On: Build a house for less than $5000

[dodedo]

As I said, I have people in my family who have built strawbale houses to code (California code including earthquake provisions, no less). The stylized aspect is distinct from the strawbale and inset-in-land aspect.

Regarding logs, I'm currently sitting in a house with wood framing in the suburbs, and every house around me as far as I can see is also framed with wood.

[freshhawk → dodedo]

Oh yeah, nothing particularily hard about building strawbale houses to code.

My point was about this particular style of amateur building not being amenable to things that require standards.

[ars → dodedo]

The framing is designed to minimize the use of wood, while this house uses extravagant quantities of it.

[ryduh → dodedo]

Would you be willing to post information about the strawbale houses that were built to code? Where can I find more information on that?

[dodedo → ryduh]

I'm not too close with that side of the family, all I know is what I've gleaned during some extended visits. However, this looks like it might be a good starting point: http://www.strawbuilding.org/sbweb/content/strawbale-codes

Strawbale houses do not look significantly different from normal wood-frame, drywall and stucco homes. If I hadn't been told I would not have known.