About this house
Hullo. I am Brian, but I am also called Ziggy. I’m a 25-year-old currently living at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeastern Missouri, learning to fulfill my desires to live more sustainably and self-sufficiently.
On July 11, 2009, I moved into my completed cob house, GOBCOBATRON. After nine total months of full time labor, and after spending under $3000 on building materials, I had my first hand-built home. Here is a brief timeline of events in building my labor of love.
The Year of Mud timeline
Over the winter of 2007-08, I decided I would build my own cob house.
By April 2008, I had a finalized design. The spiral-shaped house would be a single room dwelling, with a reciprocal living roof, a rocket stove connected to a heated cob bed, and earthen floor. I would install a single electrical outlet, but would forgo having a power system. The building would be constructed using materials obtained as locally and cheaply as possible. Few synthetic or manufactured materials would go into the building.
On April 19 of 2008, I began digging a drainage trench.
On May 19, the first batches of cob were mixed and applied.
On August 31, building the cob walls were completed.
On September 18, the reciprocal roof frame was built.
By October 30, the cob walls met the roof, the door and windows were installed, and the earthen floor was started.
2009
In March, the exterior finish plaster was put on the walls.
In April, the rocket stove was built along with a cob bed and bench.
In May, the living sod roof was completed, and the finish interior earthen plaster was applied.
In June , the finish earthen floor was completed.
And on July 11, I moved into GOBCOBATRON.
Why build with cob?
Cob is beautiful, sculptural, natural, low-impact, and sustainable. It is intuitive, easy to learn, and inexpensive. Cob homes are built from materials straight from the earth. Cob allows its owner-builder endless freedom in way of design. You can learn cobbing basics in a day. It is indeed labor-intensive, but it becomes a labor of love, and what better way to build a home then by getting your hands and feet dirty in the mud, without the need for loud power tools and heavy machinery?
This is my first house. This is the year of mud. Follow this cob building resource with my home’s progress documentation, building announcements, and how-tos about working with cob.
Contact
You can contact me at evacindustry [at] gmail [dot] com. I like to hear from people.
