[Cob] Cob in Thailand and forget those Building Codes!

[paul]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Karrington" <sales at diamondcard.us>
To: <coblist at deatech.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 1:11 AM
Subject: [Cob] Cob in Thailand and forget those Building Codes!


>> Is land *that* much cheaper in upstate NY?  It's not like Oregon will 
>> break
>> the bank compared to prime areas like the coasts or FL.  What kind of
>> differences are you seeing in price?
>> Besides cold winters, the summers in NY can be brutally hot and humid.  I
>> have no idea why anybody from OR would beg for that pain unless for a 
>> job.
>> At least in OR you get a milder winter, and the heat is dry in summer.
>> Just wonderin'.
>> p
>
> If you want cheap conditions for building your cob home try thinking
> internationally. I am in Thailand now and "mud building" is now
> starting to take off. Its still in the infancy but has nowhere to
> go but up. I just came across one company that is now in the business
> of building "mud" homes for private people here in Thailand. They have
> two projects going on right now. They call adobe or cob building "mud
> building" here for the most part.
>
[snip] Thanks Stephen, I think it's great to hear about the possibilities 
that exist in all countries.  I have a workmate (I'm in the US and my 
workmate is "the cleaning guy") from El Salvador.  He has property there (on 
his US salary he can afford it) and he has a mud brick home outside San 
Salvador on several acres with jungle, fruit trees (mango, banana) cashew 
trees, and toucans and parrots flying all around the place.  He says that 
mud brick is the way to go there, it's just normal and customary, and it's 
all done on local labor.  Throw in a nice tile floor, have summer every day, 
have mangoes falling off the tree in May, and you're good to go if you have 
that income check.

Language is a major concern though. Learning Spanish or Thai would require a 
real commitment.  Without the language you have to rely on a translator for 
everything, especially legal documents.  Who would want to do a title 
search, or trust one, if they couldn't read the documents?

They speak English (among other things) in Belize. Belize is not quite so 
cheap now in any of the prime areas (meaning the cays or the coastal areas, 
better neighborhoods, etc.) but there are a lot of bargains off the beaten 
track.  There are fewer than 300k people in Belize and 40% of the country's 
land is protected from development.  Eco-tourism is big there. English is 
the official language and all contracts are in English.  You can have title 
there as a foreigner, and you can get residency status by living there 30 
days a year.  You could even get a Belizean passport and travel to, GASP, 
Cuba or some other country that the Land of the Free forbids.

Convenience is big reason people don't want to live in countries outside of 
the first world, but I think we're paying a huge price for such convenience. 
Only a few of us are meant to get off the treadmill of convenience, 
apparently.  And that is as it should be or there would be no place left 
that had one acre of open land on a dirt road.