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

[Patrick Newberry]

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