“My name is Hari Berzins and I moved into a tiny house with my family in May of 2011. I began blogging as a way to share what we learn from living simply and debt-free in a tiny house as we continue to save and build our right-sized, mortgage-free home.
General
P2P Brooklyn: from apartment to shared flat, restaurant/club
“Adam Finkelman and Evan Garfield were veteran roommates of the New York City rental scene so when they discovered a Brooklyn loft with a garage they snapped it up even though it didn’t have a single bedroom. What they saw was potential to carve out space for at-home music performances and a kitchen large enough for Garfield to host supper clubs.
Natural Building in Japan
Totsuka Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Architect: Goichi Oiwa
Principle Builder of Straw Bale Walls: Kyle Holzhueter
Completed 2012
The Straw Bale Yurt Bible
“I worked for a couple years ‘til I got lucky on a 160 acre State of Alaska homestead parcel and took up residence there on the Gerstle River in interior Alaska, 47 miles by road from Delta Junction. I cleared the 25%, built a cabin and lived there two years and proved up, while raising my son. Been living on the ranch since about ’97 (starting out in a wall tent, again). Got tired of being cold, and built my own straw bale yurt in ’98. It’s now ’05. I’m still living in it and working on a bigger one complete with plumbing, etc.
Allan Savory’s Home in Zimbabwe
“See how Allan Savory, and his wife Jody, live in Zimbabwe, in traditional thatch-roofed mud huts, entirely off-grid with solar cells, LED lanterns, and solar hot water heater. He also goes everywhere barefoot. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and currently lives approximately half of the year at his traditional home at the Africa Centre for Holistic Management.”
Modern Homes: Toxic Environment for Construction Workers
[Insert cool graph showing life expectancy of carpenters in 1960 versus 2010]
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any graphs of life expectancy of carpenters, so I can’t show how all the toxic building materials are almost certainly shortening the lives of carpenters. But I did find some interesting discussion on the subject at the Journal of Light Construction forum.