Housebuilding Checklist
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Hello,
Can anyone recommend a downloadable checklist or spreadsheet which covers the many and varied aspects of building a house? It would be even better if it included green-building topics. I’m a little fuzzy what this might look like, so I’m looking for a wide range of suggestions which can guide me.
Thanks,
John
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You've got to be kidding.
Building a house is, for a human being, like building a Universe must have been for God.
What we demand from human shelter today is so extraordinarily complex, it is like building a space station with intricately interacting life-support systems. It IS rocket science.
Even if you could find such a "checklist" (which I'm sure someone is marketing), it would not begin to be sufficient to cover the spectrum of issues involved.
I used to be an advocate of encouraging people to build their own homes (with some professional guidance). I no longer do that, because we are no longer willing to build simple shelters and, in most places, there are far too many code and other legal requirements and restrictions.
Perhaps if you told us who you are (owner/builder, client hiring a builder, builder, designer...) and what you hope to accomplish, your question can be better answered.
I started my building company in 1974 and my roots in construction actually go back to the mid 60’s when I worked for a framing crew during high school. The amount of knowledge I’ve learned over those years is invaluable to me and I can’t imagine imparting that in a “checklist”. If I could it would be as long as War and Peace and probably as boring, except for those of us who enjoy construction.
Feel free to contact me through my website with any specific questions.
http://www.aedwards.com
John,
I agree with the previous two comments: there has never been, nor will there ever be, a single checklist for building houses.
However, if you are starting at Square One, I urge you to spend time at the GBA Web site. There is a lot of information here. If you become a GBA member, you may find our Strategies and Details page to be useful.
John,
Many green building certification programs use a checklist system to determine how "green" a home is. I'm a bit of a critic to this approach and the checklist should not be used as a design tool. However it can be informative to look through these rather extensive checklists to gain some familiarity with all the aspects involved in building a durable, energy efficient building that considers its greater impact on the environment.
These checklists can help clients understand what designers and builders are dealing with "behind the scenes" (with the client's money.) They can help educate you also to formulate the right questions to ask prospective designers and builders to ensure they are aware (and care) about making a responsible buildings.
The checklist for a green certifying program in Minnesota can be found at-
http://www.mngreenstar.org/index.php/professionals/checklist-and-manual
John, I'm sure you're not kidding and hope you're not put off. I came here in hopes of simplifying my own process and ... while it hasn't turned simple at all, it has gotten a bit more organized as I've learned more about what questions to ask, and of whom.
This, more than anything, has been very helpful to me.
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/integrated-design
Good luck.
Joe W
Joe,
You need to explain what you're trying to do. If you want to design and build your first house yourself and have never done any design or carpentry, then you ARE asking for the impossible. There are a number of schools that teach various elements and approaches to design and building, including "green" approaches.
If you're having someone build you a house, or looking for a qualified designer/builder, and just want to learn enough to make sure they do what's needed, then there are simplified CodeCheck by Taunton Press (http://www.codecheck.com/cc/index.html) flipcharts that will be helpful.
But, until you tell us what your intentions and needs are, then we're all just shooting in the dark.
Thanks, all, for your helpful suggestions. The Minnesota GreenStar program looks like it has lots of helpful ideas. I'll continue studying the GBA website for more great ideas. I wish the Codecheck web pages had at least a Table of Contents listed to help me decide if their flip-books would be helpful for me.
I built a small house 20-some years ago, and may have the chance to do another in the next year. I want to incorporate more green ideas in this one, as well as make fewer mistakes than the last one. That's why I was looking for organizational ideas.
What I would really like is to purchase a full set of blueprints for my house, incorporating a shallow frost-protected foundation, double walls, etc. But I've not found any such generic blueprints -- I don't want to spend the money to hire an architect for a one-off design. It may be that I will just use a conventional house design as a template, and then try and modify it to make it greener.
Thanks again to all.
John,
Generic house plans are rarely very green - both because there is not a mass market for green homes and because an important part of what green means is that the form and function of the building fit the specific needs of the occupants and the requirements and limitations of the site. And you're certainly not going to find a generic plan for a double-wall house on a frost-protected shallow foundation. There are only a handful of designers and builders creating such homes.
However, the choice is not so black and white between hiring an architect and purchasing off-the-shelf plans. I offer very reasonably-priced consultation and design services, have 30 years of experience in building the kind of home you seem to want, and prefer working in a collaborative partnership with the client.
If you'd like to talk more, contact me at HouseWright (at) Ponds-Edge (dot) net.
The CodeCheck flip chart has pages with both text and diagrams on these topics:
Intro - Sequence of Inspections
Foundation, CMUs, Foundation Repairs
Underfloor - Floor Framing - Studs - Headers - Wall Framing
Fire Protection - Egress - Masonry Fireplaces
Roof - Sheathing - Interior & Exterior Wall Covers
Final - Smoke Detectors - Stairs - Windows
Plumbing - Spicial Inspections - Site - Foundations
Plumbing - Drain - Cleanouts - Drain Sizing - Vents - Wet Fents
Plumbing - Water Sizing - Laundry - Bathroom - Gas Piping
Mechanical - Forced Air Furnace - Combustion Air
Mechanical - Appliances - Ducts - Flues
Electrical - Appliances - Conductors, Sizing Service
Electrical - Temporary - Grounding - Meter/Main - Subpanels
Electrical - Rough - Circuits - Romex - BX - Conduit
The Code Check Complete, which is in spiral bound book form) covers the same areas in more detail.
I am building my own house in the spring. When I started planning the project I found it really helped to research the different aspects of the house I wanted separately.
For example you mentioned frost protected shallow footing foundations. Here is a useful guide to get you started thinking about FPSF design: http://www.toolbase.org/PDF/DesignGuides/revisedFPSFguide.pdf
Before you get too carried away with researching individual topics however, I would spend lots of time (as others have suggested already) on this website (especially in the Green Basics section) investigating what type of "green" features you want to incorporate into your house.
Good luck.
Remember Lucas, the "greenest" features are the ones you leave out.
Very true.
John, you said "What I would really like is to purchase a full set of blueprints for my house, incorporating a shallow frost-protected foundation, double walls, etc. But I've not found any such generic blueprints -- I don't want to spend the money to hire an architect for a one-off design." You might be interested in checking out the plans offered here: http://www.kaplanthompson.com/attainable_now.php.
Mike: That is a really nice website and looks like a very solid business plan. Great marketing move.
Mike: The majority of what I learned in my early years (and still today) is from Fine Homebuilding Magazine. For around $100 or so you can purchase a CD with all of their articles in past issues. I believe they now have an online version of that too. Not really a check list but you can start with the foundation and work your way up finding several articles on each step.
Good Luck.
John,
If you're interested in a straightforward and thorough text/reference book on energy-efficient home building, the out-of-print book From the Ground Up by Charlie Wing (my original teacher when he ran the Cornerstones School in Maine) is still relevant and an excellent overview of planning, designing, engineering and building a home.
You can get is used through Amazon.com for less than five bucks.
Charlie Wing's new book, The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling, is perhaps the best reference manual on building and renovation.
Robert R: Thanks for going to the trouble of typing up the Table of Contents of the CodeCheck flip chart. It looks like it could be a helpful addition to my planning. I often referred to Wing’s “From The Ground Up” while designing and building my first house. I will check out “The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling.”
Lucas D: I’ve stumbled before into the Toolbase description of various insulated foundations. Very helpful! I’ll be using it when I get my building site finalized. And I agree that the GBA site offers a wealth of information. I’ve spent a lot of time reading the forums, as well as perusing the other information sites.
Mike M: Thanks for sharing the Bright Built Barn plans. I wish there were many more like them that an aspiring DIY home-builder could choose from. I was dismayed that a ready-built 640 sq ft house cost upwards of $250 / sq ft, sans foundation, plumbing fixtures, garage, etc. I hope to build for far less, using my own labor as much as possible.
Danny K: I didn’t know that Fine Homebuilding had their past issues on CD. That could be an excellent resource for ideas.
Again, thanks to all for your many good suggestions.
John,
If you do much of the work yourself and build a simple shelter rather than the "lifestyle containers" that most Americans demand, you should be able to build a fine house for $50-$75 a square foot. The last superinsulated passive solar Energy Star 5+ house I built for a client in VT 2 years ago cost only $105/SF, including contracting out the excavation & site work, slab, plumbing, heating and electrical. It's the house featured here at https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/homes/thick-cocoon-cellulose-protects-superinsulated-house.
Rather than the Fine Homebuilding CD archive, I would suggest the CD archive for the Journal of Light Construction, which is more focused on residential construction techniques rather than high-end architecture. I was a charter subscriber to both publications and I always found JLC more useful than FHB.
Thanks for the recommendation, Mike. John, the specific BrightBuilt plans are available for free (unlike our other stock plans), the owner of the first BrightBuilt wanted to pass the design along to anyone interested in building one themselves, "open-sourcing" the information, so to speak. There's a link to the building plans here: http://www.brightbuiltbarn.com/our-brightbuilt/gallery/
And Robert is correct, building one yourself is the best way to reduce the cost. If your labor is free, you will able to build a building like that for much much less than $260/SF.
Just a note about $/SF, it's a terrible way to evaluate the cost of small houses. Even the smallest house has a kitchen and bathroom (the most expensive rooms in a house), you've merely reduced the size of the inexpensive rooms of the house so the $/SF skyrockets. The inverse is true of McMansions, huge bedrooms and living rooms are practically "free" to a builder, so if land is cheap like in most US exurbs, there is no economic reason not to build a 5,000 empty box if people buy houses based on $/SF.
Jesse Thompson
Kaplan Thompson Architects
Jesse, you're welcome. Very good point about square foot pricing--kind of like buying cars by the pound. I bet my F150 costs less per pound than a Yaris but that doesn't mean it's better.
Danny, I think you meant to address your post to the original poster, John. I agree that Fine Homebuilding can be a good resource. I think it's about $20 a year for their online database, which is not all-inclusive but it has a lot of articles.
How we do think inside a very conventional box (quite literally).
Most houses in the world do not have bathrooms and many don't have indoor cooking facilities either. Even here in the good ole US of A, my small (300 SF) home doesn't have a bathroom (composting outhouse instead), the "kitchen" has a sink with no running water that drains out onto the ground, and my cookstove is a Coleman 2-burner propane camp stove that sits on an antique woodworking bench in my mudroom across from my woodstove.
I do have electricity (all CFL lights) and high-speed DSL internet, so I am fortunate enough to have all the necessities of life and some of the luxuries. If I had to build this cabin myself (it was an old hunting camp), it would probably cost me less than $25/SF.
Robert, how would you design a 600-800 sq ft house in a cold climate for a couple, which would be energy efficient, low-cost, DIY-able, and comfortable as they aged and became infirmed -- unfortunately? An indoor bathroom and kitchen seem attractive to me, and may be essential for my wife :)
John,
Yes, indoor plumbing is considered a necessity by most, though I knew a wonderful couple who lived into their nineties in a self-built house without either electricity, running water or any heat other than a woodstove and a wood-fired cookstove. She wrote a poem called The Outhouse Blues, but the simplicity of their lifestyle - growing and selling organic produce, and living on $2500 a year - left them free, contented, able to mentor and inspire many hundreds of younger people, and with enough time to read and write and be involved in their community.
But, for those whose desires are a bit more conventional, there are a number of ways to build a simple, affordable, healthy and efficient house. A shallow, frost-protected foundation with either concrete slab for solar mass or an earthen floor finished with natural oils and waxes is a good base for a home. Or a pier foundation with wood-framed floor.
Thermally efficient walls could be double framed with roughsawn native lumber from a local sawmill and filled with cellulose insulation or made of structural or infill strawbales with earthen plasters. The ceiling would be wood-framed and piled high with cellulose, and the roof could be covered with wooden shakes or recycled slates from an old roof.
The house would, of course, be designed to take maximum advantage of the free energy of passive solar heat and good quality but not excessive windows could be purchased new or re-purposed from one of the many deconstruction and reuse stores that are springing up all over the country.
The more a house is made from natural materials, and particularly the more earthen materials in the inside, the more healthy the home is - which becomes more important as we age.
It would be a single story to make it accessible as mobility diminishes in time, and simple in shape and structure to make it both more resource and energy efficient as well as less costly.
I specialize in helping people design such homes, and have been teaching sustainable building for the past five years. If you'd like to explore this further, you can reach me at HouseWright (at) Ponds-Edge (dot) net. Or I would be glad to answer your questions here on this forum.
Yes Mike - meant for JOhn - I think the post above mine was to you and didn't look back far enough.
And as RR stated - JLC is my other favorite as well - both have great content. I have 20 years of both in my office and use them for reference all the time.
Another resource I forgot to mention. The NAHB sells several books Builderbooks.com I believe - although I have never been too imprssed with them - a little too simplistic for me - but are probably pretty good for someone new entering the business - alot of them come with CDs that have checklist, forms, etc.
Plumbing is usually essential to whoever hopes to sell the house later on too. That might mean yourselves when you need cash for elder care, or your estate. Either way, something to consider.
Conventional indoor plumbing is not a necessity for a marketable house.
I designed and built the first state-approved indoor composting toilet in MA in 1998. While this super-insulated passive solar house did have hot and cold running water (and all the other usual kitchen and bath amenities), it had no flush toilet and no central heat (woodstove and wood cookstove only).
Because the state allowed a 40% reduction in leach field size without a flush toilet, the reduced septic system meant that a flush toilet could never be installed in the future. But a local bank was happy to offer a construction loan and mortgage on this home, with no worries about marketability since it was a superior home to almost anything else on the market in terms of energy efficiency (and was also certified as an Energy-Crafted Home by the electric utility).
"my small (300 SF) home doesn't have a bathroom (composting outhouse instead)"
Why don't you use an indoor composting toilet?
"running water that drains out onto the ground"
What happens in the winter? I could imagine that you'd soon have an ugly skating rink.
"She wrote a poem called The Outhouse Blues"
Helen Nearing?
"A shallow, frost-protected foundation with either concrete slab for solar mass or an earthen floor finished with natural oils and waxes is a good base for a home. Or a pier foundation with wood-framed floor."
How is an earthen floor built and used? What oils and waxes are used? Can it be insulated like a concrete floor? How are partitions, cabinets and toilets attached? Can a superinsulated house built on piers (with the crawlspace presumably open to the weather) be kept above freezing in the winter without added heat, as I understand a superinsulated house on a slab will be?
"The more a house is made from natural materials, and particularly the more earthen materials in the inside, the more healthy the home is - which becomes more important as we age."
By "earthen materials" do you mean something other than an earthen floor?
"I designed and built the first state-approved indoor composting toilet in MA in 1998."
What is the attitude of the Vermont Wastewater Division regarding composting toilets and reduced capacity leach fields? Would I be correct to assume that the cost to build a reduced capacity leach field is not all that much less than to build a full capacity leach field?
"Why don't you use an indoor composting toilet?"
For one, because there's no room. I had to insulate and finish an attached screen porch just to make room for my woodstove. And that mudroom also houses my cookstove and a 55 gallon food-grade plastic water barrel that I fill with a small gasoline pump from a nearby stream 3 or 4 times a year (and all my boots and coats and gloves). The water is double filtered as it's pumped into the barrel, and used for cooking or run through a Brita filter for drinking (and making coffee).
There is also a 5 gallon pail on a shelf on the wall that has a hose connected to a spigot over the kitchen sink. That pail gets filled by rainwater collected off the roof or by melting snow on the woodstove, so I don't have to use my filtered water for dishes (I also brush my teeth with that "free" water).
Secondly, there is no such thing as an indoor composting toilet that doesn't smell. The odors can be eliminated by constant fan exhaust, but that's an energy drain. Odors can be minimized in a bucket latrine by separating the urine (which creates an anaerobic condition and ammonia) and topping each "deposit" with saw dust.
"What happens in the winter [to the sink drain water]? I could imagine that you'd soon have an ugly skating rink."
Since I use about a gallon of water a day for dishwashing, hand washing and teeth brushing, it never accumulates, even in winter. In any case, the water drains to the edge of a steep slope. The trick is to keep the drain pipe from freezing.
"She wrote a poem called The Outhouse Blues" Helen Nearing?
No, but I knew Scott and Helen Nearing. I visited them at their homestead in ME when Scott was 99 years old (the last year of his life - he checked out at 100). I was living a little down coast in the woods with four nuns and a priest, creating an alternative social service community (HOME Coop) within Washington County.
The other homesteaders I spoke of were Wally Nelson (1902-2002) and his common-law wife Juanita (still kicking). Wally born black in Arkansas, the son of a Methodist minister, and was a WWII conscientious objector who was herded into a CO "camp" (a form of concentration camp, like for the Japanese Americans). When he realized that he was being kept isolated from the general population so as not to spread his beliefs, he walked out and spent 33 months in federal prison, organizing to desegregate the prison system, and was released following an 88-day hunger strike during which he was force-fed (like in Guantanamo today).
He and a few others then founded the PeaceMakers, the nation's first militant secular pacifist organization which advocated and practiced war-tax resistance. He was the first national field organizer for CORE (and introduced MLK Jr to the principles of non-violent action), was part of the first Freedom Ride (before it got that name), and spent the latter years of his life on a Quaker land trust in MA growing organic vegetables for market and mentoring hundreds of younger people.
I'll share the words to Outhouse Blues in the next post.
"How is an earthen floor built and used? What oils and waxes are used? Can it be insulated like a concrete floor? How are partitions, cabinets and toilets attached?"
It is like a slab-on-grade, requires something on the perimeter to contain it (like a concrete or stone grade beam) and can be built on foam board insulation or even on top of an insulated concrete slab (but that's a bit oxymoronic). It is built up of layers of a mix of clay, sand and binder (which can be chopped straw or cellulose insulation) to about the thickness of a conventional slab. But, because it dries by dehydration rather than by hydration (like concrete), it takes a while to set before the next layer can be applied, and requires patience.
The top layer would be a finer mix that can include cellulose (no coarse straw), mineral pigments or stone dust for color and strength. Then, once dry, it can be sealed with several applications of natural hardening oil, such as tung or linseed diluted with citric solvent. Some prefer to use thinner mixes of oil/solvent for each successive layer. The top can be waxed with any natural wax or left uncoated. Some care must be taken not to dent or scratch the surface, and heavy traffic areas should be protected or have inlaid stone, but it's easy to repair and reseal. It offers a much "softer" floor on the legs and joints and doesn't alter the body's electric field as concrete does (OSHA limits the amount of time a factory worker can stand on concrete).
"Can a superinsulated house built on piers (with the crawlspace presumably open to the weather) be kept above freezing in the winter without added heat, as I understand a superinsulated house on a slab will be?"
Not unless there is enough passive solar gain during the coldest weeks of winter, which is unlikely in the Northeast. Ground coupling is the best way to make a freeze-proof home.
"By "earthen materials" do you mean something other than an earthen floor?"
Yes, clay plasters (made of a similar mix to the floor, but often with horse or cow manure and lime in the topcoat) create not only a "soft" textured feel to the walls but also maintain a high level of negative ions, which are necessary for good physical and emotional health. Clay is a natural detoxifier and helps keep indoor air pollution-free and also buffers indoor humidity.
"What is the attitude of the Vermont Wastewater Division regarding composting toilets and reduced capacity leach fields? Would I be correct to assume that the cost to build a reduced capacity leach field is not all that much less than to build a full capacity leach field?"
VT allows composting toilets either in addition to or in lieu of flush toilets. With no flush toilet, VT allows only a 25% reduction in leach field capacity, so the savings doesn't come close to the cost of a commercial composting toilet. The house I just designed for Chapman Pond in Tinmouth VT is being built on a sloping lake-side lot that had an old cottage on it and a grandfathered "unknown" septic system which the client couldn't afford to replace. So she's using two urine-separating waterless toilets indoors which are connected to the drain system for urine but are basically very fancy bucket latrines that need to be emptied into a larger composter. This not only avoids having to upgrade the septic system but also protects the lake.
Outhouse Blues
By Juanita Nelson
Well, I went out to the country to live the simple life,
Get away form all that concrete and avoid some of that strife,
Get off the backs of poor folks, stop supporting Uncle Sam
In all that stuff he’s puttin’ down, like bombing Vietnam
Oh, but it ain’t easy, ‘specially on a chilly night
When I beat it to the outhouse with my trusty dim flashlight —
The seat is absolutely frigid, not a BTU of heat…
That’s when I think the simple life is not for us elite.
Well, I try to grow my own food, competing with the bugs,
I even make my own soap and my own ceramic mugs.
I figure that the less I buy, the less I compromise
With Standard Oil and ITT and those other gouging guys.
Oh, but it ain’t easy to leave my cozy bed
To make it with my flashlight to that air-conditioned shed
When the seat’s so cold it takes away that freedom ecstasy,
That’s when I fear the simple life maybe wasn’t meant for me.
Well, I cook my food on a wood stove and heat with wood also,
Though when my parents left the South I said, “This has got to go,”
But I figure that the best way to say all folks are my kin
Is try to live so I don’t take nobody’s pound of skin.
Oh, but it ain’t easy, when it’s rainy and there’s mud
To put on my old bathrobe and walk out in that crud;
I look out through the open door and see a distant star
And sometimes think this simple life is taking things too far.
But then I get to thinkin’, if we’re ever gonna see
The end of that old con game the change has got to start with me.
Quit wheelin’ and quit dealin’ to be a leader in any band,
And it appears the best way is to get back to the land.
If I produce my own needs I know what’s going’ down,
I’m not quite so footsy with those Wall Street pimps in town.
‘Cause let me tell you something, though it may not be good news,
If some folks win you better know somebody’s got to lose.
So I guess I’ll have to cast my lot with those who’re optin’ out.
And even though on freezing nights I will have my naggin’ doubts,
Long as I talk the line I do and spout my way out views
I’ll keep on usin’ the outhouse and singin’ the outhouse blues.
“I use about a gallon of water a day for dishwashing, hand washing and teeth brushing”
I’ve had little luck in my research of an effective, inexpensive, legal graywater system for cold climates. You didn’t mention disposing of the two big graywater sources, bathing and laundry water.
“there is no such thing as an indoor composting toilet that doesn't smell.”
Small composting toilets are of interest to folks who live aboard boats. Many have found that a computer cooling fan in a vent stack, powered by a small photo-voltaic cell and battery, provides enough vacuum to keep the small amount of odors generated at bay. They do separate the urine from the feces, and add sawdust or coconut fibers or peat moss, as you mentioned. Many find a composting toilet to be preferable to the more conventional RV holding tank-type toilet. You are correct that these types of composting toilets are more like glorified bucket latrines, in that the holding chamber (which can be a bucket) typically needs to be emptied or exchanged before the contents have finished composting.
“[An earthen floor] doesn't alter the body's electric field as concrete does”
I wasn’t aware that concrete altered the body’s electric field. Does limestone (from which cement is made) or granite or dirt also alter electric fields? How about clay wall plasters?
“[Clay wall plasters] also maintain a high level of negative ions…and is a natural detoxifier and helps keep indoor air pollution-free and also buffers indoor humidity.”
Filters or absorbents typically need to be cleaned or replaced periodically. Does the efficacy of a clay plaster diminish over time? Is it the clay that maintains high levels of negative ions, or the moisture in the clay? Do you have any references for this?
Thanks for sharing Juanita Nelson’s poem “Outhouse Blues”. It presents in a cute way some of the conundrums of trying to walk as lightly as possible. It’s pretty remarkable if the Nelsons really did live on $2500 per year. The Nearings also claimed to live on very little cash, but their fame as back-to-the-land gurus brought them a great deal of free labor, and subsequent researchers claimed that they actually had significant monetary resources outside of their homestead production.
http://www.brightberrypress.com/MOF&GReview.htm
http://www.brightberrypress.com/BDNReview.htm
"I’ve had little luck in my research of an effective, inexpensive, legal graywater system for cold climates. You didn’t mention disposing of the two big graywater sources, bathing and laundry water."
Graywater and the law don't mix well, but constructed wetlands are allowed in VT, though expensive and requiring an engineer, so more appropriate for multiple-home developments such as Ten Stones in Charlotte.
I do my laundry at the laundromat in town, but only about once a month. I bathe in an outdoor wood-heated hot tub, which requires refilling only a couple times a year. I treat the water only with baking soda to keep the pH up and the natural tannins of the red cedar barrel (which are still leaching out after ten years).
"I wasn’t aware that concrete altered the body’s electric field. Does limestone (from which cement is made) or granite or dirt also alter electric fields? How about clay wall plasters?"
I believe it's due to the chemical and physical alteration of the limestone during the high-temperature kiln process to create Portland cement. Natural materials don't have this effect, and clay (earth) is the healthiest material to have indoors.
"Filters or absorbents typically need to be cleaned or replaced periodically. Does the efficacy of a clay plaster diminish over time? Is it the clay that maintains high levels of negative ions, or the moisture in the clay? Do you have any references for this?"
The cleansing ability of clay (such as the plasters that women use on their faces), I believe, is due to the fact that it has a negative ionic charge and attracts both positive ions (the bad ones) out of the air and also attracts positively-charged bacteria. Google "clay and health" or "negative ions and health" and you'll come up with thousands of references.
People have used clay for healing for thousands (if not millions) of years. When a dog is cut or wounded, it will often go lie in the mud.
"It’s pretty remarkable if the Nelsons really did live on $2500 per year."
The Nelsons had occasional help by their many admirers, and more so in their later years, but they were given a free lifetime lease on the Quaker land trust and built their own home by hand, used no electricity and only a little propane for lights (which I installed) as their vision began to fade and it was too hard to read by candlelight. They published an occasional article, but as far as I knew had no outside source of income. They chose to live at the level that they calculated everyone in the world could live at if all wealth were shared equally – this they considered "right livelihood" and a form of living justice. They also wanted to live below the taxable threshold, as Juanita was arrested in 1959 for tax resistance, dragged away naked under her bathrobe by six burly lawmen (she wrote a story about that - http://www.nwtrcc.org/matter-of-freedom.php).
The one time I know of when the community rallied together to help them out financially was when Wally discovered he had advanced cancer and wasn't interested in chemo or radiation. So money was raised to send him and Juanita to Tijuana where there was an excellent cancer hospital run by three generations of doctors who used a combination of natural treatments, including an initial cleansing fast, to successfully treat most cancers (they also have chemo and radiation, but use them only as a last resort). They encourage daily prayer in the chapel and insist on having a significant other as an emotional support person. Wally spent a few weeks there and returned with a sackfull of nutritional supplements, including the banned-in-the-US laetrile (from apricot pits, and developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering but then dropped like a hot potato because it was too effective and couldn't be patented). One year later, Wally was completely cured and lived, dancing and laughing, into his nineties.
Consider building with Timbersil. It is strong, fire resistant, and pest and rot resistant. It is also completely non-toxic.
Yes, there is. Go to ownerbuilder.com. Scroll down to the design buildbudget excel spreedsheet and download. Other usefull info on this site to. Can be modified and costs can be inserted. any other questions, you can e me @ [email protected]. Licensed Michigan GC.
Gene,
Thanks for the spreadsheet. I'm working my way through the ownerbuilder.com website. Lots of helpful information.
I found that The National Affordable Housing Network sells inexpensive plans for four different cold-weather, well-insulated houses.
http://www.nahn.com/hplan.htm
Be aware that Ned wrote that book in 1985, and the houseplans seem to be of that vintage.
John,
In response to your original post, I have to agree with all those who feel that there are simply too many variables involved in building a good home to reduce them to a checklist.
That said, you might have a look at this one from Oasis Design (a great resource) at this link:
http://www.oasisdesign.net/downloads/DeepGreenBuildingListJ.pdf
It's not a step by step list to build a house, but it does provide a good starting point for things to consider before and during design, from an ecological design perspective.
This site : http://new-learn.info/learn/packages/clear/interactive/matrix/matrix.html
offers a unique tool for designing a climate-responsive building.
While neither provides a complete list of every important element, they can both offer guidance.
Hope you find this helpful.
More good ideas. Thanks Nick