You can build a super quality house with conventional home building methods.
You don't have to use commercial techniques and spend $9K on engineering.
For that kind of money you can hire a good contractor to do and show you how
to do a lot of things.

wrote in message
oups.com...
No, it's just a small residence. I had the opportunity to design my
dream house several years ago and this is what I came up with. I
wanted the qualities of strength, security and longevity with minimal
maintenance and I didn't find that in traditional wood residences.
Everything is about the surface --looking like something better than it
really is. It is OK if the thing disintegrates in 5 years, it will
give the 2nd owner something to do.

I am by no means wealthy. I love building and working by myself. I
figured by doing most the labor myself I could offset the extra cost of
better materials and techniques.