I keep the fingers crossed for the good and easy advancing of the project and the easy and good ending of it and I hope that by the years end I'll see the young family in their new home. I'll try to present its advancing at different stages.

on COB
Cob (material)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_%28material%29

Regretfully enough we all have a lot of rights, but when it come to housing, a young family has to work a lifetime for bank in order to have a roof over their head.
The reason why is like this is becaue the profits involved are too important and there are too many organisations/companies/institutions whose actual raison d'être would be at question.

The cob is a mixture of straw, clay, sand and water with which can be built and immaginative structures - often wonderful  - can offer an alternative to the common building sollutions.

And - of course not only is much more healthier - but given the technology involved and the long usage of it, (drwback is it is said to become adictive :) )

I have seen images of earth houses for 500 years, 900 years - and I sincerely doubt that cement and modern materials that are so expensive in money and in their ecologic price will have the chance to live much less.

here is a link to some interesting pictures around the world that proves the earth is used for millenia as bilding material
http://funzu.com/index.php/crazy-pics/amazing-mud-houses-around-the-world-06102008.html

for those worrying on the resistance of the materials I have to say the first blocks date more than 1000 years ago, many of them are still inhabited in Yemen - look for yourself on youtube

and for those interested in cob-building I strongly recommend the Ianto Evans and Becky Bee books

[regarding the pictures :) sorry but it was heavily raining and the momentary difficulties prevented me to wait for its end - you see it marking the pictures, but in the end everything is back to normal and my trustworthy tokina is back at work as usually]