Cob houses - build a 1000 sqft home for 10,000 to 20,000

The ultra liberal Ann Arbor Michigan would not allow a 10K-1000sf house to be built.

Because the fucked up liberal tax and spend policy would go bankrupt.

Furthermore Democrats would snuff any building permits due on new construction because the trade unions would cut off political donations.

Your fucked up world of singing kumbaya while building a house out of garbage is a fantasy because of the world the hippies have regulated us to live in.

I say fuck you and your fantasy. Vote republican in 2012 and you wont have to live in a garbage can.

some more cool construction

[link to thinkorthwim.com]

my own cob house is still in the dream stage...:)

[link to www.tenchford.com]

I would hope so thats well over a hundred dollars a square foot..

Wow you are one fucked up loser! Keep running your mouth and your ass will be out of here.

WTF?

My opinion is subject to censorship?


You want to censer me because I say your fantasy wont work because of politics you support?

NICE. thank you!!! keep this thread fresh!!! more need to see this.
:)

It should be 10.00 to 20.00 a square foot.

So just keep running with the status quo, which is what has bankrupted the US. I prefer to look to alternatives to the powers that be and run my own system. In other words, I don't care about the corrupt government and corporations that has lead the world to where it is.

Lets re-invent our world.

I love the idea but my fiance wouldn't go for it. I'll have to show her, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe this will help your fiance see things differently. I presented some of these facts at a class I taught last week to people in Calgary. The prices reflect Canadian interest rates, Canadian average house prices, and the prediction from Equi Corp on where interest rates will be going in the next few years in Canada.
You can apply these principles to home prices and interest rates in your own Here is some food for thought on mortgages and our economy:

The average price of a home in Calgary in January 2011 was 454,000. (Across Canada average price is over 400,000)

Current locked in 5 year interest rates are about 4.99%.

With 5% down (on the 454,000) the mortgaged amount of over a 25 year period would be 431,300

At 4.99% interest over 25 years your monthly payment would be 2506.01
Total payment are: 751,801.63
Total interest paid: 320,501.63
Total interest per year: 12,820.07
Total interest per month: 1068.34 for 25 years!


Equi Corp recently announced all over Canadian news that once bank interest rates go up the are expecting housing to drop between 25 and 35% in value across Canada. They see this starting to happen later this year when the Bank of Canada is expect to start raising interests rates. They further stated that the expected level of interest rates will be around 8.5%, which is supposed to be the normal rates that the bank wants to get back to.

So lets see what happens with 8.5% interest on 431,300 over 25 years.

Monthly payments went from 2506.01 to 3430.40.
Total Payments: $1,029,122.98
Total interest: $597,822.98
Total interest per year: 23,912.92
Total interest per month: 1992.74 for 25 years!
area.


Remember, building with cob runs about 10.00 to 50.00 a Sqft. It just really depends on how you source your materials.

If your fiance really saw what mortgages mean for 25 years and how it traps you, perhaps they would think of it differently?

The group I presented to was amazed at what I showed them. Some comments where, "I wish they taught this to me in school" and "I wish I would have looked at how much interest I would be paying long term". People were really stunned.

left off a 0.. in that case I don't beleive that its possible to build any house for 10/20 dollars a foot.

It is possible and I met, interviewed, filmed and spoke to many people who have.

This is how they did it.

1. They did not pay for the sand, clay, water, and 8 or so straw bales that went into building all of their walls. It is sourced locally for free as it is under your feet and other people are always digging foundations for a gas station or some type of building where they dig up a lot of earth including clay.

2. The logs were free as they found beached logs on the ocean and at lakes. The logs were milled at the community lumber mill. The community lumber mill is just a 2500.00 saw that will cut logs into various thicknesses and lengths. A community of people chipped in for the saw mill.

3. The windows and cupboards are second hand and came from dumps, contractors renovating other homes. Some people even bought their used goods at habitat for humanity stores. Some even milled their own wood for cupboards.

4. The roof is cheap as some of the homes used living roofs that used layers of old plastics, tarps, and carpets to make the layers for the living roof to go onto.

5. A lof of the home builders hosted cob building workshops that were advertised in advance. They taught people at the workshops how to make cob and build walls. A lot of the labour was free.

So if you wanted to build a cob home with a contractor with new items going in, then yes it will cost + 100.00 per sqft.

The point of building this way is to escape massive debt and mortgages. See my above post on mortgages and interest.

70 to 100 years ago, people living in rural areas milled their own wood and built their own homes mortgage free. People that want to live life, have quality of life with more free time are the ones who are looking at alternative means of shelter.

Our problem with society is that most people are too busy trying to make a living than finding out what living is for. Our banks, loans, and debts keep us tied into the system and for a lot of people it hinders their true capabilities and talents. How many people work at job, just for the sake of a pay check and then get stuck at job that hinders their growth?

Bump for truth!

THIS THREAD DESERVES A PIN

Thanks OP!

PIN

U mad mr fascist sensible???

The need to make more homes out of materials that last.

Not these wooden termite magnets.

I totally agree and this is why I am working on documentary films in this area.

WANT

IF YOU DO THE WORK YOURSELF??? Good luck with that one.

wow

that was so beautiful

and peaceful

I would love to live in a place like that

a fantasy come true

perfect music to go with the video too

thank you so much for sharing

; )

Very Cool. I have a friend looking to build a house on some property they already own, 400+ acres. I am sure that a good walk through and some soil samples will show they have all the raw materials they will need. I am in engineering and will offer to help them with the design. There is a fairly big snow load where we live so I'll have to do some further reseach. Can you point me in a direction that will show me mixture ratios, expect bearing capacities, ect.

^^^ what ever about all that..no way they built that Hobbit House for 10 dollars a foot..

I'm more into cob myself, but here's a papercrete B&B:

[link to www.evesgarden.org]

The hobbit house gives some numbers on the site I thought but if you negate tools (I see scaffolding and many other expensive tools) and fuel and food while building it then yeah it's felled trees and dirt and a load of crushed stone and replace the windows in the main house and stick the old ones in the new mother in laws quarters or maybe kick the kids out of the house...

It's nothing but some left winged communist propaganda.
Total BS...those numbers change on a monthly bases..
maybe they were pricing materials from 1950's order catalog.

Cob n all sounds great, but where can we build it? Can't build it in the cities on your property because city hall codes wont allow it. Where can I build one? And wherever you build it, you have to still pay property tax to the government. And if you can manage to get away with building one, say outside the city areas, without having city hall's approval, you still have to pay for expensive land to build it on. What do you do if you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars to buy the peropty first to build the cob house. The problem is not cob the problem is property taxes and having to pay for land. It's funny, we were born out of nature standing on the land, yet none of us can own land without being rich. Everyone I know in my gerneation 35 and under are ALL living with their parents (and most have university level jobs). I do know one person in my generation who has a house but that's only because his Dad helped out. So where is someone in my gernation going to find the cash to get land to build a cob house??? without winning the lottery or having your rich parents pay for it for you.

one option i thought of is i would join others who are starting to do the same: they already own a piece of land, they're building cob and setting up permaculture gardens etc. total simple life right, but they're always asking for rent or to buy into the land. So if you're living out in the middle of nowhere with these guys working full timish on making housing and creating permacultured gardens etc. where are you going to the the income to pay rent? and youre nowhere near the city for a job, and if you do find a job nearby you have to drive there, so you have to work full time in a job nearby, but isn' the whole point to ilve on the land independetly full time. So this option doesn't work either.

Any insights?

Right on man

Now that is freaking cool.

Such a shame how we are so far remove from Organic building.