Cob: new to list, and cob

[Ted Schluenderfritz]

Hello,
I live in NE PA and was thinking about building a cob home (needs to be at least
4 bedroom--1000sqft?) I am interested in duplicating the look of a traditional
English cob
cottage. I would like to stay under $30,000 (not including land) some questions
are:

I come from MN and am use to cold weather --average low temp in January -1.4,
in North East PA it's 18.4. What exactly would the 8r be like...would it just
cost more to heat or would it feel very cold. Does anyone have a cob house in
this type of climate? 

I was thinking that if I made walls which started at 4 feet wide, and then
quickly tapered to 2 foot it would help with keeping the house warm (like a
buttress [if that is the word I'm looking for])

how expensive and feasible is a thatched roof. Does anyone know of a master
thatcher who returns your phone calls :^)

I want to put in geothermal, what kind of success has anyone had with this?

>From what I've been reading, straw bale is not as highly insulative as once
thought and that it will rot in a short time. How often would one have to
rebuild walls made of strawbale. Plus it sounds awfully fussy with keeping the
lower level dry(?)

what about basements? does anyone recommend them, or not recommend them?

Sorry if a lot of this stuff has been gone through before, I have been looking
at the archives for info, but haven't found any conclusive answers to these
things. If anyone is building with cob (or has built with cob) in the northeast
part of PA (or a similar climate) I would be interested to hear from you.

Thanks,
Ted