My father told me the other day, "a plan is a plan because it never goes exactly the way it was planned".. He is absolutely correct in my opinion. After ten years in the construction industry I have seen this theory materialize in front of my very eyes many many times. The best you can do is get the closest to the image projected in the minds eye prior to commencement of any project. Sometimes this requires a roundabout route or alternate approach all together.
Shortly after we arrived in Ishigaki Island the inevitable reality of having to get a job materialized according to plan. Well almost. I landed myself a job at a very busy scaffolding company . This job as predicted has consumed 90 percent of my time with a grueling schedule of a 7am start and 6 pm wrap up on site. On a day when we are lucky enough to not go into overtime I get home at about 7 pm.... Six days a week as I refused to work Sundays. As for the work it is intense physical labor in a steady temperature of about 33-40 degrees with 90-93 percent humidity. The pay??? Bout 85 bucks a day. But all is relative. To our readers anywhere in the west this seems ridiculous compared to the 8 hour days with time and a half pay for overtime at anywhere from 15$-40$ an hour for trades workers.
So where are we finding the time to plan an Earthship build, get permission, source land, and pay for it?? The way things are going rent and bills are just barely covered and time is unfortunately a commodity that must be BOUGHT. A few weeks ago I got a call from my father asking us to take care of the house in Hyogo prefecture near Kobe, while he is away at work and my mother is in Canada.. TIME BOUGHT! Well a month anyways.. Two weeks into this month we happen to stumble across an old dilapidated house waaaay up in the mountains of Hyogo.
The price of the house, which is literally falling apart but has a sturdy traditional Japanese timber frame was an astonishing 180 0000Yen. Thats 18 grand for a house with property attached.Is this our chance? Is this where we can start? My wife and I talked it over. Think of the possibilities, think of the chance to design and build something new and unique to Japanese society. We could introduce a new but old style house, a HYBRID home. We are now researching and designing our own earth friendly hybrid home. We will reuse and recycle materials to rebuild this home and will incorporate systems from Earthship Biotecture earthship.com. to achieve this.
Our goal is to do this in a very cost effective manner while leaving as little a carbon foot print as possible. The outcome will be a hybrid, low carbon emission home. We will record and videotape our journey along the way and do our best to keep you all up to date.
Here`s to another exciting adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment