SunRay Kelley in “Hani’s Man Cave,” which he built last year in the hills near Middleton (Clear Lake Area), Calif. (His friend Hani has a wife and 4 daughters, and SunRay thought he needed some yang space.)
I got there on a misty December morning, just as he was in the finishing stages. It’s a lovely little building. It improves on the nature surrounding it.
He calls this a “kit.” He cut trees and milled lumber for the 12-sided, 14-½’ wooden yurt on his property in Washington and trucked it down to California. SunRay says he can ship kits like this anywhere: https://www.sunraykelley.com
This interior wall is sculpted cob, a SunRay specialty (the secret is clay), but it’s essentially a wooden building. The porch is framed with locally-harvested manzanita, bay, and pine.
“When Teresa Carey lost most of her possessions in a house fire years ago, she felt liberated. “I didn’t miss a thing. It was almost like a burden lifted off my shoulders. ”
This was the first step toward a more minimalist lifestyle. The second motivating catalyst was her decision to life aboard her sailboat. Before making the move she began to downsize her stuff keeping only what would fit in her car. When she finally made her move to her 27 foot sloop she had given away or sold the majority of her belongings.
Today, Teresa lives on her sailboat Daphne with no flush toilet or shower, an icebox for a refrigerator, no television and few electronics. She doesn’t see it as a sacrifice, but as an opportunity to live a bigger life unfettered by her possessions.
In this video, Teresa gives us a tour of her boat and shows us a few days in the life of a liveaboard.”
We received this as a postcard a few days ago, saying “Can’t wait to order my copy of Tiny Homes. Thanks for all the hard work.” Can’t make out the signature, it looks something like “Anne.”
Also from: https://themoderncabin.com/ (which seems endless) When you click on a photo, Justin gives you the reference. This one: “Talk about shoestring budget! Chelsea Kohl, a 22-year-old native of Hawaii, built her home on her father’s property for literally…$500. Featured in Dwell magazine a few months ago, this home could pass as a mixed media art installation of found objects: old wine bottles embedded in the wall, windsurf boards as part of the roof, even the flatbed part of a truck for a sleeping loft.…”
When I was working on Tiny Homes, I kept my my cards a bit close to chest. I didn’t post a lot of the homes I was finding because I wanted to save them for the book. Now that the book is out, the flood gates are open,so in coming months, here we go. An example is The Modern Cabin website, run by Justin, with 600 photos of cabins. Whoa! Also, things are starting to pour in from people who have seen the book.
Above, from Justin’s website: “Cabo Polonio, a remote beach village in southeastern Uruguay, sits on a green peninsula between the Atlantic and a desert landscape of shifting sand dunes. Strewn across the grassy promontory are a single lighthouse and a few hundred whimsical dwellings. Rasta-colored flags serve as wind vanes, tinted glass bottles are embedded in walls, and exteriors are painted with pictures of suns, cow spots, rainbows and a Klimt-like rendering of a woman.…”
10 days ago I posted photos of these unique campers, which can be slid off their flatbed truck beds. Alex Pino of Tiny House Talk saw the post and just posted a bunch of great photos of the interiors. They are apparently v. expensive, but also v. spiffy.
One of the rewarding things about this blog is running across so many kindred spirits, especially Irene Tukuafu. She and I and my wife Lesley have emailed back and forth for a year or two. Totally in tune. A few days ago, Irene sent out the below email to her list of about 200 people. Not only kind words, but the sort of thing that helps get the word out about Tiny Homes.
“Family and Folks, okay, sooooooooooooo here’s a book I’ve waited for over a year to read for my self. I’ve followed this guys books for over 30 years and it’s pretty much Lloyd Kahn that I got ideas on building a round house. oh yes, it evolved, but he was the start of it. I’ve just spent 2 hours just “glancing” at the photos…..many photos of this book. I can say that ALL OF YOU would benefit by either getting to a library or just… buy it. There is so much in here that you will learn by just looking at the photos….let alone reading it. yep, gonna read it next and it will keep me SUPER BUSY….for a long time. You will find simple ways to build CREATIVELY. a little green house, a little cabin, a house boat, a camper something. AND you’ll be a knowing what other folks are doing that are NOT paying a big mortgage payment. They’s doing it themselves in these tiny houses. You might not agree with the tiny house way of doing things, but you’ll see things YOU CAN DO that would help you in adding onto a room or whatever you’ve been thinking about but just NEED SOME INSPIRATION. over 1,300 photos.
Nope, I don’t work for him. Just telling you that living a creative live is a JOY and I’m grateful that I became acquainted with his books 30 years ago and I’m still thinking CREATIVELY. I’m not done building creatively and got wayyyyyyyyy too many ideas to even get to sleep tonight. ZOWIE.…”
This video showed up yesterday. At 1:10 min. into it, they show a photo of Tiny Homes, Don’t know how they got the book so fast, it’s just out. Glad to see they used phrase “tiny homes.…”
SunRay Kelley in “Hani’s Man Cave,” which he built last year in the hills near Middleton (Clear Lake Area), Calif. (His friend Hani has a wife and 4 daughters, and SunRay thought he needed some yang space.)
