[Spam 55.64%] [Cob] Cob:long response to some of Jill's questions

[Amanda Peck]

The rest of the sentence was " for ten grand."

and the time somebody thought that, it needed to built within the year, as I 
recall.

I've also come down pretty hard here (tennessee) on people who talk the talk 
and end up throwing up a 2 x 4 stick built place.

If you really truly have need for a large house, have gone through the 
visualization exercises, read a lot about construction in general, not to 
mention natural building in general, cob in particular, sure. If you have a 
bunches of friends you can count on.  If you have the ability to mix your 
cob with a tractor or rototiller. If, if.  If you can afford the footings, 
foundation, roof, plumbing, and so on.  I have seen enough designs floated 
to make me think that anyone who talks about square footage first, has been 
looking at plan books or model houses and finding the nicest looking of 
those, and not doing their homework on how much space they NEED, what are 
their hot button issues (two of mine include--MUST have a bathTUB, MUST have 
two doors and maybe even one more fire escape route.).

Plans need to be as organic as the building.  An internet acquaintance in 
another forum is looking for a subdivision house--$250-$300,000 worth of 
house and lot.  They fell in love with a model house, showed us the plans 
from the developer's website.  I asked back if she'd noticed, among other 
things, that the laundry room was separated from any outside door by 
thirty-five feet or so, and the route to the back yard was through the 
living room?  Uh, no, they'd fallen love with the dramatic foyer in the 
model house.  But they really did love laundry from the line, weren't 
planning on using their dryer much at all.

That's why I keep pushing Christopher Alexander.

Biggish houses naturally built?   I'd look to other materials as well.  
Strawbale or CEB, adobe, possibly earthbag or papercrete.  Especially if you 
weren't going to be able to live on-site while it was being built, or have a 
couple of years to settle in and work with the land before you built, take a 
year off from work to work with one of the slipform materials, or cordwood 
(a friend of mine HATED the way the asian lady-beetles invaded the cracks in 
his cordwood home--he plastered it over on the outside).



..................
If a person needs (or wants) a 2000 sf house, isn't it better for them to 
make it from cob than to make it using conventional, power- and 
resource-hogging construction materials?  Shouldn't they be encouraged to 
pursue cob as a construction material, rather than be treated coldly?

just my 2cents.  I'm always discouraged when people take a good idea and 
then get too dogmatic about it.  If I misunderstood what you meant then I 
apologize...

Gabe


-----Original Message-----
From: Amanda Peck [mailto:ap615 at hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 9:25 PM
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: [Spam 55.64%] [Cob] Cob:long response to some of Jill's
questions


Jill--Good for you on thinking small.

I've been not nice at all to the people who wanted to build a 2000 square
foot cob house for ten grand.

-----TRUNCATED FOR BREVITY-------

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