John C Daley wrote:Ok, good start.
I suggest the following maybe in order;
- buying a book on the subject
- purchasing the earth bags
- plan something small but eventually useful
- maybe get the foundations in first and then seek assistance.
I'd like to echo the two bottom ones especially. I've built some retaining walls, garden walls, and took a multi day
course at calearth. Even with that, I'm still building a small shed-dome for tools before I do anything bigger. It's not that it's all that hard to do, but there are a lot of little things that you really need to learn-by-doing. It's like becoming a good barber or painter, most of the progress you make is by actually doing it. Reading and theory will only get you so far.
Putting foundations in is a process in and of itself. You'll be trenching in utilities, excavating, (probably) filling in with gravel, handling drainage, and putting in vapor barriers and sand. The foundations alone can take a qualified person several days if they have the equipment and the gravel shows up on time.
If you can get out to calearth's 4 day
class I'd really recommend it. It doesn't go into super detail, but sufficient for you to know everything on your plate and options on how you can tackle it. There's a country mile of difference between building a "structure" and building a "home".