Hand Tools (101)

We received this letter from the owner of a 1914 home in England that was a prefab shown in our book: The Gardeners’ Poultry Keepers’ Guide. This was a turn-of-the-century catalog from London of prefab greenhouses, farm buildings and — in this case — homes.

Hi,

I have just bought Ballintomb Cottage, a 1914 William Cooper Corrugated Iron house.

After searching for an Old William Cooper’s catalogue, I came across your reprint of it, and to my delight, Lloyd’s forward mentions the cottage sale in 2007.

In the last 10 years the previous owner has done nothing. The sale photographs are identical between 2007 & 2017.

Inside the building is pretty much sound. All but the lounge is still original wood panelling. The lounge was knocked through into the kitchen in the 1970s, and all the timber cladding removed and replaced with gyproc board.

I would like to restore it back to timber.

Keep up the good work — I have and often re-read most of your publications.

Regards,
–Ian Gilbert

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• Louie Frazier is featured in our books, Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter and Builders of the Pacific Coast.

• From www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/…
• Featured in our book Small Homes: The Right Size

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• From www.lloydkahn.com/…

Barn on Hwy 126, Oregon Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• www.lloydkahn.com/…

Alban “Snoopy” Pfisterer is perhaps best known as the original drummer for the rock band Love, which rose to fame in the late ’60s. After his time in the public eye, he retreated to a spectacular property in the Pacific Northwest where he was able to find privacy and solace amongst the trees where he continued to work on new music and art…

• From www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/…

I finished building this sauna in June 2017 with some help from a few friends. All the wood is reclaimed apart from a a few lengths of dimensional timber. The round larch posts are leftovers from previous jobs.The floor, roof planks, internal and external cladding, benches, rafters, tie beams, wall plates, fascia boards, and even the door are made with reclaimed scaffold planks (96 of them!) that I bought from a scaffolding company. The banister and spindles are off-cuts from a job I did many years ago.

Only new items are the (old-looking) hinges, the insulation (aluminum-polyester blanket), the thermometer/hydrometer, and some stained glass. The wood burner was beautifully crafted from an old gas bottle by Ed Osborne from Parp Industrie in Devon.

The dragon heads up in the fascia boards have hollow eyes with embedded red stained glass. When the late evening sun hits the back of them, they shine and make the dragons look alive. Totally unnecessary detail but it really puts a smile on people’s face the first time they see it…

The platform is 3.9m long by 2.2m wide and the interior is 2.6m by 1.8m. It accommodates 7 people in comfort or up to 11 if they are very friendly…

I call the style “Euro folk fusion”. It’s based on the very rich (although a bit forgotten) European wooden building tradition. It’s one part traditional Finnish sauna, a Norwegian wood cabin, a Slovakian log cabin, a Spanish horreo from Asturias region and a splash of Swiss alpine chalet.

All the materials including wood burner, stainless steel flue, glass, screws, hinges, insulation, and timber cost me just over £1000.

–Jesus Sierra
www.sierraecocarpentry.com

• Two of Jesus Sierra’s creations are featured in our new book Small Homes: The Right Size.