Mike Oehler and the $50 and Up Underground House

  In this post I will discuss my visit with the totally unique Mike Oehler (pronounced Aye Lur) and getting a tour of his original $50 and Up Underground House as well as his Ridge House, and even an underground dog house in beautiful North Idaho.

  Mike normally does not give tours, though he has had workshops over the years at his property.  He is a man who likes his privacy.  I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to tour his place with my family.

  Mike is a totally unique man!  He grew up during the 50's and 60's when the hippie movement was just getting going.  He said he was a beatnik which became the hippies.  As you can see in the photo of him and my wife above, he still doesn't wear shoes unless it gets really cold even though he is in his 70's.  His knees are shot, so he walks with a stick now days, but in his day he was in really good shape.  I must say I don't agree with his religious philosophy, but he is very pleasant to talk to and very opinionated about the things he knows from years of living it.

  He purchased his property north of Sandpoint, Idaho in the late 60's and moved there I think in the early 70's.  He worked with his hands and back at a local mill and also as a wild land firefighter at times paying off his property.  His first winter was miserable living in a shack as it gets cold here, so he thought about what he wanted to do.  He had cut logs off of his property to build a log cabin, but after much contemplation he decided to go underground.

  His first underground house he dug by hand in 3 weeks, digging in the morning and in the evenings. His soil is pretty sandy and his original house was I think 160 square feet, but regardless, my hat's off to him!  I don't like using a shovel so years ago I learned how to run a backhoe and have owned a couple of small ones.

  After living in the original house for a few years, he expanded it to a palatial 500 square feet.  He uses his unique formula he calls PSP which stands for Post Shoring Polyethylene.  His houses are based on a pole barn concept, with poles (peeled logs) standing upright in holes he dug and supporting the walls and roof structure.  Around the outside and over the roof he puts thick planks (shoring) and covers that with 6 mil polyethylene.  To protect the logs he chars the ends, then triple bags them with garbage bags duct taped to them.

  My family and I walked through the now unoccupied original house and it is still in surprisingly good shape.   He admittedly is no carpenter and readily acknowledges what has and hasn't worked.  I think that his structures speak for themselves.  The original house is now almost 40 years old and is livable today.  He built it for $500 and a lot of sweat equity.  I'd say if it lasted 10 years he did good, but 40 is as long as many modern houses last.

  We were in the middle of summer when we walked in and it was nice and cool.  Much to our surprise, it was plenty bright inside and there was no musty smell!  He emphasized that a house has to have light, air, and views and every room needs to at least have light from two sides.  A lot of his design philosophy is based on the way of thinking expressed in the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander.

  Here are a few photos of the original house:

Look at the light!

His writing desk.

View out a side.

His dog on the roof.

The pictures I took didn't do it justice!  I'm no photographer, I was wanting to look at the houses so I could build my own.  One thing that struck me is that a person could be 30 feet from the house and never see it!

  We also toured the Ridge House which has been under construction since about 2000.  He started it then ran out of money, leaving poles standing in the weather for quite a few years which caused some of them to rot.  As a result he had to replace some of them.  It is still a work in progress, but it is very beautiful!  He has about $30,000 invested as of when we looked at it, but it is 3 stories high.  Due to being on a ridge, each level opens on to ground level.

  One unique thing he did was on the interior he put boards on either side of poles, lined the cavity between with poly and filled it with sand.  This gives more thermal mass inside the house, a level of sound dampening, and even makes it resistant to bullets.  I thought that was clever.  I haven't been there in two years, but he says he has got quite a bit done since then.

  Here are pictures of the Ridge House:

Ground floor entrance, left front.

Just to right of last photo.

 

Right side of house.  Note earth roof.  Taken from  a  scenic overlook with a HUGE drop off!

Dining room ground floor.

Spiral staircase from ground to second floor in living room.

Back center of house.

Looking down from roof above the photo to left.

Window to dining room.

Cross brace timbers in living room.

Looking down into living room.

Looking out front door.

Bedroom upstairs.

Same bed and bedroom from a different angle.

Upstairs kitchen.

Third story alcove on front face.

  I think the neatest little house he built is one in the following pictures.  It is a very small underground structure that a couple with a child lived in for one year.  Way better than a tent, but a teeny tiny house!  When I toured the Earthships in New Mexico Mike Reynolds has come up with the simple survival house that only cost $20,000.  While admirable, this is as simple as it gets and can be done for almost nothing with some scavenging.

Mike standing at door.

Bed and stove to the right.

Bed to the left.

 You can see that there is very little floor space.  It is basically two twin beds and a wood stove, but it is shelter that can be built very quickly from salvaged timber and lumber.  This is freedom!  You could build this in a week I would think.

  Next is a survival shelter he built in a workshop he gave before Y2K.  It wasn't completed as it was just used as a teaching tool.  In the DVD's, this is the survival shelter referred to.

  And finally is the underground dog house for Bummer.  From what I understand, Mike's dogs through the years are all named Bummer, Bummer 2, Bummer 3, Bummerrella. :)  Incidentally, I would NOT go to his place unannounced!  Bummerrella is huge and not so friendly!

  Though Mike Oehler doesn't generally let people come out to his place, he has well documented his building philosophy and structures in the famous book The $50 and Up Underground House Book as well as his underground greenhouse book The $50 and up Underground Greenhouse Book.

  If you seriously are interested in building an underground house or implementing any of his design principles I'd purchase his Low-cost Underground House Workshop and Survival Shelter Seminar 3 DVD set.

Jeff

  Here are links to his books and DVDs:

The $50 and Up Underground House Book (digital download half off cover price)

The Low-Cost Underground House Workshop and Survival Shelter Seminar 3 DVD Set Includes Workbook, Design Kit and Shelter Plans (digital download save over half off cover price)

The 3 DVD Set and The $50 and Up Underground House Book (digital download book at Half Price)

The 3 DVD Set and The Earth-sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book (digital download book at Half Price )

The 3 DVD Set and at Half Price Both The $50 and Up Underground House Book and The Earth-sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book (digital download)

Mike Oehler's Books on Amazon

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure) (Expensive but highly recommended no matter what you are building.)