Shot last night on my first real run in months. Somewhere along the NorCal coast…
I spent about 3 hours on the boat with Paul and Julie. Julie wrote a perfect essay on their worldwide travels over the past 5 years. It’s their only home. There’s no fall-back homestead on land. These are 2 wonderful human beings, talented, spirited, competent, sailing the ever-changing seas in this beautiful vessel. Everything is right here. Aesthetics, hoo! If you must spend a lot of time in a small space, it’s immeasurably helpful if it looks like this. Everything your eyes rest on is lovely. Every square inch is beautifully maintained.
(I gotta get this book done!)
Godfrey Stephens is an awesome artist and lifelong sailor (see pp. 100-109 of Builders of the Pacific Coast on his carvings and paintings). He’s been hounding me for years to include sailboats in our building books. With the tiny houses books under way now, he’s been deluging me with his stream-of consciousness emails and sailboat photos. (As of this moment, there are 366 messages in the “Stephens” mailbox, and 462 photos in the “Stephens” photo folder. (People who know Godfrey will chuckle knowingly at this.)
Well, Godfrey just came through in a big way (he also had a big hand in turning me on to many of the3 builders in Builders of the Pacific Coast). Friends of his had just sailed in through the Golden Gate and were anchored out in Sausalito, waiting out a series of storms before heading south to Mexico. I contacted Julie Newton and Paul Smulder by email and on Tuesday, Paul picked me up in their tiny dinghy and we went out to the boat.
Ay caramba! The boat is a dream. Solid teak hull, 46′ long. Everything is exquisite and immaculate — and beautiful. I won’t go into it here, it’ll be one of the stars of this up and coming book. At left is the Mia heading into the mist-shrouded Golden Gate last week after a trip down the coast from Vancouver Island; photo by John Miller aboard the Silas Crosby.
Professional book packagers would be aghast at the way I put together a book. Assemble material (photos and text) for over a year, store in file folders, then at certain point pull best material out and begin laying out a spread — 2 pp. at a time. Random, no order. No plan or outline, no idea how things will fit together; just here the requirement that shelters be under 500 sq. ft.
It’s a wild mix so far — about 40 pages roughed out — and the book has now got its first trace of a mojo workin.
Book starting to run through my mind all the time. I’ve read how novelists get into a thing where they (authors) are just transmitting what their characters are telling them. Or maybe it’s muses at work. It feels a bit like that now, a natural process, a seed growing. Exciting! This is the best part of my job, watching all this unfold.
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Yesterday was brutal. 100º. Us Northern Calif. coastal people are weather wimps. If it’s 90 we start melting. If it’s 35, we get frostbite. So this 3-day heat wave, where it went from high 40’s (at night) to 60º higher, was a shock. Lew and I worked in the office yesterday, whew! At the end of the day I went down to the beach. The water coming out of the lagoon was relatively warm, maybe 60s, and I stood waist-deep in the cool water. The stress of the day vapoorized. Dove in, body cooled. A young local surfer/skater bro came walking by in the shallows, and said, “Paradise!”
A few days ago, some doves flew off when Lesley walked out to feed the chickens, and she reached up and grabbed a feather in mid-air that was floating down. Very delicate little 2″ feather. Seemed like a good omen.
Here’s a rough photo of some rough layouts of the tiny houses book. I am having fun!
Info-heavy website reviewed by Kevin Kelly on his CoolTools:
“Roomier than a car, but cheaper than an RV, a retrofitted van makes a cool inexpensive house. Once popular during hippie days, the ancient American tradition of modifying a van is undergoing a resurgence as rents continue to rise. More folks each year commute from work and then park their home, instead of parking in front of it. On this lovely free website, you can find inspiring examples of cheap nomads, detailed instructions for conversions, gear recommendations, and lots of advice for living in a low rent or homemade RV from ‘them that’s doin’ it.’ -kk”
https://cheaprvliving.com/
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Sun Ray Kelly is building a unique rolling home (which will be featured in our book on tiny houses). Inspired by gypsy caravans, he got a vintage 1984 Toyota dolphin camper vehicle (1-ton rear axle), demolished the camper shell, and built a canted-wall, curved-roof frame out of recycled aluminum. Called the Gypsy Wagon, it’s got a wild new shape and a unique solar/electric/diesel hybrid power plant.
The sides are cedar, there’s a forward solarium, a stained glass rear window, and a back porch. There will be 3000 watts of solar panels (some of which will fold down), two 156 volt banks of lithium iron phosphate batteries, and a 12 inch GE electric motor. The Toyota’s gas motor has been removed and a four-cylinder 1500 cc diesel motor installed that will run on bio diesel.
The batteries will be charged 3 different ways: one, by plugging into a standard 110-volt electrical outlet; two, by the PV array installed on the roof and wings; and three, by a 26-kw Perkins diesel powered generator (a “gen-set”). As SunRay explains, “Trains have for years been run with an electric motor powered by a diesel generator.”
Sunray is a brilliant (and competent) builder. Click on the link below, then go to the slideshow at the bottom of the page and click on the arrow to see some 2-page spreads of his work in Builders of the Pacific Coast: https://www.shelterpub.com/_builders/BPC-book.html
Any green angel investors out there? SunRay, as usual, is working on a shoestring, and could use financial backing. It’s a wonderful project that will enlighten and inspire people to utilize alternative sources of energy and recycled materials. Contact him at: sunray@sunraykelley.com, all and stay tuned in here for progress
We got a shipment of baby chicks in the mail a couple months ago, and 2/3 of them died. A combination of cold weather, too long in transit, and the fact that they are all bantams, which are quite small. We ordered another shipment of 28 bantams, and yesterday I drove up the Petaluma to pick them up at the main branch post office, so we got them a day earlier than if we’d waited for them to be delivered to our town. This batch looks really healthy, they’re already running around like a bunch of little punks. We keep them in the house under in a big box under an infrared light for a few weeks, then put them in a special wired-off area in the chicken yard, still under a light, until they’re feathered out.
On my way home with the box of peeping chicks, I spotted this little building on wheels (at 1840 Petaluma Blvd. N.) There are 4-5 other little buildings there on wheels, the builder is Stephen Marshall, and the website is: https://littlehouseonthetrailer.com/
Tiny houses are hot right now!
“…these little cabins need a new home and are free to anyone that can take them away. There are four identical cabins, each measuring about 12′ by 12′. The only catch is that they must be removed by July 31, 2010… Each cabin measures approximately 12′ x 12′ with a small bathroom and kitchen area. Exterior features include novelty siding, exposed rafter tails, original windows and door, and Craftsman-style entry hoods. These are great examples of roadside architecture and could be rehabilitated into wonderful little guest cottages, playhouses or retreats.”
From Michael Jantzen’s Tiny House Design: https://www.tinyhousedesign.com/
