Moving Out

[timeLESS]

Hi all. As you might know, im living in the Netherlands. Urban landscape.Urban Life. You know the drill. Me and my partner plan to move out. To less unfriendly territory. Perhaps with a little group of close friends. Not sure on this yet. Now im trying to find information on the webs on buildig your own house. Self-sufficient. Id love something wooden or earth like. what im after is practical information on everything thats involved with building your own shelter. Land can perhaps be bought otherwise squatted and occupied. Mobility would be of much importance in that case.

Our idea is to buy a camper or caravan to live in during this project. We will invite friends to help us. Anyone of you can help pointing me to some on-line resources regarding: Building houses, both temporary shelters and permanent shelters. How-to’s FAQ’s everything is welcome.

Our place will probably be somewhere in northern europe but possibly anywhere. (not too hot i guess) The place will have land to allow for the freedom loving geeks and freaks to come and make camp and to practice skills. Money making problems will be some trouble in the beginning but hopefully wear off if the land allows me to learn its ways.

cheerio !

[bb1]

Hey timeless!

This is Boris. Nice to hear that you are trying to move out! I could send you a dvd: Primitive Semi-Permanent Shelters by the mcphersons ( http://www.amazon.com/Primitive-Semi-Permanent-Shelters-John-McPherson/dp/B000EE26DQ )

Or you could ask Ran Prieur, who is building a wooden cabin. In this FAQ he states "
I read all personal emails and answer most. I like answering questions.". So chances are good

In his landbase FAQ disencourages to built an underground house:

"Have you looked at Mike Oehler’s $50 and Up Underground House Book?

Yes. Here’s a link to Oehler’s underground housing site, and I also cover this in the September - October 2004 archive. Oehler’s book was the first thing I bought after I got the land. Then I did more research and found out that his PSP method is risky and very likely to leak. Everybody wants to live in a “hobbit house,” but if Bag End were real, it would have water running out the walls six months a year without sophisticated waterproofing. Also, a U-house is not breathable – to be fair, neither are “normal” houses. Also, as Oehler admits, a U-house requires a lot of digging, and wet soil is a terrible insulator – the only advantage is that in the winter the stuff behind the wall is only 20 degrees colder than the inside instead of 50 degrees colder. Some people make underground houses work, but on the whole I prefer cob or cordwood."

By the way, I am going to travel southwards, to Malaga in october and stay there for a few month. When I am back, I would glad to see you! Unless you decide to build your house in Spain, then we can meet ealier.

[A_pipe_for_peace]

Cob. I’d go with cob.

Or maybe some kind of demi-permanent structure like a yurt or tipi.