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21st Century Mud Hut
Written by Julie Beun-Chown - Vancouver Sun - Thursday, October 23, 2008
You drive a hybrid car, use a composter in the backyard, push a rotary lawn mower and ride a bicycle to work.
When it comes to going green, you're practically chartreuse.
The Jones' next door have nothing on you.
Just don't try keeping up with the Bairds. 
Ann, 41, and Gord, 39, who live 15 minutes from Victoria, quit their jobs as co-op manager and autobody shop owner two years ago to build their dream home: a so-green-it-glows two storey cob (clay, sand and straw) house that generates its own solar electricity, uses virtually no ground water and is so exquisitely situated on eight acres of land visiting architects have been struck dumb.
Built with eight dump trucks each of clay and sand, 52 yards of pumice for insulation and 50 bales of straw, the house is a marvel of conservancy: it is made with 90 per cent locally recycled wood, has hot-water tubes running under the earthen floors for heat and a living roof that will be covered with pumice and soil to gather rainwater.
The list goes on, but the bottom line does not. By the time the Bairds have lived in the $300,000 duplex for a year, it could become Canada's first dwelling to meet the Living Building standard, a 16-point sustainable building code that exceeds the current Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation. It's already North America's first code-approved load-bearing, high-occupancy cob building.
"We're fairly pleased with what we've accomplished," says Ann, who says that their groundbreaking building is setting so many precedents, they're often left scratching their heads for solutions. "We've worked our butts off and we run into problems. But we keep stewing on it, and eventually the answer comes. It inspires us to attempt even more."
It's hard to imagine what that would be. The couple, who will live in half of the house with Gord's young children, with Ann's parents next door, have laboured for hours over every detail of the house they designed themselves, from the experimental high fly ash concrete foundation to the colourful and undulating earthen couches that stretch through the family room.
"I've been passionate about sustainability for along time. I even lived off the grid on a small Gulf island for a while," says Ann, who sold that waterfront property to co-fund the project. "When I met Gord, we wanted to do something that would maintain the standards our culture is used to, but do it in a different way, focusing on lifestyle and not life stuff. We wanted to live a life that we were passionate about."
Their dream found its roots on a block of land previously owned by a junk collector and later, a holistic healer who intended to build a retreat there. By the time the Bairds purchased it, there was only an incomplete septic system, which they were obliged by building codes to finish at a cost of $30,000 but have no intention of using.
To reduce their water consumption, they use rain water for the garden, grey water for irrigation and a small amount of well water for drinking and washing, delivered through low-flow taps. They also have a $300 composting system that treats all toilet waste with heat-generating bacteria that pasteurizes the manure and kills human pathogens.
"Then we'll use it for gardening. We don't have waste," she laughs. "The waste of one creates the food for another." The same goes for their electrical supply, which comes from 12 170-watt solar panels, which power their charge controllers and feed into the B.C. Hydro grid.
Their eco-efforts haven't gone unnoticed by Jason McLennan, the CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the architect behind the Living Building Challenge.
"Their home is inspiring to see, because it was built affordably," says McLennan, who is confident the Bairds will meet many of the Living Building prerequisites. "Some things may be more expensive, but it's not unaffordable depending on your values and what you want to trade off on. If you decide you don't want a three-car garage and you build with solar panels, there's a cost savings."
For the Bairds, the bottom line remains to be seen. For the moment, they anticipate that the long hours of making mud walls, mixing homemade milk paint and framing doors will pay off in next-to-nothing heating and water bills.
"The bank account is empty now, so we're trying to make a living through education and doing things related to our core value of sustainability," says Ann, who operates their website, eco-sense.ca. "But in the end, we wanted to create a home that was comfortable and functions as part of nature. Aside from being the first, we've love the challenge of doing it. It's been our life's work."
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