http://images.google.com/images?um=1&am … b%20houses

You can supposedly make one for as little as $500 minus the cost of land. A house that size though is good for 2 people tops.

http://www.cobcottage.com/whatwedo

This webpage gives a good intro on what cob is and the advantages of a house made of cob.

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That's a very cool abode, zenden. I know someone who's worked on several alternatively constructed dwellings, but it's difficult to do one as eco-friendly as that.

I noticed they used bales of straw as insulation. There are methods of building the entire basic structure out of straw bales. Basically you build like you're using giant legos and then spray gunite (sprayable concrete) over it all. When the gunite weathers it ends up covered with the local strains of lichens and moss and eventually, your house melts into the surrounding terrain. They're hurricane and tornado proof, and (it's claimed) earthquake resistant as well.
I'm not sure if the one below used the straw bale technique, but the "rocks" around the entrance were made from sprayed concrete.

There's a lot of information available about building alternative structures like this, for example:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encycloped … ction.html

...however you can't do it just anywhere. There are many localities where the building code people can't grok much beyond standard construction techniques. 

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Of course they're all modeled on Hobbiton. I'm think this is Samwise's house:

It would be interesting to discover how the hobbits kept their roofs from leaking. :>)

Thanks Zenden!

I was looking into the whole process of doing just this a few months ago, but just couldn't quite find what I was looking for! Rats, missed the courses on the site, but being in the UK, I can deffo make it to another one soon.

Delightful!!

I had always imagined a cozy little trapper's cabin, but this...THIS is absolutely perfect!!!

Now then, I know the following is New Age and definitely has a loosh agenda at it's source, but read ye this page. Even though I knew this to be a 'trap', I still think the concepts of forming a new Earth, as outlined here, make a good blueprint to kick off with. It almost brought me to tears at one stage, I so wanted to be part of this..

http://www.thenewearth.org/newearth3.html

My HS gave me a kick up the bum for reading this btw.

http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

u gotta see this.  i want one.