The State of the State of Hybrid Homes..

It's been a while since I last posted a report on the State of the State of Hybrid Homes. I feel that people want to know what happened, what is happening and what will happen.

Let's take a step back to 2009. In 2009, things were rolling really well for us...well for most of the year. To keep our good name and to keep moving forward, I was paying for several errors that were created by other companies. I mention that, because at the time, we had 7 projects going on. My dad (office manager) and I were adding up all the costs and it was astronomical. We also had homeowners who we slow to pay or not paying at all. To say the least,  I had had enough. I was so burned out that I just wanted to quit. Luckily, my dad and our other support staff literally brushed me off each day and held me up when I was near collapse. I was so upset that most of our team was in this adventure just for the money. I have since realized that money is needed to survive in business, but it still floors me how people acted. I later realized that I created that environment. What I thought were other people's problems were actually lessons that I had to work through.

OK, with that said, the opportunity came in April of 2009 to build the Earth Shelter Project. I turned the project down several times because the homeowners were not real with their budget, I was burned out, and I could not stomach the thought of living on the road again for a few years. Inside myself, I could feel this longing to free myself from the spotlight, stop paying other people's house payments, and get myself back into what my true passion was and is...making a difference. By July of 2009, I was so detached. The employees I had were doing a great job of finishing up jobs while I was trying to find myself. In August of 2009, I decided that we were going to build the Earth Shelter Project and film it for a documentary.

We all know the story of the Earth Shelter, and I am happy to say that a version of the documentary will air on PBS stations in August.

Something truly incredible happened while I was living out of town and building the Earth Shelter. To digress, I have to say, that I originally went to college to discover why I was the way I was and to discover my true self and purpose. I did discover some incredible things about myself in college, but I learned even more while building the Earth Shelter. I had access to a wide variety of natural health remedies and therapies that I chose  to use daily to try to heal myself and to find the drive and passion that I had lost for what I set out to do in life. I had weekly meetings with a mentor who helped me to discover the true meanings of who I was and what my purpose was in life.

We discovered at that time that I had problems with my pancreas and a few other internal issues. I had battled with a 'bad gut' for years and could never figure out what the problem was. Over the years, I tried some of the horrible drugs that they give you to mask the pain and ickyness, but what I learned was that stuff made me sick in other areas so I stopped taking it. We discovered that my internal health problems were related to my addictions (nothing too serious, or so I thought), my lifestyle, my over-dose of the polio vaccine when I was a little kid, and pent up emotional stuff. My undieing passion to live out my purpose was kept inside and was not being used up. The problem was so serious, that I immediately changed my eating habits, lifestyle, and got into the gym to get fit once again. I was so scared!! My worst fears were coming true. This was early in 2010 that we discovered my health problems. After much thought and coaching from my mentor, I called up the designer that I was using, and although I had paid a lot of money to attract clients that he was drawing houses for, I told him that I would not be able to build those houses for at least two years because I was sick. I saw other builders end up building those houses. At first I was bitter, but I was taught that the other builders were doing exactly what I wanted them to do from the beginning, step up and start building environmentally-responsible homes. I was happy to hear that other people were starting to finally jump on the 'green' band wagon, although, they are at least 5 years behind still, it is still refreshing to see it happening.

So, as I was holding my gut every night in excruciating pain, (if you saw the documentary and seen how hard we pushed during shotcreting and the other phases, you may notice that I have a pretty high thresh hold of pain) I had to force myself to see the good in all things. I realized that there is no fair or un-fair, only what we perceive of a situation. I started to feel the effects of the cleansing that I was doing and the light, sound, and other therapies that little by little, not only eased my pain physically, but also emotionally, spiritually and on other levels I never knew existed.

I was constantly challenged to see the good in everything, that everything happened for a reason. I was really stubborn!! I would talk back and disrespectfully disagree with what I was being challenged to do. I have been telling people now in the talks that I give, that this past 3 years has been my equivalent of climbing a mountain in the Himalayas, finding a monastery full of monks, and living with them. To free my mind, body, and soul.

During that time, I was challenged to do the things I had talked about for years. Speak, teach, appear on television, write a book, make the documentary, re-think hybrid homes, and the list goes on and on. During the day, I would lead a crew on the earth shelter project and at night disappear to get a better grasp on who I was and why I acted the way I did. I learned that I got off track because I started to work towards keeping work in front of everyone instead of building places that would help bring about change. Once I realized that, a lot of things made sense to me. I lost the bitterness towards the work I had to give up because of my illness and was thankful to be busy during a bad economy. I was challenged to see the documentary through, although I am still human and was angry during some of the project, so I did not turn the cameras on or do my interviews like I was supposed to. Patience and forgiveness is always a challenge for me. One other very important thing happened towards the end of 2010, I sat down and started to write a book.

There is a lot to writing a book. It is difficult to work with editors, illustrators, print companies, but I think that the most difficult part of writing a book is getting started and staying with it. I was challenged to finally write my book, one, so that I could get it on paper and out to the world and two, to put down on paper the things that were eating me up inside. Writing is very therapeutic, just like writing this blog entry, very therapeutic. The pages of the book started out more as ranting than anything else. As I read the pages to my mentor, I was once again offered a challenge, to write the book without using the word 'I'. So I did that, I wrote 15 chapters over a number of months and not once did I use the word I. I sent this original manuscript to an editor, whose job it is to turn my words into a flowing, interesting story. He started to read the manuscript and called me to tell me that it was a great book for someone in a Masters program, but it was just to text book-ee. My friend Greg, who is in the book industry, told me a few years ago, "don't be upset if the editor tells you to re-write the book, they know the audience and will take what you write and turn it into something that others can read and get something out of."

After the advice from the editor, I sat down and re-wrote the book in a first person view. Talk about exciting! The pages flowed, no longer as a rant, but as a story of drive, passion, and determination, no matter what happened. Not just me either! Our employees and most people involved with what we did. What a story! When I put the manuscript out to a few people to test read, they told me that I needed a hug and that they could not stop reading because they could not figure out what kept us going. I will tell you right here what kept us going, it was the knowing that we were doing something great, something worth while, and it had everything to do with legacy. Our core group believed this without a doubt! Those that lived in the swamp in Willie Nelson's old tour bus believed and lived it everyday. We were the special forces of green building.

Writing the book in first person was so therapeutic for me! I did not write the book to sell it, I wrote the book to get it off my bucket list. I learned that people were interested in the book and it has started to catch fire around the country, that is amazing!

Fast forward to now. As I get ready to leave the earth shelter and move back by family with my wife (who I met near the earth shelter!), I reflect on the past few years of my life and think, 'where does the time go?' I have learned that life is short and that I must make use of all my minutes that I am given. I am guilty of not resting enough, that is something I am still trying to work on. I make myself sit down. I can not get back into the state that I was in 2009.

A few months ago, I wondered what I was going to do next. Often, I felt as if I stepped onto a high ledge, surrounded by clouds and was peering out into a cloudy, hazy, nothingness. Just then, the clouds would clear around me, but only long enough to see the world which was so green, lush, pollution free, and heaven like. I would and still catch glimpses of a wonderful world and that vision fuels this passion that runs through my veins to make a difference and to leave this planet in a better condition then we found it.

I decided that I would get Hybrid Homes rolling again. Except, this time, I would use this quiver full of experience, wisdom, and street smarts to help direct us where we need to go, to stay true to our core beliefs, and to educate people and make them aware that life can be so much better then they ever knew it could be.

Once the word was out that I was rejuvenated, I started to get emails about potential jobs. I am told that it was more of my willingness and readiness to get back to living out my purpose that attracted like minded people to me, that is true. As I pondered how to get a team together that was more streamlined then what we had before, the issue of finding a good architect and/or designer kept coming up. There are a lot of great 'green' architects and designers out there now, I know a few of them, but what I want to do and what our new group of clients want, requires that we do all the designing, in house. I started to think about how badly I wanted to be an architect when I was 18 years old (I wanted to be a lot of things, like most kids). I wanted it so badly, that I took four years of architecture classes until I realized that an internship was needed to continue and that scared my young mind, so I ended up working in a factory instead. I loved drawing houses, that is why I love building houses, because I can see them before they are built, that is really neat.

As things often times happen for me, I felt as if I should design houses and pick up where I left off with my love for architecture. So, Hybrid Homes purchased a design suite, much updated from what we had before and are now designing our clients work. I head up that division of our company and have a drafts person to handle some of the work after we develop the ideas into a plan. We have been doing this for a while now and it is so rewarding and exciting! To build something that we designed, that I saw from the first line on a piece of paper or a computer screen is insanely cool! Now, it is more than just seeing the project before it is built, it is building the project before it is built, virtually! Wow! I will also be on site building homes as I was before until further notice. We also work with clients who already have their building plans. We look them over and make a few adjustments if necessary.

I wanted to write this today, one, because it is therapeutic. Secondly, because I wanted everyone to know, that I have emerged from the cloudy ledge, a different person with a weathered face and a stronger drive than ever to make a difference. I am sooo pleased that the building industry is in a state of 'greening up'! I chuckled when I saw a builder's website that said "We build the best Hybrid Homes". How cool is that?! Should I be bitter? Heck no, the original goal was to bring about change and it is very apparent that in some sort of way, we helped not just the industry, but the entire planet!

Hybrid Homes is currently booking work and we are going to do it differently this time around. We are not going to book everything that comes our way and then figure it out like we did before. We have, what I feel is, a great system in place to schedule work in a comfortable manner. Our design team, lead by yours truly, are currently designing several projects that will be built over the next year or so. Our company is not for everyone, we can't just build homes, we have to build places where families can live and thrive. If you understand what that means, then Hybrid Homes is for you. There are so many contractors out there to build houses, most are green, but there is more to the equation than having an energy efficient house. I learned this while living with the 'monks'.

I learned that LIFE is a gift, and time to live that life is so valuable, that the better life is and the better we feel, the longer we want to live that life. It's true! I learned that! It didn't seem to matter to me before if I lived to be 70 or 80, but now it does! Once you taste what clean, non-flouride filled water tastes like, you will say "WOW"! Once you taste chickens that ran around a yard and didn't get shot up with chemicals to make them look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you will say "MMMMMMMMMMMMM!" Once you become aware that what you put into your body and where and how you live is the true fountain of youth, your eyes will widen and you will wish to share your new love for life and healthy sustenance with everyone you know. A pantry should be filled with healthy, non-processed foods. I never knew that before. Our design team incorporates every aspect of a healthy lifestyle into our designs. We understand, from a natural standpoint, that health is relative to how you live and where you live. It does not matter if you live in a city or are fortunate to have a nice spread of land to create your homestead on, there is always things that can be done to compliment your healthy lifestyle.

THIS IS WHAT WE DO. THIS IS HOW WE LIVE. And, if you are interested in learning what life is like once you live in a healthy environment, email me and I will share more with you.

If you have an idea and you find that other people just don't understand (for whatever reason) please do not hesitate to email me. It does not matter if you are in Germany or Georgia or anywhere else for that matter, email me.

Thank you for reading this today. I hope that you see, that life is an interesting adventure. That, the journey can be every bit as rewarding as the destination. Thank you to everyone who have kept tabs on me. I can tell you that I am feeling better, but that is only through living healthy, eating healthy and avoiding negative energy. I have an amazing support system and with that kind of support and love, anything is possible.

All the BEST!

Adam D. Bearup

p.s. If you are interested in learning more about my journey or discovering how to begin your journey into a healthy lifestyle, I highly recommend buying a copy of my book. Click here to get it on Amazon.com.