Inspired Living Omaha January-February 2021

Page 8

EDITOR'S NOTE

Inside a self-sustaining mountainside marvel MY JOB HAS TAKEN

hill or mountainside,

give the interior an earthy feel; live

me inside hundreds

harvesting your own water

plants provide the color pop. Ceilings

of homes, but none

and power, producing

and some walls are tongue-and-groove

as fascinating as an

your own food, and

pine; other walls are smooth adobe.

Earthship in Park County,

containing and treating

Colorado.

your own sewage. Did

Its owners, Cherrie

I mention the primary

and Guy Geerdts, traded

CHRIS CHRISTEN

construction materials

careers in Denver in 2012

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

are old tires, bottles, cans

for laid-back mountain life near Guffey ... population 25. Four

and adobe mud? The Earthship concept minimizes

years ago, they began looking at off-grid

reliance on public utilities and fossil

possibilities. “Nothing was right,” Guy

fuels. This house has a propane stove

recalls, until they landed the Earthship.

and water heater. There’s a backup

“There were all kinds of signs that we

generator that runs off propane —

were meant to own it. And, boom!

installed after a blizzard left Cherrie

We’re here.”

stranded in the high mountain house

In keeping with the architect’s vision,

without power and water for four days.

much of the construction is done by

Rooftop rainwater and snow is collected

the dwelling’s intended inhabitants.

in a cistern for various household uses;

The original owners of this Earthship

solar panels provide the electricity; heat

broke ground in 1993 and spent 20 years

is passive solar, through the windows.

moving it toward completion.

The floorplan is linear, flowing from

When Cherrie and Guy took possession, the interior had poured concrete floors and rough adobe walls that needed repair and finishing. Enter Lisa and Randy, my husband’s sister and her husband, who did the tile and stone work, a complex process because of the curved and irregular walls. The “talker” is a meandering river rock walkway that starts at the entry and “flows” to the opposite end of the house. Cherrie and Guy have been selfsustained during the pandemic. In the spring, they’ll continue to work on exterior features, including raised garden beds, and a patio for taking in those sweeping vistas. In the mountains, sunrises and

living room to kitchen, full bath, TV

sunsets are great. “But the night sky

Michael Reynolds during the “back-to-

room and bedroom. An indoor planting

gives me goosebumps,” Guy says. “The

the-land” movement of the 1960s and

bed, served by a gray water irrigation

sky just comes alive because there are

’70s. A typical blueprint calls for nesting

system, runs the length of the structure.

no city lights. The Milky Way is right in

the back of the home into an earthen

Natural materials, colors and textures

front of us.”

The Earthship style was pioneered by

BACK TO THE LAND The home’s foundation and exterior walls are formed of stacked tires filled with dirt and covered with adobe made from local clay, coarse sand and straw. The river rock walkway that “flows” throughout was added after the Geerdts’ 2016 move-in.

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Inspired Living Omaha January-February 2021 by Omaha World-Herald - Issuu