Classy Trash: Recycled Paper Bale Colorado Home
(Page 4 of 4)
July/August 2002
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
A risk well taken
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Six months after he dug the first foundation trench, Rich and Ann moved into their home. And that’s where the real test came. What would living in a paper house be like?
“I don’t think we really understood the sense of comfort we’d get from that much thermal mass,” Rich says. “It’s both quiet and has a warmth I’ve never felt in other houses, a serenity we didn’t think was part of what we were building until we lived in it. It’s not an imposing space, but it’s just so comfortable in there.”
Ann loves the stillness, the softness of the walls—which she says “does wonderful things to candlelight”—and the easy living. “That stucco’s never going to need maintenance, and the tile is really easy to maintain,” she says.
Would they build a home this way again? Absolutely, Rich and Ann contend; in fact, they’re already looking for land. Although many people have expressed interest in the building method, the biggest hurdle is bankers, who just don’t like to hear about building houses with trash. “You can’t get traditional financing,” Rich laments. “That’s really the issue. You’re fighting an existing mindset.”
As for Rich, he threw his own fears out the window when he reached a certain age. “Rich always says he wouldn’t have been brave enough before he was fifty to build this house,” Ann says. “You have to be willing to challenge the system.”
“It requires a willingness to take a risk,” Rich adds. “Traditional builders told me I was really nuts, but when I was finished, they came back to admire the craft of the project.”
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