Recycled Houses???
December 11, 2009
I LOVE THIS! Even if this is not how you would build/decorate your home, you have to appreciate his view on life! His view of teaching others skills, especially to the working poor (note he says “WORKING poor”). And if we will be completely honest, many (not all) people that live in huge, luxurious houses are house poor; their income is ate up by the monthly mortgage payment!
He requires $500 to buy your own tools and a stable job. This is requiring a reasonable investment and responsibility. People need to invest so it will mean more to them and not be just a hand out.
I can not begin to tell you how much ‘salvage’ my husband gets from local builders and lumber yards, not to mention stuff people will just cast aside.
I love when he says, “Maybe if you don’t have the discipline to wash your own dishes, maybe you don’t deserve the dishes?” How many homes need this lesson?
Do you realize how skilled these men (families) are once they have built their home from the foundation up, for $20,000? Do you realize the freedom they will have? Just think how building this way would push you to be creative and make it uniquely your own!
Let us all be willing to plant seeds in people’s lives, passing it on for generations!!! Revolutionary ideas last longer than mere mortals!
Topics: Boys!, Creativity, Frugal Choices, Resourcefulness | 8 Comments »
Comments (8)
Oh my goodness… this is one of the most brilliant/noble/happy things I’ve seen in a long time–thank you! I’ll be linking
This really resonates deeply with me. It’s a fine idea. Let’s just hope the government doesn’t get wind of it and mess it up.
Along with the modern term “working poor,” the Victorians had an even more politically incorrect term: deserving poor. The church folk who doled out aid were not about to give it to the town drunk who would promptly waste it. Aid went to the sick widow who COULD not work. It’s time we returned to that standard of small scale, local aid and self-help.
Oh I love this! Thank you for sharing it. I used to get Mother Earth News magazine, and they had all kinds of ideas of this sort. One of my favorite articles they wrote once was about alternative housing. They had yurts and underground homes and all sorts of neat, unique homes. This is my favorite though! I will link to this!
LOVE it! The comments from Eric about the community as an orchard coming from this one man’s “seed” of an idea and project literally brought tears to my eyes. I agree with Marcia’s concern but hopefully as long as each building is up to code, they should be good to go. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
Kathy, this is GREAT. My husband is in construction and oh the things he brings home. We once built a huge porch from pallets, he started it and got busy with work. All that watching and bringing tea taught me how to finish. I just took the hammer and seperated the pallets, picked up the skill saw, cut the boards and nailed it together. All it cost was nails and time, and some of the nails from the pallets were still useable…. I miss Texas Country Reporter, we used to watch it on RFD when we had sallilite, but cut the sallitlite off. I hope you don’t mind but I want to share this on my blog, I will of course tell them where I got it from.
This is great! Our in laws recently did something similar to this. They have about 15K in their three bedroom home. It is a nice home with picture windows, slinding doors, and nice big arches. A good portion of the materials came from a couple of homes that were being demolished. They were able to get all of their windows, doors, bathroom vanity, decks, and many other things for free. All of the work was done by family, something you don’t see everday. As a housewarming present they recieved a plaque that read: A house is built with wood and beams, a home is built with love and dreams. I wished hubby and I had thought about this idea before we got our dreaded mortgage.
Sounds like an awesome idea, but the ‘stable job’ thing is unfortunately pretty hard for so many people!
I’m glad that he’s helping out though!