So it was our Anniversary the other day...

And we decided to go up to Sequim, WA to the Olympic Game Farm. We'd never been there before, but we had a TON of fun.

We got to feed a bunch of animals, and one was the Bison. Below is video of my Bradley getting slobbered on by an excitable Bison.  Enjoy. <3

In addition to that, we explored the area. It's really beautiful up there, and we both mentioned how it would be nice to live up there. Who knows at this moment, but hey, it's a possibility.

Hope everyone has a great night, I'm hoping I'll stop being sick so I can go back to work tomorrow.
-Amanda

So what is Cob anyways?

I had to explain this to my mom today, so I thought my next post should probably cover what my Mud Dream will be made of.

The formula for Cob can be slightly different depending on who is making it, but almost always contains these three basic materials;

• Clay
• Sand
• and Straw

I've also read that when people start developing their land to build, like flattening out a space and digging for the foundation, they save and use the dirt they removed in their Cob mixture! It not only saves money because you aren't buying dirt, it allows you to begin your project with a large pile of material that is easy to access!

Mom also asked me, "Won't it just wash away in the rain?" Unlike the mud pies I used to make when I was a kid, or my feeble attempts at sand castles, Cob is a truly resilient material. Before manufactures homes came into popularity, Cob buildings were a norm. In England, many cob houses and buildings still stand, even 500 years later.

Like this one, in Devon, England..

Apparently, the date on the placard reads 1539! This is a photo pulled from Cobcottage.com, which is an extremely helpful and fun site to look at.

Why Cob is so appealing to Me

Cob houses are beautiful. Really, really beautiful. And some people get so creative with their houses and how they sculpt them. I've been looking at a lot of pictures of Cob houses and buildings, and.. just wow! The things that people have thought of! Mermaids and figures carved into the walls, nooks and hidey holes, creating benches and seating areas, colorful glass bottles embedded into the walls where the sun shines through to make a stained glass effect... people amaze me.

They are efficient. In the summer time, they are cool. In the winter, they stay warm. And apparently, you can build a fireplace directly into the wall! Which, is pretty cool. I miss having a fire place in the house.

You can make anything. I've always dreamed of having my own  Beauty and the Beast Library! I'm going to have it. I mean, look how awesome this is:

BEAUTIFUL. Look at the molded shelves and nooks? HOW COOL IS THAT? And the formed benches! I want something like this.. but with WAY more books and shelves.

I also dream of Octopi

Not going to lie, I have an obsession with Cephalopods. My dream is to sculpt a giant octopus into the kitchen, and possibly do a reef sculpture as well, maybe as a wall or barrier dividing the kitchen from the living room. I have so many ideas on how I want to do this, and what I want to add. Pretty colored glass tiles, shells and beads... I want everything to be pretty.

Which, of course, is another reason that Cob is so appealing to me. It has endless possibilities for what I might be able to do to this house.

Some pretty pictures to prove a point.

Cob houses are really getting popular, and although most people get into it because they want to be more Eco-friendly and live simpler lives, I'm not really that kind of girl. I love meat, [Hello Bacon~], I think Global Warming is the stupidest idea I've ever heard, and I don't plan on going hippie since I want to live in a mud house. Not that I have anything against hippies or helping the environment, mind you, I'm not heartless.

The simple fact is that this is like one giant art project that I can live in, and that thrills me into a frenzy! Here are a few beautiful examples:

 My point is that I'm going at this with a different goal than most people. I'm doing it for me, not the environment or my health or to save money. This is a beautiful, dirty, fun and creative way to build a house I would love forever. And it's pretty obvious that Cob is a great material to work with.

All my love,
Amanda

The Mud Dream

I dream of Mud. 

As odd as that sounds, it's a dream I'm proud to have, and one that I am setting into motion right now.

My name is Amanda. I am 21 years old, and in 5 years time I will own land and have built my own house with my two hands. That's the plan.

It all started because my boyfriend is a crazy dreamer. He planted this seed in my head. At first, I thought it was silly. My generation... we don't own houses or land. Hell, I never even thought about it for the long run at all, it seemed really unattainable. Me? Own a house? I've always seem myself renting, forever, which of course is also a very daunting idea.

But Brad showed me this really beautiful house, and then told me it was made out of clay, dirt, hay and other natural cheap products, AND cost less than $3,000 to make. And suddenly... it seemed like this could be a reality. Cob houses. I could own one!

From that moment, it's silently mulled in the back of my mind, building strength till all I could think about was this house that I could build. I started looking up Cob buildings and houses, reading blogs about people who have built their own or are part of a cob community.

The next thing I know, I'm sitting at a cafe with Brad writing down numbers and calculating, and convincing him that this is possible. This is totally possible!


This is my dream; The Mud Dream. 

The plan right now is to save away some money each month for 5 years until we have saved about $20,000! About half of that will go towards buying a plot of land, the other half will go into the cost of building the Mud House.

The idea is...

• to set aside 10% of our income after taxes, roughly $40 a pay check each, or about $160 a month into a savings account. That translates into about $1,900 a year, just by taking 10% off the top of what we already make. 
• In addition to that, we'll also be saving away half of our Tax Returns each year, which adds roughly another $500 a year.
• On top of that, we already have a little saved away, thanks to a settlement from a car accident we were in, so we are already starting off with about $7,500.
• Add in any extra money we can afford to set aside.

 All that eventually adds up, and if my calculations are correct, in...

• .5 years, we will have saved roughly $8,950!
• 1.5 years, we will have saved $11,350!
• 2.5 years, we will have saved $13,750!
• 3.5 years, we will have saved $16,150!
• 4.5 years, we will have saved $18,550!
• 5.0 years, we will have saved $19,500!

The hope is that by Year Three, we will have already found and purchased our land and start construction on our Mud House! Though.. I'd love it if we could buy our land in a years time! I'm sure we could find our goal of a half acre for under $10,000 and since we'll have that in about 6 months if all goes by plan, it would be so awesome to start early! But I realize that it's probably best to just take it step by step and get extra money into our savings before going too crazy. By the end of Year Five, we hope to have our home completely finished!

I'm so excited for this idea, because five years doesn't seem like a long time at all! This plan makes me believe that the power is in my hands, that I can do things I never thought I could!

This blog will be the place where I post ideas and building plans, related links, and talk about how things are going for us! Thank you for reading this far!

All my Love,
Amanda