Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Alternatives for creating inexpensive homes

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Dec 31, 2003, at 12:57 PM, Tom Hammer wrote:

> For those who want to learn to build your own home,
> have you heard about The Shelter Institute in coastal
> Maine? They have been written up in many national
> publications, including Time Magazine.   They have
> classes that teach you <everything>, and they also
> sell kits that create quite excellent post and beam
> homes.

I the 1970s building your own home was a big hippie thing to do. 
Woodstock has a host of self-built homes. California also had many 
because they needed less heating and cooling. I once had many books on 
this but they went the way of a moldy basement storage unit.

Interesting points were to

1. design the house so no part was larger than you are -- meaning if 
you are a small person avoid a design that requires beams or planks 
that you can't lift alone.

2. be creative in reading the zoning laws. One woman built a boat house 
in the middle of a field because it allowed her to meet zoning 
requirements for heating and electricity (none). That fact that it was 
also up on stilts added to the charm.

One fabulous story was about a family in California that bought land in 
the country and had their furniture and stuff delivered under a tree -- 
literally! They then proceeded to set up a tent and later to build 
their house. They had three children who gradually built their own 
houses on the property beginning at about age 14, moving gradually out 
of the family home. At first they had tree houses ( a platform on a 
branch) and returned home for food and to do laundry, but gradually 
built their own "real" homes.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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