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Hernando Today

Couple Call Cozy Little Burrow Home

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Pat and Shirley Miketinac don't live off the land.

They live in it.

The couple recently celebrated two decades of domestic bliss in their "earth shelter" home - a house cozy enough for a hobbit and energy-efficient enough for Al Gore.

The 1,200-square-foot, single-story house is enveloped by the earth, built into a hillside on a wooded 10-acre plot off Snow Hill Road. The house is surrounded on two sides by berms covered in sword ferns and other native Florida foliage.

From the front, with its subtly-peaked roof and standard windows, the block home looks traditional enough. From the rear, though, the home appears to have been swallowed by a landslide.

And from the side, well, it's hard to tell there's a home there at all. The berms climb to within a foot of the eaves.

Inside, 10-inch pine beams give the home a rustic feel. Skylights keep the place from feeling like a cave. There is one bedroom and two bathrooms.

The house lacks a back door, but Gingo, the couple's Labrador retriever, climbs steps up to a doggie door in a master bedroom window and steps right onto the hillside.

Pat, with help from Shirley, built the home in 1978 after deciding to join the nascent movement of modern homeowners intent on taking advantage of the natural cooling and heating abilities of the earth.

The house features no central heat and air, just a fireplace and a lone window air-conditioner are enough to ward of the harshest winter chill or hottest summer afternoon. Most of the year, the couple uses neither. The ground in Florida stays at 72 degrees, and even during hard freezes, the temperature indoors drops only about 4 degrees, Pat says. The house has no insulation, but their energy bills average about $50 per month - "without sacrificing comfort," he adds.

Now that the green revolution is here, the Miktanics said others should consider the style.

"I'm hoping people understand there's a design that heats and cools itself," Pat says. The home was a drastic change for the couple.

For years they'd lived, as Shirley put it, "the suburban life" in Pinellas County. But as the population grew, their Feather Sound neighborhood began to feel claustrophobic, while their two-story, 2,400-square-foot home suddenly felt too large.

"This is not where we come from," the couple decided. Shirley, a former school teacher, hails from Tennessee; Pat, the son of a military man, spent some formative years in Kentucky. They found the rolling hills of northern Hernando County and were smitten. "It was like a little piece of the Appalachians in Florida," Shirley says.

They bought 10 acres from J.R. Snow, a member of one of the earliest families to settle in the county. They'd attended a seminar in the North Carolina mountains about earthen homes and decided not just to build one, but to do it themselves.

Pat, a former mechanic who was working as an elevator service technician at the time, took time off to pore over books on earthen architecture and construct the home. "Sun Belt Earth Sheltered Architecture," by John B. Langley, focused on making the technique work in Florida.

Pat drew the plans himself. He read stacks of books on post and beam construction, plumbing and electricity. He built all the cabinets and laid the tile.

They used a tractor to cut into the side of the hill. Pat procured pine trees for free from landowners who didn't want them and created 10-inch beams with a mini-sawmill setup he ordered in the mail. The couple used a pulley and ratchet system to hoist the beams in place.

It took a year.

"It was kind of like a voyage of discovery," Shirley says.

They spent $10,000 for materials and say the money saved allowed them to retire early.

The construction has stood the test of time. The house has never leaked, from top or bottom, even during the unprecedented hurricane season of 2004. Pat is convinced the drain system he built around the house's perimeter has worked. They say they feel safe enough to stay even during the most powerful storm.

The couple had considered 20 years ago putting earth on the roof, but worried about leaks. Technology has vastly improved since then, and now they're thinking about it again.

They plan to spend the rest of their days there.

"This," Pat said, "is where we want to be."

On the Web

To find out more about earth sheltered homes, visit www.earthshelteredhome.com or www.malcomwells.com.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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