Like many of you, for the last several years of my life, I have felt very uncomfortable within the defining systems and boundaries that most people come to accept as inevitable. You might even say I've always felt this way, but simply wasn't aware of it.
I'm talking about feeling obligated to jobs that make us feel like slaves, just to surround ourselves with an excessive amount of shit we don't need, or really even WANT.
All of this was complicated for me personally by some serious setbacks to my physical development due to being hit by a car when I was 14 and breaking six major bones in half.
So, I started thinking outside the box a few years ago, trying to figure out a way to use the relatively small insurance settlement payoffs make it so that I can recooperate without being highly dependent on anyone.
After racking up about 7 grand in debt on credit cards, then waiting for some money to pay it off, I decided that debt is not for me and that I don't want any sizable amount of it.
Thus, mortgages for houses are no longer seemed like an option. It was a frightening concept--to be chained to the obligatory work week for 10 to 30 years just to pay off something that I might not even want in 10.
So... I started consider what I really want out of a living solution.
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I realized that eco-friendly and green building solutions really appealed to me. I wanted a cheap house, relatively easy to assemble from unusual eco-friendly resources, that I could build myself. And it had to be legal, for the sake of longevity.
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So it began. Sam had spoken of hay bail houses, so I began looking into it. I quickly shifted my attention to shipping container houses. I was fascinated with the concept of expandability and what was basically a poor man's version of modular building.
After quite a bit of research, I discovered that it wouldn't really work out because the costs to get to a finished point would still be really excessive, almost comparable to traditional building.
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I then learned about Earthships. I was absolutely fascinated to learn about how Mike Reynolds transformed tires and dirt into structures that were completely self-sustaining. FINALLY, I had found something that involved building from recycled materials that would be cheap and easy to attain.
I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to watch this movie about him, Garbage Warrior. He is truly a wonderful soul, looking to help humanity in huge ways. He helped people rebuild after the big Tsunami hit India, and he's done his best to fight for all of our rights to build what we want on our own land.
Mike is truly a spiritual Warrior, and I am proud to live in the same age with minds like these.
Unfortunately... after I watched the movie, I found myself disheartened. It seemed to that building my own Earthship would not be possible for a complicated combination of legal reasons.
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The search continued, as I looked into small, modern, eco-efficiency buildings built out of shipping containers. However, do to all of the work that must be done to make them work, the prices are simply unreasonable for most of the pre-built structures.
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My patience had just started to wane when I found The Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. I was astonished by the concept. A tiny house designed for ultra-efficiency, that was also eco friendly! AND they were beautiful.
The problem? PRICE. Holy cow. The tumbleweed houses are really high cost if you don't want to build it yourself. I considered that, but we wanted to get into something sooner than later, and I don't know that much about building. (Yet. :) )
Little did I know just how close we were to an answer.
(to be continued.)
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