TV producer and Internet-video personality Kirsten Dirksen invites us on her journey into the tiny homes of people searching for simplicity, self-sufficiency, minimalism and happiness by creating shelter in caves, converted garages, trailers, tool sheds, river boats and former pigeon coops.
Month: May 2012
Earth-sheltered House Plans
Earth-sheltered houses is one of the most popular topics on our Natural Building Blog. New readers may not be aware of my sustainable house plans that have been designed for earthbags, straw bales, cordwood and other materials. There are now around 130 plans, including numerous earth-sheltered designs. Most plans are only $200-$300 and include a scaled floorplan, two elevations, section or wall detail drawing, perspective drawing and building details doc that summarizes the basic building process. All orders now include a free copy of my Earthbag Building Guide. Custom plans are usually only slightly higher cost. Just email me for a free fixed quote: strawhouses [AT] yahoo.com
Dick Proenneke Wilderness Videos
“Alone in the Wilderness” is the story of Dick Proenneke living in the Alaska wilderness. Dick filmed his adventures so he could show his relatives in the lower 48 states what life was like in Alaska, building his cabin, hunting for food and exploring the area. Bob Swerer has taken the best footage from Dick’s films and he has created 3 videos about Dick, “Alone in the Wilderness”, “Alaska, Silence and Solitude” and “The Frozen North”. You can purchase all of them in DVD or VHS format from the www.DickProenneke.com website.
Cable Spool Furniture
I thought I had pretty well exhausted the options for extremely low or free furniture until I saw the Facebook page Recycled, UpCycled, Freecycled Garden Projects. On a whim I entered ‘cable spool furniture’ into a search engine and was a little surprised to see the range of quality furniture that people have made with free cable spools. I’ve seen plenty of crude tables, but some of these designs are quite nice.