Building An Earthship In Darfield, B.C.

We are a family of five living in Darfield, BC.
Our house is six hundred square feet in total and we are feeling cramped.

We have decided to build an earthship!

So starts the adventure ...

Friday, April 3, 2009

We have permission to land!!!!

The Earthship is cleared for landing! We received word today that the permit is all ready for us. We are quite excited and I know that Chris has been sorting shovels, starting equipment up and worrying about our tire count.

We do have to pay an additional $904 for our permit. The building authority bases the permit fee on square footage AND cost to build. Of course, I put $60,000 down for cost to build (that is what we are aiming for, as we have heard of others building for a little less and a little more). However, even that won't fly with the building authority. So based on 2250 square feet and $100/square foot (which the building authority decided based on some figures out of Michael Reynolds books).

So the entire permit fee is $1544 which includes a refundable $200 if we complete the house within 2 years.

Please stay posted as we begin to make plans to start construction!

6 comments:

Thomas said...

Hey, congratulations! Time to break out the shovels and go pound sand....

Sandra said...

Yes, we are really pleased. It seemed daunting way back last fall but all in all the process has been relatively smooth.

Brandy said...

Excellent news!!!

David said...

Congratulations on finally getting the go ahead to build! That could have been the biggest hurdle to the whole project. It's kinda a bummer though that they didn't accept your figure for the cost of the project and declared it to be SO much higher. I wonder if when you are done and could provide proof with receipts that the cost was more around $60,000 if they'd humbly refund you the difference in cost?

Sandra said...

David (is this brother David or David who already has an earthship??)

We plan on presenting our final cost to build (we are going to be tracking it and posting on the blog, regardless) and hope to convince the building jurisdiction to refund a portion of our fee. Until we start changing the system by facts and persuasion, the way they do things will remain the same. I don't think they are resistant to change, they just need good reasons to do so.

David H said...

Sorry, I was David who already has an Earthship, not brother David. Perhaps I'll call myself David H.

I think you are right, presenting them with facts and persuasion could change the system hopefully making it easier for the next person. If everyone kept presenting them with hard data that the costs were way lower than they claim it should be then surely the must listen sometime. Hopefully, you can recoup some of your fee too at the end. I would suspect that if relations stay friendly all around during the project and you are able to present the hard data then they will.