Skip to content

  • contact us!
  • landscape
  • textiles
  • art glass
  • people
  • a&c movement
  • neighborhoods
  • metalwork
  • ceramics
  • books etc.
  • photography
  • furniture
  • woodworking
  • remodel / restore
  • architecture
  • guest post
  • contact us!
  • landscape
  • textiles
  • art glass
  • people
  • a&c movement
  • neighborhoods
  • metalwork
  • ceramics
  • books etc.
  • photography
  • furniture
  • woodworking
  • remodel / restore
  • architecture
  • guest post
  • Small Houses and the Question of Need

    Carol Lloyd has a good article at SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle‘s site) on extremely tiny homes:

    Down a rambling residential road on the outskirts of Sebastopol, the dream house sits like a testament to discriminating taste.

    This dream house is the love child of artist-builder Jay Shafer,
    who lovingly hand-crafted it. The stainless-steel kitchen, gleaming
    next to the natural wood interior, is outfitted with customized storage
    and built-ins. From his bed, Shafer can gaze into the Northern
    California sky through a cathedral window. In his immaculate office
    space, a laptop sits alongside rows of architectural books and
    magazines — many featuring his house on the cover. And from the
    old-fashioned front porch, he can look out on a breathtaking setting:
    an apple orchard in full bloom.

    But in an era when bigger is taken as a synonym for better,
    calling Shafer’s home a dream house might strike some as an oxymoron.
    Why? The entire house, including sleeping loft, measures only 96 square
    feet — smaller than many people’s bathrooms. But Jay Shafer’s dream
    isn’t of a lifestyle writ large but of one carefully created and then
    writ tiny.

    Read the whole thing.

    Continue Reading
  • new books, April 2007

    A number of books which look like they’d be very interesting to Craftsman (and other old-home) aficionados have been released recently. I’ll try to get my hands on copies of some of these for full reviews. If you are a publisher and would like to have your book reviewed here, drop me a line.

    • Vintage Cottagesby Molly Hyde English
    • Dream Porches and Sunrooms by Michael Snow
    • The Green Self-Build Book by Jon Broome
    • Arts & Crafts Furniture by the editors of Wood Magazine
    • Cabinetmaking: Design & Construction by William P. Spence
    • The Homeowner’s Guide to Managing a Renovation by Susan Solakian
    • The Reclaimers: A Complete Guide to Salvage by Sally Bevan
    • Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings & Interior Designs by Roger Billcliffe
    • Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings by Edward S. Morse
    • California Mediterranean by Melba Levick
    • Rustic Fireplaces by Ralph Kylloe
    • Wooden Houses by Judith Miller
    • The New Bungalow Kitchen by Peter Labau
    • Wood: Contemporary Houses in Wood by Joaquim Ballarin
    • Creating a New Old House by Russell Versaci
    • Craftsman & Other Timeless Dream Homes by Designs Direct Publishing
    • California Romantica by D. J. Waldie and Diane Keaton
    Continue Reading
  • video, video and, what’s this? more video

    Lots of folks have put great videos up in the last few weeks on Google Video / YouTube / GooTube / whatever you want to call it.

    • installing a sitting rail – some fellows from Quillian Craftsman installing a rail during the restoration of a pretty Seminole Heights bungalow;
    • pre-renovation video of a Byrne Street bungalow in Woodland Heights. Where’s the post-renovation video?
    • a tour of a $238,000 bungalow in Winlock, Washington, and a similar tour of a 1918 home in San Diego’s Banker’s Hill neighborhood;
    • an unfortunately shaky video of a beautiful Greene & Greene-inspired coffee table made by John in Pasadena, author of the Fixin’ up the Bungalow blog, which is full of interesting and useful articles on cabinetry and carpentry in general;
    • ten seconds of shaky video from the outside of the Gamble House (why is this one even on here?); and
    • a nice documentary on the Lodge at Torrey Pines Golf Course, one of the Greene Bros. masterpieces.
    Continue Reading
Newer Posts 
2025
Graceful Theme by Optima Themes