)T-Median home price @ 500k in Bay area

S

Sutcliffe

Joined
Dec 5, 1998
Messages
659
Any of this esteemed panel live in an unusual abode? Got into a home using unusual strategies? Sweat Equity seems to be key, but the housing trades are so specialized that you need a lot of experiance or an army of specialists to build a place. I've peeked at strawbale and Superadobe there must be others. Help me out here. Any thoughts or observations welcomed.
Thanks muchly
 
yeah, I wondered what that was....

A grimacing smirk?

Anyway, I get to exclude myself from this...I'm an architect. That's Mr. Architect. :rolleyes:

Just in case any of you get the wrong idea...

I live in a small apt. and sleep on the floor.

By choice!

;)



Think Rusty's strange? :eek:
 

I live in a small apt. and sleep on the floor.

By choice! [/B]
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Finally!!! Someone else in the universe!!! I take so much flack for this.

(Now I know that this place is full of wackos :eek: :D :D :footinmou !!!)
 
Bruise, find out if the house has horn or wood handles before you offer.
 
I was in a house in Oklahoma that was made by big balloons being the rooms and they were covered by foam that was blown over the balloons. Then the foam was wrapped in chicken wire and a special mix of concrete was blown over the whole thing. The balloons were then allowed to deflate. Door and window holes were cut frames put in place and now the owner is ready to do whatever inside. It took very little heat to keep things like toast in the winter time. It stayed pretty cool in the summer time too. The color was a light brown that I was almost on top of before I realized that there was a house there.

Is this the kind of ideas you were requesting or what did you mean?:) :)
 
Pappy I think you probably mean a Monolithic Dome or one of it's (inferior) copycats. It is (should be) real rebar not chicken wire, although sometimes chicken wire is wrapped on the outside and stuccoed to protect the airform (balloon), which is left on since it is nice and waterproof. It has some real advantages in heating and cooling, not to mention having no interior structure to get in the way if you want, and also being very good at resisting tornados, hurricanes, fires, and earthquakes. Unfortunately for Sutcliffe, unless you put a ton of sweat equity into it, it is no cheaper per SF than a regular house. But the Monolithic Dome Institute puts on training classes to build your own...
 
Yes, that is the kind of thing I have in mind. Unconventional, relatively cheap and durable(meaning not much maintenance) as hell.
In Fresno there is a historic landmark called Forestiere House that a Sicilian immigrant burrowed down into rock hard soil and turned it into a subteranean eden. He was a miner by trade and really made something outta nothing but crap.
Thanks much
I really appreciate the link
 
I have always been interested in "Rammed Earth" construction. It's an ancient technique and buildings several hundred years old are still standing in various parts of the world.

Stabilized dirt is packed into forms and tamped hard and solid. The form is moved up as the wall gets higher. Material is very cheap because it's just dirt. And no specialized training or construction skills are required.

The The U.S. Dept.of Agriculture did studies in the 1920-30s and it proved to be a sound technique with great promise, but due to intense lobbying by the building material, and construction industries the project was dropped and the information buried.

A seminal source of info is "The Rammed Earth House" by Anthony F. Merrill, published by Harper & Brothers, 1947.
 
Originally posted by Ben Arown-Awile
I have always been interested in "Rammed Earth" construction. It's an ancient technique and buildings several hundred years old are still standing in various parts of the world.

Stabilized dirt is packed into forms and tamped hard and solid. The form is moved up as the wall gets higher. Material is very cheap because it's just dirt. And no specialized training or construction skills are required.
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A similar technique was used by Dennis Weaver when he had his "Earthship" house built in Colorado. Old tires are used as the forms and just left in place after the dirt has been pounded into them.
The radius left by the tires are filled in with aluminum cans and then stuccoed over IIRC.
I think some straw is also used in the construction.
Beetle killed timber was also used in the construction where beams were needed.

A couple of good links....

http://www.genrefluent.com/earthshi.htm

This one is about the Weaver's place.

http://www.allison-co.com/weaver.htm
 
Some one-floor, older houses were made by framing up with wood beams a few feet apart, and filling in the gaps with adobe bricks. My grandfather made one, doing a lot of the work himself. Sometimes the wood was covered with stucco, other times protective wood siding was applied to the beams and the wood was a contrast to the adobe part. Saw a few over 50 years old in Salinas, which seemed to be in good shape, at least driving by. Wood beams are not as easy to come by nowadays, I'd think that the laminated wood products could work just as well.

The hassle is probably getting approval for the "non-conventional" construction, especially in your area.

Actually, I saw an article on this topic in the magazine section of this week's New York Times.
 
I live in a geodesic dome, which I guess is a bit unconventional. Material costs are comparable to a regular home, but the shape of the dome means it requires less material to enclose an area than a conventional home. The monolithic domes are cool as well, though I've not seen one in person.
--Josh
 
Originally posted by Kismet
pictures? you build it?
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Kismet-- I've got a few pics, but they are dinosaur-style, not digital. I'll see if I can scan them at work and maybe somebody could post them. It was built in 1987 by a retired couple. They went to San Francisco for a while and the husband discovered Buckminster Fuller. Building the dome was one of their last big adventures. It's a great place. My wife and I are both a bit unconventional, and the dome really fits us. 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, bar, awesome kitchen, tons of storage, three skylights--just under 2200 sq feet overall.

When we started looking at houses, I had no intention of buying a dome. We saw the ad in a real estate newspaper, went and looked at it, and pretty much fell in love at first sight. We arranged to look at the inside, and I knew the moment I stepped through the door that it was for us. Now I don't think I'll ever live in a square box of a house again, at least not if I can help it. My wife and I want to build our dream dome over on the coast when we can afford to do so.
--Josh
 
I just live in a regular house, but a very good friend of mine lives in a retired missile silo/site. It's very nice, lots of room, temperature is constant regardless of what it's like outside.

Believe me, when he goes out and locks the door, No-one else gets in. :D
 
I checked out the site you gave. The house I saw looked nothing like what you are talking about. There well may have been stucco on the outside. I couldn't tell about the rebar. It probably had that too so it would be strong enough. I have seenn several different kinds of domes. That thing in OK was built by a professor at U of O. He wan't completly finished with it on the inside. Any way I thought it was a class act. :)
 
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