CEB Cabin Infrastructure 90% Complete

in Blog, Building Eureka Yurts Decisions & Plans by admin

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a prosperous and Happy New Year!

We have been hard at work during November and December getting all the dirt work and infrastructure complete for the new Compressed Earth Block (CEB) cabin. We’ve trenched and installed the electrical conduit, water line, and septic tank connections. Now we are waiting for our electric company to install the meter and hook up the service side. At that point, we will have all utilities available to the new CEB Cabin. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to install the conduit for the internet. So that is still on the to-do list.

Here are some pictures of the work we have been doing.

Preparing the base for the electrical meter base
We are preparing the pad for the electrical transformer.
Stem walls with water proof membrane being applied
Stem walls with the waterproof membrane being applied
Backfilling the stem walls
Backfilling the stem walls
Electrical conduit to the cabin
Electrical conduit to the cabin
Septic Install
Septic Install

Groundbreaking for the Stabilized CEB Cabin

in Blog, Building Eureka Yurts Decisions & Plans by admin1 comment

Ground breaking on cabin 3 has begun.  This last week we have been working on removing trees and shaping the lot to prepare for pouring the foundation for cabin 3 (stabilized CEB cabin).  The original design was to take out part of the hill and move the dirt forward to create the flat area for a concrete foundation for the CEB walls.  In the end we decided to make a walk out basement with the public accessible cabin on top.  The rational behind this decision was swayed do to the following.

Decision Factors

  1. This would provide a space for a pseudo storm shelter which Melissa had been wanting for a long time.
  2. This would raise the living area of the cabin about 9′ and would enhance the view.
  3. This will also yield more storage / living area.  We are going to stub out shower, sink and a toilet.
  4. And one of the most important.  Since this cabin is going to be fully wheel chair accessible, this will allow a “fairly” level entry into the cabin.  Nothing is level here.

This was the initial state of the area where the circular drive was going to go.

This is the result of some of the clearing.  One long backbreaking day of chain sawing with the help of my friend, Morris Dillow!

It didn’t take long to hit some massive flint and quartz rocks that the excavator could not break.  So we had to use the hydraulic hammer to break up the rocks to get where we needed to be.

In the end, our amazing excavator magician finished the pad site, and driveway in 2 days.

Final pad site.  The grade drops about 7 feet and the basement walls will be a little over 8 feet.  The clearing for the pad is about 46 x 22.  The cabin will be about 40 x 16 with a kick out for the bedroom.

Rough-in on the driveway.

Elevation from the main road.

Top of the pad site.

Eureka Yurts and Cabins