Hello, Lloyd.
…I discovered your ‘Builders of the Pacific Coast‘ book a month or so ago and was instantly hooked. A friend gave it to me, and I quickly got a hold of copies of Shelter, Home Work, and Barefoot Architect. I’ve been reading those three simultaneously.
The reason I have such an interest in these books is because I’ve had, for some years now, an unshakable desire to build a sustainable house of my own, with my own two hands, and do most of the work myself. Before I found your books, I thought I was crazy and pretty singular in my desires. I’m from a mid-size town in Georgia where such a thing is pretty uncommon. This bug first bit me about 3 years ago, during a tumultuous time in my life when things just seemed so complicated. I felt there had to be another way. That we’ve lost something in modern times, specifically self-reliance and the abilities to do things our ancestors did routinely. But I didn’t know anyone who actually built their own homes, by themselves. People I discussed this with at best thought the idea amusing…though extremely strange. Most just thought it strange. And impractical.
Through odd twists of fate, I found myself living in Los Angeles…a bit further away from the back-to-nature life I started to seek. I’m here for the reason why most guys do foolish things–a girl. She’s trying to make it in the entertainment industry and so we have to be here for that. However, she’s also a Bay Area gal, born in Marin, and friends with all sorts of free spirited folks, which is how I discovered your books.
The purpose of this email isn’t just to blab on about myself but to thank you for your books and to let you know how life-changing and inspiring they’ve been. To know I’m not alone and to see that others have done what I want to do has been invaluable to me. Thank you for chronicling these builders in your books.
Please keep doing what you do, and if you’re still doing it when I finally get around to building my house, I would love to send you photos.
Thank you again, Lloyd, and have a wonderful weekend.
-P.A. in L.A.
Spotted this 12 mpg chunk of trash in San Francisco last week. Shitty design to boot.
Just picked up this joyous video from Loobylu, a soulful blog written by Claire Robertson, who says: “I am a writer, illustrator, mama, crafter and procrastinator living and dreaming with my raggle-taggle family in a forest on a small island in Canada’s Pacific Northwest. We have been here since August 2010. Before that we were suburb dwelling people who lived in Melbourne, Australia. We decided to make our lives a bit more of an adventure…”
Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.
Direct link to video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/12236680
Here is some good sense from New Zealand. (I put these in chronological order so you read from the top down.)
On 4/6/11 at 11:59 AM +1200, John Knotts wrote in a message entitled
Re: GIMME SHELTER Newsletter Spring 2011:
Hi Lloyd
New Zealand calling. I am inspired by your work. This country has seen the greatest natural challenge ever visited on us: the Christchurch earthquake.
We are hard pressed to even house those that have lost their homes. The authorities are using parks of mobile homes; many are using portaloos and chemical toilets weeks after the event.
Infrastructure is chaotic; most sewerage storm water and power was damaged, with repairs likely to take years.
Given your methods, whole towns could be constructed if land was provided; man has an inherent ability from thousands of years of knowledge of housing himself.
Yet regulation and autocratic government takes us down the path of more regulation, engineering requirements, et al.
We have seen massive destruction of wooden buildings without any care for the husbanding of the timber resource in the central business district. One building of three stories was an old drying building for tobacco (but not sure) but it did contain thousands of board feet of Oregon clears 6”*2” about 100 years old. The walls were two layers. This was sent to land fill.
It is now impossible to build a modest dwelling in this country; even in your extreme climate you do not always double glaze; here it is mandatory. A 150 square ft building can be built but must meet all regulations. These include the banning of recycled windows and doors.
Roll on the revolution.
Fair winds at your back
John Knotts
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I just ran across this buried in my email files. I mujst have written it decades ago A friend of mine recently bought 80 acres of wooded land in Northern California and was speculating on what kind of house she might build. She had heard of straw bales and was also attracted to the idea of a circular building. What did I think?
I told her this, from my experience (and this could apply to a lot of other people as well): if you start out with an abstract concept in design (such as a building with curves) or materials (rammed earth, straw bales, etc.) you are very likely to end up spending a lot more time and money than if you started out with the concept of what’s practical, and what has worked in the area in the past.
My specific advice to her: get a copy of Lester Walker’s Tiny Tiny Houses, and use it to build something small and simple to start with. This is an wonderful book, with dozens of carefully drawn and simple little buildings to choose from, and my idea is to put up a cabin quickly and then have a place to spend weekends or vacations while you more carefully study how to construct the right home for the land.
Les Walker is a rarity in today’s architectural world: a guy who has turned his attention and drawing skills to the art of building small houses. There are 40 designs in this book, each one showing sequenced construction details, dimensions, and photos of the finished products, all under 325 square feet.
If I had a piece of land, I’d use this book for ideas on building something small and simple, perhaps that could be added onto later, or left as a guest cottage OR maybe one would find that the tiny house is all that’s needed. Published by Overlook Press; other books by Walker are The Tiny Book of Tiny Houses (a cut-down version of this one) and American Shelter, about the best book in print of classic American house styles.
Unofficial trailer for “The Bus,” a feature-length documentary film currently in production. “The Bus” is a celebration of the most iconic and beloved vehicle ever produced. It explores the history, culture and evolution of the Volkswagen Transporter from its Nazi heritage to its modern-day cult-like following and status; the film celebrates the 60th anniversary of the VW Bus and its vibrant and resonant place in modern culture. The film will be released in late 2011.
Sent in by Lew Lewandowski. From Solar Burrito: https://solarburrito.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/the-bus-trailer-volkswagen-van-movie/
I had a ’60 VW bus with a 40 HP motor for about 7 years in the ’60s. It had a plywood fold-up bed, table, frig, closet (precursor of the Westphalia). I carried half the materials for a house I built in Big Sur on it, drove to NYC one December (wrapped in sleeping bags for the cold), drove down to Puerto Vallarta before the bridge and had to cross the river with a guy walking to show us the way. I probably put 100,000 miles on it. 40 HP!
Only 5 hours left to bid on this stylish old road warrior.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180646083322&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_14997wt_1167
As of now, the high bid of $1525 doesn’t meet the seller’s minimum. If you miss the auction deadline, you can contact the owner: SportsCar LA, 310-330-9909.
Sent us by Evan Kahn
Godfrey Stephens, artist, carver, and seafarer, wheeling his rebuilt old clinker dinghy down to the water from his house in Victoria, BC, Canada
Here’s what’s happening at Shelter Publications and environs at this moment, day of our lord April 3, 2011, with sunny Sunday morning blue skies and warm days after cold rainy months. The hills are verdant green, with Spring life pulsating, creeks rushing, ground soaked deeply. It’s the month of my birthday, and I feel energized.
Tiny Homes book It’s extraordinary. This book is evolving daily. Some of the best material is coming in right now. Just last week a small group of artists and homebuilders creating unique shelters on a piece of land in France; we just did 8 pages on them. “France is the California of Europe…” says our friend Paula.
The best and most unexpected thing about working on this book is that so many of these builders say they were inspired by our books, going back to Shelter (1973). Boy! Plus our books are being discovered by a new generation.
We’ve got a thread of continuity running between Shelter, HomeWork, and Builders of the Pacific Coast. (Shameless commerce dept.: we’ve been selling the set of 3 for a 40% discount: https://www.shelterpub.com/.
We’re in full gear production now, have maybe 155 pages (out of 228) done in rough form. We just changed the publication date to February 2012. Got to do it right. It’s gonna be a beauty, is all I can say. I have the feeling that I did with Shelter, back in the ’70s, that we were plugged into something vital and current. There’s buzz.
This time it’s about figuring out a way use your own hands to get shelter over your head without getting tied up with a bank (or landlord) — we’re talkin freedom here! Maybe not right away, but some (especially young) people can move in this direction…
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I started writing the GIMME SHELTER newsletters in the early ’90s as a means of communicating with sales reps about our books. I was inspired to do this by GeorgeYoung’s Ten Speed Press newsletter to sales reps entitled “Verbal Abuse.” It was witty, chatty, and got the word out.
For a while, the newsletters were on — are you ready? — paper, and we mailed them out. It was fun, I liked doing it every month or two (or three). About 10 years ago I started doing them as emails, and as I went on, I started adding other-than-publishing stuff. Life here on the homestead, on-the-road, whatever was happening.
In recent years I’ve segued into blogging daily, and this been taking so much time that I’ve fallen behind in the emails. I know most people don’t read my blog, so I’ll try to send one of these out once in a while. (Although this is written as an email, I’m going to blog it now, then email it in the next few days.)
Here’s what’s happening at Shelter Publications and environs at this moment, day of our lord April 3, 2011, with sunny Sunday morning blue skies and warm days after cold rainy months. The hills are verdant green, with Spring life pulsating, creeks rushing, ground soaked deeply. It’s the month of my birthday, and I feel energized.
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