# Sooo...Dugout, Anyone?



## Shrarvrs88 (May 8, 2010)

We are wanting to build a dugout home. It would be me, my husband, and shovels, lol....Wanting something small, maybe only a 1000 feet, or so, three bedrooms (boys, girls, parents) and a bathroom....kitchen/livingroom would be the same, and we are wanting a kitchen woodstove...

Anyideas on how to do this as economically as possible, while being safe? We were thinking of builing a frame , maybe, piling dirt around it, kinda like a dugout, us live on a top level and our animal barn be on the bottom? 

Does that make any sense at all?


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Wasnt 'By the Banks of Plum Creek' the Laura Ingals Wilder book about living in a dug out. I think soddies and dug outs have their place in some drier climates for temporary living, but wouldnt be my first choice. Now saying that, there were a few soddies that were built first class with real foundation, plaster on inside and stucco on outside and lasted as good as any wooden house, but they were few and far between. Same way with 'pioneer log cabins'. There is a reason you dont see many surviving specimens. They were put up quick and cheap and were usually very small. Their owner-builder never intended for them to last very long, they were temporary shelter.

I suspect what you really want is what some people did few decades back and built a concrete block basement with a roof over it and never built the actual house, just lived in the basement. Course zoning laws try to discourage cheapskates. After all how much can you tax some unfinished basement or small hovel. They only want people living in their communities that can pony up plenty of greenbacks for taxes and enrich the local banking community with a long term mortgage.


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## PorkChopsMmm (Aug 16, 2010)

Here is a thread on a cabin building site of someone who built something that you described, although larger. Good luck!

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0


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