The whole point of having that job is you can generate more value doing that than, say, spending the better part of a year building a house full-time. By spending 8 hours a day for 30 weeks writing software (or whatever you do besides HN), you can support yourself, dependents, and laborers who in turn will build you a house - that's a pretty darned good deal on your part. Good job on adding so much wealth to society!

Sure his solution isn't "easily repeatable" and involves living in squalor. He's not giving up productivity to build the house, but you would be. As such, it's a step up for him, and a step down for you. If it was "easily repeatable" it wouldn't entail 1500 hours of labor, or ~$100K to buy it.

What does resemble an "easily repeatable" solution is http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/plans where you can start with the plans for a really minimal home for $17, little box bungalows for $99, or more normal looking houses (albeit tiny) for a few hundred. Most are designed for small trailer frames, so you can build one in your spare time with supplies as cheap as you willing to get, find suitable cheap/odd land, and haul it there when ready.

Upshot is you pay high prices because the alternative is doing serious labor yourself.