Builder Zen

By Roditch

Many years ago I built my own house out of secondhand materials. The whole house cost only a few thousand dollars. Building for males and females is very rewarding and saves a lot of money. This is a small book to get you started on your way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roditch
• Release date: Mar 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463234839

Roditch

I am a retired Photography Teacher, Refugee Settlement Manager, and Builder. For the past 10 years, I have been teaching part-time, writing books, taking photos and doing lots of research.All the books I write come from experience and research. Yes, in my life so far I have worked with refugees, taught art, built houses, studied herbs, and health. I have also studied astrology spirituality including meditation, animal welfare, and poetry.I sincerely hope that you can gain valuable information from my books (usually short and sweet introductions) to different facets of life I have visited.

Book preview

Builder ZEN

By Roditch Roditch

Published by Roditch at Smashwords

Copyright © Roditch 2023

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition

Dedicated to all the wood butchers in the world

Contents

Introduction

Getting Started

Square

Level

Materials

Tools

Size

Mudbrick

Wood

Bricks

Stone

Verandahs

Spouting

Stairs

Vermin

Environment

Step by Step

Disclaimer

Introduction

Building your own home

Years ago, I built my own home. I was given an old house. I pulled it down, trucked it to my land, and built a new house with a new design using the materials from the old house. It was cheap to do—just hard work. When we borrow money for a new car or a new house, we pay enormous amounts of interest.

We already pay personal income tax, sales tax, and VAT and incur large work-related expenses. We can be earning $1000 a week and only get to touch and see a few hundred of that as the rest flies its way to wars in Iraq, bank CEO’s performance packages, and politician’s pensions. Salaries are half what they were in 1972. Nothing can tie you to a boring, monotonous desk more than having to pay a mortgage for 30 years. Is it worth it? No, it isn’t.

Debt is more than just debt: it is the loss of large amounts of your money. Sure, you think one day your house will be paid off and it will be yours, but it’s more than that. Interest is money lost. In the good old days, most people saved money for a car or a house for this same reason: don’t burn years of salary on interest. What are the alternatives to debt and interest: saving, building your own, starting small, or building a home from natural and cheap materials like mud, stone, rock, recycled materials, and your imagination? You will also need a simple plan and a few basic tools.

In the West, it feels like everyone wants to be a doctor or lawyer so they can afford a big, luxurious house and car. The other option is to be handy and learn to do lots of things yourself.