Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What does affordable mean?

[Brian Bartholomew (bb]

> At Sharingwood we have one, hand built shack of recycled scrounged
> materials that was built for free by the owner, on a lot he paid
> $20,000 for many years ago. We have another person who has acquired
> a lot from their parents, who also was intending to hand build a
> small, shack sized dwelling for under $5,000 in new material costs.

I get giggles in my forming coho group for wanting to self-build a
house using oceangoing shipping containers as a building block.  I
expect it to have an unconventional appearance.  I also expect it to
cost less than $20K for the house only.  Most of the real objections
have centered around 'few people want to look at that', which is
expected to hurt the prospects of mortgages and resales for others.

May I invite cohos with scrounged and nontraditional houses to talk a
little about the actual, observed consequences of such buildings on
the financial lifecycle of more traditionally designed units?

                                                        Brian