This House Costs Just $20,000—But It’s Nicer Than Yours

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3056129/this-house-costs-just-20000-but-its-nicer-than-yours?cid=ps002ros&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=newsfeed&utm_term=changegeneration&utm_campaign=ps002ros ^

[maine-iac7]

For over a decade, architecture students at Rural Studio, Auburn University's design-build program in a tiny town in West Alabama, have worked on a nearly impossible problem. How do you design a home that someone living below the poverty line can afford, but that anyone would want—while also providing a living wage for the local construction team that builds it?

In January, after years of building prototypes, the team finished their first pilot project in the real world. Partnering with a commercial developer outside Atlanta, in a tiny community called Serenbe, they built two one-bedroom houses, with materials that cost just $14,000 each.

[Lera]

An acre is a lot to take care of , especially if you are disabled.
Something like this would be extremely cheap to do , plus they are insulated and can easily be bolted down onto a slab in areas where the ground does not freeze.

The biggest problem is getting permitting for something like this because it is not conventional . I was the contractor on my own house and you would not believe the nonsense they put you through , even out in the country away from everyone .






Had to fight the VA for three different vets in my family. It's atrocious what they put you through.
Used to be that families of multi generations lived together and helped each other out during times like this . Now many places do let you do this even if you own the place , this needs to change. To many busy bodies out there.

[Gasshog]

I live in the country too.

Monster trucks and ATVs go roaring down the roads.

One of my neighbors has a nice Camaro with open headers, gets drunk and take a midnight ride on occasion.

Farm Equipment, Loggers, some HS brat broke in one of my cars and vandalized it.

Yep, shore is peaceful and quiet out here in the sticks.

[FirstFlaBn]

I can make any manner of things cheap - by just failing to include all of the costs.

No HVAC system - that means electric resistance heating under the floor; no air circulation.

Gravel driveway - not long before that churns up mud.

Exposed wood unpainted.

As a school project, no sales tax on materials.

I guarantee you the lot and site work costs more than the stated price. Of course the way the game is played is you get the developer to “donate” all that. “Donate” in this context means: either you donate or you don’t get a building permit for your rich folks’ houses.

Today’s residential builders pretty much can account for every nail they use - thanks to computers. Competition (not pie in the sky gubermint programs) forces builders to perform efficiently.

[Gasshog]

Still I would NOT move back to the cities.

This is Utopia in comparison.

[loungitude]

That’s a beautiful place that I would be proud to live in.
Too bad you had to put so much effort into the red tape.

[maine-iac7]

I have a ‘safety’ in both that doesn’t require locking.

It’s called ‘the meanest little dog in town” - and he can be if you take any action towards me.

in a listing of 100 breeds by Nat Geo - from the closest to the wolf being No 1 - and so on.

He’s No, One ;)

[SaveFerris]

I know. I just keep seeing, sometimes (on TV), horrific crimes that could have been stopped by a simple locked door.

[maine-iac7]

These container house are beautiful.

I forgot about them. there are THOUSANDS of them sitting in huge piles around the country - going to waste. They would be perfect - and less even then the houses in this article...

[dila813]

Don’t try to build this in any city, you will never get a building permit.

Anywhere there is earthquake laws or storm damage laws, forget it.

[Lera]

[[That’s a beautiful place that I would be proud to live in. Too bad you had to put so much effort into the red tape.]] I am out in the country on acreage . I tried to put something like this in back of my house for my in laws to have them close by . I could not get permitting for it , instead they are in a tiny mobile home on the acreage next to me. This would have been much safer during a storm than a mobile and much cheaper to do.

Huge cost of building is all the needles stuff they put you through because they want you to have to spend tons of money to build .

I always like these container houses .

[Drango]

they now believe that more money may be needed to provide a living wage for builders. They've rejected the idea of using factory-made prefab parts (something that a related project in the area does), because one of the main goals is to also provide jobs

Goofy.

[Chickensoup]

Our vets are committing suicide at the rate of 22-23 a DAY, FOLKS! And it isn’t just from PTSD from horrors they experienced on the battlefield - BUT FROM THE TREATMENT OF THE VA.

________________

Most of the vets who make up that stat are not recent vets. Instead they are men who make up the largest cohort of suicides : Men over age 55. Vet or not, this is the largest suicide cohort. And many of those men from those generations were military.

[DeltaZulu]

$1 billion would build 50,000 of these things. At that scale you could probably build more.

[loungitude]

Enjoy!
Best to you!

[oldasrocks]

When we started working on this place of 5 acres I told a friend that I was not sure if I owned it or it owned me.

He called me an idiot. then said I should have dug a 5 acre hole, filled it with water, put a houseboat on it and go fishing.

You can buy a helleva boat for 20K.

[maine-iac7]

I know too many names of Vets who committed suicides - including from Afghanistan - I know the Vets who are doing everything they to network and keep constant touch with their brothers from the ‘ghan - and who have stopped suicides.

The VA is USELESS in this. They even have VOICE MAIL on the VA suicide hotline....and it has cost lives

[Chickensoup]

I imagine what you are saying is true, many young men die, but the stats are bumped way up by the cohort in their 50s and 60s

[eyeamok]

I want 2, please send plans.

[Defiant]

That’s the smartest thing you’ve said in weeks. I wouldn’t mind doing what you did.

[Svartalfiar]

This isn’t a $20k home. It’s a $20k house.

Building materials: $14k. That means the other $6k was labor costs, permits, and other misc expenses. Little bit of profit.

So now we just have the cost of the land. Which is going to be quite a bit more than just $20k, especially an entire acre in a neighborhood full of millionaires. There aren’t going to be $20k anything being sold in most nicer places, unless you go way out in the middle of nowhere. Land is generally the most expensive part of decent housing.