Earthship. It sounds like some high-tech science fiction rig, doesn't it? In reality, it's a site designed to do three things: first, it should be sustainable, using natural as well as recycled materials; second, the site should rely on natural energy sources (like sunshine and rainwater); finally, it should be economically feasible for the average person. It may sound a little unchic, but an Earthship can actually end up being quite an attractive and even beautiful addition to your home. For a small family in Kilgore, an Earthship proved to be just the addition they needed — for every member involved.
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This greenhouse collect and heat rainwater for showering.
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Allisan Reinhart and Hunter East stand behind Allisan's sister, Emily, and her daughter, Emma, inside their newly built greenhouse.
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Emily's wheelchair sits under her new shower head. She said it's jut the right height to meet her needs.
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Needing more space
In May 2005, Emily Reinhart was in a car accident that left her body paralyzed; her doctor told her that she had broken her neck, and she would be a quadriplegic the rest of her life. After the Dallas accident, Emily and her two children moved from Dallas to Kilgore to live with her mother, Patty McCarty. Emily's sister, Allisan, also moved back to Kilgore to be with her family and to assist her mom in meeting Emily's needs.
"I needed to take care of my daughter, and I had a backyard storage building that was just storing a bunch of junk," Patty said. "The family converted it into a big room for Emily to live in, but we couldn't get water or plumbing out to the little house because of drainage issues."
Each day, Patty or Allisan helped Emily bathe. They wheeled her from her cozy home in the backyard to Patty's back door, where they would proceed to maneuver her through the house and into the shower. It wasn't the easiest chore.
"With all the people in the house and a single shower, we really had to plan on who gets to shower when," Allisan said. "We needed something to make it easier to bathe Emily in as well. We had a shower, but we needed a special one for her."
Earthship evolves
That's when Allisan's boyfriend, Hunter East, stepped in. Hunter has always worked with his hands; for the past 15 years he has worked in carpentry. He wanted to build an addition onto Emily's house — a room with dual functions: a bathhouse for Emily and a greenhouse for Patty.
"I realized that so much of the construction trade is wasteful," Hunter said. "The lumber we'd use, or even discard, destroyed acres and acres of forest. I was concerned about that for a long time and wanted to look for alternatives for this bathhouse/greenhouse."
On their quest for earth-friendly alternatives to construction, Allisan and Hunter stumbled upon information on Earthships, which was right up their alley.
"I love the idea behind sustainable living, and I like to know we are helping our earth," Allisan said. "The idea behind building an Earthship is to take available local resources, recycled materials and natural resources like sun and water to create an environment to live in or use in some way."
Hunter was equally interested in learning more about how to build onto Emily's house.
"I've always been interested in rain water collection and building bigger things from small things I've found around the area," he said. "Did you know that 1 inch of rain on 1,000 sq ft of roof gives you 623 gallons of water? That's a lot of water. I knew we could design just the room Patty and Emily had in mind."
Completed project
After much labor, from gathering all the recycled materials to piecing the structure together, Hunter created a site that would exist in harmony with the environment, free from any constraints of modern shelters ... like plumbing.
"Hunter put together a plumbing system that's a very sustainable way to get water. He did all the research about all kinds of pumps and pieces to put together to make a working system without using any centralized utility," Allisan said.
The shower is designed to catch and use rainwater. There are water collection tanks that are higher than the shower head and they feed into the pipes without using any energy for water pressure. The cold water is in a white tank to reflect the light and the hot water is in a black tank to hold the heat in — and voila! Emily has her hot and cold water.
Allisan's background in pottery allowed her to put her own special touches on her sister's new bathhouse. She fired up her kiln to make colorful tiles for Emily's new shower while Hunter collected material around East Texas, from large pieces of glass to colorful bottles to discarded lumber. Together, they made the earth-friendly masterpiece.
"I love this place. I love the whole thing," Emily said. "It's very sentimental — and it's perfect for me and my needs."
Allisan beams with pride knowing that she and Hunter have been able to help her sister while helping Mother Earth, and she hopes to be an inspiration to others in the community.
"I'm a nurterer at heart, and I just want to not only be grateful for what I have, but I want to teach people to be grateful," she said. "I want to make a difference. It's disheartening to see trash on the side of the road and people's lack of respect for our earth. The community as a whole needs to focus on making a concentrated effort to live more earth-friendly."
If you are interested in learning more on how to "green" your home, you can contact Hunter East via telephone at 512-350-3804.
