that I built, so I could follow my dream of writing
I built my own earthbag home in Turkey, and now run The Mud website for earthbag and sustainable living from there. I’d love to be featured on tinyhouseblog.com.
I had little money and almost no building experience when I started my project. But making my own earthbag tiny home was one of the most empowering things I’ve ever done. The main structure was up in six weeks. The house has a diameter of 6 metres and cost about $5000 (US) to build. It is plastered in a cob mix and the interior is coated in lime. The roundhouse sports a living roof (which dies for about half the year), an outside kitchen, and an outside bathroom with composting toilet Yes, it’s exciting when it rains. It is 100% solar powered, and I use an ancient zeer pot fridge to keep my food cool.
I love the earthbag technique for a number of reasons: It renders Portland cement unnecessary, it’s inexpensive, you can create attractive, earthquake proof roundhouses, and the method is incredibly simple. Even I, with zero construction experience managed to create cosy home.The house has liberated me from a day job, and allowed me to become a full time writer.
The earthbag technique involves filling grain sacks up with damp mud, laying them end to end and tamping them flat. Rings of barbed wire are run between the layers to prevent the bags from slipping away from each other. If you’d like to learn more, a free earthbag building PDF is available from my website: www.themudhome.com, as well as plenty of other information on earthbag building and my simple off-grid lifestyle.
Also, until April 30th my ebook Mud Mountain – The Secret Diary of an Accidental Off-Gridder is available for FREE download.
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