The Ridge House
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Author Mike Oehler stands outside the front door of his ridge house
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South view-Look at all those windows and grass growing on the roof
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The Miracle Center A.K.A. the kitchen of the ridge house
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Interior shot looking north
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The cook's bedroom
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Two of Mike's other houses
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The front door of the original $50 Underground
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This $15 Guest House was built using all recycled
materals. |
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This is an $8000 House |
Interior of the $8,000 house built in 1980.
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Light, air and views emphasized. Post/shoring/polyethylene method proven since 1971.
The $8,000 house shown on this page was designed and half built by Mike
Oehler. The client built the other half.
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Exterior of the $8,000 house. This house is entirely earthen sheltered except for door
and window areas.
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This interior photo of the $8,000 underground house was photographed with natural light.
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Mike Oehler's $50 and $500 Underground Houses |
At right: Mike Oehler’s original $50 underground house as viewed from the $500
addition. HGTV frequently features this house on its special, "The Subterraneans."
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Above: Sarah Royer cooks a meal through the barbeque window.
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Doorway to the $500 addition.
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The Holland House |
An underground house built by Mike Oehler’s methods in Holland. Built without a permit,
Inspectors circled this house and did not see it.
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Interior of the Dutch Underground House.
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The 5,000 Square Foot Underground House |
Some of the windows in an eight bedroom, 5,000-square-foot underground house and
greenhouse built in Idaho in the early 1980s for $20,000. Had it been built above ground at the then
national building average of $50 per square foot it would have cost the family $250,000. This family
saved $230,000.
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Interior of the 5000 square foot underground house during construction.
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The 2,000 Square Foot Underground House |
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A six-room underground home built in 1981 for $2000. The owner/builder was a
sawmill-owning logger who worked up his own lumber.
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Earth-Sheltered Greenhouses |
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At Left: Mike begins work on his original earth-sheltered greenhouse
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At Left: Mike waters plants in the original greenhouse.
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The hillside earth-sheltered greenhouse before planting. This greenhouse has taken tomatoes
into the second week of December repeatedly. It is heated only by the sun and earth. It has
taken hardies like kale clear through the winter.
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Mike emerges from his hillside Earth Sheltered Greenhouse, a P/S/P structure that
has been in service since 1979.
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