Barre Teens Help Build Environmentally Friendly Home

On one of the hottest days of the summer 19 teens and adult sponsors rallied around a family in their church to help them work on building an environmentally friendly home. Called an "Earthship" the home will be completely off the grid. When all three phases are complete, it will provide its own electricity through solar power, its own water through capturing rain water from the uniquely designed roof and use the sun to provide a significant portion of the heat. The second phase includes a greenhouse that will help provide almost all of the food for the occupants. The owners of this innovative home worked for a company in Arizona that built similar homes there. Earthships are growing in popularity in the southwest but are rare in the northeast. The wife, who is an architect, is a member of Faith Community Church in Barre. Two years ago she shared her vision with the church of creating a home that would leave a very small footprint on the environment. The church began helping her family collect the items needed to build the home. Using a special combination of used tires, recycled bottles and earthen walls, the home is the ultimate example of recycling. Her husband is an engineer and supervised the work crew for their one day mission adventure. They hope to occupy the home in October, though it will take several more months of work to complete the entire home.