Rick and I are in the final stages of preparing Small Homes for the printers. We changed the cover from an earlier version, which showed a small turn-of-the-century home in Santa Cruz (in this revised cover, it’s the middle image in the left hand column), because a single image didn’t seem to represent the diversity of images (120 or so small homes) in the book. Hence the collage.
Below are two alternatives, the same except for the background color. In the one with the red, it’s similar-looking to Home Work,Builders of the Pacific Coast, and Tiny Homes on the Move. Some of our savvy book friends think it’s too similar, and that another color would distinguish it from the other books. Hence the other with the dark green background.
Comments, please. Which do you like? Do you see any problem in this cover being similar to our other books?
I had to share some of the driftwood shacks my daughter and I found at Moolack Beach in Newport, OR recently. All of your books have brought me so much joy. Thank you!
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.
I’m doing my first ever photo exhibit, opening this Saturday at the Bolinas Museum. It’s part of a 2-month-long exhibit on the subject of makeshift architecture, and features artists Jay Nelson, Whiting Tennis, and Eirik Johnson, along with my photos of driftwood beach shacks along the northern California coast.
Rick Gordon has processed and printed 24 14 by 18″ prints and printed them here on our new Epson Stylus Pro 4900 ink jet printer. They look pretty darn good! The ingenuity of anonymous beachcomber artists.
The opening is this Saturday, April 2nd. At 2PM, I’ll talk a bit about my background and our 46 years of publishing books on building and fitness; at 3PM, there’s a reception.
“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.…”
I started 3 days ago. My M.O. is to open the file drawer and start picking out folders (there are 50-60 now) to work on.
I pick them out randomly and start doing layout— with scissors and removable scotch tape. No stinkin computers at this stage.
I print out the text in 3 & 4 columns, adjust photos to desired size on copy machine, and do rough layouts.
This is turning out to be really fun. We’ve accumulated material for maybe a year and now, the book is starting to assemble itself, in random manner. Organizing will come later.
Note: contact us if you know of small homes (400-1200 sq. ft.) that would work in this book:
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.
Lucas’ bus was featured on pp. 70-71 of Tiny Homes on the Move. Here’s the latest:
April 3, 2015
Hey Hey there Lloyd, I wanted to give you an update on the bus. Also, I really appreciated you working with me for the timeline and putting my bus in your book.… So, for the update: I’ll attach a few pictures of the bus. Naturally it’s not finished. It most likely will never be, but as we know that is the joy of a custom mobile life.
Since the past pictures I’ve rebuilt most of the interior using wood I’ve cut, milled, stacked and dried (all done a few years back), or wood that I’ve salvaged. There’s a 400 watt solar system, 12v lighting, converted freezer to fridge (not in the pics), deck on top, pull behind trailer/porch, and concrete shower. The floors are plumbed with radiant heat pex tubing. I have a thermal solar panel although it’s not installed yet. The grey water tank is in, and finally some curtains are being hung.
In just a few weeks I’ll be taking her on the true maiden voyage. Granted I’ll be driving back to where it was about 6 months ago but, I’ll be living in it this time for the foreseeable future. It will be a short stay in Kentucky before heading to Maine, which is my final destination. In Maine I’ll be attending a metalwork school for the rest of the year followed by a fine furniture making school. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy.
