From: "John A. Weeks III" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Possible ? Cheap-o house, act as contractor.
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:05:43 -0600

In article <1111544746.001513.318580@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 roger61611@yahoo.com wrote:

> Land is cheap here, relatively.  Couldn't I put in like about a 60 x 30
> concrete foundation, build the perimeter walls out of split block, run
> joists across the crawl space, put a roof on, and have a shell ?  I
> could fill the split block with sand for insulation.  Sand is cheap.  I
> could just do drylock over the split block on the inside, I don't care
> what the walls look like.  Build some interior walls, run the
> mechanicals, and voila.

Many people are thinking about that these days.  So many people
have been locked out of the economy due to lack of jobs and
high cost of housing.  People by the millions are taking RV's
down to BLM land and abanonded air bases in Arizona, New
Mexico, and Texas.  Others are moving to areas without zoning
to build alternative houses.  I have been looking at old school
buildings, shipping containers, abandonded missile bases, rail
cars, school busses, and various kinds of pre-fab and kit homes.
One of my favorite ideas so far is to get an old airliner and
put it up on pilings over the Mississippi River.

> Am I nuts ?  Don't suggest prefab, I want something built out of
> masonry.

No, you are not nuts.  You may be seriously underestimating
the time, effort, and cost involved, and you may be overlooking
the fact that you can really on do this in areas where you
are effectively off of the grid.  And finally, you are most
likely going to end up with something that is not possible to
sell.  Few people can pay cash for a home, and you will not
get a mortgage on an alternative home.

There are a lot of web sites out there from people who have
gone the alternative house route, and some good magazines.
Do some research, and make sure you have a realistic view
of what you are getting into.

-john-

-- 
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John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
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