Article from NYTimes, Sept. 25, 2022 by Emily Badger
Whatever Happened to the Starter Home?
Note: This article shows the timeliness of our book Small Homes.
Sent us by Maori Surfer
The Art Nouveau ‘Gran Hotel Ciudad De México’, 1899, by French Architect, Jacques Grüber
My brother Bob just sent me this link:
www.boredpanda.com/amazing-architecture-buildings-pics
In contrast to most of what we see out out in the world, there is good architecture here and there. A stunning collection — 50 examples.
I can’t find attribution for this photo, which is on Reddit, and widely elsewhere. Always credit the photographer, people!
Tags: building, California, food, gardening, green building, half-acre homestead, homes, homestead, homesteading, kitchen, natural building, salvaged materials, sauna, small homes 
“Tyringham’s Gingerbread House located on the Santarella Estate in the Berkshires, Western Massachusetts…”
www.airbnb.com/rooms/45687365
Sent us by Jack at Full Circle Farm
I’m going to put on a new roof soon, working by myself. Hardest part is getting the shingles up on the roof. I’m building a gable patio roof at the same time so I don’t want to rent a lift several times to load different roof areas as it progresses. While doing a search for info I came across this:
–Lew Lewandowski
A little blurry, but you get the idea. I’ve asked Lew to send us a video of his version.
Bundles of asphalt shingles are heavy!
This all started by finding two rusty cast iron wheels in the nettles whilst on a lockdown ramble during the Covid pandemic in January 2021. I had workshops sitting empty since retirement as a woodworker and was looking for a project.
I decided on a ‘Shepherd’s hut’ seeing as I had a partial starter kit. These were originally moveable temporary night shelters for a shepherd during lambing time on the higher marginal land of Scotland and northern England. The modern incarnation appears to be a lucrative Airbnb rental in which I have no interest, although addressing the chronic housing shortage for local young people does.
Our youngest son, Lewis, was due to return from Canada in the autumn and needed a place to live. That crystallized it. It was now April.
I started with the notion of using locally sourced and second-hand materials but the realities of the world markets were there from the start. Steel for the chassis, plywood internal walls, pine T&G exterior cladding, galvanized sheet for the roof, plus components, fixings, finishes and most of the rest. Only the sheep’s wool insulation and timber framing were local … and the rusty wheels. Two matching rear wheels were specially cast in England at eye-watering expense.
The chassis, 420 kgs of steel channel, was the only detailed plan drawing. The rest was make-it–up-as–you-go according to the dictates of found or bought components.
After four months of working alone, Lewis turned up just as the interior was getting a start. He’s a competent carpenter, so the pace picked up and we were finished by the end of October, 7 months since the first weld on the chassis.
Lewis and his cat now live in it locally.
Location: SW Scotland
Internal footprint: 2m × 5.7m
Height: 2.2m
Power: 12-volt solar panel
Propane cooker. Cat flap. Water collection from the roof and an additional tap supplied by a refillable onboard tank for drinking water. 2 kW wood stove. Double folding ‘Murphy’ style bed, from the underside of which is a drop-down table. Seating on the wheel arches.
–Lewis Crosby
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One of the moments that makes all the stress of travel worthwhile.
Waiting for the ferry to Sicily, this guy in a kind of beat up car in front of me was repacking his stuff, and pulled this out.
I went over and we were able to converse in Spanish. I told him how great they were and gave him one of our mini books.
He had driven to Barcelona with a bunch of these little constructions to sell, but hadn’t sold any. Price, about 50 Euros (cheap!).
Native Siciliano, Marco Paderni, from Catania.
Then he took out a 2nd smaller one (second pic), pointed to it and said “Regalo” — gift. I thanked him, but demurred, referring to air travel.
What generosity! Isn’t it strange how people with the least resources are the most generous?
The New York Times
September 20, 2021
by Soumya Karlamangla
It’s Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two bills aimed at easing the state’s housing crisis. Plus, firefighters are scrambling to protect some of the world’s oldest trees from flames.
No matter where you live, you’re probably familiar with the exorbitant cost of housing in California.
The state’s median home price has crept above $800,000, more than double what it is nationwide. Among the 50 biggest cities in the country, we’re home to the top four most difficult places to afford a mortgage. And half of all Americans experiencing homelessness live in California.
Our housing crisis has a seemingly simple solution, according to the laws of supply and demand: Build more housing.
But for decades, resistance from suburban homeowners has stalled development as the problem has only gotten worse.
On Thursday, the state took a step toward creating higher-density neighborhoods as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two high-profile housing bills.
Though the bills, Senate Bills 9 and 10, endured intense opposition in recent months, neither is all that revolutionary, said Conor Dougherty, a reporter for The New York Times who writes about economics in California.
But the package of housing reforms passed in California over the past four years, including these two latest measures, “is probably the biggest change in housing in 50 years or more,” Conor told me.
Read More …
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In the Sunset district (out near the beach). The first one is a little tool shed in Jay Nelson’s back yard.
Article from NYTimes, Sept. 25, 2022 by Emily Badger
