I may be young, barely out of college and yet to land my first stable job but my mind is already on my first house. First house because I intend to have several, in different counties and countries, a man should dream you know. As things are, times are hard; jobs are hard to come by and the pay, well, follow the news and you won't miss one union or the other striking or threatening to go on strike (the doctors and teachers went on strike on August 27th and September 3rd respectively while lecturers are threatening to strike on September 6th) .

My first house will be cheap. A thing of beauty but cheap. It will have all the trappings of a bachelor pad; key being a mini bar and a sound proof theatre -maybe not sound proof but a theatre all the same - with a kick ass plasma TV and Sony Home Theatre System to boot. Of course these require a substantial amount of cash and so without breaking the bank, some cost cutting will have to do in the form of the building itself.

That's where alternative building materials like compressed soil blocks come in. There is no need of incurring huge costs ferrying stone from the quarry to the site while an equivalent material can be produced on site. Soil blocks are cheap because they are made from easily and widely available material, soil (no prizes for guessing). Virtually all types of soil can make these blocks except black cotton. A typical block consists of 70% soil, 20% sand and 10% cement according to Africa Investor. One bag of cement which costs about Kshs. 750 can be used to make about 100 building blocks while in a quarry 100 stones will set you back by a minimum of Kshs. 5,500.

The use of stabilized soil blocks can reduce the cost of building by up to 50%. According to Africa Investor, a UN Habitat study says that an ordinary quarry stone house that costs about Kshs. 2.2  million would cost about Kshs. 720,000 when built with stabilized soil blocks. In these economic hardships tell me that isn't music for the ears.

Inter-locking soil blocks provide for a sturdy building and save on use of mortar in joining the bricks unlike ordinary quarry stones. Mortar is only used in laying the foundation and just above the lintel level. This means that most of the wall is dry stacked and as there is no waiting for mortar to dry, the time taken in building is considerably reduced.

The fact that most machines that make the blocks are mobile means that the blocks can be made on site granted the soil is suitable. A Hydraform Blockmaking Machine can produce an average of 240 blocks an hour which means the speed of putting up the structure depends on the manpower that one employs.

Now I don't consider the brown colour (the bricks take the colour of the soil used) aesthetic or easy on the eye and I'd hate to be coming home to a drab brown abode day after day. To redeem this I'm thinking of white plaster (think State House and the White House), to give the house that stately look. The white plaster also hides the fact that the house is made of bricks and therefore cheap, see status is important to a young man and it does't do your bragging rights any good if the fact that you own your home is tempered with the quite unflattering observation that it's just a brick house. No young man worth his salt will be spotted in an NGO-like structure and therefore the finishing is crucial. The house must look as conventional as possible and must make the statement that you've arrived, or you're well on your way there.