Building (356)

While not included in the print edition of Small Homes, this spread will be included in the ebook edition, and links to a very readable PDF.

Hi folks. I live in West Wales, UK, with my partner Faith in a roundhouse I designed and we built in 1997. It is about 85m², (850 sq. ft.) in size. It cost £3,000 ($4,500) to make initially, and we have spent another £1000 or so on it in the 18 years we have been living here.

It is based on the type of roundwood frame and turf-roofed houses used by Celtic, Mandan, Miwok, and Pomo peoples, plus some modern things thrown in, like windscreen and double-glazed windows, wood stove, running water (hot and cold), solar PVs on the roof, and a wooden plank floor. We are off grid.

Laying out mini book for Small Homes, will be 2½″ × 3″, slightly larger than our other two mini books (of which we’ve now printed 35,000 copies). Small Homes should be in bookstores in April. Patronize an independent bookstore!

• From lloydkahn.com/…

Warrick Mitchell lives deep in one of the world’s most remote locations: Fiordland, New Zealand. His home in the country’s oldest national park is nestled in a vast wildness accessible only by boat or airplane, a four day’s walk from the nearest road. Life in isolation can be hard, but surrounded by breathtaking, pristine natural beauty, plentiful wildlife and a small but tight-knit community that is always willing to lend a hand, Mitchell would have it no other way.

• www.greatbigstory.com/…

Our first book in three years — Small Homes: The Right Size — is finished, printed, bound, and 10,000 copies are now in transit on the high seas from Hong Kong, due in U.S. bookstores mid-March. We got 10 advance copies via airmail.

Wayne and Nancy’s kitchen in their Hawaiian home, featured in our upcoming book Small Homes: The Right Size. The book is available for preorder and is due out in March.

Photo by Luke Griswold-Tergis

Photo by Luke Griswold-Tergis

• Featured in our book Tiny Homes

I met Mike Basich about 6 or 7 years ago when we were just starting to make Tiny Homes, I was looking for a snowboard which utilized local wood and recycled plastics, I found a company called Smokin’ Snowboards and they had a pro model for Mike Basich. I googled his name and found a blog with photos of an amazing home built off the grid in the Sierras and soon contacted him.

He became our featured builder in Tiny Homes and a friend. He is a master builder, welder, mason, photographer, legend among the snowboard community, visionary, and an all-around amazing guy.

He has purchased a new truck and is building an amazing home on wheels which has pop-out sides. Mike is featured in our next book Small Homes: The Right Size, which is due out in April 2017.

“As I was finishing it, nailing the last shake on the roof, a surveyor came along.” Bad news: The building was completely on his neighbors’ land. What else to do but move it? He jacked up the building, slid four logs underneath, put axle grease on them, and with a come-along, a 5-wheel block and tackle, and 1″ steel cable, skidded the building up onto the logs, onto four other logs and then onto the repositioned original logs, a distance of 70 feet onto his own property.

• Jan’s buildings are featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast.