Andy Davis: Earth-sheltered House Builder

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Well, the boys in Washington have finally figured out that the world will soon face a shortage of easy-to-plunder petroleum. Unfortunately, politicians being politicians the way they are, it's already beginning to look as if we'd have been better off with no petroleum at all . . . instead of the confusing welter of bureaucratic red tape, laws, directives, taxes, reports, hearings, rebates, agencies, and other abominations of government with which said politicians now propose to "solve" the "problem".

Gentlemen, gentlemen. We know you mean well . . . but, frankly, this particular situation is just too important to put into the hands of politicians. So why don't you fellows just go speak to the Chamber of Commerce or play with your military appropriations or do something else innocuous while the Real Men roll up their sleeves and fix what ails us?

Real Men. Men like Andy Davis of Armington, Illinois . . . who—together with his wife, an 18-year-old son, and three daughters (14, 12, and 11)—recently designed and built a beautiful, 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom house for $15,000 that costs only $1.29 a year to heat! And, guys, Andy did it all without your red tape, laws, directives, taxes, reports, hearings, rebates, agencies, and other abominations of government . . . as Travis Brock recently learned during a visit to the Davis home.

PLOWBOY: Andy, this is really a great house . . . far nicer than I thought it'd be.

DAVIS: That seems to be the general reaction. People come in here expecting . . . well, I don't know what they expect to see . . . one of the old frontier dugouts, maybe. And our visitors always wind up using the same words over and over again: great, beautiful, remarkable, unbelievable, fantastic. I guess that "unbelievable" and "fantastic" are the two words used the most. A lot of people have just never thought about covering the walls and ceilings of their homes with something simple like rocks, and they're genuinely amazed at how beautiful it can be.

PLOWBOY: What gave you the idea of building a place like this?

DAVIS: I got the idea about four years ago when I was down in Arkansas. I was visiting an abandoned mining town on a hot day—it had to be close to 100 degrees outside—and I noticed that the further back I went into an old mining tunnel . . . why, the cooler it got.

Well, the walls of this old shaft were covered with crystal—big chunks of rock that looked like glass—and I had a flashlight with me. So I just sat there on a ledge, shining my light around on that rock. It was really beautiful. And I thought to myself, "Boy, this is nice back here . . . and I'll bet this tunnel will be warm in the winter too." And that's what gave me the idea.

PLOWBOY: So you came back here and built your own cave.

DAVIS: No, not just like that. But I did think about it. I didn't start to build a cave house right away, but I kinda kept the thought in the back of my mind for a while. And then, two years ago—during a winter that was downright mild compared to last winter—Margaret and I got a heating bill for one month for $167.

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