“Our work on updating the interior of our cob house, Gobcobatron is finally complete! I think this latest design might be my favorite so far… although of course it’s so exciting just because it is “new”, too. We changed things around to make it an even more appropriate and better place to stay for renters and people who come stay for weekends.”
green building
Milkwood Natural Building Reciprocal Roof
Milkwood.net: “We’re dedicated to awesome homesteading skills for city & country – keeping life simple, organic and deliciously real.
Steve’s New Straw Bale House in Scotland
Yesterday’s blog post was about Steve’s unpermitted straw bale house in Scotland. This is the new straw bale house he is building that includes an amazing (first ever?) double reciprocal roof.
£4000 Strawbale House in Scotland
Steve built a £4000 ($6,260) unpermitted house in Scotland a few years back with local materials. (He hopes to build it for less next time.) The results are marvelous as you can see. His websites are packed with wonderful photos and drawings that show the details. Now you know why I get so excited about natural building, especially when there are no codes to deal with. At just a little over $6,200, just imagine how many hundreds of thousands of homeowners (or millions) could build their own debt free homes. This is something most Americans can afford. Compare this to paying $500/month rent for one year = $6,000. Or invest $6,000 in a natural house and live rent free for the rest of your life. Lots of people are already living this way, and there’s obviously a groundswell of interest as this information spreads.
Dorset Centre for Rural Skills
“Dorset Centre for Rural Skills (DCRS) is an established, not-for-profit, training enterprise with accredited Social Enterprise status.
Building a Work of Art
JOSHUA TREE — “Some of the most grandiose and uncanny pieces of desert art aren’t hanging in local homes. They are the homes. Using stones, concrete and an assemblage of recycled and found objects, Randy Polumbo created the rock and glass house — or as some call it, the “trash house” — in Joshua Tree. The home is representative of the area’s signature art movement, using glass bottles, scrap metal, reclaimed windows, used military ammunition cases and anything else Polumbo could weld or meld into the structure.