Handmade Houses | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 20:09:01 -0600 (MDT) |
On 4/25/2003 4:26 PM, "Casey Morrigan" <cjmorr [at] pacbell.net> wrote: >> In California in the 70s when people were going out into the country to build >> their own houses, they found all sorts of ways to get around the code. One >> person followed the code for a boat house. She was out in the middle of a >> huge field and her house was up on 10 ft stilts but she had her house. >> > I thought, surely there are Other Jurisdictions, besides that ever-flaky > California, where people have tried to get around codes? Perhaps? Come > on, midwesterners, southerners --- 'fess up! This made me think about the whole movement of handmade houses and how much they may have contributed to cohousing. While many of the houses were quite elaborate and beautiful, they were all built by the owners by hand. Many were built a room at a time. All were built at low cost, the objective being to live as free as possible -- meaning as little corporate and government contact as possible. People helped each other build their houses. This required avoiding a lot of code requirements so they could be built without expensive central heating systems, electricity, plumbing, etc. Some were built "secretly" in the woods and mountains. Many were in California because the temperate climate made a heating system less important, but many were built around Woodstock, NY. I'm sure they were in other places too. One piece of advice I remember was "design your house so that no piece is too big for you to handle alone." One family had a moving van pull up to their door, load all their stuff, and drive to the country where they had the van unload everything under a tree on an open field that had bought. The moving men thought they were crazy. They gradually built their house. Sociologically interesting things were learned -- for example, at 14 children would go out and build their own houses while returning home for meals and other life supporting activities. At 16 they would begin spending ore time in their "own" homes, taking food with them. The whole process of becoming independent was very gradual. This would certainly be one way to build cohousing for less than the going rate. Sharon -- Sharon Villines, Washington DC Where all roads lead to Casablanca _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L
-
Re: commercial building Lynn Nadeau, April 25 2003
-
Re: Re: commercial building Sharon Villines, April 25 2003
-
RE: Re: commercial building Casey Morrigan, April 25 2003
- Handmade Houses Sharon Villines, April 25 2003
- RE: Handmade Houses Rob Sandelin, April 26 2003
- Re: Handmade Houses Tricia Bowler-Archambault, April 27 2003
- Re: Handmade Houses Sharon Villines, April 27 2003
- RE: Handmade Houses Rob Sandelin, April 27 2003
-
RE: Re: commercial building Casey Morrigan, April 25 2003
-
Re: Re: commercial building Sharon Villines, April 25 2003
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.