recycling (92)

It’s All About Building

Small Homes – the book

I’ve got pretty much all the pages laid out. Rick will be back from Hawaii next week and build the rest of the pages in InDesign. The book is looking better each week. Here’s a little hidden waterfront cottage (under construction) on Vancouver Island, BC (the shakes for the eaves were steamed and bent).

Material continues to come in for the book (400-1200 sq. ft. homes), and we’ll continue the book after its publication on theshelterblog, with a section titled “Small Homes.” Ongoing small homes.

My Next Book (?)

Adventures in Building – a 70-Year Odyssey

No kidding. I started at 12 years old, helping my dad build a house on his rice farm near Colusa, California. At 18 I got into the carpenters’ union in San Francisco and worked for a shipwright on the docks (SF was a port in those days!). At age 25 I started building and remodeling on a piece of land with 3 cottages in Mill Valley, California.

I never got the chance to work with a master carpenter or formally learn architecture, so I had a layman’s approach. Everything was new.

Right off, I liked the smell of lumber, and was fascinated with how things went together (still am). In about 12 buildings over the course of years, I personally went through post and beam, then polyhedral (domes), and finally stud frame construction techniques.

And all along, I shot pictures of buildings, collected books, and interviewed builders about all types of buildings and materials, and so far, have produced 6 highly graphic books on building.

Having this layman’s view means I can talk to inexperienced builders in understandable terms. Plus, all the travel and studying and interviews have given me a wealth of material of interest to experienced builders. We’re all interested in how things are put together. That’s what building is all about.

Música del día:

Etta James “Come Back Baby”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdFcg7zkhqM

Enough! I’m heading for the beach…

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Tiny House Built of Recycled Materials in England

Hi there,

My Dad was featured in one of Lloyds books, Tiny Homes, for building the wooden yurt Big Sky Retreat.

Recently he has been building another cabin called Big Sky Lookout, which is smaller than the yurt, but still made up of reused and recycled stuff. I made a short film following his progress along the way.

Many thanks,

Red Evans

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$100 Pallet Floor Replaces Ugly Carpet

“We had this weird windowless room with no purpose so we thought to make it a pantry. It needed quite a bit of work to come around to the functional side. Some shelving went in but the floor was a train wreck – awful cheap disgusting carpet.

After that got ripped out, I had to figure out what to put in its place that was sturdy, looked good, and was inexpensive. After visiting a pallet rehabber, the idea was hatched.…”

https://humboldtartdept.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-pantry-floor-is-done-done-done.html

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Heritage Salvage in Petaluma

If you’re a Northern California builder, I highly recommend you stop in at Heritage Salvage in Petaluma. They have tons of used wood, hardwood slabs, and all manner of recycled and soulful building materials.

Shown here is a walnut slab that is 8′ 3″ long, and 60″ at one end and 43″ at the other. Think of the walnut tree that this came from.

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True Costs of Using Recycled Materials

From my Facebook Author page: (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lloyd-Kahn/110048295717073?v=wall)  Note, I don’t do Facebook actively; I just have my blog posts put up automatically. There’s just not enough time in my day to be a full Facebook participant.

Hey Lloyd Kahn, Thanks again for all your hard work, you inspire us! I have noticed a lot of articles in the tiny home archives over the years mentioning such statements as “Man builds tiny home for $500…” what about his total labor time, and those often overlooked overhead costs… do you find such a statement at all misleading? I am a licensed builder myself, running a company in Portland, OR and feel as tho I often have to re-educate clients as to what the “actual costs” of construction really are (mostly the cost of my Time.) This conversation inevitably arises when during design phase we discuss the option of reclaimed materials… which almost always ends up costing more $ (sourcing, milling, install.) Hooray for folks who are living their dreams building a place of their own with their “free time”, but let’s also paint a realistic picture by including the price of time, and thus value the craft appropriately. As a builder yourself, any of your thoughts would be appreciated.

-Kiel Kellow

Kiel, You’re absolutely right, the costs (as here) are way more than $500 if you consider labor. Time is precious.

-Lloyd

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Fixing Up Old Small Homes In Cities

There was an article in the New York Times on March 7, 2015, that mentioned that there are 800 or so abandoned homes in the Bay Area city of Richmond. I think that fixing up run-down homes in less than opulent cities is one of the most viable, practical, and economical things that people wishing to create their own shelter could do in these times.

In fact, I make a point of shooting photographs of small homes in cities like Richmond, San Leandro, Hayward, Vallejo—nearby places where (some) neighborhoods are run down, but hopefully not infested with drug dealers and crime. I guess it’s a balancing act—if you can find a neighborhood that is on its way up, instead of one that is dangerous and has no hope for the future.

Detroit, for example, has scores of well-built small homes in decaying neighborhoods.

I sort of have a fantasy about fixing up an old place and planting a garden and making friends with the neighbors, who will be pleased that someone is improving their neighborhood. Having a house party and inviting the neighbors. People respond to positive action. It could work.

This will be one of the main subjects in our forthcoming book, Small Homes.

Photo by Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

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Tiny Homes For Homeless, Continued…

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post Tiny Homes For The Homeless Built Out of Dumpster …”:

Hi Lloyd, ran across some more articles on this fellow and had a look at his website.

He now has a TON of pics of his tiny homes for the homeless, which he has pretty much created from garbage.

Hunted this post out, to put the link on, in case anyone is interesting in building some of these, he has quite detailed pics of his work in progress, and MANY many finished homes.

I believe these pics are from a photographer who has photographed this man’s work/art.

https://www.seenimages.com/homelesshomesproject/h2DEF07F0#h2a2b1063

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“Heritage Salvage: Reclaimed Stories,” New Book by Michael “Bug” Deakin

Michael “Bug” Deakin grew up in British Columbia, one of 10 kids in the family. He built his first house in 1970 out of used materials and these days runs Heritage Salvage, a large yard in Petaluma, Calif., filled with hand-hewed beams, flooring, barn doors, and all kinds of salvaged building materials. I love roaming around his yard. There are treasures there, as there are in this book.

He’s an irrepressibly dynamic, cheerful, funny guy (disclaimer: I know him) and this is a scrapbook of his colorful world and history. There are stories: building homes, gardens, furniture and movie sets (including for McCabe and Mrs. Miller), planting trees, tearing down old buildings all over America, a touching (and happy) tale of first meeting his daughter when she was 40 and their immediate rapport, of hanging out with Tom Waite…

He’s a dynamo for all good things and this a charming introduction to Bug’s World.

Links:

Bug’s website

Google Bug

Video: “Bug Visits Kahn Compound”

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