More regulations favor larger corporations and layers of value extracting intermediation.
They make it almost illegal for people to do anything for themselves in most places.
There is some lower limit of regulation to explore. I did this in small town Texas in late 2021 to early 2023, designing (drawings), general-contracting, finishing-in, insulating, cabinetmaking, stair-building, etc.
Bamboo should grow and be workable in the Texas coastal plains, but I'm sure there's no way to make it a legal structure. ;-(
Interesting stuff Kyle. Labor intensive. What about repurposed shipping containers painted with that NASA developed sun-repellant paint ? Stays cool in the hottest sun ? I have some raw land up in the hills of Vieques. I'll probably do a platform (concrete) with 2 shipping containers spaced apart. The middle section is living, dining. The 2 containers house bedrooms & baths. If they'e 40' containers, they would also house studio & Office. Any thoughts ?
I lived in Far West Texas, The Big Bend area, and became amazed at the very old adobe houses. They were built of the dirt right under the people's feet as well as the other materials. They lasted hundreds of years and were remarkably cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's high desert with little precipitation so grass yards were out of the question. The people did an ingenious thing. They made "swept" yards by sweeping the loose dirt away until finally a very hard packed earthen yard much like a natural concrete formed. It was super clean and great to walk on.
My grandparents built a house in the Ozarks, again from materials on the land of their small farm. Rocks. They took the rocks and piled them horizontally until they formed walls and used virtually no concrete except around the window openings and doors. Because the walls were made of thick stacked rocks, there were some deep crevices on the exterior where many animals lived. Birds made nests, lizards, insects of all kinds. The walls of the house were alive with little animals. It was amazing. And again, relatively cool in summer and warm in winter. No electricity or running water and the rocks they used to build the house cleared the land for big gardens.
I worked in modern construction and it was so sad to know how grotesque the materials were. Horrible chemically compounded wall boards and cheap bioengineered "wood" that was so soft. None of these houses will endure 20 years. All the while emitting noxious chemicals on the inhabitants and environment. Even latex paint is a scam. It never stops expelling plastic particles in the air. People became convinced traditional oil paints which last a lifetime were "bad" when they are anything but and they are far more beautiful.
We are so idiotic about so many things. It makes me sad we bought the MKUltra programming. Anyone who believes themselves unaffected by the programming is likely deeply programmed. That's part of it.
I too have been talking about non "modern", non toxic home building materials my entire life, and I feel very fortunate that I was raised in an historic building, have lived most of my life in old homes and for the last 30 years in our milled, solid log home (with wool insulation I fought hard for over fiberglass or foam insulation. When we were putting it up, the wrens and sparrows LOVED it, gleaning all the tufts they could, it was a lot of fun and made the hands quite soft.)
When I was little, I used to have a reoccurring nightmare that I'd wake up in a tract home - the swaths of tract home neighborhoods that sprang up in SoCal in the late 60s and '70s, always made me feel like I was in a dystopian science fiction movie - pretty much like the last 4 years in fact!
Ps I don't know who to ask other than you, but I feel like Dr Mercola has been replaced by a cyber double (kinda kidding) because of his recent spate of rather WEFyish articles - some awful looking Netflix movie review, an old article on Minimalism (which in principle is fine, but that one smacked of recent NWO suggestive programming), and a ChatGPT article in the last week. Maybe he's finally on vacation and he's not editing? Anyway, wondered if you'd noticed. Thanks.
I was particularly pleased to see the making of sisal rope.
But mostly glad to learn about the origins of adobe as a building material.
Aside from the natural building materials,
what is wrong with a "culture" that ensures that homes cannot be afforded by ones who need them? Million-dollar houses are WRONG. At least for me and my neighbors. Why should I be exploited by bankers and accountants (those people you need to claim deductions on your income tax forms)? Because the capitalist way here in the USA is to build in profit for builders, to hell with the actual residents. If the homeless need homes, then builders must profit. Which virtually ensures that such homes are not affordable.
Kyle, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge and skills!
A couple of summers ago, Ron and I got hired to play at a young lady's 21st birthday. The party was held at her boyfriend's family home about 20 minutes from our home, out in the Templeton countryside. We found out from the father that they had worked for 15 years on the straw bale construction. It was absolutely gorgeous.
They did have many glass windows, many of which were reclaimed. In fact, they said that all of the building materials — aside from the bales, which they purchased locally — were either gathered from the 20-acre property or were reclaimed.
To boot, they paid us three times what we had asked for. Come to find out that the birthday girl's dad was the drummer in a famous guitarist's band for nearly 40 years. Nicest guy, he greeted us on arrival and insisted on helping us unload and stage our equipment, and later he even left their family dinner to help us pack up. He was positively impressed with our music and song choices.
Thank you for the uplift provided by your article and the examples of how to lead an elegant and rewarding life by going back to old ways. I loved the videos of making sisal rope and construction of the woodshop. What a lot of hard, dirty, satisfying, soul-nourishing and community-building work! Yes. I was thinking how healthy they all looked. Hard work is good for the body and the soul. There are healing properties in the soil, the clay, etc going into their hands and feet.
I loved reading about your time in Mexico - home of my heart. I wouldn't want to go there today to see what has been done to it. I hope places everywhere can throw off these global genocidal ecocidal parasites and their boundless greed. Village by village - that is the way.
A young person turned me on to the Delphi Technique/ method, used in all forms of 'government' and to control crowds at so called 'public' meetings where we supposedly have voice, but all has already been decided for us by 'experts' - usually anonymous and unknown to us. Invented by the Rand corporation as a psychological torture method for crowd control and to squash dissidence or even legitimate anger and frustration- and still used today.
I'll be reading more with interest, and will spread the word, as I am one of the poor living in a poor people's prison-box complex they call low income apartments. Part of the plan is to urbanize rural places - 'smart' cites and all that. Thank you for the education and for giving us the tools to resist and fight the death system. I'm watching the destruction here, have been fighting it for over 30 years - what a waste of my life. I realize now there are other ways around all of this - fighting a pathological psychotic sociopathic system within the system will never work.
I have never heard of the use of fermented nopal juice as stabilizer, adhesive, hardener and binder, and also sisal rope. That is so fascinating! It's crazy how abundant it is and how useful it is. Yet, I was studying adobe for some time (not so much hands on stuff, which is kind of the point), and I hadn't heard of it until now. I'm wondering if this isn't talked about much because it's not in the New Mexico Earthen Building Code - which I understand, is similar to that in Arizona? Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. From what I remember the bricks need be 'stabilized' within the first two feet from ground level... and this was usually done with portland cement. I mean, it's great that 'some' natural building is allowed, but they end up putting rules on stuff like that... and roofs needing insulation, and other things and so on. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that kind of thing with all the building code barriers. And I also heard, not first hand, that building codes don't really matter so much in unincorporated towns.
I think it's pretty darn important to know how things were done before. I don't see why things have to be modernized and up to code if it worked so well in the first place. That's just my thoughts on the matter.
Reading your article reminded me when I was in Belize about 15 years ago and I saw a man and his helper up on bamboo scaffolding it was a work of art !!! It was just beautiful The structure was only 3 stories high. I remember I was trying to tell them how OSHA would go crazy over it here. I took pictures but lost them when I didn’t back up the cloud or whatever that thing is. I considered their work, safe and a work of art.
The major problem is the screwed up banking system. Not the cost of housing but rather the fact the cost of the loans that in 30 years triple the cost. For instance, my father in law bought a house in 1960 for $13,500. After 30 years at the rate he was paying he had to pay back $40,050. That would have been 1990. If you look at the inflation rate between the 30 years, $13,500 translated into $57,402.03. That is a 341% increase. BUT he came out ahead by literally $17,400. If inflation keeps happening at the same rate here is what happens. You buy a house today that is about the same size as the $13,500 one for about $133,821.82 That is the same "value" as in 1960 with a 929% increase. Now that $133,931 paid back at the current interest rate will be $525,465.46 If you take consideration the same inflation rate by the time you pay it back that $133,931 house will cost somewhere about $700,000 thirty years from now. Which would mean that you would still be ahead of the inflation curve. When it comes to inflation, they really are not honest because if you look at it TODAY, you can see that some items are way higher, labor for trades is WAY up. And keeps going up due to lack of people going into the trades. I could make $100 an HOUR doing plumbing full time. That comes out to $4,000 a week and that comes to $208,000 a year. Doing a job that back when I started in 1977 would pay me about $25,000 a year. Figure that out. With the same inflation rate as used in the above problems utilizing this calculator https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ $25,000 translates into $125,702.15 I could make $208,000 so did my wages keep up with inflation or are they way higher? So if they are way higher what was the REAL inflation rate?
And since real wages for the average working person are not keeping up with inflation it makes it almost impossible to buy that same house and pay for it. Yes, you come out ahead of inflation by paying it off in the 30 years period, and if you sell it at that time for the going rate you come out ahead. The real issues is the EVILS of a FLUCTUATING MEDIUM of EXCHANGE which can become understood by reading this post. Blood Running in The Streets. Mobs of Rioters and Demonstrators Threatening Banks and Legislatures... https://www.courageouslion.us/p/blood-running-in-the-streets-mobs. Here is a for instance. In 1960 an ounce of gold cost $35.00 That same $13,500 house would have cost 385 ounces of gold. If you had saved that 385 ounces of gold and not bough the house, today you could trade it in for $847,000 at the current rate of about $2200 an ounce.
So if we had kept to real money, theoretically an new house that was $847,00 would still only cost you $13,500 in gold because gold can't be inflated. The loss of value of the FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES is the issue. Gold and silver have held their value DRASTICALLY against fed notes. A gallon of gas cost .25 cents +/- which you could have paid for with a 1/4 dollar of silver in 1960. Today I can buy almost TWO gallons of gas for that same coin. Check prices for 90% silver at AMPEX. OK so the silver quarter due to less of them being around will let you purchase more gas than you would have in 1960 for the same quarter.
Why am I laying this out? BECAUSE THE BANKING SYSTEM built on a sand foundation is the ISSUE. If you read the post I have linked above you will realize that it isn't the material or labor that is the issue. It is what we use to "PAY" for the material and labor that is the issue. It is an EVIL system that Judge Roger Sherman wrote about in this booklet: http://bornagainclassics.com/Books/ACaveatAgainstInjustice-Shermann/ There is also this one: Thank You Federal Reserve...
What Would We Have Ever Done Without You!!! https://www.courageouslion.us/p/thank-you-federal-reserve Your article is very interesting as we followed you along your trip. I couldn't build my house with adobe where I am located. If I was building a comfortable 1500 square foot today using my own labor it would be about half of what one would cost currently in my area. With a little help from some friends. We need to start local volunteer labor groups like Habitat for Humanities does and sort of like a barn raising pool our labor resources and we can cut costs way down. Realize that a CONTRACTOR typically makes a 100% profit on the house too. So if he puts $100,000 in it, he expects $200,000 out of it. Some will be willing to do it for 50% if they can do a lot of them in a short time. Labor and costs of tradesmen these days is the main cost.
I helped on two Habitat for Humanities homes by offering my labor for plumbing. It was a gift. I saved them about $4,000 each. They only paid for materials at my cost. If you study my three posts linked to in here you will know more about "economics' than your average economics major coming out of a college of lesser learning. I've been on top of the subject for over 30 years. And I'm a plumber that runs an antique car club. I hope this sheds some light on the issue. Jus Meum Tuebor
Many of these structures are absolutely beautiful. I'd love to move to the Southwest, but the heat would get to me. Southwestern design is my style anyways. I at one time was seriously considering those Earthship homes in NM. Don't know if folks are still building in that area. Not thrilled at all how some use tires. That would be a big No for me!
Hi Sir, I'm intrigued and interested to learn more about adobe home building. I was wondering if you have any good videos or books I can get my hands on to learn more? Do you know anyone offering internships in this construction method because I am currently taking construction management here in Tennessee.
The concept of "Tiny Houses" could be advantageous for some, not only for one's own abode, but as a possible small business venture as well, where the creative possibilities are endless. I would suggest building from scratch using a recycled mobile home chassis, but registering it as an RV, (park model). As I recall, AZ DMV, and maybe other states(?), (but NOT NM), allows RV park models as wide as 10', that can be registered as an RV on open roads, with some simple added safety rules for transporting your own on the highway, like a simple "OVERWIDTH" safety banner. Check your local state's DMV.
Aren't there any modern building materials that can be used to protect yourself from EMF radiation? Lining the walls and ceilings with tin foil gets annoying. (jk)
Can't afford a subscription right now but wanted to thank you for sharing this wonderful and very informative article.
Gorgeous Delightful Elegant Digestible Actionable Article! What a treat to read! Thank you Kyle!
More regulations favor larger corporations and layers of value extracting intermediation.
They make it almost illegal for people to do anything for themselves in most places.
There is some lower limit of regulation to explore. I did this in small town Texas in late 2021 to early 2023, designing (drawings), general-contracting, finishing-in, insulating, cabinetmaking, stair-building, etc.
Bamboo should grow and be workable in the Texas coastal plains, but I'm sure there's no way to make it a legal structure. ;-(
Interesting stuff Kyle. Labor intensive. What about repurposed shipping containers painted with that NASA developed sun-repellant paint ? Stays cool in the hottest sun ? I have some raw land up in the hills of Vieques. I'll probably do a platform (concrete) with 2 shipping containers spaced apart. The middle section is living, dining. The 2 containers house bedrooms & baths. If they'e 40' containers, they would also house studio & Office. Any thoughts ?
I lived in Far West Texas, The Big Bend area, and became amazed at the very old adobe houses. They were built of the dirt right under the people's feet as well as the other materials. They lasted hundreds of years and were remarkably cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's high desert with little precipitation so grass yards were out of the question. The people did an ingenious thing. They made "swept" yards by sweeping the loose dirt away until finally a very hard packed earthen yard much like a natural concrete formed. It was super clean and great to walk on.
My grandparents built a house in the Ozarks, again from materials on the land of their small farm. Rocks. They took the rocks and piled them horizontally until they formed walls and used virtually no concrete except around the window openings and doors. Because the walls were made of thick stacked rocks, there were some deep crevices on the exterior where many animals lived. Birds made nests, lizards, insects of all kinds. The walls of the house were alive with little animals. It was amazing. And again, relatively cool in summer and warm in winter. No electricity or running water and the rocks they used to build the house cleared the land for big gardens.
I worked in modern construction and it was so sad to know how grotesque the materials were. Horrible chemically compounded wall boards and cheap bioengineered "wood" that was so soft. None of these houses will endure 20 years. All the while emitting noxious chemicals on the inhabitants and environment. Even latex paint is a scam. It never stops expelling plastic particles in the air. People became convinced traditional oil paints which last a lifetime were "bad" when they are anything but and they are far more beautiful.
We are so idiotic about so many things. It makes me sad we bought the MKUltra programming. Anyone who believes themselves unaffected by the programming is likely deeply programmed. That's part of it.
God Bless.
Thanks Kyle,
Your experiences in Mexico are great fun to read!
I too have been talking about non "modern", non toxic home building materials my entire life, and I feel very fortunate that I was raised in an historic building, have lived most of my life in old homes and for the last 30 years in our milled, solid log home (with wool insulation I fought hard for over fiberglass or foam insulation. When we were putting it up, the wrens and sparrows LOVED it, gleaning all the tufts they could, it was a lot of fun and made the hands quite soft.)
When I was little, I used to have a reoccurring nightmare that I'd wake up in a tract home - the swaths of tract home neighborhoods that sprang up in SoCal in the late 60s and '70s, always made me feel like I was in a dystopian science fiction movie - pretty much like the last 4 years in fact!
Ps I don't know who to ask other than you, but I feel like Dr Mercola has been replaced by a cyber double (kinda kidding) because of his recent spate of rather WEFyish articles - some awful looking Netflix movie review, an old article on Minimalism (which in principle is fine, but that one smacked of recent NWO suggestive programming), and a ChatGPT article in the last week. Maybe he's finally on vacation and he's not editing? Anyway, wondered if you'd noticed. Thanks.
Thank you!
I was particularly pleased to see the making of sisal rope.
But mostly glad to learn about the origins of adobe as a building material.
Aside from the natural building materials,
what is wrong with a "culture" that ensures that homes cannot be afforded by ones who need them? Million-dollar houses are WRONG. At least for me and my neighbors. Why should I be exploited by bankers and accountants (those people you need to claim deductions on your income tax forms)? Because the capitalist way here in the USA is to build in profit for builders, to hell with the actual residents. If the homeless need homes, then builders must profit. Which virtually ensures that such homes are not affordable.
Kyle, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge and skills!
A couple of summers ago, Ron and I got hired to play at a young lady's 21st birthday. The party was held at her boyfriend's family home about 20 minutes from our home, out in the Templeton countryside. We found out from the father that they had worked for 15 years on the straw bale construction. It was absolutely gorgeous.
They did have many glass windows, many of which were reclaimed. In fact, they said that all of the building materials — aside from the bales, which they purchased locally — were either gathered from the 20-acre property or were reclaimed.
To boot, they paid us three times what we had asked for. Come to find out that the birthday girl's dad was the drummer in a famous guitarist's band for nearly 40 years. Nicest guy, he greeted us on arrival and insisted on helping us unload and stage our equipment, and later he even left their family dinner to help us pack up. He was positively impressed with our music and song choices.
Thank you for the uplift provided by your article and the examples of how to lead an elegant and rewarding life by going back to old ways. I loved the videos of making sisal rope and construction of the woodshop. What a lot of hard, dirty, satisfying, soul-nourishing and community-building work! Yes. I was thinking how healthy they all looked. Hard work is good for the body and the soul. There are healing properties in the soil, the clay, etc going into their hands and feet.
I loved reading about your time in Mexico - home of my heart. I wouldn't want to go there today to see what has been done to it. I hope places everywhere can throw off these global genocidal ecocidal parasites and their boundless greed. Village by village - that is the way.
A young person turned me on to the Delphi Technique/ method, used in all forms of 'government' and to control crowds at so called 'public' meetings where we supposedly have voice, but all has already been decided for us by 'experts' - usually anonymous and unknown to us. Invented by the Rand corporation as a psychological torture method for crowd control and to squash dissidence or even legitimate anger and frustration- and still used today.
I'll be reading more with interest, and will spread the word, as I am one of the poor living in a poor people's prison-box complex they call low income apartments. Part of the plan is to urbanize rural places - 'smart' cites and all that. Thank you for the education and for giving us the tools to resist and fight the death system. I'm watching the destruction here, have been fighting it for over 30 years - what a waste of my life. I realize now there are other ways around all of this - fighting a pathological psychotic sociopathic system within the system will never work.
I have never heard of the use of fermented nopal juice as stabilizer, adhesive, hardener and binder, and also sisal rope. That is so fascinating! It's crazy how abundant it is and how useful it is. Yet, I was studying adobe for some time (not so much hands on stuff, which is kind of the point), and I hadn't heard of it until now. I'm wondering if this isn't talked about much because it's not in the New Mexico Earthen Building Code - which I understand, is similar to that in Arizona? Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. From what I remember the bricks need be 'stabilized' within the first two feet from ground level... and this was usually done with portland cement. I mean, it's great that 'some' natural building is allowed, but they end up putting rules on stuff like that... and roofs needing insulation, and other things and so on. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that kind of thing with all the building code barriers. And I also heard, not first hand, that building codes don't really matter so much in unincorporated towns.
I think it's pretty darn important to know how things were done before. I don't see why things have to be modernized and up to code if it worked so well in the first place. That's just my thoughts on the matter.
Thanks for this post, really great stuff!
Hi Kyle-
Reading your article reminded me when I was in Belize about 15 years ago and I saw a man and his helper up on bamboo scaffolding it was a work of art !!! It was just beautiful The structure was only 3 stories high. I remember I was trying to tell them how OSHA would go crazy over it here. I took pictures but lost them when I didn’t back up the cloud or whatever that thing is. I considered their work, safe and a work of art.
The major problem is the screwed up banking system. Not the cost of housing but rather the fact the cost of the loans that in 30 years triple the cost. For instance, my father in law bought a house in 1960 for $13,500. After 30 years at the rate he was paying he had to pay back $40,050. That would have been 1990. If you look at the inflation rate between the 30 years, $13,500 translated into $57,402.03. That is a 341% increase. BUT he came out ahead by literally $17,400. If inflation keeps happening at the same rate here is what happens. You buy a house today that is about the same size as the $13,500 one for about $133,821.82 That is the same "value" as in 1960 with a 929% increase. Now that $133,931 paid back at the current interest rate will be $525,465.46 If you take consideration the same inflation rate by the time you pay it back that $133,931 house will cost somewhere about $700,000 thirty years from now. Which would mean that you would still be ahead of the inflation curve. When it comes to inflation, they really are not honest because if you look at it TODAY, you can see that some items are way higher, labor for trades is WAY up. And keeps going up due to lack of people going into the trades. I could make $100 an HOUR doing plumbing full time. That comes out to $4,000 a week and that comes to $208,000 a year. Doing a job that back when I started in 1977 would pay me about $25,000 a year. Figure that out. With the same inflation rate as used in the above problems utilizing this calculator https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ $25,000 translates into $125,702.15 I could make $208,000 so did my wages keep up with inflation or are they way higher? So if they are way higher what was the REAL inflation rate?
And since real wages for the average working person are not keeping up with inflation it makes it almost impossible to buy that same house and pay for it. Yes, you come out ahead of inflation by paying it off in the 30 years period, and if you sell it at that time for the going rate you come out ahead. The real issues is the EVILS of a FLUCTUATING MEDIUM of EXCHANGE which can become understood by reading this post. Blood Running in The Streets. Mobs of Rioters and Demonstrators Threatening Banks and Legislatures... https://www.courageouslion.us/p/blood-running-in-the-streets-mobs. Here is a for instance. In 1960 an ounce of gold cost $35.00 That same $13,500 house would have cost 385 ounces of gold. If you had saved that 385 ounces of gold and not bough the house, today you could trade it in for $847,000 at the current rate of about $2200 an ounce.
So if we had kept to real money, theoretically an new house that was $847,00 would still only cost you $13,500 in gold because gold can't be inflated. The loss of value of the FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES is the issue. Gold and silver have held their value DRASTICALLY against fed notes. A gallon of gas cost .25 cents +/- which you could have paid for with a 1/4 dollar of silver in 1960. Today I can buy almost TWO gallons of gas for that same coin. Check prices for 90% silver at AMPEX. OK so the silver quarter due to less of them being around will let you purchase more gas than you would have in 1960 for the same quarter.
Why am I laying this out? BECAUSE THE BANKING SYSTEM built on a sand foundation is the ISSUE. If you read the post I have linked above you will realize that it isn't the material or labor that is the issue. It is what we use to "PAY" for the material and labor that is the issue. It is an EVIL system that Judge Roger Sherman wrote about in this booklet: http://bornagainclassics.com/Books/ACaveatAgainstInjustice-Shermann/ There is also this one: Thank You Federal Reserve...
What Would We Have Ever Done Without You!!! https://www.courageouslion.us/p/thank-you-federal-reserve Your article is very interesting as we followed you along your trip. I couldn't build my house with adobe where I am located. If I was building a comfortable 1500 square foot today using my own labor it would be about half of what one would cost currently in my area. With a little help from some friends. We need to start local volunteer labor groups like Habitat for Humanities does and sort of like a barn raising pool our labor resources and we can cut costs way down. Realize that a CONTRACTOR typically makes a 100% profit on the house too. So if he puts $100,000 in it, he expects $200,000 out of it. Some will be willing to do it for 50% if they can do a lot of them in a short time. Labor and costs of tradesmen these days is the main cost.
I helped on two Habitat for Humanities homes by offering my labor for plumbing. It was a gift. I saved them about $4,000 each. They only paid for materials at my cost. If you study my three posts linked to in here you will know more about "economics' than your average economics major coming out of a college of lesser learning. I've been on top of the subject for over 30 years. And I'm a plumber that runs an antique car club. I hope this sheds some light on the issue. Jus Meum Tuebor
Many of these structures are absolutely beautiful. I'd love to move to the Southwest, but the heat would get to me. Southwestern design is my style anyways. I at one time was seriously considering those Earthship homes in NM. Don't know if folks are still building in that area. Not thrilled at all how some use tires. That would be a big No for me!
Hi Sir, I'm intrigued and interested to learn more about adobe home building. I was wondering if you have any good videos or books I can get my hands on to learn more? Do you know anyone offering internships in this construction method because I am currently taking construction management here in Tennessee.
The concept of "Tiny Houses" could be advantageous for some, not only for one's own abode, but as a possible small business venture as well, where the creative possibilities are endless. I would suggest building from scratch using a recycled mobile home chassis, but registering it as an RV, (park model). As I recall, AZ DMV, and maybe other states(?), (but NOT NM), allows RV park models as wide as 10', that can be registered as an RV on open roads, with some simple added safety rules for transporting your own on the highway, like a simple "OVERWIDTH" safety banner. Check your local state's DMV.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tiny+houses&t=newext&atb=v282-1&iax=images&ia=images
Aren't there any modern building materials that can be used to protect yourself from EMF radiation? Lining the walls and ceilings with tin foil gets annoying. (jk)