I met Louie about15 years ago when a mutual friend brought me over to his shop. As we drove up to about the prettiest building I’d ever seen, Louie came out through the door with an old tattered copy of our 1973 book Shelter, told me to crouch down with him in the doorway. “Look,’ he said, pointing to the Mandan Lodge on p. 4 of Shelter, “I built this building from this painting in your book.” Wow! He turned out to be one of my 2 favorite builders in the world (the other is Lloyd House) and one of my very bestest of friends. He is the featured builder in HomeWork.
Louie’s a master craftsman. Everything he does is finely crafted. He’s a constant inspiration to me to do things better. It’s a treat for me to come up to his place. We walk along the riverbed, look for mushrooms, go out on his sailboat, drive along the coast (one day along the ocean listening to Leonard Cohen), have wild duck dinners, visit interesting people, and have whatever adventures we can conspire up.
This is where I stay when I visit; it’s a a circular room adjacent to the shop, desk on the left for my MacBook Air. I set up my Sirius radio and get in some writing while looking out at the vineyard, apple orchard and redwoods. Fire burning in little woodstove right now this cold sunny afternoon.
(Photoshop junkies: The Photomerge function didn’t work here, so I just pasted them side by side.)
Note: This is getting posted out of sequence. Such is life.
