mmm... cave house anyone?
 

That is bad ass! $2,000,000.00 is a lot for a hole in some rock tho.

especially when you have to battle snakes that will crawl into your bed at night.

Wow.
I like it.

I always wonder the back story on places like this. Somebody put a lot of effort into this place - where are they going?
The natural spring inside the house is especially cool.

Interesting. How in the hell did all that get approved...?!?

Surprised bin Laden hasn't picked it up yet.

Building your house into a hillside FTW. Sweet home.

Weak.

I would have made a much cooler "cave house"

Theres nothing cool about living like a hobbit

Looks like it was built by rich hippies. How long will it take to get the stink of Patchouli oil, incense and pot out of it?

theme for housewarming party:

http://www.norcalblogs.com/bullfight...lintstones.jpg

you could make a hell of a bomb shelter lol.

I don't know if I would like a straight up cave for a home, but I have really been wanting to build a mostly underground house into a hillside with just one face sticking out (mostly glass, and one big grand room, kitchen and living area) onto a patio/driveway area. Reduced energy costs, comfortable temps year round, protection from a tornado or hurricane, and dark rooms in the back of the house for ultimate afternoon sleeping! I've been trying to figure out costs involved. I can't decide if it would be cheaper or more expensive, considering you have almost no lumber, but blocks instead, no roofing, no brick or siding facade, but increased cost of waterproofing, roof support for the few feet or dirt overhead, and whatever other odds and ends. I guess I will look into it more closely when the time actually comes.

Ditto. The thing to check on well is expansive soils and proper drainage.

The other thing you have really consider is the local zoning and inspection bullshit. Often there is a ton of redtape and BS from the gov. Which I find amusing considering how crappily built pretty much all homes are now and how little is ever done about it.

I remeber a house I saw a long time ago whe I was in the market. Its amazing what 'traditional' homes have for issues:

The fucking stairwell was actually hanging by steel strap. Very little of it was actually held up from below. Doing fine about 20 years after the fact at the time, but still, yikes.

Said stairwell was off-center too. Rather than do it right, they simply cut away part of the wall in the well that had a interference issue with the foundation of the house. So a slab on the foundation basically stuck into the well about 1".

The concrete around the sliding door had a huge cavity in it. I have no idea why, except that maybe they were a bit short on matirial that day and just sort of said fuck it. Seriously, jst a gapping hole, barely sealed against the outside, right under the door frame.

Inspectors cited/fixed none of this.

But if you try to build a house into the side of a hill, its the end of the effing world. If you try to build one with rammed earth and tires, the sky will fall. :jerkit:

Most inspectors are contractors who sucked so bad they could not make much money anyway.

I think a tiny little 800SF house thats basicaly an elaborate entrance to the real structure would be badass. And hideouly difficult/expensive. Plus the neighboors might start to wonder where all that furniture, guns, computers, missles, cars, helocopters, boats, pipe organs, wolfs, women, food, etc are going in that tiny little house.

House looks really cool but their decor screams old rich person. That place could be made badass with some simple modern/matching furniture.

What a shithole.