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The house is a 6000 square foot solar adobe. About 15 years ago, local architect Mike Reynolds began to develop ways to use discarded materials in buildings. He chose used tires and aluminum cans.
Visiting his thick-walled flat-roofed houses built into the earth, the Dobsons fell in love with the gently flowing adobe interiors. Armed with drawings from Reynold''s office, the Dobsons built the house over four years, doing about 65% of the work themselves, including all the floors. Joan Dobson, who is five foot two, learned how to walk slabs of rock around that weighed more than she does.
The structure uses old tires (stuffed with dirt and rocks) and aluminum cans, buried in masses of masonry and adobe. The interior walls are finished in natural adobe. The vigas, supporting posts and beams, and the ceilings in the guest rooms, are pine and fir from Taos County. The floors are Colorado red sandstone. Although hot water and cooking are by gas, most of the heat and all of the electricity come directly from the sun.
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