elisia_carrie_rudy_smallerIf two grandmothers can build a house with recyclables, anyone can! This website describes how we built a papercrete house on a tire foundation, details about the papercrete recipe we used — how we made an inexpensive papercrete mixer — where and how we acquired enough materials, including used and surplus wood and metals, to make our snug and cozy home for under $10,000 — including the cost of the land.

We are two women, both over 50, and we built this house ourselves using mostly recycled materials and a healthy dose of blood, sweat and tears!

We began with a leaky old mobile home we got for free, and we doubled its size by building a 6′ addition on both sides.

For the additions, we made a foundation of old tires packed with clay and laid like concrete blocks. On top of the tire foundation we built forms with used and seconds lumber. And on top of the mobile home and additions, we installed metal roofing purchased from a local scrap-yard