Mike Oehler built his first underground house for $50 in 1971.  He used mostly scavenged materials, which he summed up in a very Thoreau-like table:

• Beams and post - free
• Millends (lumber) - free
• Polyethylene - $15
• Nails - $0.50
• Flooring - free
• Insulation - free
• Paint - $2
• Chairs - free
• Tables - $2.20
• Door - free
• Cooler - free
• Lamp - $4
• Stove, stove pipes, and damper - $22
• Windows - $4
  

The initial structure was only 120 square feet, and even though he lived there for four years, he admits he was on the lecture circuit for three of the four winters.

In an effort to turn the structure into a good place to spend a northern Idaho winter, Oehler added on in 1975 to produce what he calls the $500 house (costing about $2,000 in today's dollars).  The new structure (which includes the original $50 house) covers 370 square feet across three levels.  In addition to living in the $500 house since 1975, Mike Oehler has expanded his experience by running an underground-house consulting business where he designed and/or built several other houses using his methods.  (You can see more photos of the houses he inspired and built on his website, which is where I found the pictures in today's post.)

There's a lot to like about Oehler's houses, but I want to throw in a few caveats up front (since you won't find most of these issues mentioned until nearly the end of his book).  The fact his houses won't pass code doesn't really bother me, but I am much more concerned by Oehler's update about the parts of his houses that have and haven't failed structurally over the years --- it sounds like root cellars built using his methods are problematic, as are non-full-time residences that aren't aired and warmed on a regular basis.  You also should be prepared to put in huge amounts of labor if you build using Oehler's methods on the cheap --- his original, 120-square-foot house took about 105 man-hours simply for the initial excavation.  Finally, Oehler admits that you might need to work harder to keep water out of your underground house if you live in an area like the Pacific Northwest (or, presumably, here) with "ridiculous rain."

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I begin to show you what sets Oehler's houses apart from mainstream underground structures.

This post is part of our The $50 and Up Underground House Book lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries: The $50 and Up Underground House Book Building underground on the cheap Underground house orientation PSP construction Waterproofing the underground house

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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