The Finished Earthbag House Tour

In the summer of 2014 my husband, Keith, made the big decision to build an earthbag house for his parents on our property in Kansas. That summer, he gave us a 'pre-house' tour, describing how it would be laid out.

Here is the video recorded in 2014.

Keith and the family worked relentlessly for many months in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. I recorded much of that process here on the blog and on my YouTube channel.

Finally, in October of 2017, the house was done. Keith's mom moved in and has been there ever since!

The house is performing very well. The radiant in-floor heating makes the floor warm and cozy in the winter months, the large cistern provides thousands of gallons of fresh, delicious rainwater, and it's a haven of peace when hurricane-force winds rage outside, thanks to the fortress-like walls.

During a visit last summer (2019), Keith and I recorded this "Finished Earthbag House Tour," modeled off the pre-house tour Keith gave 5 years earlier. Enjoy!

So there you have it. For anyone who was wondering, YES, the earthag house is done, and it was successful!

Keith continues to make tweaks and improvements almost every time we go visit. The biggest one, happening very soon (we finally have the necessary materials and all the approvals), is solar panel installation! This system will be grid-tied, so any excess energy will go back onto the grid and provide credit on the energy bill, but also if the house requires more energy than the panels are providing at any given time (e.g. in the middle of the night during the winter), Keith's mom will still be able to get electricity from the regular power lines.

The finished earthbag house is wonderful, but it took a lot more time and money to build than we had originally anticipated. It is a TON of work. Do we recommend it?

Maybe.

First of all, we recommend building something much smaller if you decide to go with an earthbag structure. If Keith and I ever build an earthbag house for ourselves, it will likely be a round structure about 1/3 the size of the one we built for his parents.

Secondly, you'll probably want lots of help to build it because it is extremely labor-intensive. That means either having the financial resources to hire help, a location where labor is less expensive, or very, very dedicated friends and family members who will do anything for you. We were fortunate to have some of the latter, but Keith still did a lot of the work himself–especially the technical stuff. We also hired outside companies for the septic system and the roof. We may consider building in Mexico someday, where we not only love the culture and climate, but hiring helpers is also much more affordable.

We love this finished earthbag house, but honestly, I'm not sure I would be in favor of building it if we had to do it over again. It is so. much. work. But Keith is a hard-working man who loves that sort of thing and I know he enjoyed building it! So I guess it all depends on what kind of person you are!

If you have been following along our journey since the beginning or have just recently discovered this project, thank you for joining us. Hopefully, you have found it informative and entertaining. And if you still have questions about it, post them in the comments below and we'll try to answer them for you.

On to the next adventure!