spring is here early this year, so I tapped some trees this weekend. Let the fun commence.

49: Storm Room Block Walls

Home in the Earth 2023-12-24 | I have wanted to build a tower out of concrete blocks for a very long time. It is one of the cheapest construction methods, and here is my chance.

Thanks to my parents who came down and helped us get it done.

Its uploading now and I am "watching it for the first time" and seeing lots of things I didn't explain. For instance, at 2:00 we are power washing the blue max off the roof and scuffing up the concrete surface so the bond beam will attach well. Lots of little details to get this thing done, but I assume you don't want me to explain all of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Table of contents:
0:00 Welcome
0:22 Perfect Circle
0:49 Surface Bonding Concrete
1:38 2nd course continues
3:50 4th course
4:45 Electrical ENT conduit
5:28 5th course
6:26 Window Bucks
8:19 Bonus day
10:24 Bond beam formwork starts

Passive Solar Windows

Home in the Earth 2023-12-15 | Later in the summer and we are getting back to working on the windows, this time we are installing the passive solar windows on the south side.

These windows have a special low e coating that lets in the wave lengths that carry heat into your home (and fade your furniture), but then trap the lower wavelengths that try to escape again.

The bit about the extra blocking above the windows was that we had built those bucks following an earlier copy of the plans before Pella changed their transom sizes... We had correct plans available, but I had accidentally used an old copy and made the bucks 3 inches too tall. Oh well... Live and learn.

48.0 North Stone Parapet

Home in the Earth 2023-12-10 | A parapet is a low wall along the edge of a roof that troops can hid behind. You usually see these in castles. In my case, the waterproofing goes from the roof down right over the wall and the earth would have just followed it right over.

Instead we are adding a low stone wall to extend that edge up a bit above the water proofing to help retain that earth. I don't think there is another name for that, so I am going with parapet. We focused on filming the parapet part of this, but along the way, you can see that we also stuccoed the walls and painted them. In this video, we got the parapet a couple stones high, but later we came back and added a few more courses so we could retain enough dirt on that roof to keep things from drying out.

Here are the chapters.

0:00 Intro
0:20 Layers on the apse wall
0:52 Top edge of the apse
1:39 Mudroom parapet stones
2:45 Apse parapet stones
3:29 North Wall Stones
4:33 Rabbit watch
4:58 Inner Curb
5:39 Brown coat stucco on the apse
6:48 Gluing the rubber liner to the curb
7:12 More stones
8:03 Elastomeric Paint
9:00 2nd course on the apse

WaterSoftener Video

Home in the Earth 2023-12-07 | This video was filmed over more than 8 years. The kid in the Batman shirt is now a 19 year old in college and probably won't think that clip was as fun as I do.

This one covers the install of the water softener system. I don't go into great detail because that is well covered on Youtube. Consider this as more of an overview video, and yet another step along the way.

I am including chapters now, I suggest the water taste test as the best part of this video.

0:00 Drilling the Well
0:24 Taste Test
1:46 Timelapse assembly of the water softener
2:30 Overview video
3:40 Chemistry
6:39 Does it make a difference? Yes.
7:24 Iron Out

Nov28 WalkThru

Home in the Earth 2023-11-30 | Here is an update video walk-thru (Nov 28th) to show you some of what we got done over the past few months and what we are working on now. Note, we still don't have a single room completely finished, but some are getting close.

Inside, we got the basement guest room setup for guests (we have already enjoyed some visitors), We are currently getting the floor into my office (I have been using it like a cave man for over a year). We are also getting started on the final stages of the kitchen. We got the black splash in on the island and the rest of the back splash will be coming soon. After that, the kitchen still needs a few extra lights to be installed and a few other things, but it is progress.

Outside, the biggest job was the stone on the retaining wall by the front door. I puzzled that together over several months. In the spring, I put in an enclosed garden thingy and Sherri grew a lot of vegetables in that over the summer. We also made curved black gutters for the roof portions and I started on the pergola-trellis-thingy for the front of the house. That last one is still in progress. When it is done (Dec?) I'll be moving the scaffolding back inside and I'll put the mirrors up in the garage skylights.

Of course, I video taped all of this, and will put those together when I get a chance. Walk thru videos are just so much easier to produce (I put this one together last night instead of tiling my office ;)

Here are the chapters:

0:00 Entrance and stone wall
0:53 Welcome In to the living room
1:29 Thermostat
2:11 Kitchen
2:30 Office Floor (And Echo)
3:15 Back Door and Garden Decagon
3:34 Drone Arial Views
4:00 Galvanized Steel Pergola-Trellis-Thingy
7:23 Sun Shine Living Room
8:04 Earth Tubes and HVAC
12:48 New Guest Room (temporary office)
13:51 Guest Bathroom

47.1 Installing a 3rd function Grapple on my John Deere 2032R

Home in the Earth 2023-11-20 | This is the second video about getting my John Deere 2032R ready with a 3rd Function Hydraulic Grapple.

Its not really a time lapse construction vid and not nearly as polished as usual (no script at all, I just winged it, and no subtitles yet), but I'll get back to the building videos later. Those who are interested can catch a glimpse of the house progress in the background.

I recently got a new tractor, a John Deere 2032R, 2nd Gen. Its a bit old and dirty, but worked much better after a tune up and some other repairs. The main thing I wanted to add was a grapple, so I needed to upgrade the hydraulics. There were no videos showing what I needed to see on Youtube, so I figured I'd make one.

I bought two kits from Summit Hydraulics. The first step (and the previous video) is installing the power Beyond Kit. The second step (this video) is installing the Rear Hydraulic Valve Kit with 3rd Function from Summit Hydraulics for my John Deere 2032R tractor.

Here are links to what I bought for this one...

The kit: summit-hydraulics.com/product/rear-hydraulic-valve-kit-with-front-third-function-for-john-deere-2032r-2038r-series-tractors
The Grapple: expresssteelinc.com/product/60-john-deere-two-cylinder-root-grapple
The Flat Face Couplers: amazon.com/dp/B01IOMILLK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&fbclid=IwAR07i3-H_nn4rTzMzx_WOd5ugsOASXIqhE5f7QHYIwSMj3dT982nIwkj7Wg

00:00 Introduction
00:29 Graphical representation of the plan
04:35 Tire off, lets get started
05:22 Power Beyond Summary from the earlier video
05:50 Assembling the Rear Remotes (Timelapse)
06:54 Mounting the Rear Remotes
08:56 Connection to Power-Beyond
10:20 Deviating is never as simple as you'd like
10:53 Front bracket
12:23 Figuring out the mid coupling bracket
15:30 Swapping the hoses to get a few more inches
16:35 Rear remote switches
19:03 3rd function switch
20:36 Looking for power (wiring)
22:38 Summary on the hydraulics (all done)
23:19 Front couplings
25:55 Ready to go
26:50 Test drive
28:03 Leaks...
28:35 Final review from the seat
31:25 The grapple gets its first bushes (out of 100)

47.0 Installing a Power Beyond Kit on a John Deere 2032R

Home in the Earth 2023-11-19 | This one is a bit different from the rest of my videos and will get a new playlist.

Its not really a time lapse construction vid and not nearly as polished as usual (no script at all, I just winged it, and no subtitles yet), but I'll get back to the building videos later. Those who are interested can catch a glimpse of the house progress in the background.

I recently got a new tractor, a John Deere 2032R, 2nd Gen. Its a bit old and dirty, but worked much better after a tune up and some other repairs. The main thing I wanted to add was a grapple, so I needed to upgrade the hydraulics. There were no videos showing what I needed to see on Youtube, so I figured I'd make one.

I bought two kits from Summit Hydraulics. The first step (and this first video) is installing the power Beyond Kit. The second step (and I'll try to get that video ready for Sunday as a back to back release) is installing the rear remotes and 3rd function kit.

00:00 Intro
00:20 Plan graphically
02:13 Getting into it
03:23 Wiring extra lights
05:58 Taking out the seat
08:00 Timelapse Assembly
10:28 Mounting the Power Beyond kit
11:15 Top of Tank Bolt
12:20 Power Beyond Hydraulic line
13:24 Return to Tank Hydraulic line
15:41 Time to use a life line
17:22 Done, Final summary

46.0 Installing Windows in Shotcrete Walls

Home in the Earth 2023-06-19 | Installing the windows on our earth sheltered home...

We had no experience installing windows and I couldn't even find one about installing on a concrete and stucco home, so we figured it out. ;)

Billboard vinyls

Home in the Earth 2023-05-31 | Well, here is my first short.

Basically spun off from my latest video which included the use of billboard vinyls. In real life, walking under this billboard made me laugh or smile so many times. Many of my earlier videos also used billboard vinyls. The Giant subway sandwich that covered garage was also favorite of mine. Check out our page @SimonHomeintheEarth for more or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

45.0 Storm Room Floor

Home in the Earth 2023-05-30 | Instead of showing the entire storm room in one long vid, here is just the start of it... Maybe I can get smaller videos out more often.

We call our tower room the "Storm Room" because we wanted to go up there and watch the Storms roll past with 360 degree views.

Yes, I know I over-built the floor.

As for the block wall build on top of the concrete vaults, yup, not standard. I am not a mason, but I occasionally play one on YouTube and this will be just fine for such a small structure.

44.2 Rubber and Insulation on the Guest Room Roof

Home in the Earth 2023-05-08 | This video continues the process of insulation and waterproofing up an over the roof of the mud room and guest room.

Its my first timelapse upload in 2 years, but I plan to try and be a bit more regular again.

Winter Earth Tube Update

Home in the Earth 2021-12-08 | Its been 6 months since I did my last video, which happened to be an earth tube update. So here is another one. This time you get to see the winter performance (technically Dec 7th isn't winter, but it is cold).

As an update, I'd say the house is performing well thermally, especially since the soil isn't even over the middle section of the house yet. We moved in about 3 weeks ago and are getting used to life in the new place. We are very busy fixing up our old house for sale while also living in semi-stalled-construction with boxes of our stuff stacked all around, but this too shall pass. For more detail than that, you can find photos and weekly updates at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

These sorts of walk thru videos are pretty easy to make (I filmed this one at lunch and did production in a couple evening hours), but time lapse videos always take me many many hours. In other words, you might get another walk thru before I have time for another time lapse step ;)

For this video, the eagle-eyed among you may notice that zone 2 heat is on during the first mechanical room clip. This is because my actual first clip didn't take (I had it set to photo instead of video). I figured it out and re-filmed it after the other clips, but forgot to turn off the heat first and didn't even notice until I was editing ;)

Earth Tube short...

Home in the Earth 2021-06-07 | I have had these earth tubes running for almost a year and they have kept the place warm all winter and cool in the summer. It was 90 degrees on Saturday and I filmed some temps. I'm still going to release a full video looking at the full years performance, but here is a taste for now.

I have been too busy lately to work on a proper construction video, but I hope to release another one sooner or later.

44.1, North-Wall Insulation, waterproofing and scratch stucco

Home in the Earth 2021-01-14 | The next step for our earth sheltered home build, first thing in the spring, was to start working on insulating the North wall. This is the second half of that progress, broken up just so it wouldn't be such a long video.

44.0 North-Wall Insulation and Waterproofing

Home in the Earth 2021-01-04 | The next step for our earth sheltered home build, first thing in the spring, was to start working on insulating the north wall.

The video was running long, so I broke it in half so I could release something before the week gets busy again. We'll get out the rest next weekend.

I did ask Sherri about sharing her disembodied voice in the video and she was pretty confident that you would all agree she was the voice of reason in that madness.

Home in the Earth Ealk-Thru: December 2020 w/ FLIR One Pro

Home in the Earth 2020-12-07 | Many of you have been asking for another walk thru video and, quite frankly, they are a lot faster and easier to produce than a time lapse video. ;)

Since the last time, we have added the eyebrow windows and closed the whole place in. We have also finished the two lower roof sections and I’ll be starting on the upper roof later today. Then we’ll leave outside alone until spring comes around again.

I recently bought a FLIR ONE Pro heat vision camera, so we’ll be able to take that for a test drive also…

To learn more about our project, please see www.HomeInTheEarth.com

For weekly updates, photos, etc. you can like us at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

43. Installing pocket-door hardware.

Home in the Earth 2020-11-30 | The unusual design of our earth sheltered home had a flow problem that could only be solved by a pocket door. Now that the roof is on, it is time to install that... Plus a few other indoor jobs in February.

We ended up using pocket door hardware from Johnson Hardware. johnsonhardware.com/pocket-door-hardware

You can learn more about out project at www.homeintheearth.com

For up to date posts on our progress, you can like us on Facebook. facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

42.1 Concrete Floor Pour with Radiant

Home in the Earth 2020-10-20 | It was time to pour our concrete floor.

Thanks to Doug Dysert and his crew (David, James, Chavo, Bryce, et al.) from http://www.dysertconcrete.com

If you want to know more about our project, check out www.homeintheearth.com.

If you want to catch up to where we are now, you can look us up on Facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

42.0 Prepping for a concrete floor pour

Home in the Earth 2020-10-05 | With our roof on, we are almost ready to pour the radiant concrete floor of our earth sheltered home. Just a bit of preparation work to do first.

For more details, check out our website at www.homeintheearth.com

For more up to date information on where we are currently in the build, you can look us up at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

Home in the Earth Walk-Thru: August 2020

Home in the Earth 2020-08-31 | 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... homeintheearth.com/tech_notes/earth-tubes/earth-tube-design-for-earth-sheltered-homes

For more up to date pics of our progress, check us out on facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.9: Wood Roof Section

Home in the Earth 2020-08-24 | My unusual earth sheltered house project has just a few hundred square ft of wood roof (the rest is concrete). This is how we framed the first layer of those wood sections.

You can learn more about our project on www.homeintheearth.com

Or catch up to our weekly photos and news on facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.9 Odd Jobs for December

Home in the Earth 2020-08-07 | This is another odd jobs compilation as we switch from doing the gunite roof to the poured floor.

(re-uploaded with 230% volume ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Specifically, this one covers such fun as clearing out the chimney, framing a small roof section, pulling down the concrete roof forms, pulling electrical wires thru ENT (smurf tube) conduit, and setting up an underground temperature experiment grid.

You can find out more at www.homeintheearth.com or get more up to date info (such as weekly progress pictures) at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

I'm working on a book and getting my subscriptions up would probably help me get it published, so if you can like and subscribe and leave a comment, it feeds the algorithm so it will share my content with more people who may do the same. Hitting that notification bell also helps.

Great Stuff Pro Gun Repair

Home in the Earth 2020-07-29 | This video shows how to take apart your Great Stuff Pro Guns and repair them.

These are useful tools, but do tend to break down and I couldn't find any videos on Youtube showing how to take one appart and put it back together again, so I decided to make my own.

For more info on our usual unusual build, check us out at www.homeintheearth.com

41.8 Odd Jobs for November

Home in the Earth 2020-07-06 | Sometimes we are working toward big goals (like shotcrete over the living room) and other times we are just taking care of the odd jobs between the big ones. This is a small odd job compilation. Back to big jobs next time.

I didn't make a new website post for this odd jobs collection, but I did make one that included info on the frost protected footings a while back. Here is the link for that. homeintheearth.com/2014/11/01/odd-jobs

And as usual, these videos are quite behind. If you want to catch up with weekly photos and updates, you can check us out at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.7 Gunite for the South Wall

Home in the Earth 2020-05-15 | In this episode, the gunite crew from S.A.M. Gunite pools comes back to shoot our south wall. They had just finished the roof on the Friday before, so the equipment and materials was already in place. The form work was lath covered rigid XPS insulation over steel stud framework. Easy-peasy...

For more details, photos, etc, check out our web page at homeintheearth.com/2018/11/02/gunite-for-the-south-wall

For the videos of setting up the format, just check the previous vids... ;)

For more up to date progress (youtube gets behind because videos take time to produce), like us on Facebook. facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.6 Shooting a Gunite Roof

Home in the Earth 2020-04-21 | In this episode, the eagerly anticipated gunite crew shoots the concrete roof of our earth sheltered house.

Thanks to Scott and his crew from S.A.M. Gunite Inc.

For more images, tips, etc., check out our website at homeintheearth.com/2018/10/30/shooting-a-gunite-roof

For more up to date progress, images, etc. check out our facebook page. www.facebook.com/homeintheearth

41.5 HDPE ventilation ducts

Home in the Earth 2020-04-11 | Here we are laying the underground ventilation duct work from the mechanical room to the rest of our underground house…

It is unheated air, so we are using High density Polyethylene pipe, N12 dual wall, soil tight (st), 8" pipe from ADS to be specific. It all needs to be sloped back to the mechanical room in the basement. Ducts radiate out from the mechanical room in all directions. We also needed to form registers at the ends of the ducts.

As per usual, it starts with digging...

For more details on this project, our web site is homeintheearth.com/2018/10/10/digging-for-fresh-air/.

To catch up with were we are now, you can check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.4 QuadDeck ICFs for the Mezzanine Roof

Home in the Earth 2020-03-15 | Still waiting on the Gunite crew (they are fully booked but we are hoping someone cancels), so I decided to put up the quad deck for the Mezzanine and ask the gunite crew to pump concrete for that too.

For more details, check out our website at www.homeintheearth.com/2018/10/10/installing-quaddeck-icfs-for-the-mezzanine-roof

For the blog about the engineer (who was younger than me) quitting engineering (I hope I didn't break the poor guy), and my search to find a new engineer, click here. www.homeintheearth.com/2015/09/24/quad-deck-part-1/#surprises

For more up to date info, look us up on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.3 Building the radial vault ceiling forms

Home in the Earth 2020-02-24 | In preparation for shooting the gunnite on the roof of our earth sheltered home, we needed to put up some forms that would keep the concrete up in the right place. The radial vaults have simple curvature, so the plan was to build the forms from boards pressed up against the steel arches. Making that happen took some compromises in the plan. As usual, challenges arose. Enjoy.

For more info, you can check out our web page. homeintheearth.com/2018/08/13/building-the-forms-for-the-radial-vaults

For more up to date info, you can also find us on Facebook. facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.2 XPS Gunite form for the South Wall

Home in the Earth 2020-02-02 | Here, we build some XPS formwork for gunite (or shotcrete). We decided it was better to keep the steel studs out of the shotcrete, so we rearranged the order of the layers a little and can use the extra room to add insulation. This is also a window wall, so we needed to put in window and door bucks.

For more info, please check out our website at homeintheearth.com/2018/07/14/xps-gunite-formwork-for-the-south-wall

For up to date pics and status, we are on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.2, Erecting the steel for the radial vaults (Part 2)

Home in the Earth 2020-01-21 | This part 2 of 2 covers erecting the 4 special radial vaults.
The vaults are erected by placing steel tube arches between radial concrete ribs. Then radial rebar is welded to the steel arches and curved rebar is placed along the radial rebar. All the rebar intersections are tied and welded.

You can find more detail and see more pictures on our web page...
homeintheearth.com/2018/07/06/erecting-the-steel-for-the-radial-vaults

I am a bit behind in producing and uploading my videos. I update our facebook page almost weekly. If you don't want to wait for Youtube to catch up, you can find us there at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

41.0 Erecting the Radial Vault Steel (Part 1)

Home in the Earth 2020-01-15 | The center section of the house design features radial vaults between those large concrete ribs. I had the steel arches rolled back when we first started and will link to that video below. For this phase, I had to erect the steel arches, at the correct height and then add all the rebar according to the engineering drawings.

You can find more detail and see more pictures on our web page...
homeintheearth.com/2018/07/06/erecting-the-steel-for-the-radial-vaults

There are actually 10 radial vaults between 11 arches. This video shows the first 6 standard arches. All were 30 degree segments.

The following video will show the remaining 4 arches (two larger ones and two smaller ones) and a final walk thru.

Note the ADIRpro self leveling laser used was a gift from the people at ADIRpro. Self leveling lasers really are very useful on projects like this where a spirit level would be impossible and I have had very bad luck with trying to level the cheaper lasers.

40.0 Spring Projects @ our home in the earth

Home in the Earth 2019-11-06 | This video covers the transition time between some of the larger jobs as spring was breaking on our earth sheltered home project.

We stuccoed some of the exterior insulation that we couldn't get to in colder weather. We replaced some earth cover that had slipped of the waterproofing umbrella over the winter. We put in a wireless dog fence. I started moss growing on our stone walls, at least in the shady spots.

For more about this project, check us out at www.homeintheearth.com

39.2 Brown Coat Stucco for the Earth Sheltered House

Home in the Earth 2019-10-03 | This is the 2nd half of the job of stuccoing the bedrooms because I had too much footage for one video. Fortunately, they broke up nicely into the scratch coat and brown coat portions.

This 2nd one is about the brown coat, a smoother coat that we applied over the scratch coat. It was easier because most of the work to get the right shape was done with the previous layer, but it did have the challenge of getting a nice smooth finish, which was particularly tricky because we were not out there for enough hours at a time... Here is the video to explain.

The videos never have time to get into lessons learned and I also have a lot of good pics for this section. That stuff all ends up on the web page. homeintheearth.com/2018/01/20/stucco-for-our-earth-sheltered-house

For more recent pics and updates, check us out on Facebook. I update there every week or two. facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

If you want good stucco youtubers, do a search. There are many. I watched a lot of videos before starting but found that the theory (without practiced skills or guidance) didn't always work, but it was still good to have watched them. The most helpful one was Kirk Giordano youtu.be/i7XlfZOmBgQ

39.1 Scratch Coat Stucco (Full version)

Home in the Earth 2019-07-10 | With winter setting in, it was too cold to work outside, but the temp was quite moderate inside, so we started working on the stucco.

This is the longer version of the Stucco timelapse. Try this link if you want the shorter version with only the best footage... youtu.be/f6_emf2xFJI This full version is now about 19 minutes, but it was 30 minutes before I decided to speed up all the clips, so the shorter version was originally only 1/3rd ;)

For more info, check out our Web page at www.HomeInTheEarth.com

39.0 EcoSmart 36kw on demand hot water heater install

Home in the Earth 2019-05-21 | Lots of jobs are dependent on upstream jobs. In this case, I needed some nice warm water so I could get stucco done in the bedrooms over the winter... So this video is about hooking up our EcoSmart 36kw on demand hot water heater to our QO breaker panel and running a temporary water line to the bedrooms.

This is all part of our earth sheltered home building project. You can learn more at our website (www.homeintheearth.com) or at www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

38.5 Skylight Copper

Home in the Earth 2019-05-11 | This video covers the relatively small task of making copper flashing (shingles) for the skylights on our earth sheltered house.

I used an $80 roll of copper valley flashing from Menards and cut & folded it in a Harbor Freight Press Break Roll.

The pieces were primarily attached to each-other using folded seams, but then I also soldered them with an MAP torch. I was not very good at the soldering. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The shingles are attached to the underlying treated wood frame with copper nails (bought in the plumbing department) that were drilled thru the copper sheet and then hammered into the wood.

You can learn more about our Earth sheltered home project at www.homeintheearth.com

38.4 Safety Fence

Home in the Earth 2019-05-05 | This video is about putting in a safety fence (at least the bare minimum) to keep people from falling off our roof.

Sorry if the voice seems a bit sedated (almost ASMR), the only time I can record is after the kids go to bed and they are staying up way to late these days ;) I'll make sure the next few segments are higher energy ;)

Nothing on the website for this one, but you can still check out www.homeintheearth.com to learn more about this project.

38.3 Earth Sheltered Home Burial, Phase 2

Home in the Earth 2019-04-05 | In this segment, we put an additional layer of dirt over our PAHS umbrella, then plant grass and work on the heavy stone and boulder retaining walls.

All the lessons learned, etc. don't make it into the video. For that, you can check out the website. homeintheearth.com/2017/10/01/burial-phase-2

38.2 Stucco and Boulders

Home in the Earth 2019-01-05 | Before I could finish burying the house, I needed to take care of a couple things... We had to build a retaining wall (this time we used boulders found during excavation) and we had to stucco over some of the lath and gunite that would end up buried.

For more information on this project, check out www.homeintheearth.com

38.1 Placing the Insulation Umbrella

Home in the Earth 2018-11-05 | In this step, we add the "umbrella" layer to keep the first layer of dirt dry and warm. The umbrella is made of layers of rigid insulation and billboard vinyls and topped with a pond liner and carpet.

As usual, the timelapse covers part of the story. If you want to know more about lessons learned or regrets, you should check out the corresponding post on
www.homeintheearth.com/2017/09/16/adding-the-umbrella

Also, these Youtube videos are coming out 14 months behind. If you want to catch up to real time, (or much closer to it), please look us up on facebook.com/homeintheearth

38.0 Earth Sheltered Home Burial, Phase 1

Home in the Earth 2018-10-01 | Our earth sheltered home will use an underground "umbrella" to stay warm and dry. This time-lapse video shows how we added the first layer of dirt (phase 1). There will be a second layer to place after this.

For up to date info on this, you can follow our progress at www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

For more details, check out www.homeintheearth.com/2017/09/09/burial-phase-1

Thanks also to Dick, Marty and Steve from Roe Brothers Excavating in Clinton MI.

37.0 CMU retaining wall

Home in the Earth 2018-09-15 | In order to bury the office apse at the front of our earth sheltered home, I needed to build a retaining wall with a window in it. For this corner of the build, I decided to use CMU's, Concrete Masonry Units, AKA concrete blocks. We also had to insulate the apse structure.

You can catch up with our progress at www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

or learn more detail at www.homeintheearth.com/2017/09/06/building-cmu-retaining-wall-around-office-apse

August walk-thru at Home in the Earth

Home in the Earth 2018-08-24 | I got a bunch more requests for an updated walk thru lately, and those are easier than putting together a timelapse… So this is the summer walkthrough.

For more info on the wider project, www.HomeInTheEarth.com

For more up to date pictures and status on the project, www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

36.1 Scratch Coat Stucco and Blue Max

Home in the Earth 2018-08-01 | Right after (and a little bit during) the gunite was sorted out, we had other miscellaneous jobs to take care of, such as adding scratch coat stucco, blue max waterproofing and removing the gunite forms... This video covers those miscellaneous bits as we work toward burial of our earth sheltered home.

For more info, www.homeintheearth.com

Or get the latest status on Facebook at facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

36.0 Gunite for the tower

Home in the Earth 2018-07-20 | The crew from sam pools came out and did a great gunite job on our tower, mezzanine, apse, and eyebrows for our earth sheltered home.

You can find more info about our experience or gunite on the website at: www.homeintheearth.com/2017/08/26/gunite-for-the-tower

Or catch up to where we are now on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HomeintheEarth

Or contact S.A.M. Pools at: www.sampools.com