Finish the whole earthship and move in or go room by room and move in as habitable?

[Darfield]

DH and I are are discussing how to proceed with our earthship build this spring. We are 21 months into our house construction and after taking a few months off to concentrate on other projects we think we'd like to get back at it.

We had planned on finishing the whole thing before moving in: next would be electrical, then plumbing, greywater planters, floors, walls, etc.

We currently live in 600 square feet and the kids (12,11,10) live in one 8x10 room. Chris, (DH) proposed we finish their rooms in the earthship first and move them in later this spring and summer as incentive for them to help more and then help after they have their own rooms. He thought the next room could be ours, then the kitchen, etc. so that we'd move in when we could actually live in it with the basic amenities.

I grew up in an unfinished house and swore I'd never move into another home until it was finished but realize that the length of time it remains unfinished really depends on the people building it. Moving in as soon as we can means not incurring electric heat bills next winter (earthship will have solar gain, rocket mass heater, and infloor radiant heat using wood furnace or gasifier). It also means we can tear down The Nutshell (our POC of a 600 square foot home) and use the entire space for a garden.

So, it's tempting. Anybody else ever faced this conundrum?

[Float On]

I like your idea of finishing enough so the kids can move in. That is asking quite a lot for them to share an x10 space but then again we have some friends who for 6 years shared a very large room with curtains to separate sleeping areas for 5 kiddos while they worked on their house. They ended up with 9 children and finally finished the house (debt-free). I also had friends who lived in a barn with staw bales for privacy walls while they built a house. That one unfortunately ended with a divorce and some of the kids developed severe allergies and they ended up selling the property not quite finished.
So I think you should just look at your family dynamics and decide what is best for your entire family.

[Merski]

We moved in to our new house when the pine trim and doors inside were not done. It's 4 years later and they are still not done! We're finishing off our lower level for MIL to move in. She is paying for it. We told the guy doing the work to finish all of the woodwork. The shame of it all is that neither one of us likes to do this kind of work and yet we both work part time and so have enough time to do the finishing of the upstairs woodwork. Absolutely no regrets about the downstairs, however.

[Mrs-M]

I second the idea of Float On's. Carefully sitting down and examine the entire family dynamics of everyone in your household then base your decision on that. i.e. Cost savings, a more relaxed and comfortable lifestyle, contentment, peace of mind, I say figure it all into the overall equation then work from there. Such an exciting time for you though, I know I'd be like a kid in a candy store when it came to moving into a new home early! I just know I'd drive EVERYONE nuts! :)

[iris lily]

Darfield,

I, too, swore I'd never re-do an old Victorian house since I grew up in old houses where major projects were always going on. Well, you can guess what happened. We are 20 years into this house and the end is not in sight. It's a gut rehab of a not very big Victorian house. What I learned was this: once you've got all basic systems in place there is no real incentive to finish the rest. We moved in with electric lights in 3 of 8 rooms. To this day I still get undressed in the dark because I'm just used to it even thought we did finish the electrical work decades ago. But not that staircase--20 years and counting, it still has no spindles or banister.

But I am not you. YOU can make a different decision. SAVE YOURSELF WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!!! ha ha ha.

[Darfield]

Iris Lily, you are so funny! :)))))

[flowerseverywhere]

I've been following your blog and you are approaching four years with this project. I would move in asap and enjoy it. No house is ever really finished. We did the old house thing for ten years and when we moved for a job we deliberately went the new house route. We had teenagers and wanted to concentrate on getting them launched and frankly we were tired. Now that everyone is on their own we have the time to do projects and update the house. And we have the money.

I think it would excite the kids to get in the house but frankly you are facing having three teenagers in a few years, and no matter how great they are most teens are starting to move away from family and more towards developing their own lives. It is not a bad thing, but part of the growing up process to begin a journey towards independence.