Mandating minimums is actually one of the few uses I have for the federal government and one in which I think they deserve a consistent failing grade.

I don't know much about residential building codes, but commercial building codes aren't hard to meet.  I think it would be perfectly reasonable to require all new commercial buildings and renovations in the United States to meet the various International Code Council codes as a minimum standard. 

Those T-shirts miss one word. STUPID.

In this state, if I build a new dwelling, I have to build it to something called 6 star energy rating. Something I will eagerly do when I do build. I will be attempting to remove myself from the electricity grid, and become water self sufficient, if I can.
When I renovated 2 rooms in this house 5 or 6 years ago, I packed the wall spaces with sound deadening insulation and installed double glazed windows. That was far beyond what I was obliged to do at the time.

 

well, yeah, but you had to do SOMEthing about the slave screams, otherwise the neighbors would complain again.

Yeah, but I'm being environmental about it!

One of the great things about Alaska and WV and a few other states is that you can pull a Christopher McCandless, walk into the bush, build your house out of materials you harvest yourself and you don't need a permit to build or a contractor's license or even TELL anyone you're doing it. This is a great thing for people like me who know how. This is a bad thing for people who DON'T, particularly when their home implodes in a wind storm and kills them, or they install a wood stove flue incorrectly and their entire family dies of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In order to get those millions in funding those states would have to give that up and set up another bureaucratic red tape machine to issue permits, inspect facilities, stop work on substandard construction and generally harass nice, gentle folk trying to make a buck.

So yeah, I understand why she did it.

I think the states had the option to work out something comparable to the code instead of just flat-out adopting the code. 

If what you're talking about was the big issue, you could easily make an exemption in the permitting process for houses below a certain size, or houses that aren't going to be attached to public utilities, or a variety of other possible things.  But I seriously doubt that was really the motivating factor in her decision making process.  I'd bet it's large contractors building substandard commercial buildings and housing developments insisting that they don't want to be forced to accept codes that are going to put requirements on window construction, insulation, etc.

I totally understand why she did it.  Isn't one of the reasons why New Orleans hasn't been rebuilt is because of the permits needed to be allowed to start building a new house?  It takes Brad Pitt to get anything done their now.

I'd love to be able to get a small piece of land somewhere and just build.
I'd build something like this: http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/grand-designs/episode-guides/sussex-the-woodman-s-cottage-08-06-11_p_1.html

You live there and I'll live here:

just try to spell "there" correctly next time.

I'm still deciding. My choices are:

This: www.earthbagbuilding.com
this: www.balewatch.com
or this: http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

but I have this:

so no rush...

I see parallels between the earthbag/sandbag builds and the cinderblock construction done in most of central & south america.
But what do you use for bags?  I mean, it looks like you'd need something pretty resilient; you wouldn't be able to hand-craft enough bags from natural resources to mean much of anything.

That simondale house is AWESOME.
Zoomie, I know you said you'd never build anything for me after the little mexicans/fence incident...  but when I'm rich, would you come build me one of those??
I'll let you have a semi-adjacent lot for your own hobbit hole house!

edit:  follish question:  have you considered just embedding the airstream into a hillside?

I really like the simondale house, too.

I'm probably going to start researching the feasibility of various construction types in the pacific northwest soon as part of my 3-4 year plan to leave Maryland.  I want to bike the American Discovery Trail out there.

For the sandbags you use... sandbags.  You can actually buy a 1000 foot roll of them uncut and sewn, so you get this long woven polyethylene tube. You mix soil and a little clay with water,  tamp them well in place and set two lines of barbed wire between each layer to stop any sliding. When you're done, you plaster the entire thing with three layers of lime slake. It holds solar radiation in winter and sheds it in summer.

Of course I'd build you a house, Luke.

I'm leaning toward the Simondale house as well, I especially like the roofing system. But no channeling pee into the garden.

But no channeling pee into the garden.

well, then, what's the point.

I know that you have some unappetizing habits, as do we all. But a walk in the garden that smells of piss and Dr Bronners isn't one of mine.

I'm probably going to start researching the feasibility of various construction types in the pacific northwest soon as part of my 3-4 year plan to leave Maryland.

The PNW is fucking amazing. I'd love to live there some day.

I'm probably going to start researching the feasibility of various construction types in the pacific northwest soon as part of my 3-4 year plan to leave Maryland.

The PNW is fucking amazing. I'd love to live there some day.

100% agree.

I'd like to take some of you around the south island of NZ for 6 months.

Even though it dont get much press except when it's on fire, but the Victorian high country is awesome...

One of the biggest temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, no one knows what the fuck is living in there. Covers a third of the state. And all an hour from my house.

sounds like something we should explore some day!

Straw bale houses are pretty easy to build. I have pdfs with complete instructions if you want them.

I always thought it would be cool to build a reinforced concrete house (fireproof) in the middle 0f the forest mirrored on all sides so that it becomes completely invisible.  Bitch it would be to keep clean, not very practical I guess.

I like the idea of building mostly underground, with only a very small footprint for entrance/exit above.

I like the idea of building mostly underground, with only a very small footprint for entrance/exit above.

I've always loved that idea.

You live there and I'll live here:

Looks good until an Earthquake comes and then you'll be sledding that top half down hill.

I like the idea of building mostly underground, with only a very small footprint for entrance/exit above.

I've always loved that idea.

In Coober Pedy, a large percentage of the towns population live in abandoned opal mines. Cool in summer, warm in winter, stable, and minimal decorating costs.

I'd need some windows & natural light if I were going to live anywhere underground.

Lucas: Google the word "earthship".

Best of both worlds (above and below ground), heat from the sun, cooling from the earth, electricity from the sun and wind, water from the earth, once you build it no utility costs. And 75% of the building materials are recycled, therefore FREE.

I'd stab Sarah Palin with my meat sword.

And she'd shoot you from a helicopter.

so wait, zoomie is going to live in hobbiton?