building (454)

I’m Doing 3 Appearances in Oregon in the Next Week

August 1, 2017 at 11:27 pm

I’m heading up to Oregon (a state I love in its entirety) on Friday. I’ll be doing these events:

Saturday, Aug. 5, 10 AM, SMALL HOMES at The Mother Earth News Faire in Albany (70 miles south of Portland on I-5)

Sunday, Aug. 6, 2 PM, 50 YEARS OF NATURAL BUILDING at TMEN Faire

 Schedule: https://www.motherearthnewsfair.com/oregon/schedule/

I heartily recommend the TMEN fairs, They’re genuine country fairs, with chickens, goats, dimensional lumber mills, a ton of workshops, great food, good country vibes. There are 2 more coming up, September in Pennsylvania, October in Kansas

Monday Aug. 7, 7:30 PM SMALL HOMES at Powell’s on Hawthorne in Portland: https://www.powells.com/locations/powells-books-on-hawthorne/

On Tuesday I’m gonna go hang out with Foster Huntington, surfer, skater, filmmaker, Instagram master at his treehouse/skate bowl complex just over the border in Washington. Back home Wednesday. Then back to Oregon in a week (driving this trip) for the solar eclipse.

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The Lost Files

July 5, 2017 at 1:49 am

I was looking through one of my many filing cabinets (which contain old school file folders containing papers and photos) the other day and discovered about 15 folders on a book I started to write in the late ’70s. It was going to be called Home Work* and was about my building experiences, starting with my first building (studio with a “living roof” in 1962), then building homes over the next 17-18 years. I took them out of the filing cabinet and put them in this box:

Back then, I felt that I could offer guidance to novice builders, based on the fact that I started building from scratch. No carpentry training or previous construction experience.

I’d made a lot of mistakes that I could warn first-time builders about, and I had ideas for simple homes based on practicality and economy– and ones that felt good.

I wanted to encourage people to use their own hands to build their own homes. I’d done it, and never had a bank mortgage or paid rent.

The project got interrupted by my publishing Stretching by Bob Anderson in 1980 and then 20 years of publishing fitness books. Karma, I guess.

Read More …

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Letter From a Prisoner

June 26, 2017 at 12:29 am

A letter like this makes it all seem worthwhile. This is from a prisoner at a multi-security prison in New Hampshire. We sent him 3 building books. (We have a long-standing policy of sending free books to any inmates that request them.)

I apologize for the delay in responding to your last letter. It’s just that you left me in a state of shock, so all I can say is: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

It is easy to become dehumanized in this place. After a while we all buy into the rhetoric about how useless we are, So when someone comes along and does something that reminds us that we are still human and worth something (if only in the hearts of a few), it can be disorienting.

Thank you for disorienting me!

I have finished with all three books, and they have now been donated to our library. I have an entire composition book full of notes and designs based on these books.With the present status of my case, I have no idea when I am getting out. However, when I do get out, I will have a plan, and your books will have been a significant contributor to that plan. Who knows, maybe I’ll build something that will eventually appear in one of your future books.

Anyway thank you! Not only for helping me, but for creating a ray of hope for others in this place.

Shalom aleichem,

JZ

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Sophie and Marc’s Homestead of Recycled Materials in Quebec

June 21, 2017 at 12:14 am

I just got this email from Sophie and Marc, whose home is covered on pages 116-119 of Small Homes — after we sent them 2 books:

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https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/remue-menage/2016/segments/reportage/8060/vivre-autrement-nature-simplicite?isAutoPlay=1

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Design in Vancouver Coffee Shop

May 23, 2017 at 4:49 pm

Stainless lettering, mortised into flooring, attached with stainless steel phillips head screws, Milano Coffee Roasters, Gastown, Vancouver. There are also interesting tables and benches of poured concrete. Innovative architecture/design.

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6 donkeys, 2 ponies, 3 horses, and a llama in BC

May 11, 2017 at 10:30 am

Hello!

As you can see we have a sweet little collection of your books going.  In the back of Small Homes, Lloyd mentions what would be the next book.  All of them sound great, but BARNS would be what we would like to see.  We have 6 donkeys, 2 ponies, 3 horses, and a llama and I would like nothing better than to live in a barn with them and have my art studio!  So our vote goes to writing a book on BARNS!  We also have a 1200 acre woodlot with old growth Doug fir, a Woodmizer sawmill, a Nile kiln, and a Logosol planer, so we could make a marvelous barn with some great ideas coming from a BARN book of yours! 

Howard and Beatrix Linde

Williams Lake, BC

Canada

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Heritage Salvage TV Show Pilot Airs Sunday April 9th, 2017, at 8PM PST

April 6, 2017 at 5:24 pm

This is a pilot for a series of shows on DIY TV by Michael “Bug” Deakin and his crew of recyclers from Heritage Salvage in Petaluma, California.

Bug says: “All across America, century-old structures are falling down and forgotten — but I believe these buildings deserve a second chance.”

Here’s a 40-second sneak preview of the pilot, which airs this Sunday:

Also, if you’re ever in Petaluma, stop by Heritage at 1473 Petaluma Blvd. They have 300,000 board feet of used lumber, a ton of table-top slabs cut from large trees, some beautiful wide t&g flooring milled from windfall Maple trees, etc. Check their stock out at: https://heritagesalvage.com

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SMALL HOMES Now Available

March 14, 2017 at 7:44 pm

Our new book Small Homes: The Right Size is now available at independent bookstores, and Amazon — as well as from us: www.shelterpub.com/building/small-homes

Shameless Commerce Dept. This is, I think, the best building book we’ve ever done. (Yes, I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it keeps reoccurring to me.)  Shelter is everyone’s favorite; it captured the times, it inspired thousands of homes. Builders of the Pacific Coast is in some ways, my best book. It’s an odyssey of discovery where the reader rides shotgun with me over a 2-year period. Cohesive and focused.

BUT Small Homes is so useful to so many people in this era of astronomical home prices and rents, that I think it’s hugely important. It offers alternatives to people looking for rentals on Craigslist or homes on Zillow. Here are 65 very different homes, of different materials, in different parts of the world. The idea, as with all our building books is to use your hands to create your own shelter.

Two things I’ve discovered about this book (after seeing the finished product):

  1. There are a lot of homes out in middle America – Minnesota, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, more so than in any of our other books.
  2. It sparkles. Largely due to Rick’s considerable Photoshop skills, a motley assortment of photos from contributors have been rendered in colorful detail. I was stunned when I saw the first book off the press. The photos draw you in.
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