Amy Rising

We have discussed all of your excellent points and are very grateful for the input.

Our goals with the build in order of importance are...
1. Live debt free
2. Energy efficiency
3. Self built as much as possible
4. Build with what's available, natural, repurposed or reused

We are not builders. We don't have a lot of skills. But we can learn. As such, we plan to work in phases beginning with a small bath house that will allow us to live at the land or at least be there all day with kids in tow.

With phase 1 we are looking at maybe 300 sq ft. We are considering the Geiger circular earthbag building that is on instructables. This would be our bathroom.

Then in phase two we would do the wofati style round house and connect to the bathroom doorway. Phase 2 will be a bit bigger at around 15' diameter and provide living quarters.

Some questions about insulation. If we bermed first with a foot of lava rock on the wofati building and then more plastic then earth, would that give better insulation for the structure? When reading about the winters in the wofati structures it sounds fairly cold. I'm wondering if the scoria would give better r value.

Thanks so much for all your help!

Good questions...
I would like to use repurposed or natural material. Natural where I can, but I love reused and repurposed too.

Low cost is a must. My budget is roughly 60,000. We're a family of 6.

I have few skills. So maybe I shouldn't? But I feel so damn inspired by Oehlers concept and other builders so why shouldn't I? Talk me out of it if you really think I'm crazy. We have considered a pole barn house so I can just do that and build more traditionally.

The soil is well drained, rocky in places. It's old pasture land.  About 300ft from a river and all the wells dug within 2 miles hit water at 16ft. There's a spring fed creek down one side of the property. It's hilly as you'd expect coming up on a river.

Maybe I'm entering my midlife crisis. Lol.

I know it's not ideal, but I may have access to 50 32' telephone poles that are being replaced.
Would the chemicals make it not worth it?
Would the used factor cause concern for structural integrity?

Thank you all for your insights. Earth bermed may be our best bet with the high water table. But from my reading, the insulation factor is reduced significantly when it's not sunk in the ground, right?

We are ready to build and would love to do a PSP underground home. Some concerns and questions for those who have built before...
The water table is 16 feet. Do you think that would cause issues? Especially with septic?
We need to build quickly. Any tips on what sort of crew we could find to help? Standard builders won't even entertain our build.
Could we bypass the living roof to save time and timber? We are considering a metal roof with insulation. Veering to far from the plan?
Flooring??? I've read quite a few threads on here about flooring but no one divulges what they end up actually doing. We are in Missouri. Too much rain for an earthen floor. Across the state I saw that the Dancing Rabbit has an earthen floor but put plastic down underneath so I might drive over and see that. What about floating a wood floor instead of carpet?