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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