Highlands house a part of history
By Edward Hill - Goldstream News Gazette - April 04, 2008

Ancient apples unearthed

At Highland’s Caleb Pike Heritage Park, the once thriving apple orchard is dying off. But Howie Chadderton, Ann Baird’s father, is going to use some old-fashioned grafting keep the genetic lineage alive.

According to an hand-drawn 1883 map, the Pike property had 27 trees, but about a dozen survive to this day. Chadderton plans to graft eight or nine shoots in the Baird’s orchard. Chadderton says the shoots need to be cut with a extremely sharp, sterile knife. The shoot’s cambium layer is then matched to an a branch on an existing tree and bandaged watertight. “The new piece has all the DNA of the original piece,” he says.

If the grafting is successful, he expects to have original Caleb Pike apple trees within three or four years.

Amid the historical curiosities lining the Royal BC Museum’s 150th provincial anniversary display is a wall-sized photo of Ann and Gord Baird, two modern-day pioneers of sorts.

The Highlands environmentalists are creating what may be the most sustainable building in North America. With the museum’s nod, the Bairds and their cob home are now a celebrated piece of B.C.’s history.

“They are a good example of two people willing to go to the limit,” says Kelly Sendall, RBCM manager of natural history.

The Bairds share part of the Free Spirit exhibition with two other eco-home builders, both on Salt Spring Island. The Bairds have loaned the museum a model of their house. Sendall says the RBCM wanted to demonstrate how British Columbians are stewarding the natural environment.

“Because everyone makes a home, it’s not hard to think twice about natural resources, ecological footprints how to deal with power,” Sendall says. “(The Bairds) are an example of going the extra mile to make and build a sustainable house.”

For their part, the Bairds are working furiously to finish building, when they are not guiding house tours or giving interviews to magazines, newspapers and documentary filmmakers.

“Our goal was to make a little difference in sustainable homes,” Ann says. “To be included in the museum is a real privilege.” “We just want to set an example locally and globally,” Gord adds. They’re young, but they finish each other’s sentences like an old married couple.

The Bairds expected to finish construction before last Christmas, but spent the winter in their cramped trailer with a dog and Gord’s two kids. There is light at the end of the tunnel. The interior needs finishing but the hard parts are done — and there were many.

Their pride and joy is the solar tube system that heats water for domestic use and pipes it through the house for warmth. The dual system isn’t exactly rocket science, but the Canadian Standards Association didn’t have a policy for it, leaving Highland’s building inspector and the Bairds in the dark.

“There was a lack of policy with evacuated tubes. It was new to Canada and essentially illegal to use,” Gord says. “So we wrote an alternative solution to the (building) code,” Ann says. “The heating system is new. It broke huge ground.”

Now dozens of small pipes snake under the floor radiating from a custom-designed hydronic control system. Not content with creating precedent for future sustainable homes, the Baird’s electrical engineer designed the controls to use 50 times less power than a conventional system.

“Power conservation is key,” Gord says. “We’ve designed the system for super-low energy consumption.”

The year-long experiment has become a lifestyle unto itself. The Bairds pioneered enough design innovations to become sought-after green-building consultants. They’re ramping up for school and public tours of the house to finally start bringing in income again. Their income taxes are simple for 2007 — zero dollars.

“What we do really well is the system integration side — working with water and so-called waste disposal. We call it resource capture,” Gord says.

Some design features seem disarmingly obvious but are rarely or never done in conventional homes. A dozen solar panels feed battery packs, in turn feeding appliances — fridges, computers, stereos, and lights. The house collects rainwater and organically filters its grey water to feed an orchard. Most of the wood is salvaged from Skirt Mountain, Mayfair Lanes and Glanford School. Even the nails were yanked from old lumber. Perhaps less obvious was adding pumice to North Americas first legal, load bearing cob walls - a mix of clay, sand and straw. Cob won’t burn, repels bugs, and the pumice helps it breath like “nature’s Gortex,” Gord says.

Despite seemingly endless “green” design details — a compostable toilet, organic interior insulation — the house including labour only cost about $270,000. It will house six people comfortably, including Ann’s parents.

“If it’s not affordable it’s not sustainable,” they say. “The idea is to have less income and more family time,” Ann says. “You have more time for growing food, for your community and for your kids,” Gord adds.

The Bairds hope to start pressuring policy makers to support homeowners for adopting sustainable, eco-friendly technology and lifestyles. Some large developments tack on so-called “green” planning with little substance and are hailed as environmental saviors, they say.

“This house isn’t a ‘green wash,’” Gord says. “Some developments say they are green, but it’s pure bull.”

To learn more or to book a school, public or private tour see www.eco-sense.ca or call 478-2680.

editor@goldstreamgazette.com