Cob: RE: coming to terms... was...ARE OUR NATURAL BUILDING IDEAS CAST IN STONE??? etc...

[Vicki Wicker]

Pat,
We had volkswagen bugs and busses for years under the premise that the
hubby could fix them himself when they broke down. Which was true. He could
do just about anything to it except a total rebuild. Unfortunately, that's
what he did almost on a weekly basis. Fixed something wrong with it. We
finally figured out we could go buy a decent used car for not much more
than an old bug, drive it for a few years until it just gave up the ghost
or something went wrong that would cost more to fix than the thing was
worth. I bought a toyota pickup for 2000 about three years ago, already had
100000 miles on it, but we've driven it all this time now with almost no
repairs. Plus it has AIR CONDITIONING. And gets as good a mileage as our
bugs ever did.
We've got to continue to look for the balance. True, concrete isn't a
"green" product. But if you build a house on a gravel footing and it needs
constant repairs or it falls down around your ears, have you gained much?
Plus, personally I don't want to live in a shack. One of my favorite
stories in the Bible is when the woman pours the oil on Jesus' head and
some of the disciples complain that the money should have been given to the
poor instead. Jesus tells them to basically "lighten up", you can't fix the
world. It's okay to do something nice for yourself or each other every once
in a while.




At 08:25 AM 10/24/01 -0400, Patrick Newberry wrote:
>Coming to terms with making compromises to build "naturally" occurred
>with me a long time 
>ago. My personal focus is geared towards making building one's space
>less costly, and more
>personal. Cob of course does both. 
>
>I utilize what ever I find around me, old carpet, stone, cement etc,
>based on the cost, the 
>appropriateness and my  own personal feeling towards it. Heck, I'm
>living in the sucker. 
>
>My friend recently built his small but cozy one room house with loft for
>$100. We spent almost 
>$200 on the house warming party and had a great time!!! How nice it
>would be if we could spend 
>more on our food than on our housing. Right now the biggest danger is
>that local governments 
>create laws and rules which prevent this from happening. The sacred
>grail of "property values" 
>has more importance than fellow a human being's happiness and comfort.
>By enforcing certain codes, 
>even building natural codes, at the cost of individual creativity to
>utilize innovative building 
>techniques, only follows the same trap that has created a set of
>building codes geared toward 
>pushing the individual away from the option of building their own house.
>Just as cars have become 
>harder and harder for the individual to maintain, so too has our
>(industry standard) houses  have become   
>more and more complex, expensive and removed from the individual owner. 
>
>Love and Light
>Pat
>http://www.gnat.net/~goshawk
>
>
>
>I have come to terms with having to make compromises to build
>"naturally".
>And in the areas I haven't wanted to compromise, and held to my own
>against
>the opposition, if I examine the underlying sources, costs of materials,
>etc, I find I've made compromises whether I'm admitting it or not.
>
>Let's all lighten up, OK?  There are enough really scarey issues now to
>get
>riled up about...
>
>Ocean
>Steward of Ahimsa Sanctuary
>http://www.PeaceMaking.org
>
> 
>
>
>