Past Premonitional Post

If you've been around this blog for a while or read through our archives, you may remember this little plug:

http://istockhouseplans.blogspot.com/2009/12/twenty-six-point-two.html

What we didn't know is that less then three years later one of our very own would be running in a real Marathon.  Brian finished the Portland Marathon on October 7th with a steady time of 5 hours, 25 minutes, and 37 seconds.  In doing so he also raised several hundred dollars for charity.  We applaud Brian for his dedication to training and hard work to see the task through to the finish.  These are the kind of people that Istockhouseplans would like to have working for them.

Now back to work.

Haitian Dirtbags

For the past week plus we've watched the nation of Haiti fall apart after an earthquake. Reading stories and seeing the images makes us very disappointed that we can't just up and go to help. But what would we do? We have no medical experience. We could help distribute supplies, I suppose. But since our passion is architecture, our thoughts leaned that way. Many people have lost their homes to the 7.0 rumbler. Even the presidential palace is destroyed (as in structurally unsound, not rubble on the ground).

Why did the homes fail? Mostly because of the poor building practices. A good number of homes are concrete with less than adequate mix and not necessarily any rebar. Concrete has the distinction of being inflexible. If you stress it, concrete does not bend, it cracks and breaks. Bad for homes.

So we gave some thought to how we could help the residents of Port-au-Prince. We thought about buying them some rebar, but shipping costs would be a bit high. We thought about designing some prefab homes ala Michael Janzen, but he's got a great product already and lumber is not exactly plentiful on the island.

So then we ran across some blog entries on earthbag homes. What is that, pray tell? Take a bag, fill it with dirt, stack, repeat. Easy. You can check out a Haitian Dirtbag home here that withstood the quake just fine. The owner of this home, Father Theo, cares for orphans in Haiti and runs a blog here. Their other concrete buildings sustained some minor damage. Think this might be a fluke? Check out some earthbag testing here.

"So what?" you might say. "This all looks fine. Are you going to go to Haiti and build earthbag homes?" Not quite. But we believe Father Theo is on to something. Earthbag homes use local materials, can be built in a day, are sturdy, insulative, and cheap. We would like to lobby with Habitat for Humanity to consider rebuilding Port-au-Prince with earthbag homes to avoid any future apocalyptic aftermaths. Once we get that okay, we will begin donating a portion of our plan sales towards buying bags, barbed wire, and any other necessities to rehabilitate Haiti.

You can voice your opinion too by clicking here. Please write and tell them that you think earthbag homes would be the most sustainable housing stock for Haitian revival. May Haiti thrive.

Thanks to all of you who purchased plans in the first half of this year. As you may remember, stockhouseplans.com donated 100% of all purchases to a group who were going down to Mexico to build a community center. The trip was a smashing success. The city of Morelia, Mexico donated land to the NOE center to build a larger more comprehensive facility.

"The purpose of the NOE Center is to foster godly character, a
positive self-concept, academic excellence, creative expression, recreational
skills, and social responsibility in the young people of Mexico, to encourage
them to become active citizens with a vision for their community. There are
currently over four hundred students enrolled in various programs like English,
homework help, computer, art, music, sports, recreation, Bible club, youth group
and discipleship. NOE accepts students age nine through nineteen, most of whom
live in the surrounding poor to middle class neighborhoods."

The group visited the property and cleared endless bags of trash, dozens of shoes, tires, and bottles and prepared it for a slab to be poured. The slab will support a basketball court with a building eventually being built around it. This new center will be able to help many more Mexican young people to find direction in life and pursue a goal.

Our generous donating may be over but we are still selling plans. We are starting to go through our catalog and fine-tune some of our beauties to be even more efficient builds. Expect to see wall framing plans and suggested duct plans for those interested in using furnaces and the like. We'll keep you posted as plans become updated.

Hasta la vista.