[Kevin]

One of the guys on our house corp is in the construction industry. He also sits on the Oklahoma University chapter's house corp. We're still in the planning/development stages for building a house. When it finally comes time to do so, we'll probably heed his advice on the matter -- build using non-flammable material. It's expensive in the short run, but the long-term savings can be huge.

They built the OU house that way (it's kind of an eyesore from the outside, but it's built very well and is very nice inside, just underwent a 1.5 million rennovation).

In the 90's, there was a really bad fire which started in one of the rooms of that house. The fire completely gutted/destroyed that room. Melted the doorknob.

Due to the construction of the facility, however, the house was otherwise undamaged. There were no sprinkler systems.

I thought that was a pretty good deal.

At any rate, if any of y'all are in the planning/development stages, you might consider the future cost-savings of spending a little now for the steel/concrete frame rather than 2x4's and plywood.