People are dreaming of a better world with homes made of natural materials.
“Argentina is an ideal land to create a radical shift in how homes are built and how we live as a society. Once out of the city, building codes dissolve and one is free to design and build to heart’s content. Here in the sierras land is abundant. I’d love to see some of your designs or hear more about your story.
This is a great idea for DIY low cost storage space. They’re simple enough anyone can build them. If you need a lot of shelving units, then it might be worthwhile to cut the cost in half by using 2x4s from oversized pallets (you’ll have to search around a bit to find them), and bolts or strong screws from yard sales or auctions. Bolts would be much easier to work with since it’s quite difficult to screw into old, dry pallet wood.
“First, let me introduce myself, for those of you who may have just stumbled upon this blog somehow. My name is Erin Finsel. I’m 19 and am just beginning my summer break before my Sophomore year at Berea College. I don’t know for sure, but I think I will be an independent Sustainability and Environmental Studies (SENS- I don’t know where the N comes from) major. My ultimate goal (as of right now) is to have a house, a garden, maybe a few chickens and a really nice cat.
“Now that the walls are all covered with adobe, I can probably work on the roof this winter when we have decent weather. You can’t do adobe work if it’s too cold, but we typically have lots of nice enough days in the winter for working on a roof. The next posting will be when significant framing is done for the roof.”
Yesterday’s blog post about Rex’s Pallet House got me thinking of some different possibilities. Rex and the crew have done an outstanding job so far of building a solid, durable home at incredibly low cost (around $4/sq. ft.). One could stop right there, follow in Rex’s footsteps and be quite satisfied with the results. But I’m the type of person who likes to run ‘what if’ scenarios to explore multiple options. (Brainstorming is free and fun, and often leads to improved results.) For instance, not everyone has 6 months available to build their home. Some builders might prefer spending a little more money to reduce the labor and speed construction. $4/sq. ft. is so cheap, that many could probably afford to pay a little extra, so let’s briefly look at some alternative building methods that will raise the cost a little, without breaking the bank.
This is an update on the pallet house in Texas that we reported on earlier. The ultra-low cost is what really caught my attention and kept me following their progress. The latest cost estimate is around $4/sq. ft. Now that is dirt cheap!