We’re going into our second hempcrete construction training weekend. We have completed nearly 3 sides of the house, moving through 8.5 tons of hemp and 11 tons of lime. It is an exciting process using an old building technique in a modern way.
We’ll, it’s taken me longer than I planned and I’m learning this ‘story’ thing, but the build is going smoothly and we’re 10 days away from the hempcrete construction training. Hopefully I’ll write more later. Enjoy!
I have been working hard these past months to get things ready for the build. A lot has changed and the effects of the pandemic have affected different parts of the process. Up until a week ago I thought things were going great. I had secured contractors in almost all areas, but definitely in the big ones. Last summer I connected with Dion Lefebvre of 8th Fire Innovations a hempcrete expert and builder. We have been working together towards two main purposes: building my house and raising the awareness and capacity for hemp building in Manitoba. We are planning a set of hemp construction training weekends that I will post more about once I have more information on the timelines. I have also met some local contractors who are helping me with the general contracting aspect. I have secured Interlake Formworks for the foundation and am the first project on their list once the ground is ready for concrete. So, I had solved all of the problems that arose last year that were road blocks, and then a new one arose.
Money.
One of the side effects of this pandemic is the tripling of lumber and other building costs. Another circumstance that may or may not be related to the pandemic is the woman at the local credit union I was working with is no longer there. This wouldn’t be a huge problem except the realities of banking in a small town became real to me. I did not feel that the woman who was replacing her would be working with my best interests at heart and I am not fully trusting of the privacy and service I would have had. I also had just gotten married, got a new position at work and was building a house so I decided not to add changing all of my banking to the list of changes I was undergoing. I went to my current credit union in the city who do not have the same experience in self builds nor, it seems, the supports. I will find out today if a building mortgage through them is possible. The costs from last year to this year are nearly $100K more, this is a problem.
I always knew that building this way, including hempcrete, a masonry stove, top of the line windows, and natural building techniques would be more expensive. I know this is how it works, when things are new, they are more expensive, it is harder to find people with the skills, materials that fit within the criteria, and availability of those materials, but I also know how much this world needs new possibilities for creating a more sustainable future and I want to be a part of that. Unfortunately, I am not independently wealthy. I have already had to limit my vision due to costs as natural building is not yet the norm, but I do not want to limit it further.
I am reaching out to the province, Efficiency Manitoba, to see if we qualify for a grant, but even that is a drop in the bucket, a welcome drop, but a drop nonetheless. I am feeling frustrated because I am trying to do something that will move the natural build industry forward in Manitoba while creating a beautiful home to live in and I am continually hitting road blocks. I knew this was a part of the building process, hitting road blocks, but it seems excessive!
So, as we stand now, things are in flux. I have not cancelled any contractors, the windows are being made and getting ready to ship, the finishing materials I have been collecting are growing in piles in my parents garage, the planning for the hempcrete training is underway and ready to go public once we know if we are allowed to host such a training, and the ground is almost thawed enough for the foundation to be poured. I imagine within the next two weeks we will know one way or another, if we are doing the full build, building in stages, waiting another year or ???
Until then I am trying to stay open to the emotions this is bringing up in me, looking for the lessons, seeking the truth, and trying not to push the river.
It has been a long while since my last post. I was waiting for my fairy godmother to turn one of my pumpkins into my house, alas it did not happen 🙂 I had written a post at the end of May, and it was deleted, which is probably for the better as I was still quite angry and it’s best not to post in the heat of the emotion. At the end of May when I was just about to finalize my finances and get started building, my general contractor who was also my natural build consultant, pulled out of my project. He was scared that we were in over our heads and could not afford to build my house. This sent me into a tail spin. We had been working together for 2 year on this project, from the design stage, through permitting and all the planning. This is a large part of my attraction. I have consistently drawn men (in particular) to me who commit to do things with/for me (for $ or not) and then pull out at the last minute. I have been attracting this pattern my whole life and I took that opportunity to work through some of the injury and errors within that created that attraction. I had thought I had worked through it already, but there was still more, and I feel that there is still more, just different flavors.
I spent the next month researching to see if I could be the general contractor. Since I was almost starting at square one I had a lot to learn. I had already received some quotes for some work, and I had the projected budget from my former contractor to work with. He did not send me any of the quotes that he had received nor did I ask. I was too hurt by his decision to drop me and the project. I researched and researched, read and read, I made spread sheets and I contacted contractors, I researched what types of products I wanted in my home, what timelines to expect, what costs to expect. I focused a lot of energy in learning and every thing I learned showed me how much I did not know. Each tiny aspect of building a house is a rabbit hole to fall in, especially if, like me you are searching for the most natural, gentle and environmentally friendly way. There are not many contractors who take those things into consideration, price and then functionality seem to be the only variables. Both of those are extremely important, but not the only things to consider. I received a lot of different quotes from a lot of different contractors, trying to bring business to my area, and was surprised how hard it was to find someone who would #1 general contract, or #2, just be available to discuss the quote they gave me. I was talking with one contractor here who would help me to arrange the build and connect me with contractors, but no one would do the foundation work, and at that point I had not yet found someone who would be my hempcrete expert. I found a fella willing to try to work with hempcrete, but he was not dedicated to doing it as a business or really engage in the detailed discussion of what it would take to actually make the house.
I continued to research, contact and ask questions and they kept leading to dead ends in the overall construction aspect, but I did start making some great discoveries, the best of which at the time was my windows. I found this Manitoba company based out of Morden called Access Windows. They have created this amazing window system using aerospace technology, designed to allow heat in in the winter and keep it out in the summer, as well as meeting or exceeding all environmental standards. They are really amazing. I went to check them out and the depth of knowledge and passion for the product the consultant had was amazing! I left there feeling high on life and even more passionate about purchasing these amazing windows for my home. They were also almost $20,000 less than the local hardware store quoted.
The next great discovery I made, after realizing that I had the tools of social media to help me find a hempcrete contractor, was Dion LeFevber of 8th Fire Innovations! We have just started to talk about what his involvement will look like, but it is looking like we will be hosting hempcrete building workshops so we can share his expertise with Manitobans, find a willing work force, and build one of the first full hempcrete homes in Manitoba. It is all very exciting.
Through my journey I realized, after a friend pointed it out to me, that I not only wanted to build myself this amazing home, I genuinely wanted to help move natural building forward in Manitoba. If I were to work so hard to make this home happen, then no one would really want to follow in my footsteps. I feel very strongly that I need to break the path and leave tools on the way so others can learn from my experiences and hempcrete can become a viable building material in Manitoba. For this, we need access to hemp, to people who have the skills and desire to learn, to people who can bridge the gap between traditional building and natural building merging the best of both worlds and we need to have viable examples living in our extreme temperatures. Hemp is such an amazing plant, the benefits of building with it far outweigh the costs, many of which people are innovating ways to reduce as we speak. I discovered through this process that I had been relying too heavily on my original contractor to know it all and hold all of the information. I learned that I need to know it all, I need to hold all the information. I need to be an expert in my home and be able to speak to it, share it and know what I am talking about.
I continued to follow leads, talk to contractors, credit unions and hardware stores to see if it was possible to build before the frost. As it turns out it was not, not without a lot of pushing the river and forcing things to go. I know from experience there is a time and a place for things to occur, if I try to push it, it will not turn out for the best. In fact, it usually costs so much more in time, energy and money and doesn’t turn out the way I wanted. So, I settled in for another season or two before building could start.
After I had secured my hempcrete expert and determined that I was waiting until spring to build, I let the energy I had been putting into this build subside. I knew it was going to happen, but I also knew that a few things had to happen within me first. I did not want to put any thought, planning, seeking or energy into it. This lasted for almost 2 months, and today, it changed! I am happy to feel the motivation and desire again to get this project moving. I have a lot of plans for what I want to do between now and the build and I am so happy to have the desire to focus more on it. I will be putting a post in “my spiritual journey” soon, that explores the changes in me that lead to the return of my desire and those that are yet to come.
Thanks for your interest in my journey. I hope to be posting more and more wonderful things to come!
The money is nearly in place, the CU requires that I have the contract signed with my general contractor and have my land and current home have an estimate appraisal. Someone from Interlake Reality came to do the appraisal back in the winter, and are hopefully sending it to the CU.  Because there is a not to exceed clause on the contract Francesco is making sure that we have everything done properly. I have put the constraint of $300,000 on the build which is tight considering all of the natural build techniques and therefore man hours, but I can’t afford anymore, so be it. I am assuming all of this will be settled by next Friday and we can move forward.
Now, for the foundation. I had it in my mind, (as I have for many steps of this process), incorrectly that we can easily build up the foundation with fill from the land. I was not thinking about the earth shifting and such. We have to make sure the foundation is stable, there is no point on building on a foundation that is going to shift extremely. Of course all foundations do shift slightly, but I don’t want to add to that by making the ground unstable. The problem with this of course is cost, to bring in more gravel and add more machine hours increases the cost. So, we are in the process of seeing if we need a geological survey.
The problem with not raising the foundation is my land is very wet in a corner where I want to build. If the current foundation raises 12 inches will it be enough? I am gathering data now, I will talk to my neighbour who grew up here, farms here and is in construction so he’ll have a great perspective. I am also going to really check out the land with a measuring tape to see where exactly the house will be placed and stake it out. I will dig into the soil to see how much is there before we reach the clay/sand. I hope to have some answers soon.
I hope it will be an easy and not costly fix.
Cultivation Peace 