Our House

It’s interesting to see the different ways people will do things. For someone much *greener* than I am, that sounds like an interesting proposition.

This will sound sexist, but . . . not being a guy, I don’t want 2 feet thick walls. I’m thinking the inclination for buried houses and really thick walls might be a macho (bigger tires, higher lifts, more horsepower, etc.), fort or cave mentality, more appropriate to climates other than ours. I’m not saying it’s strickly a guy thing, but it’s gotta be mostly a guy thing.

I want my house up on the ridge where I can *feel* the wind blow. I want walls that are only 10″ or 12″ thick. I’d prefer 10″, but if I can’t make it work with 10″ walls, I’ll bend to 12″, but in my mind that’s pretty thick. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’ve shied away from strawbale . . . okay, it’s also because it’s lots of labor intensive work I can’t do and we live in a really wet climate, but the thickness of the walls might be a key.

I’m so connected to the outdoors I don’t want the mental isolation of thick thick walls. Maybe I’m weird. Maybe it’s a feng sui thing. I want to be dry and comfortable, but I want to *feel* the outdoors. I want to be able to open the bathroom window to accommodate the transit of the mud wasps who build their nests above the vanity every year. I want to open my doors in May and close them the middle of October and live with that *outside* feeling as much of the year as I can.

I don’t want to be isolated. I want to see as far as I can see. I want openness and light, the free flow of air with my mass of house plants congregated to give me an indoor jungle when the outside sucks.

Being female, I want it all.