I read somewhere recently that there are five empty foreclosed homes for every homeless person in the U.S. If true, that’s an incredible fact and is beginning to inspire wonderful Uranus/Pluto initiatives to move those without homes into homes without people. Google “land banks,” and go from there.
Meanwhile, the meme of “Small is Beautiful” (Economics as if People Mattered) that British Economist E.F. Schumacher pioneered back in 1973, fully 40 years ago, is finally beginning to percolate through the still confused, distracted, numb and dumbed down collective unconsciousness that was raised on “The American Dream” only to find it chimerical starting in 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn and TSHTF. Not only that, but humanity’s inherent creativity and imagination are coming alive. Witness these four examples:
A Boat Builder Had A Crazy Idea In The Forest. One Year And $11,000 Later, THIS Perfection Exists.
The above house great for locally sourced materials, and obvious craftsmanship, besides being romantic and beautiful, and scaled for real human beings.
Here’s another one, also locally sourced, even more romantic, and required way less money.
Farmer Builds An Incredible Hobbit House for Just $150 ! Take A Look Inside
Then there’s the proverbial traveling bus, so beloved of my Ken Kesey, “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” generation, this one spectacular. (I do wonder about its gas mileage, however. Best to just park it, like any RV.)
What They Converted This Old School Bus Into Is Simply Awesome. I Want This Thing So Bad.
Then there’s the converted backyard shed, something I’d like to do, and get my son and his family to move here and live in my house. However, so far, city laws forbid “granny flats.” I’d have to call it a “studio.” Meanwhile, the shed in my back yard is about to be converted into a chicken coop.
This Grandma’s Friends Laughed At Her Idea. But What She Did In Her Shed Is Awesome.
Probably the most crucial “take-away” from this galloping race we are in to see which will happen first, climate collapse or human return to sanity is just how much we have allowed ourselves to be defined by what lies outside us, starting, of course, with organized religion, and it’s absurd notion of a “God” in the sky. Yahwah as the original NSA spook, seeing, measuring, judging your every thought, word and deed. To hell with him!
And once we send “him” to “hell,” we can begin. Find your own center, move from your freaked-out anxious mind into your constant, vulnerable, soft heart. Feel yourself there. Allow the silence. And in the silence sense the faithfully beating soft hearts of all Earthlings and of Earth herself! This is the drum roll call. It’s time. Time to become exactly who we are. Period.
Here’s another wonderful cheerleading post by Julian Rose, if you still need encouragement.
0 thoughts on “How We Might Live Department: various handcrafted small and tiny homes”
In my community, our unelected regional planning agency, that insures communities that do not accept their guidance, are black listed from federal grants as a penalty, came back a month or so ago and told us we were wrong.
After months and millions of planning tax dollars, public hearings, and dozens of front page newspaper headlines on our community planning work, they came back and told us to increase housing density 25%……. 25%! Sheeeeeez!
This amounts to changing densities from say 30-35 units per acre (which few people like but we did anyway) to 40-45 units per acre. Or, changing zoning from commercial retail and mixed business and professional office to adding a layer of housing on top in the remote hope that if someone vastly remodels an existing commercial property, they might pop in some housing.
We all ready set aside 10% of our housing stock for qualified lower income persons and families.
It takes 6 months to try and buy one when everything else takes only about a month.
Nothing we do or try now even begins to address the level of housing mix needed.
BUT, there was a generation, during WWII in the work centers that just threw-up their hands and said to hell with the building laws, and bootlegged illegal units into storage rooms, garages, basements, side sheds, and anything they thought might not be too obvious and put renters into them. Everyone just went along with the racket because they were all focused on draining the swamp … winning WWII.
And we grew our Victory Gadens.
Everything old is new again
San Francisco’s mayor told his planning staff to keep their 100,000 +- illegal WWII housing units going. “Include them in the official count of housing stock” of the city. That’s like saying, put in cross-walks wherever J-walkers cross the street. I sense their mayor is on to something. It places government in the role of having an “official duty” to try and work with property owners rather than close them down and beat them with their batons.
What is the moral lesson here? I’m not sure but it sure motivates me to live fearlessly even a little reckless… like a pirate, Arrrrrrr! I might even drive 32 miles per hour in the 30 mile per hour zone. Grrrrrrrrr! Look out!
Is this what liberty feels like or is this just too much coffee?
Hey Rich, it IS what liberty feels like! Regarding what’s going on with your city, Agenda 21 related?
Yes Ann you perceive my environment very well. It is the attempted implementation of Agenda 21. I was choosing descriptions for our local planning realities that did not use the term Agenda 21 even though it’s exactly that. I feel sorry for everyone who has not yet tasted at least the tiniest morsel of expanded consciousness. So I avoid labeling my local planners as servants of the dark powers of the old NWO.