Sneak preview from tiny homes book: John Raabe has a website that sells sensible and well worked-out plans for small buildings. I’ve been talking to him lately about covering his operation in our book. He has a very active and fact-filled forum, with tons of builders/readers sharing info on owner-built housing. Link to above photo (small barn by Jimmy Cason):
https://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0
Link to website: https://countryplans.com/
This is a simple small book on Brian “Ziggy” Liloia’s construction of a cob cottage at an ecovillage in northeast Missouri. This is a Blurb book, a way anyone can produce high-quality color books. It’s expensive for such a small book, but cheap for the fact that they are printed one at a time.
Ziggy’s cottage is really nice, and I recommend the book to anyone contemplating a cob cottage. (It’s also one of the buildings featured in our book on tiny homes.)
Note: if you use the promo code “NEWBLURB”, the book is 20% off.
This is really the bible of tiny houses, written by Lester Walker almost 25 years ago. We did 2 pages on it in our book Home Work: Simple Shelter in 2004. As I work on our new book on tiny homes I realize again what a great book this is. Here is what appeared in Home Work. You can click on the pdf’s to get clear images of the entire two pages.
“The six little house plans shown here are from Tiny, Tiny Houses by Lester Walker. Lester is a rarity — an architect who not only has designed these little houses, but has drawn clear and useful plans that he shares with others.”
Only 5 hours left to bid on this stylish old road warrior.
As of now, the high bid of $1525 doesn’t meet the seller’s minimum. If you miss the auction deadline, you can contact the owner: SportsCar LA, 310-330-9909.
Sent us by Evan Kahn
Here’s what’s happening at Shelter Publications and environs at this moment, day of our lord April 3, 2011, with sunny Sunday morning blue skies and warm days after cold rainy months. The hills are verdant green, with Spring life pulsating, creeks rushing, ground soaked deeply. It’s the month of my birthday, and I feel energized.
Tiny Homes book It’s extraordinary. This book is evolving daily. Some of the best material is coming in right now. Just last week a small group of artists and homebuilders creating unique shelters on a piece of land in France; we just did 8 pages on them. “France is the California of Europe…” says our friend Paula.
The best and most unexpected thing about working on this book is that so many of these builders say they were inspired by our books, going back to Shelter (1973). Boy! Plus our books are being discovered by a new generation.
We’ve got a thread of continuity running between Shelter, HomeWork, and Builders of the Pacific Coast. (Shameless commerce dept.: we’ve been selling the set of 3 for a 40% discount: https://www.shelterpub.com/.
We’re in full gear production now, have maybe 155 pages (out of 228) done in rough form. We just changed the publication date to February 2012. Got to do it right. It’s gonna be a beauty, is all I can say. I have the feeling that I did with Shelter, back in the ’70s, that we were plugged into something vital and current. There’s buzz.
This time it’s about figuring out a way use your own hands to get shelter over your head without getting tied up with a bank (or landlord) — we’re talkin freedom here! Maybe not right away, but some (especially young) people can move in this direction…
Our book Getting Back in Shape, by Bob Anderson (author of Stretching), and Bill Pearl (author of Getting Stronger), has just been translated into Lithuanian. Stretching has been translated into 23 languages, the latest a pocketbook edition by Random House in Germany.
You can see the listing of the 60+ foreign editions of our books at: https://is.gd/shfor, including Shelter and HomeWork in Japanese. Both these books, plus Builders of the Pacific Coast, are in Korean. HomeWork is also in French.
I will be going to the Frankfurt Book Fair this October, especially to sell rights to our book on tiny houses, which it appears, will be of interest all over the world.
It’s a great thing to connect with people in other countries. “California to Universe, do you read me?” (This morning we got an order from Austria to ship all 8 of our building books to an address in Brazil!)
Richard Ieian Jones just sent in this link to a vintage trailer up for auction right now in Church Stretton, Shropshire, UK : https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270723780467&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_1156
This is a rare opportunity to buy a vintage 1949 Carlight 4 berth 16ft touring caravan.
The roof is water tight, panels are good and chassis is sound bar(ring) a weak 3ft section on the A frame but this can be plated. All windows are intact but has 2 small places of rot in toilet area around wooden window frame and gas bottle compartment. Wired up for 240V.
The exterior paint work and the top 1/2 of the door panel is not original.
The interior has all the original fixtures and fittings.
Caravan was saved from being destroyed and retrieved from a dry barn in Herefordshire.
This will make a great restoration project for a keen enthusiast.
I am listing this on behalf of a friend who can be contacted for more details on 07971 742934
This is a 180 sq.ft. house built on an island in British Columbia. I just discovered it on Solar Burrito, a great blog, of special interest to builders, homesteaders, and do-it-yourself people: https://solarburrito.wordpress.com/
“The owner of this unique teardrop-style travel trailer has lived in it for a few months and is now selling it on eBay. She said it held up really well during the Canadian winter. It was built in 2010 and is 20 feet long. The trailer has been road tested for nearly 4,000 miles through high crosswinds and in extreme temperatures with no issues. You can view more photos at the owner’s website, Tiny Home Teardrop Trailer or on the eBay page.” (Starting bid is $10,000.)
This, as well as the below post on the green wood stove, is from: https://tinyhouseblog.com/
Deek Diedrickson, who published the charming and cheeky comic-book-style tiny house building manual, Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts (And Whatever The Heck Else We Could Squeeze In Here) was featured in yesterday’s New York Times. The article was by Joyce Wadler, great photos by Erik Jacobs.
Deek’s book will be featured in our forthcoming book on tiny houses. (One of his drawings shows him sitting in a tree, reading a copy of our book HomeWork.)
“At about 24 square feet, the Gypsy Junker, made primarily out of shipping pallets, castoff storm windows and a neighbor’s discarded kitchen cabinets, is the largest of Mr. Diedricksen’s backyard structures. The Hickshaw, a sleeper built on a rolling cedar lounge chair (or as Mr. Diedricksen calls it, “a rickshaw for hicks”), is considerably smaller, at 2 1/2 feet wide by 6 1/2 feet deep. The Boxy Lady, two cubes on a long pallet, is the smallest: 4 feet tall at its highest point.”
Deek’s website: https://www.relaxshacks.blogspot.com/