Hope you don't have building codes though!

http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

 

Sarcasm notwithstanding, I love the job they did. If only more first world citizens took responsibilty for their life and its impact on others, the planet would be a be a better place.

I would love to get closer to a self sufficient lifestyle, and these folks are actually doing it. More power to them.

 

I actually like.

It's so...........earthy.

 

I would love to do something like that. There are a few other alternatives that are equally as interesting... The "cob" house - can be built with no power tools (as seen on the latest "Dirty Jobs"), the "earthship" house - I really like this house because it is very efficient, but it's a lot of work filling the tires with sand, and the chicken wire and polyurethane foam house.

Yes the houses are cheap to build but I think you need to live in a colony somewhere or own a chunk of land away from the city. Try building one of those in your city suburb. "You wanna put THAT next to my $500,000.00 house??"

 

furball69, in some places, it's more like "you want to put THAT $500,000 house next to mine.

 

That is awesome, I actually would much rather live in that than a $500,000 house. Either that or an old underground house like in the movie "Blast from the past". I dunno, for some reason I am really into living underground..

 

From the thread title, I was expecting a conversation on beat up, hammered, whopped single wide trailer/mobile homes found in trailer parks or on select acreages across America. Bonus points for the individuality, not to mention the luxury of vast square footage, when these things are connected together .

 

Didnt the Native Americans have better housing?

 

Any pictures of the guy? Does he look like a hobbit?

In most locals, there are actually codes for "alternative building methods/materials". I know there is a code here and in Maine for building a house out of hay bales. Many of these "primitive" homes are really far more efficient than a modern house, with a greatly reduced environmental impact.

 

Yeah, I liked it a lot too.

I have been looking into a method of making adobe blocks with about 70% paper. You use any used paper, make a slurry and add clay mud, pour it in molds. It has great insulating quality and it is super lightweight copared to solid clay brick. You can make really large blocks because they are light weight, so the building goes up fast. Still a lot of work, but since all the material is free, you could hire some help and it's still "dirt cheap." Can you dig it?

Also there is a guy in Utah who makes round domes. He pours a round foundation, attaches fabric to the outside of it and blows it up using a big fan. Then he sprays the fabric from the inside with a two-part foam. Once the foam hardens, he makes a rebar structure attached to the foam and then sprays that with cement. Not free, but you can put up any size dome in two weeks or so. The foam is on the outside and it just gets painted with latex.

 

Jared- let's be honest though. low cost housing up here is a cardboard box on a $100,000 lot.

 

here's another page: http://www.simondale.net/house/build.htm

 

Those are cool, some guy revolutionized the dome building process though... He sets a bladder down, builds some sort of rebar structure that is flexible and pours concrete over that then inflates the bladder. He can actually make quite large domes with the process. Doorways and window openings have to be cut out. Very cool!

 

Yup, definite Hobbit lineage there...

My first thought on looking at it was that it looks like a Hobbit hole. Pretty cool.

There's a place not too far from here (just over the hill, in fact...place called Hopland) that has a huge straw bale building. It's called Real Goods Solar Living Center. An old friend of mine was the contractor on it and I got a tour while it was under construction. Quite interesting.

 

Being the guy that I am, I'd need a LOT more solar panels.

Ryan