Comments on: It can’t possibly be worth it…

By: Fay

Fay — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:03:51 +0000

I think Stackwall homes are great, but who will insure them? This seems to be a problem here in Northwestern Ontario in Canada. Can anyone help me find an insurance company? Also, insurance companies here don’t like it if you say you heat your home exclusively with wood. Are there any insurance companies out there who can live with that, and will insure a Stackwall house with a wood burning woodstove?

Fay

By: Big Daddy

Big Daddy — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:37:30 +0000

Big Daddy says

Hi, the stack wall home in the picture is in upstate NY, and its just outside a small town. Learn from experience you don’t want total isolation but you do want to be removed from the higher cost of the cities that demand the higher wage jobs to help pay for the conveniences and the lifestyle that goes with it.

The number one challenge is not the land purchase or the building of the desired home of your dreams its what comes next, and finding the finances to fund the journey. This was the down fall of the original back to the landers.

With the internet and the advent of on line businesses being available today there is no reason for a reasonably healthy person should not to be able to make this lifestyle work. I have been doing it for years, nature wins over the throw away society trapped in the unsustainable over priced rat race. You can have your cake and eat it too.

With corporations and globalization, template business models and systems designed on how we should interact between job and community as well as being run red line for their disposal when a recession hits. Then if this isn’t its own form of isolation then I don’t know what is? The reality is the winner is the one that calls their own shots and becomes independent of the lifestyle best served by shareholders and big business creation. On the land you will at least be able to feed your family and see your dream made by your own hands
and this is the real freedom you want.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:15:43 +0000

I used to build grain silos on the the family farm and dream about what they could be turned into… skateboard halfpipe: yes. House? perhaps. Just take four grain silos and connect them with large hallways built from those sea containers and you’d have yourself a modern day castle!

By: PatrickB

PatrickB — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:59:58 +0000

We presume some building skills and the health to be able to complete the project – I am still looking at using 40′ used sea-containers – they sell here in the UK at about US$2,000 delivered on site. They can be adapted in so many ways including underground or partially buried, or even stacked . They are 40′X8′X8′ (also 20′ and specialist cylinderical and insulated units are available) and very susceptible to the ministrations of a plasma cutter and a welder. You simply add new units as you can afford them or as your needs increase. The shell is weather, quake & fire proof and easily and cheaply protected against corrosion. If you ever need to move house – it could not be simpler.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:32:45 +0000

Thanks for the Dignam link Shannon. I’ve been looking up land on mls.ca but it mostly lists slices with houses allready on them. Dignam seems much cheaper.. Buying land seems in reach for a poor carpenter like myself!

Those cordwood houses sure are beautiful! They would be a good solution to all the pine beetle infested trees here in BC.

By: Lizz

Lizz — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:29:03 +0000

Shannon, your blog posts about housing and earthly home structures really has been very inspiring to me. Back in the early 90′s my parents acquired 25 acres of land in Florida. We visited it every summer and it has always been their dream to build their dream home and farm on it. Unfortunately they never had the funds to do so and now that they are nearing retirement age I fear they might sell the land just so they can have some money to fall back on. (Not that it will matter, all of Florida will be underwater in a decade or two anyhow!) My parents have many health problems and do not go to the doctor because they do not have insurance. As much as I really hate to leave my childhood home, I am becoming more and more tempted as the months go by to leave the United States for good. 1/8 of my monthly pay goes to health insurance that wont even cover half the things I need attention for and there isn’t a single one bedroom apartment in a 20 mile radius that I could afford without giving up my passion for art and acquiring two roommates. If I could live frugally for a few years and save up some money to escape I am definitely fleeing to Canada. Its always been a dream of mine to find friends interested in the same goals and pitching together on one or several nearby plots of land to build a small sustaining community of earthly homes with a small farm. Anyway this turned into somewhat of a rant but I just wanted to thank you for your blogging about homes and land. Thanks a lot! I think my dream is still attainable. :)

By: Bryant

Bryant — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:23:15 +0000

crystal -

I just read this, and thought the same thing. There are actually some affordable properties on Ebay, mostly in the AZ/CO area though.

This is something that I have thought about several times in my life, and this post just got me stirred up again. Thanks!

By: crystal

crystal — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:05:34 +0000

Shannon (or anyone else with an answer) if you know of a company such as Dignam selling US properties I’d love the info. Thanks!

By: Audrey

Audrey — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:04:20 +0000

Hi Shannon- I think I would actually prefer to live in a solar powered house like the one pictured, it is awesome. Where I live now I would have to get approval from the “association” in the development to even consider solar panels. I live in suburbia outside Philly and here you can’t even change the exterior without approval from the board. Lots of red tape. I am an antisocial hermit by nature but my kids love playing with our neighbors. So I think I will be here for a while for them. Every dwelling situation has its pros and cons.

And as for US healthcare, I hope you are right. We just need to get the republicans out of the white house…

By: DIYer

DIYer — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:07:13 +0000

Here’s a site where some reasonable (IMO) folk are discussing sustainability and such:
https://www.wtdwtshtf.com/

By: Nicole.

Nicole. — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:37:34 +0000

Dustin:

Can you contact me, miss_alienation@hotmail.com ?

It’s very likely we’ll take you up on this offer. I’m going to view the property on Saturday and can send you some photos if interested.

By: david guy

david guy — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:31:22 +0000

hey shannon do you know of any web sites and/or publications of designs of these types of homes..

By: maudlinmuse@yahoo.com

maudlinmuse@yahoo.com — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:21:09 +0000

I have an acre and no desire to hang out with the Jones’. I’ll keep rock gathering, landscaping and eventually might be able to do this. It’s perfect

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:36:07 +0000

^^sorry, posting under old s.n.

By: Owned

Owned — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:34:41 +0000

I love the idea. Along the same lines…anyone else think that “the village” had the right idea? I would so love to live off the grid in the middle of nowhere.

By: HappyRat

HappyRat — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:41:15 +0000

Great post!

I’ve been looking at what to do with my life, I’m 19 without any savings.

I need to:
Go $200,000 in dept to go to college to get the job to work from home to pay for my college to save for the land to build my earthen home to be rent and energy free to live in a healthy way.

It’s insane, and almost seems impossible to do in my lifetime – many people have tried to tell me it is.

By: Snap Dragon

Snap Dragon — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 03:17:17 +0000

This is where I want to live.

By: Mars

Mars — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:29:19 +0000

I live 45min outside Philly in a rather rural area with plenty of land. Yes the land is expensive here, but I could definitely see myself living in this area in a house like that once I graduate college. The career I’ve chosen doesn’t pay a lot, so inexpensive housing would help me. I personally think the house pictured above is stunning. So why wouldn’t I want to live in a beautiful house, in a fantastic area, and less then an hour away from a fairly major city?!

By: Dustin

Dustin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:12:13 +0000

Shannon and Marc/Nicole (hi guys)…..

I’m in school right now (in Winnipeg), on my way to becoming an architect. I’ve just started the journey, but if by next summer, or any summer after that, you decide to build something on some property in Canada, let me know…. I would love to help out, whether it’s design services or even just manual labour. Keep me in mind…. all three of you know me, just in case you’re wondering if it’s THAT Dustin.

And that goes for anybody else I know who’s reading these comments. It would be the experience of a lifetime.

By: Jacques

Jacques — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:49:43 +0000

very cool post.
a do it yourself lifestyle is extremely apealing.
tho living on a boat……ahhhhhh.