Hi all,

I recently posted about us being on the look-out for OK land.  I am also interested in finding a local, experienced owner-builder in the OKC area for mentoring.  I'm reading and reading, trying to educate myself.  But there comes a time to go past that.  If there is anyone here that fits this description and is up for the job, please let me know!  Kim

We're all looking for those!

Actually I know of one in my area--a long ways from Oklahoma, but he rarely works around here.

"Regular" building--not a bad idea to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.

Somebody out in that direction was having an expensive workshop--sometimes those are great, sometimes not.

If Becky Bee or the Steens--especially on the subject of plaster--were doing one nearby I'd probably go, even though with my dogs and cats getting out of here might accidently end up costing twice what even an expensive workshop does.  

Found it--I don't know any of the people--even from being on a list with them.

Here we go:

QuoteOklahoma - Cob & Straw Bale Homebuilder Workshop - May 12-19, 2007
Shamrock, OK

Join us for a week of natural building construction and education in
NE Oklahoma. Our 7 full days of workshop activity will cover cob and
straw bale construction from start to finish including siting, design,
foundation, wall construction, windows/doors, roof, plasters, arches,
niches and relief sculpture.

The cob workshop is organized and conducted by Kindra Welch and Chris
Copp of ClaySandStraw (www.claysandstraw.com), in conjunction with
Keeshi Ingram and Konstantin Popov of Sustainable Green County. To
see photos from a previous (cob only) workshop conducted by Kindra
Welch, visit:

www.claysandstraw.com/projects/CaretakersCttge/CrTkrCttge.htm


We are pleased to announce that Frank Meyer from Austin will also join
us. With over 30 years of experience in sustainable building, Frank has
extensive knowledge of straw bale construction. He has participated in
building over 40 straw bale structures, including the first load bearing
straw bale building in Texas. Some of Frank's projects have been
featured in Natural Home and Southern Living magazines. For more
information about Frank, visit his website at

http://www.thangmak er.com

Cost: $625 ($575 early registration before March 31st), includes
vegetarian meals, lectures, handouts and camping accommodations.

Discount for couples.

Come build in partnership with the earth!

For more details about the workshop:

Visit www.sustainablegreencountry.org/main/?p=29

Call Konstantin at (918) 289-3061

E-mail kpopov@yahoo.com

Kim, maybe if we get back down in that direction (hopefully soon) we could get together and trade workdays?  Who knows.  We're hoping to be back in the Stillwater area by year's end, but still don't know if things are going to work out that way.  It sounds like your husband isn't really confident about building his own place yet... at one time, we felt the same way.  We bought a pre-statehood house in Tryon,OK with serious problems, yet when we sold it only a few years later, we cleared $16K on it.  We had to hand dig out the crawl space and jack up the floor and put in new joists.  It was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done!  But, we spent less than $2000 on fixing up that house and got a good profit out of it when we had to move up here.  Then we moved to Wisconsin and bought an old out-dated house, and have done nothing but work on it since we got here two years ago.  Our most recent endeavor was totally gutting and remodeling the kitchen, which is almost done now.  After doing wiring, running gas lines, plumbing, tiling, building cabinets, and putting in a built-in pantry, we feel like we could do ANY project, so we are ready to build next time instead of remodel.  I have a feeling that building might actually be a little easier than SOME of the crazy remodeling chores we've done in the last 6 years, and am really ready to try it out.  Anyway, keep hanging out on these forums ... it is a great place to learn.  I love the owner-builder photos, especially the ones that show little details of how they did each thing.