Feedback on Rex’s Pallet House

Post and beam pallet walls are fast, strong and very low cost.
Post and beam pallet walls are fast, strong and very low cost.

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.

Read more

Update on Rex’s Pallet House in Texas

Rex’s pallet house in Texas is expected to cost around $4/square foot
Rex’s pallet house in Texas is expected to cost around $4/square foot

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!

Read more

Johnny Punish Earthbag Home


“First, I knew no matter what I did to study how to build such a thing, being a newbie never built a structure kind of guy from New York City, I would make huge mistakes. So instead of getting down and building the main home first, instead I first built a property wall. And boy oh boy, I am glad I did. The team I put together made horrific mistakes…Heck, we lost the wall twice! But I knew that learning curve would beat us up so it was cool. No worries.

Read more

Compact Living

The cosy seating corner/manual office. Here I have most things I need at my fingertips in the carousel and drawers.
The cosy seating corner/manual office. Here I have most things I need at my fingertips in the carousel and drawers.

You know you have achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Read more