Take Back Urban Homesteading Day of Action

This is my "Take Back Urban Homesteading" Day of Action submission. Having an urban homestead frees you to be self sufficient. You cannot trademark freedom.

We bought this home 6 months ago and are still remodeling when we are not working on our client's projects. The first thing we did to start our homestead was remove the front yard, bring in compost, and plant a cover crop of daikon to till the soil deep. We also added 600 sq ft to the house, just so we could have a fully functional homestead kitchen and utility room.

We are not new to urban homesteading, however. My first homestead was a home called "SubUrban Homesteading" in Houston that won an AIA design award for Sustainable Architecture. Tenants still tend the orange and locquat trees and gardens. My last homestead was a fourplex called "Two Homes/Two Offices" that won an AIA design award for restoration. We market gardened herbs and spices to local restaurants. Now, tenants there tend the peach trees, blackberry trellises, and gardens. We did have to disable the rainwater collection and graywater systems and remove the chickens. Homesteading takes personal time and commitment, but the results are wonderful.

We started sketches!

What once was blank paper...  The site for the house is at the eastern end of a ridge that stops abruptly at a 100 foot drop into the river (more like a creek) below.  We pulled out our compass and found due east and west to make the long facade toward the southern sun.  This places the house off the edge of a flattish knoll and off into the trees.  The buildable site is small, since I start getting nervous about the land getting too steep for secure foundations.  We get some spectacular views to the north and east where I do not mind big glass.  

The knoll allows a yard for dogs and kids at an upper level of the house, while the logical road access can find its way to a lower level carport that allows prevalent breezes through the building to the decks to the north.  Knowing all this site information gives us plenty room to play with the design.

We want a simple roof and cozy rooms, but intricate detailing.  It is important to bring in lots of southern light to brighten the forest and amaze.  This may be home and work and home school in addition to all the gardens we plan.

While the house is mostly one long hallway facing the view, the keeping room has become two overlapping squares to make three distinct spaces: kitchen, dining, and living.  Homage is paid to Frank Lloyd Wright and Schindler and IM Pei as well as others.  Always credit the giants whose shoulders you stand on.

Garden of Eden

One must start somewhere. I choose the Garden of Eden. My wife Christi and I fell in love with the idea of homesteading some land and building a straw-bale house. Our very marriage was infused with that thought. We quit our jobs in the big metropolitan Houston and sought land and adventure.

We have our land SW of Little Rock, Arkansas. With a gurgling creek and shale mountain slopes, our 60 acres is full of forest, briar and deer. We became the stewards of this wild garden of Eden we named optimistically Griffin House Farm and dreamed of sheep fields and fruit trees and a warm, cozy house to raise a family. No more will we only talk of sustainable living, aesthetics, and permaculture. We want to live it.

Christi is my Eve. She surrounds herself with animals. She feeds two cats named Bean and Ru; three Austrailian Shepherds named Gryphon, Dahlia and Paige; a Border Collie named Call; and a Great Pyrenees named Athena. You can see more of her life with the dogs on her kennel site Outfox Aussies She is my healer and studies alternative medicines. She is my life artist. She is my soul mate and heart's echo.

I am Rodney. My skill is construction. You can see my design handiwork at EcoHouse Architects I love my chickens and my sustainable gardens fed by roofwater and organic soil. My goal is to feed, house and sustain my family in the most fulfilling, healthy way.

Together we transform our Garden of Eden into Arcadia, a land rich in knowledge and experience. We aspire to live and teach green strategies and sustainable ideas. See our profession come together in our company EcoHouse Construction, or home Griffin House Farm, named after my first sustainable house and after her heart dog. The House that we build for Griffin House Farm will be our homestead and our experiment in green Living.

This is our blog.