Build Your House For A Thousand Bucks? Really?

I went to the Cal-Earth place in Hesperia and there's some really cool stuff there aside from the sandbag homes - mid-east inspired vault homes, brick domes, fully scavenged/recycled home built in a 20' drain culvert...

The sandbag homes are approved in San Bernardino county and are far stronger than a framebuilt home, however as I understand it took a lot of arm twisting to get the county to accept anything other than conventional construction. Standard geometry, a dome is much more stable than a cube and the end result of these are effectively cast concrete, not nailed sticks.

Chris

I don't recall him writing that he spent winters in motels but then I read the book several years ago so he might have.

There was a homeless man near Buffalo that hit the news last winter. He had been living in a hole in the ground that he built himself. I believe he was there for a few years before some youngsters burned him out. That was why it was on the news.

On another issue, I was told that in the southwest you could get an adobe brick making machine to come on your property to make all the brick you need in a fairly short time and using the mud and clay from your site. The guy telling me about it said that the houses were quite inexpensive and the person running the machine was able to make a six digit living.

I own the book, and recently re-read it, and I don't remember seeing anything about him staying in a motel in the winter, either -- are you sure you don't have him confused with another person? Oh, and I've heard of, and even talked to, several people who've used his post and shore building method. They all seemed pretty happy with their results.

I like the $50 and Up Underground House book, actually. Properly done, I don't think it would feel like a 'hole in the ground' at all. I DON'T like the earthbag domes -- the idea of being in one of those in a major earthquake gives me the willies. Maybe it would actually be safer in an earthquake than one of the $50 and Up homes, but I'd like to see some evidence of that before I believe it.

Kathleen