Help us build a hempcrete house in the mountains near Creston, Canada

Infos

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  Description

  We are Andrew (42), from Australia, and Marie (42), from Canada and together, we've been living a life of adventure for the last 12 years. We've lived in Australia for 7 years, then we left the country to travel around the world. In 2017, we bought a beautiful piece of land in the mountains of British Columbia, in Canada, and we've been spending our summers on this land, whilst travelling during the winter months.
  
  Over the summers here, we've built little tiny houses where we live off-grid, with solar power, well water, a compostable toilet and solar shower bags. Life here is simple, but beautiful. The view on the valley and the mountains around our property is stunning.
  
  At the moment, we're living in two little buildings: a well-furnished kitchen with a cozy loft above and another separate bedroom. Both buildings are surrounded by forest and amazing views. We've got a big deck, a firepit and some garden beds.
  
  Two summers ago, we started a big dream: building our own hempcrete house ourselves. It's been hard work! It's only the two of us working on the house and we've got limited knowledge in building, but slowly, slowly, we're making our way through the building.
  
  Hempcrete is a natural insulation composed of lime, hemp hurd and water, that we mix together and then fill the walls with. It's natural, sustainable, breathable, fire resistant and mold resistant. It's for all these reasons why we chose to build with it. We're both environmentally conscious of our impact on the planet and building with natural materials as always been a priority for us.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Bricolage et construction

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Entretien général
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We are both travelers and dreamers and for us, meeting new people is a way to share stories, experiences and ideas. We've participated in different building projects around the world (earthbag building in Nepal, stone building in Portugal, Earthship building in New Mexico...) and we like to share these experiences with other, but we also love hearing about other people experiences around the world.

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  Aide

  Recently, we had a friend coming over to help with a few tasks on the building and we've realized how useful it was to have an extra pair of hands and muscles to help us! So we're looking for someone strong and fit who can help us with many different tasks on our construction site (interior plastering, building interior stairs, exterior rendering)... Someone who loves using their hands and knows how to use power tools would be great. Someone with building experience would be amazing!
  
  That being said, just having an extra person on site with us to carry things, lift things and learn with us would be highly appreciated. Someone with cooking skills and gardening could also be immensely useful for us.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  I'd like to learn more Spanish. We've just started learning it in Mexico last Winter.
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  Hébergement

  Our helper will be sleeping in the cozy little bedroom cabin. There's a double bed, a big window overlooking the valley below us, lots of bird songs in the morning and space to store your belongings. Our place is really quiet and really dark at night which is perfect for a good night sleep!
  
  We're both vegetarian and Marie is the usual master chef in the kitchen, but she will be delighted if you can help out as often as you want. Our meals are always nourishing and mostly varied (we had a few late nights recently where we just ended up eating grilled-cheese because we were just too exhausted to cook anything else, but generally, meals are more complete!). We love veggies, smoothies, cheese, pastas, curries, big salads with lots of veggie and eggs and nuts.

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  Autres infos...

  The area we live in is stunning. There are so many mountains around and lots of hiking trails to hike and rivers and creeks to swim in. The little town of Creston is about a 15 minutes drive from here and it's lovely. There, you'll find a farmer's market on Saturday mornings, three wineries, one micro-brewery, cafes and pubs, supermarkets and the Rec Center where we often go for a swim and to relax in the spa!
  
  Creston is a beautiful fruit bowl and the summers are filled with delicious fresh fruits: cherries, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples...
  
  Kootenay Lake is a short 30-minutes drive from here and there are lovely beaches on its shore where you can spend some lazy days.
  
  We're both laid-back and calm people. Our favorite activity is reading in the sun! But we also like hiking and swimming in the creeks, lakes and rivers. We try to have potluck dinners with friends as often as we can. The owners of two of the wineries are our friends, so we sometime like to spend quiet evenings at one of the wineries.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  We're both digital nomads and work from home when we are in Canada. At the moment, we have internet only from our mobile phone, so it's limited.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have a nice flat terrace with a spectacular view where we can park a small campervan.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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