We are getting an unprecedented amount of feedback these days. We get things more or less like this every day; it’s quite wonderful to be connecting:
Dear Lloyd,
My name’s Philip. I am 23 years old and I live in Belgium. I am going to do an apprenticeship in straw bale building at Quail Springs in July….
2 years ago I discovered Home Work. It’s my favourite book. I’ve showed it to all my friends. Everyone who has seen it is really enthusiastic about it (nearly as much as I am). Recently I gave Builders of the Pacific Coast to a friend for her birthday. She was absolutely delighted with it. Before I didn’t know these houses and people existed. Thank you for showing all that. It’s because of Home Work that I’m doing this training. Ever since I’ve seen your book I’m dreaming about building, from when I get up until I go to sleep, every day. It gave direction to my life. It’s almost spiritual….
Thank you for your time and especially for your book and the spirit it represents!
-Philip Galle
This 1915 wood frame home in Berkeley, California was designed by Henry Gutterson, a prominent Arts and Crafts-era architect. It has paneled redwood walls and a cathedral ceiling with carved crossbeams. It’s for sale for 1.6 mil, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle recently. Berkeley and Oakland are full of wonderful old (not all this exquisite and expensive) houses. You only have to drive up and down the streets to see them. Gutterson was one of the turn-of-the century architects (including the wonderful Bernard Maybeck, with whom he worked) who veered away from gaudy Victorian architecture and established the Bay Area Arts and Crafts style.
Regarding Michelle Obama’s veg. garden, the Slow Food movement, Michael Pollan’s tribute to small farms, etc.: “These ideas have crept forward toward the mainstream in the wake of the economic collapse which inspired calls for a return to real work — a return in other words to activities more tangible (and, it was hoped, less perilous) than complex swaps of abstract financial products.…”
-From a book review by Kelefa Sanneh, of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, by Mathew B. Crawford (Penguin), in the 6/22/09 New Yorker.
Boy, is it good to hear this stuff. “…an ode to old-fashioned hard work, and an argument that localism can help cure our spiritual and economic woes.…”
I quit my job as an insurance broker 44 years ago to work as a carpenter. I liked hanging out with builders, rather than business guys, and it felt good to drive around in a pickup truck and not be wearing a tie. I reveled in the smell in lumber yards, and the feeling of accomplishment. I felt there was something more direct and useful about building, than accumulating a fortune in the business world (which I was on my way to), so this article resonated. “Crawford’s book arrives just as a vague sense of dissatisfaction with the demands and rewards of the modern economy is coalescing into something like a movement.”
In the process I built my own house; I’ve never had a bank mortgage, and this has given me a huge amount of freedom. And hey, you can still use your own hands to build a house.
L-R: Jim Sylvia, Lloyd, Jim McGowan at the Stinson Beach (Calif.) lifeguard reunion last Saturday. About every 5 years, we have a reunion, reminisce about the days when we were young, buffed, and foolish. 50 years ago (ulp!).
Photo: Suzi Beattie
Spotted this at a Nissan dealership on Broadway in Oakland yesterday morning. It looks just right. This one was $16K. See recent article, “Hello Kitty, Your Car Is Waiting” in NY Times.
This little guy turned up in our garden pond today, floating on the salvinia. He was very relaxed, letting me get a foot away with the camera. According to Wikipedia, garter snakes are …” the single most widely distributed genus of reptile in North America.” This looks a lot like the San Francisco garter snake, an endangered species.
The Dipsea race is the oldest cross-country race in America, 7.5 miles from Mill Valley, Calif. to Stinson Beach. It’s a tough course, with 4000 feet of vertical up and down. It’s also an age- handicapped race, with older (and very young) runners getting a head start. Here is the first starting group (2 days ago), of 70-year olds and one little girl. She just charmed everyone with her energy and joy, racing out in front of the others.
On our half-acre plot of buildings and gardens, we’re surrounded by quail, They live out in the brush and patrol our garden regularly for insects and seeds (Lesley puts out birdseed). Quail are in the Phasianidae family, which includes pheasants and chickens. They are ground birds, as opposed to say doves, which are more airborne. They operate in flocks, and always post a guard to warn of dangers (such as cats). Here’s the guard dude on top of our scare-away-birds-from-garden plastic owl (so much for its efficacy!). I shot this out the door of our office yesterday.
Rick Gordon, our Macintosh maestro, and builder of all our books, is also a singer extraordinaire. Friday night he performed before a packed house at the Jazz School in Berkeley. Occasion was his father’s 100th birthday, and it was called Song for My Father. A wonderful event, everyone in the audience was with Rick all the way.
“…and all I have to do is act naturally.”
Jason Sussberg and friends, as an exercise in shooting real film (as opposed to digital), made a 6-minute movie on me and Lesley and our home, and by golly, they got it right. Which hasn’t always happened in my encounters with the media. They even got me skateboarding. Here it is: https://jasonsussberg.com/SHELTER.mov
