Category: Bricks & Mortar
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Birthing an Opus, One Stone at a Time
I love this article from The New York Times on Clark Sanders, a former veterinarian and longtime builder in the Catskills of New York. He builds gorgeous strawbale homes and buildings and hand-built his personal residence, which resembles a fairy-tale cottage, stone by stone from materials found on his land. I challenge you not to… Read more
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Making Room(s) for Autism
Although I’m not there yet, I’m told it’s incredibly difficult to watch your kids grow up and move away from home for the first time. But for families of adult children with special needs, independent living is not a standard milestone. I came across this article from The Portland Press Herald that tells the story… Read more
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Fire in the Hole
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly on fire but I was in a hole and it was well over 40 degrees with humidity. That hole is the crawl space below my front porch deck which, of course, needed to be stripped out and, of course needed to be almost entirely rebuilt. It was my window of… Read more
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The Secret Life of Houses and Other Buildings
Don’t know why exactly it has taken so many years for me to finally attend the Doors Open Ottawa event. Whatever the reason I suspect it would also explain my lack of participation to date in the glorious Jane’s Walk events, too. Seems the dates never make it onto my calendar and then poof! they… Read more
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I Smell Summer
Today was, without a doubt, a great day verging on perfect. It was hot, the blue skies were deep and I bore witness to the indubitable arrival of summer. The grass was trim, my twelve ‘Madame Lemoine’ lilacs saturated the air of the formal fragrance garden, the peonies and iris waited with bated breath… Read more
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Dear Vanny R.I.P. (Part 1)
Here is our (my) dilemma. We live in a rural village about forty-five minutes from the city centre. I really, really want to try life as a one-vehicle family. But I’m thinking this may be impossible. Read more
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The Irony of Knowledge & Skill Development
For the past few weeks I’ve been fashioning a built in wall-to-wall headboard/storage frame in our master bedroom. It has been a zero cost project as I’ve used leftover framing and reclaimed finish materials from other projects around the house. It’s good to see these piles shrink and to see my creation near completion. It’s… Read more
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All in the Family
The Bay Citizen reported in today’s The New York Times that multigenerational housing is a real estate growth niche around the San Francisco area, aimed at the needs of a growing immigrant population http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/22cncmultigenerational.html?pagewanted=2. However, it is a form of housing that is more likely to be adopted by North Americans in general as the challenges… Read more
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Building Model: Bensonwood Homes
According to New Hampshire builder Tedd Benson of Bensonwood Homes “we have a crisis of entanglement in our buildings.” In this 2010 video presentation to the College of the Atlantic, Benson discusses his Open-Built® Strategy for creating sustainable housing, and other buildings, that he expects to last several hundred years. Thanks to Andy C at… Read more
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Nowhere to Go But Up
I am always left a little breathless when Mr. Fredericksson’s house lifts into the air with the aid of a million or so jellybean-coloured balloons. Read more