Filed under Shelter …

Apr 09 2012
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Building, Shelter, Tree House

The Hemloft – Secret Treehouse Near Whistler B.C.

I just saw this on Facebook, what an amazing story! Please visit the Hemloft site for more information and photos. http://thehemloft.com

An Aesthetically Modified Egg!

The HemLoft is a self-funded secret creation, that I built on crown land in Whistler, Canada. It hangs on a precipitous slope, in a towering stand of Hemlocks, about a five minute walk from the nearest road. When I started building it, I was just a fledgling carpenter, living out of my car. Building an experimental orb on a sheer slope, deep in the woods, with no electrical power, isn’t the recommended way to ease yourself into carpentry. However, I was armed with a couple of the most powerful tools a carpenter can have: blind naiveté and supreme determination.

Have a gander, there’s lots to see!

http://thehemloft.com/

Chapter 1: A Retirement Gone Sideways

I’m just going to come out and say it. I tried to retire at the age of 26 and failed. What does this have to do with the treehouse? Well, my attempt at retirement seems to be the critical link between my former career as a software developer, and my new career as a carpenter. Let me explain, in objective terms, what happened. Read on…

Chapter 2: My Foray into Carpentry

In the Spring of 2008, my mission to retire was rudely interrupted by reality. I was left pennyless, at the crossroads of returning to software, or trying something new. At about that time, I had an auspicious encounter with an old man, now a dear friend, that gave me new and exciting vision of my future. Read on…

Chapter 3: The Idea: An Egg in a Tree

So there I was, a bourgeoning carpenter, living out of my car, and heading off in an exciting new direction. One day, a young fellow named Ryan, walked onto the job site to start as a laborer. He shook my hand with a big charismatic smile and said he’d heard some stories about me. From that brief introduction, I knew I had met someone special … but I never would have guessed the extent. Read on…

Chapter 4: Finding the Perfect Tree

By the time I started looking for a site, I had determined that it should be hidden somewhere in the backwoods. Buying a lot in that area was out of the question, as the cheapest parcels of land were hovering around the million dollar mark. Little did I know that the magic tree would sit right beneath some of the richest mountain homes in Western Canada. Read on…

Chapter 5: Raising the Structure

By the fall of 2008, my lengthy search for the perfect tree was over, and I was ready to start building. Looking back, I really believe that naivety was the mother of all invention. If I had stopped for a brief moment to consider the practicalities, costs, or logistics of building an experimental orb on crown land, none of this would have happened. Read on…

Chapter 6: Slovenia, Olympics, and Falling in Love

Sometimes life veers off in directions that you’re not expecting. That was the story of my next two years. Some momentous and profound things transpired, just not on the treehouse. However, it couldn’t have happened any other way. With a few fortuitous twists in the summer of 2010, I was back on track and more determined than ever to finish. Read on…

Chapter 7: $10,000 in Free Materials!

With a new teammate and life-partner in the wings, finishing the treehouse by next summer was all of a sudden looking possible. As for affording $10,000 in materials … that was still a big dangling question mark … until the winter of 2010. While Heidi was traveling in Brazil, I made a breakthrough that changed everything. Read on…

Chapter 8: The Final Push

It wasn’t until the end of May when the snow had finally melted, that we could start moving materials. Within a couple weeks, Heidi and I had hiked over two hundred loads of materials up to the treehouse. With the materials on site and ready to go, cost was no longer an issue. It was now just a race against time. Read on…

Chapter 9: Living in the HemLoft

In August 2011, the dream was almost complete… the only part left, was to live it. By the time we had finished building Sven’s house, relocated all our belongings, and visited with family, we only had a week before our scheduled departure for Nova Scotia. It wasn’t the long term living experience I had hoped for, however, that week turned out to be so delightful, that it couldn’t possible endure, except as a memory. Read on…


Chapter 10: The Fate of the HemLoft

New York seems to have a way of making big things happen. Little did I know, when Heidi and I set off for The Empire City, we’d meet the woman who would give me an essential insight into the story behind the treehouse, and spur me to submit the HemLoft to a major design magazine. Read on…

Feb 28 2012
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Cabins, Camping, Off-Grid Tech, Shelter, Video

Far Out: Faustino’s Patagonian Retreat – Full Length – Chilean Dick Proenneke

Watch all 4 parts of Far Out below, in this episode Vice goes to meet the Chilean Dick Proenneke (Alone in the Wilderness fame). He’s still there… living alone, far out in Patagonia.

Faustino’s Patagonian Retreat – Part 1

Faustino’s Patagonian Retreat – Part 2

Faustino’s Patagonian Retreat – Part 3

Faustino’s Patagonian Retreat – Part 4

For this episode of Far Out, VICE went to Chilean Patagonia to meet Faustino Barrientos, one of Lake O’Higgins’ most infamous inhabitants.

Lake O’Higgins comprises a portion of the border between Chile’s Aysén region and Argentina’s Santa Cruz province. Since 1965, Faustino Barrientos has lived alone on the shores the lake, in a house built from the remains of a shipwrecked fishing vessel. He’s a pastoralist, living mostly off the land and his livestock, with few modern amenities. His nearest neighbors are in Villa O’Higgins, a small community of several hundred people, 25 miles away, accessible only by a two-day horseback ride through rugged mountain animal paths. Every few years, Faustino makes this ride to sell his cattle in town.

Currently 81 years old, Faustino is reaching the end of his life, and his self-imposed isolation is being encroached upon by the forces of government, economy, and tourism. In December 2011, VICE went to document his lifestyle and speak with him about the changing face of Patagonia and the gaucho lifestyle.

Feb 13 2012
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Building, Cabins, Shelter, Tree House, Video

Treehouse Inventor Creates Ewok world – Video

Treehouse inventor creates Ewok world in Rural Oregon

Feb 03 2012
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Camping, Shelter, Vehicles

Blazer Chalet – Chevy Camper

Chevy Blazer Camper

The Chevy Blazer and its GMC Jimmy clone were early modern SUVs. Maybe their width kept them from being better received by the public, as the 1991 Explorer later was. They became popular as support vehicles in public service departments, and Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) drove one in “JAWS.”

Recreational Vehicle fever was in full pitch in the early and mid-1970s. The GMC Motorhome looked like a spaceship had landed and sprouted wheels, and used the front-wheel-drive transmission from the Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado, initially powered by the Oldsmobile 455 cu in (7.5 l) V-8.

On a more compact level, in 1976 and 1977, Chevy sold the Blazer Chalet and GMC offered the Jimmy Casa Grande. Every one I saw was tan and brown like the one here, but other colors were available.

They were essentially factory slide-in campers bolted onto the Blazer/Jimmy with enough ’70s-colored graphics to make the Brady Bunch feel right at home. When properly equipped, they had two bunks, a refrigerator, 2-burner stove, a sink, a dinette, 5,000 BTU gas heater, and drapes.

The ad says it’s “The Blazer You Can Live In,” but some sort of restroom facilities might be desired for a more permanent residence.

Jan 08 2012
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Building, Shelter, Video

New Zealand Tree House w/ Bath Tub & Draw Bridge

Bath tub in a tree house

The tree bach was built by a group of friends in Palmerston North, New Zealand. It was constructed largely in the dark of the night as most of the builders had full time jobs during the day. It consists largely of donated materials or from rubbish laying around Jono’s parents farm. – The Best Hut

They just completed the custom propane heated bath tub for the tree house or bach as they call it. Also I’m really impressed with the radio controlled draw bridge! Fun stuff guys!

Custom Propane heating system for hot tub

Custom Propane heating system for hot tub

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Sep 18 2011
1 Comment
3D Models, Building, Cabins, Off-Grid Tech, Security, Shelter

Little Footprint Big Forest – Container Cabin Contest

A friend just emailed me this great design contest that just happened here in King County. The parks department wants low impact over night structures that are easy to install and maintain for guests in their parks. Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam was  judge!

The challenge is to design an overnight structure re-using a surplus cargo container, which can be staged anywhere in King County Parks’ 26,000 acres of open space, and more specifically, on our forested lands that have minimal roads or utilities.

While I’ve questioned containers being use for building before, it mostly came down to it being more expensive. However in this situation the counties goals fit the containers perfectly. Strong secure structures that can be built off site, have minimal maintenance and have a low impact on the site. I bet they’ll be using an off-road fork lift to place these at site without roads like they mention.

Check out the entries below, they are really creative especially giving the counties requirements. Some very cool ideas to be gleaned from these designs. Hit the link below to read more on King counties page.

 

 

Congratulations to Hybrid Architecture for their REtain design, which was selected as the winning design of the Little Footprint Big Forest contest and was announced today at the Built Green Conference.

What do 26,000 acres of open space, public recreation and a cargo container have in common?

Conservation. Sustainability. Public Recreation. Aesthetics. Forest Stewardship.

The Situation
King County Parks is looking to balance the natural and built environments to create truly inspirational accommodations that:

* use salvaged and locally-sourced materials
* are economically achievable, both for us to build and maintain and for the public to use
* can be replicated across our 26,000 acre system

Read more about Little Foot Print Big Forrest Shipping Container Contest

The Challenge
King County Parks and the GreenTools Program have teamed up to create a competition that we hope will inspire designers to integrate the principles of conservation, sustainability, public recreation, aesthetics and forest stewardship.

The challenge is to design an overnight structure re-using a surplus cargo container, which can be staged anywhere in King County Parks’ 26,000 acres of open space, and more specifically, on our forested lands that have minimal roads or utilities.

All submittals must be received by August 22, 2011 by 4:30 pm PST.

The Judges

* Dow Constantine – King County Executive
* Stone Gossard – Sustainability advocate and Pearl Jam rhythm guitarist
* Kevin Brown – Division Director, King County Parks
* Art Wolfe – Wildlife and Landscape Photographer
* Eric Corey Freed – Principal, organicArchitect
* Kim Munizza – Principal, Mithun
* Aaron Adelstein – Executive Director, Built Green
* Chris Toher – Executive Vice President and General Manager, Skanska
* Bill Schwartz – Manager, Small Projects – Capital Improvement Program, King County Parks
* Andy Wappler – Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Puget Sound Energy
* YOU! Enter to win a chance to join our all-star judges panel.

Here are my favorite entries:

 

May 17 2011
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3D Models, Building, Cabins, Shelter

Thinking about Cabin deck or porch

So I’ve been thinking about putting a covered deck on the cabin for a while now. We have a unique set of design requirements though, which makes it a bit more complicated than I’d like. The porch or deck needs to be self supported and not attached to the cabin. This is because we according to code this is a shed and we want to play by the rules. Also I want to use logs from our land to support the roof. The deck would be about an inch away from the door of the cabin.

I drew the deck in Google Sketchup to better visualize it. The plan would be to pour small cement footings with a metal bracket to attach the vertical logs.

The dimensions are 8′ x 12′ in this sketch, 2×6′s for deck support and 2×4 rafters 16″ on center.

Any thoughts or concerns you guys would have with this design?

Apr 04 2011
1 Comment
Shelter

From Lloyd Kahn: Tiny Homes book update

If you don’t own one of Lloyd’s books you are really missing out! Check out the link below and buy all three at 40% off. He takes great photos and his books are wonderfully packed with beautiful hand built structures he finds on his travels. These are the type of places you aren’t going to find info about on the internet, well unless you follow Lloyd’s Blog. But even then his books go far deeper. His update below is about his latest highly anticipated book on Tiny Homes which is well under way but not done yet. His last book was Pacific Coast builders I think in 2004?? Could be wrong on the date but It’s my favorite book, maybe because I love the coast of the Pacific Northwest, anyway I digress.

Excerpt From Lloyd Khan’s Blog:

Here’s what’s happening at Shelter Publications and environs at this moment, day of our lord April 3, 2011, with sunny Sunday morning blue skies and warm days after cold rainy months. The hills are verdant green, with Spring life pulsating, creeks rushing, ground soaked deeply. It’s the month of my birthday, and I feel energized.

 

 

Tiny Homes book It’s extraordinary. This book is evolving daily. Some of the best material is coming in right now. Just last week a small group of artists and homebuilders creating unique shelters on a piece of land in France; we just did 8 pages on them. “France is the California of Europe…” says our friend Paula.

 

The best and most unexpected thing about working on this book is that so many of these builders say they were inspired by our books, going back to Shelter (1973). Boy! Plus our books are being discovered by a new generation.

 

We’ve got a thread of continuity running between Shelter, HomeWork, and Builders of the Pacific Coast. (Shameless commerce dept.: we’ve been selling the set of 3 for a 40% discount: http://is.gd/3shelterbooks).

 

We’re in full gear production now, have maybe 155 pages (out of 228) done in rough form. We just changed the publication date to February 2012. Got to do it right. It’s gonna be a beauty, is all I can say. I have the feeling that I did with Shelter, back in the ’70s, that we were plugged into something vital and current. There’s buzz.
This time it’s about figuring out a way use your own hands to get shelter over your head without getting tied up with a bank (or landlord) — we’re talkin freedom here! Maybe not right away, but some (especially young) people can move in this direction…

 

Daily routine. I’ve been getting up early (mostly), trying to get biz stuff over with and then, work on the book. Gotta snatch those precious moments to do inspired layout. Caffeine, ganja, B. B. King’s Bluesville, no phones or email, I can never tell when things will smooth out and I can put pages together.
Our layout process: I have a big drawer full of files of buildings and builders. When I finish two pages, I look through it and pull out a file to work on. Pretty random. I figure out what size I want  photos, and print out (on paper) on a color copy machine. I write or edit text in Word, print it out (on paper) in 2- and 3-columns, and do pasteup with removable Scotch Tape. Yes, yes, I know, but tell you what: I do a different layout physically than I’d do on a computer. Using eyes rather than mouse seems one step closer to layout art.

 

Sometimes I’ll go over and over a page; I re-did the pages on the French builders at least 4 times. I save up a bunch of scotch-taped, written on, drawn-upon 2-page spreads, then artist David Wills comes out on a bus from San Francisco and adds a master touch of design (manually as well). They then go to Rick Gordon for InDesign and Photoshop work. Lew Lewandowski is in on all of this. The four of us have gotten to working really well together. We’re a book-making team.
Here are a few rough layout spreads before going to Rick. Remember, these are scotch-taped together crude color photos with scotch-taped text. Colors are all wrong. But you get the idea. Hi-tech or what?

 

 

Tagged
Feb 10 2011
3 Comments
Building, Cabins, Shelter, Video

Build a log cabin with your hands for almost free – Videos

Watch these 3 videos below!
This guy (186282plus1) didn’t build 1 log cabin he built 20! Well not exactly 20 but it sounded cooler. He built 2 on youTube and possibly 18 more not on YouTube? Hard to say… But anyway these are some of the best log cabin videos I’ve seen since they take take you through the whole process of making a cabin from scratch, almost entirely from the forest. He used the first cordless tools aka hand tools and a few battery powered tools that he hauled up the mountain to his remote building site. The captions really help to understand what he’s doing, hope you like the videos as much as me! I wonder where he is located????

Cabin On a Hill

From the builder: This is one of the few spots that I can build a log cabin on the upper section of this land so it seems like a challenge to me. As you may have noticed from the video, this is a one man construction project, hence the size of the log cabin but it’s nice that I get to make all of the creative decisions on the cabin design;) Though, the downfall of that being that I can really only move up to a certain sized log by myself, and if anything is to be carried up to the cabin (it’s quite a hike up the mountainside) It’s on my back. So far I’ve put about 13 weekends into this cabin as well as $140 in spikes, rebar, nails, morter and plumbing parts as well as 9 trees and about 17 sapplings and a burned out old cedar stump (used for the shake roof). What’s interesting is that it’s actually quite therapeutic for me to just be out in the forest working on this log cabin project. I tend to find myself feeling very refreshed after a weekend of doing this sort of thing, I think maybe that I like the creative outlet that this project provides to me, dunno for sure. Though I have to admit that there are times when I really think that building a log cabin is a challenge to anyones limits of perserverance. So since it’s snowing now at this elevation and it’s really hard to work with frozen logs and cold fingers, I’ve decided to stop working untill things warm up a bit. I guess I’ll just go back to my regular therapist until then.

First Cabin he built to gain skills

From the builder: I know this log cabin is small, but it was more of an experiment in remote shelter building for me than anything else. It took about 3 months of weekends to build this log cabin, which was about 100 hours in total. All materials used were found on site or packed in on my back up a small winding foot trail. It took 5 fir trees and a handfull of sapplings plus a bag of screws, a few bags of morter, various concrete blocks and some thick poly for the window and a zinc strip on the roof ridge. The log cabin has had 6 feet of snow last year and the cedar roof held together nicely. This log cabin sits on 4 large rocks, one at each corner of the log cabin and the floor is made of dirt. The wood heater/stove doesn’t actually work all that well, but hey it was my first attempt. I think the notching is called a half notch, and it was chosen for it’s simplicity since this was my first attempt at this sort of thing. The notches require a hand saw an axe and a few sharp bangs from a mallet to make, they were very simple and quick compared with a saddle notch style, though the downside of this style is that they had to be spiked at each corner to keep them secure. Sorry for the lack of tunes, it’s my first vid or should I say slide show.

Notching logs for cabin with saw and ax

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Dec 18 2010
3 Comments
Boats, Shelter, Video

Moran Brothers Shanty Shack Boat


I’d go fishing with these guys any day.

This post goes out to Derek Diedrekson of RelaxShacks.com aka Kid Cedar. He’s been deep into shanty boats lately and who could blame him. These things are just cool! They they take me back to Tom Sawyer days… or at least what I imagine what they’d be like. This boat is really cool, I especially like the ratcheting gang plank to beach it anywhere. Old Tom didn’t have big aluminum jon boat with a 4-stroke motor pushing his though. As they elude to in the video you need thrust when navigating most rivers. A rudder won’t due at least on the rivers I’ve been on. Every bend in the river has a different sand bar and if you get close, you may be getting stuck for a while. I grew up near the Skagit River and running aground in a boat isn’t great but it’s possible to get off with a few guys hoping out and pushing. This shack could get really stuck so I would think avoiding sand bars and strainer logs would be the name of the game. On the upside, getting stuck in this shanty could be quite comfortable as long as you could cast your fishing pole into some deeper water :) Where ever you are, there you be.

One thing I’d change about these shanty boat designs I’ve been seeing is I’d make a bigger deck so people could get some sun and some fresh air! I’m pretty deep into boats, I don’t talk about them that much in the blog… But  I’ve owned 4 of various sizes not counting the canoe you’ve seen me in. I currently have a 18′ fiberglass fishing boat with a 90hp outboard and a 12′ aluminum which I row or use a 15 hp Suzuki outboard on it. If I’m not on my boat in the Puget Sound I’m on friend’s river boats in the Skagit River or Al’s wakeboard boat in Lake Washington, or on my father-in-laws 27′ Nimble sailboat. Where am I going with all this?? Well we have a short boating season up here in Washington State so when people are out on any of these boat types, they want to enjoy the sun and fresh air that only a boat can offer. The sailboat is mostly cabin with a small cockpit that holds 4 people comfortably. Yet 6 people cram themselves into the cockpit because they all want to be in the sun enjoying the views vs in the cabin. Also look at boats with fly bridges, most people will be up there checking out the views and getting some sun. Wow this is a long paragraph but in closing if I designed a shanty boat or a mini-house boat I’d make a much larger deck for people to hang out on or even better a roof deck for diving off.

I’m thinking for propulsion the boat is the back is a good idea but it forces someone to be in the boat all alone. I’m thinking 2 small 10 hp motors on the back of the boat one on each end. These are the most common type of small outboard and they have forward and reverse. I’ve seen people link 2 together so they and both steer the same direction.  The main reason for 2 of these is maneuverability. One could be put in reverse and the other in forward and spin the boat almost in it’s own length. Also these type of barge boats are very heavy so you need a alot of thrust. So two props give you twice the thrust, think traction on the water.

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