Welcome Mike,
It's your house. Build it in whatever style you want it. If you don't want "new age earthship hocus pocus," then don't build a house like that. All architecutral styles are welcomed on this group and are open for discussion. The point of the group is to exchange informaton about papercrete. As you pointed out, even if someone is not a fan of one particular style, many details can still be learned by reading and observing how others build a structure, even if you might want to build something that looks different.
It's all welcome here.
I personally am a big fan of building without any bank financing at all. I like the idea of building something small and paying for materials as one goes and as one can afford. That philosophy prevents someone from spending money to pay interest to a bank, but it also allows the builder more freedom to do what they want without a bank telling them how they must do it in order to get their financial blessing. One can always build an addition and add on later as time and money allow.
Keep in mind that the average person with a 30 year mortgage with even today's low interest rates will pay about as much interest on their loan as for the original principle. Paying for a house twice and only getting one house seems crazy to me. If interest rates go up, one could easily pay for a house three times over. I'd rather have the extra money to build a three times better house, or to take vacations to Tahiti to see scantily clad dancing girls. Unless I find a woman that wants to dance with me while scantily clad in the house I built? That would be pretty kewl too.
However, that's my opinion. You are welcome to have your own opinion about banks and financing. Instant gratification of building more quickly and moving in sooner can be had with bank financing. It's not my place to tell you how to pay for your home.
Each of us is different, and we all have different priorities. What I find important you may find trivial, and vice versa.
There is the old saying that is still true today.
"It can be built good, fast, cheap. Pick any two."
If you choose good and fast, it won't be cheap.
If you choose good and cheap, it won't be fast.
If you choose fast and cheap, it won't be good.
Concerning papercrete mixers, the tow mixer is a very popular mixer. It allows someone to use a big power source they already own to power it. Their vehicle. It also can make reasonably large batches so construction can move along at a reasonable pace. It's not particularly complex to build, and using used or salvaged parts, is reasonably inexpensive.
It is not the only way to go. Many people start out with a simple bucket and a power drill with a blade on the end of a shaft. This is not a way to make lots of papercrete very fast, but it's cheap. (see above saying about good, fast, cheap, pick any two.)
Others have built stationary mixers that are not towed behind vehicles. They can work great as well.
There are many posts in the group archives about mixing papercrete using a pressure washer.
I know of one interesting mixer build on the back of a 4WD pickup truck. The rear drive shaft was used to power a mixer blade inside a massive tank that replaced the truck bed. The drive system for the front wheels was left as is so they could be used to drive the vehicle around the worksite as needed. Just uncouple the front hubs when you want to mix without moving the truck. Nice system.
I don't think anyone has built one yet, but I like the idea of building a stand alone electric mixer powered by a salvaged series wound DC electric forklift motor. With careful construction it should be safe, and I would much rather work around a DC electric mixer than an AC electric mixer when a lot of water is going to be around. People are using those salvaged motors to power electric cars, so they should be more than powerful enough to make tons of papercrete.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "michaelinde" <michaelinde@...> wrote:
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>
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> ---JAYH
> In response to your post about the need for more imput may I share mine?
> Have been a member for a while, dont remember if this is the first post but was attracted to the possibility of building a home for low cost.
> As i have read over the years(or glanced over) I noticed a trend that to make papercrete one must be locked in to a certain method,ie building a trailer with paddles and that seemed to be it.
> While not being afraid of hardwork somehow the idea of going to all that trouble just dosent seem effective there has to be a better way.
> The other negatives Ive had with the concept is I want a home that looks normal. Not interested into some new age earthship hocus pocus dope smoking glass bottle corncob strawbale out of this world look.
> I just want a home that the bankers will fiance,can sell if I need to, or wont drag down my neighbors value by building a home. Like it or not in today's society we are bonded together by regulations that keeps us in lockstep with others .
> To be honest I havent tried any experiments as of yet but will now that Iam retired. Iam however thankful for those who have and posted their findings. It is because of their findings I can grasp the concept and may be push the concept further down the road.
> Please dont take this post as a critical post, but one of a thankful view.
> mike
>
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