$15 earth berm house filmed 30 years later

[paul wheaton]

Another Mike Oehler creation.  This one is called "the sleeper".  Mike if famous for his $50 and up underground house book.  This house is an above ground earth berm house.  Very small, but a family of three did live in the house recently for 18 months.  There are cedar trees growing out of the roof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL0dkadocQ

[John Raabe]

Thanks Paul for the Mike Oehler video. 

Paul has some other articles and videos that members would enjoy. Visit: http://www.permies.com/

I think it was Paul who voiced the theme of the videos:

"Crappy video is better than NO video" This is true!

Message to self: shoot some proudly crappy video!

[LeoinSA]

This video - also by Paul - is of the original Oehler $50 house outside Bonners Ferry Idaho.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVAF-JjuYc4

My then spouse and I were building about 25 miles away to the east - SE of Moyie Springs, ID.

We visited Mike in his original place in the spring of '79 and as I recall Mike was exceptionally gracious in his tour of the original house, but my then wife wanted no part of dirt floors and a dirt roof - no matter the cost or efficacy of Mike's design.

So I built a 'normal' 12' x 30' cabin like many detailed in this forum.

All I can say is that the current wife and I are once again going land prospecting to see if we can find a few acres to the NW of San Antonio and 30+ years later I'll be building another place from scratch.  Been there done that once, and looks like I'll be doing it again within a couple of years - Lord willing and the creeks don't rise.

And this time I'm gonna try to have those hard packed natural floors.    But we'll see what the boss says about that. 

Leo

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for that, Paul.  Always interesting to see more of Mike's creations and to reinforce the idea that you do not need a mortgage you will pay on for the rest of your life to have shelter if properly motivated.  I could build the $15 house just by skipping one lunch..... 

Mikes earth carpet floor was a good one, but we went to the CBRI light duty concrete floor-- think stucco reinforced with jute landscape netting.  It is a cleanable floor and color can be troweled on.  It has a bit softer feel than concrete but is durable and cleanable while conserving resources as it is only about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.

Here is the last section I did and there is more documentation earlier.

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.msg107717#msg107717

[John Raabe]

Glenn's underground house project is a good example of an upgraded Mike Oehler house. A house with lots of light, charm and one lots of people would want to live in.

The true worth of a house is not what it cost to build, but the life attractiveness of the place to others who might want to live there and invest their money and time into taking care of it.

It is good to know that there are really cheap ways to live if you ever have to get down to the survival level. But most people would want to build something with more long term value than the $15 house.

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, John.

I trust that politicians and bankers may soon take us down to survival level,  so I think everyone should keep this idea in their heads.  [ouch]

True as you say, rustic as it is, we have tons of visitors who would like to stay at ours.