recycling (92)

Schoolhouse Home on Coast in Nova Scotia

“Owning a school has been an important goal for my teacher/prof partner for many years. We moved closer to her dream when we acquired this lovely 55 acre property in Nova Scotia. Then, our search for a movable school led to this 1875 school house. The school house had been turned into a store and later a storage shed. It was located a few miles away.

The photos tell the story of the tear down, move, rebuild and the now nearly finished schoolhouse. Note, the school house, in 1875, cost $750 completely constructed and furnished! It is now a treasure beyond measure to us.…”

From Tiny House blog here.

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Porch Made From Pallet Wood

“…The planning stage is my favorite part of any project, and this porch was no exception: I thought about an upgrade for some years before we finally decided how we wanted to fix it. When someone gave us a slue of pallets, we had our solution: Fix the porch with pallet wood. Most folks, when they first see our pallet-wood porch, think we just laid whole pallets on the porch. Well, no, that’s not how it happened: My husband laboriously and patiently took the pallets apart and de-nailed the boards. Then he planed them.…”

Click here.

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Micro Cabins of Recycled Lumber by Charles Finn

From yesterday’s Oregon Live, one of Charles Finn’s cabins on wheels.

“The cabins’ size, he says, is chosen for ease of transport. The cabins can be left on the trailer or moved onto a foundation. The fully insulated cabins are equipped with, among other things, a wood stove for heating and a two-burner propane stove for cooking, and a pair of oil lamps. Doors and windows are reclaimed or handmade; the metal roof has a skylight, and the interiors are all wood, “of mixed species,” he says.

   They have neither electricity nor running water. He writes, “And trust me on this, you won’t miss them. In fact, you will come to relish not having them. Hang out on even one snowy night with the wood fire going and oil lamps burning and you’ll see what I mean.”

   The price varies, but he gives a ballpark figure of about $14,000, not including the trailer.…”

Charles’ work was included in Tiny Homes (pp. 174-75). His website here.

“Always with 100% Reclaimed Lumber​ from Heritage Timber”

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Lloyd’s Photos in Lucky Peach’s “Apocalypse” Issue

In November I got an email from Peter Meehan, who, along with David Chang, is co-editor of Lucky Peach, a quarterly foodie magazine published by McSweeney’s. They were doing an “apocalypse” issue and wondered if I had off-the-grid photos they could use.

   A few months later, Christine Boepple, an LA-based writer, came up and went through about 10,000 thumbnails (in binders) of my photos.

   Here’s the result, just out in the magazine. Kinda strange for me, having someone else do layout of my photos. I ended up liking what they did. The shelter stuff they chose is all pretty funky. Also pics of food from the wild and garden, preserves, roadkill furs, and kitchens from both our homestead and other places I’ve been.

   PDF of the 6-page article here.

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Fox and Weasel Skins

Skinning roadkill animals is such a win-winner. Rather than left to rot, the skins can be rendered like this. I skin the animal, tack it down (pushpins) while stretching it, fur side down, on piece of plywood. Then I cover it with salt so no skin is visible. In about a week I remove the salt, roll it up, and ship it to Bucks County Fur Products in Quakertown, PA. In about 6 weeks, UPS delivers a beautiful tanned skin. Ooops! Haven’t I said all this before?

   Shown are 2 weasels, and a fox with a thick glossy coat; fur seems best in the cold season, when their coats are maxed out. I need another fox or two and then my friend Louie and I are going to make me a fur coat. Fur inside. Roadkill coat. I like that.

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Tiny Texas Houses’ Recycled Airstream Project

Greetings Lloyd and Team,

My name is Heath Redding and I work with…Tiny Texas Houses. I wanted to inform you of our Kickstarter that we have just launched! We are taking our houses to the road and building the first Tiny Texas Roadhouse. The kickstarter we have set up is to help fund the tutorial video series that we want to release explaining the whole construction process. Our plan is to post these videos online so everyone can have access to them and do-it-themselves.
I wanted to kindly ask if you might post the information on your blog to help spread the word and get this project viral. We have some really cool ideas for this whole endeavor so please check out our kickstarter page!

God Bless and all the best!

Heath Redding

Here is a link to the kickstarter page:
https://shltr.net/tinyairstream

(Tiny Texas Houses was featured in Tiny Homes; the cover photo of the book was one of their projects.)

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Really Nice Tiny Home in NorCal Woods

Hi Lloyd,
…I wanted to share with you and your readers some photos of the hand-built house I recently finished. (Prior to this I had only built some crummy plywood furniture and a couple of sheds.) As with so many of us who read your blog, the design of this house was definitely inspired by Shelter books. When making design decisions I often looked in Builders of the Pacific Coast and asked myself which choice would result in something that felt like it could be in your book – I love the feel of those homes.

   A few things that are unique about my house:
– It’s solar-powered
– The vertical redwood on the outside (and interior wainscoting) is from a really lucky find: I was able to buy a few hundred square feet of redwood T+G from a friend’s landlord that had been sitting unused in a barn in Fort Bragg for 30 years!

– The tiny wood stove is called “The Hobbit” and it’s from England and it’s awesome.

– The house is insulated with discarded sheep’s wool.

– I’m 6’6″ and the house is big enough for me! (I can stand under the loft and sit up tall in the loft)

Read More …

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