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1. Pingback: Tiny House Talk » Blog Archive » Furniture for Small Spaces #10
2. Pingback: Tiny Houses for Sale: Cabins, Yurts and Micro, Mobile Homes

3. eatured NBN Member

   Patrick Hennebery: A Natural Builder
   By Brandy Gallagher

   In life, some of the greatest milestones are created by meeting heroes. In the natural building movement, we have the known North American grandfathers/fathers/mothers in our movement…. but we do not always hear the story of what they are up to when they step forward in their evolution from ‘founders’ to ‘mentors.’
   This is a story about one such man, Patrick Hennebery of Cobworks.
   Somewhere shy of twenty years ago, Pat entered the movement under the tutelage of Ianto Evans. Soon after, Pat brought Ianto to Canada (Mayne Island) for a workshop. Since then, a confluence of natural building has existed in the Southern Gulf and Vancouver Island area, fed in part by the wellspring created when Pat, Elke Cole and Tracy Calvert formed Cobworks.
   In 2000, the Cobworks team, myself and a range of up-and-coming natural builders, pulled together to create the first annual Canadian “Natural Building Colloquium.” We were off and running. Workshops began, information/education booths were stationed at every event imaginable, “All Cobbers Weekend Rendevous/End of Season Gathering” were held, and there was so much sharing of projects between us all. Sometime after this, Pat Hennebery partnered with Kit Maloney; Elke came over to O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE from Mayne Island and started the “Natural Building Internship,” and Pat, Tracy and Kit were off and running with Cobworks, building and teaching.
   Patrick Hennebery has touched the lives of so many of us, as a friend, a colleague, a creative conspirator, a teacher, a co-designer, a communitarian and an all around amazing human being. His love for the work and the peoples in the natural building movement has had a lasting impact (handprint) on each of us. The memories which have been created are part of the legacy of how Pat creates his world.
   Not everyone may know that this incredible man has moved from his role of full time ‘founding’ teacher/builder to ‘mentor’/builder these days. Recently the lives of Pat, Kit and their children, Ethan and Brody, changed dramatically after Pat was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In true Pat style, this has not meant slowing down necessarily but certainly it has meant having to find new creative ways to pour out the expression of human love and inspiration that Pat crafts his world with.
   This has brought about a new conversation between Pat/Kit/Cobworks and O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE. New possibilities emerge with the expected sale of Fernhollow, where Pat and Kit have lived for so long… What about the dovetailing of a variety of people’s gifts in a new way? What about a deep honouring and acknowledgement of the founding energy of Pat Hennebury/Cobworks as an incredible teacher/builder history and his moving further into a ‘mentoring’ builder status?
   Many hands make light work and with three other natural builder and conventional builders beside Pat…..a team has been forming. Stack the deck even further and you can broaden your thinking to imagine Cob Cottage jumping in to the partnership through Pat’s affiliation with Ianto. The mentor, who mentored a mentor, who is now mentoring….
   Imagine all the best of the hands-on learning, creativity and Pat’s leadership and Cob Cottage’s added framework, coupled with O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE’s 25 acre Sustainable Living Demonstration Site and Education Center…..and you have this summer’s “Cob and Community in the Village.”
   A poetic natural building synthesis of Cobworks, Cob Cottage Company, and O.U.R. Natural Building schools.

4. The Tiny House movement began (i think) as a statement, then it became an example.

   The statement is;
   Why do Americans or anyone else need to always have more and bigger when our resources are limited, financially, ecologically, even morally? It’s selfish, an unhealthy example for children, and in the end only corporations and money lenders profit. Your Ego could have been better served with a retirement fund, better schooling for your kids, and an incredibly healthy conscious and lifestyle.

   The example;
   The very few who have made a life in the infinitely small number of tiny homes that exist have become the darling of the media, the focus of millions searching for a better life on the internet, and a YouTube phenomenon….think about it this way, a pro baseball team has only a small number of players yet they have millions of fans. That’s exactly what has happened to those who have publicized life in their tiny homes….they’ve reached millions. They’ve become rockstars. Hard to do, and while they don’t make millions, they at least send a great message to the public.

   Some wise person decided Americans should have a dream, a great life. ‘The American Dream’ A worthy dream indeed, but sadly it was perverted by some scheming corporate types who wanted to ‘tell you’ exactly what that ‘American Dream’ should be…and if they should profit from people having said dream…Great!.
   Like all beloved holidays ‘The American Dream’ became commercialized, a perverted thing that barely resembles what the holiday should have been.
   ‘The American Dream’ now means making crippling payments and carrying debt until the day you die…hardly what that original smart person had intended at all…many of us are refusing to buy into that perversion anymore…it’s a struggle though isn’t it? Not owning the flashiest car, having the biggest best house, not having things to prove your ‘worth’ to your peers, 200 dollar shoes, 500 dollar phones, corporate entities aren’t stupid, they know what will make you run up debt, put money in the corporate coffers to fill those big bonus checks…and we are that stupid…yep, i said it, we are stupid.

   The new ‘American Dream’, well for me it looks like this;
   No payments…ever.
   No debt…ever.
   Own my home outright.
   Own my car outright.
   Retire in my early forties so i’m young enough to enjoy it.
   Simple.

   How? simple.
   My plan;
   -I already own a pick up truck outright.
   Got the title and paid for it with the cash i saved not buying 200 dollar shoes or 500 dollar phones. took me two years

   -I found 2 acres of land for 7,000 dollars and paid with the cash i saved by eating at home and not going to bars or clubs. The land is now seven months away from having county water and sewer, i know this because when i was looking for it i went to the county and asked about future expansion plans that worked in the time frame for my ‘plan’, two to three years at the time. This planning saved me tens of thousands of dollars because the land was so far out from having utilities…it’s close to a state forest, and cost me a quarter of what it already sells for now. I won’t need 20k for a septic tank and drain field. Future plans from the county works a charm!

   Sure, i’m poor. I haven’t got anything fancy, in fact i moved back in with my mom…but i own everything and have zero debt, my only payment is yearly taxes on my rural 2 acres…about a hundred dollars a year. So far it’s been two years of ‘roughing it’ at moms and putting my plan in motion.

   No, a tiny house won’t do for me. I need about three hundred sq, ft. just for an office, but it’s where i earn my living so it just has to be, but for my home i will live the tiny home example, i plan for 6-700 sq. ft. of living space…a new age palace! Maybe built from shipping containers, who knows…but i have time to decide and plan.
   I work three days a week and half days are the norm. I am doing it slowly, but it’s really working!
   In about sixteen months i should have enough to build whatever i decide on for a home and office, and pay in cash because mom lets me live so cheap.
   Two years from now i will live in my own home, one i designed, on my own property, with no payments…ever.
   In Florida solar power and hot water are reliable 365 days a year, i would be an idiot not to use them. I’ve included them in my plan.

   On an income of only 500 a week i will have in three years time a home on land i own, zero debt, no loans to repay, and with my solar plans…less than 100 per month in utilities…including internet and cell service. I might even get a new car or fancy phone for my retirement!

   I get a lot of crap from everyone i know for not having this or that…for living at my moms…i’m not upset by any of this because i’ll be the youngest retiree in the state of Florida. I’m even considering building a couple of rentals on my land…i can have four homesites on my 2 acres, so i figure that would give me about1800 a month for the 3 rentals. A nice retirement indeed.

   1. Thanks for sharing man! Will be inspiring for many to read I’m sure so I’m really glad you put it out there. What part of Florida is your land in?

5. The property is bordered on two sides by the Ocala National Forest. No neighbors, no building…just thousands of acres of forest. The only downside i could foresee is the the annual Rainbow tribe gathering nearby, but they’re just hippies and i’ve been the last two years so i don’t mind them at all and know many of them.

   1. Oh, cool! Yeah I’ve been to Ocala but not the National Forest. That’s great that you foresaw it early and took action. Thanks for replying and I’m wishing you the best of luck.. and keep me updated please! (I’m also in Florida.. just way south)

6. There are just so many cool home ideas to choose from, you know i have 2 gigs worth of video and pictures of tiny home ideas on my computer…i think i change my mind about twice a week on how i want to do it.
   The only thing i know for certain is that i don’t want a conventional home, it needs to be 90% self sufficient for utility service…city water and sewer are just too nice not to have…as is grid power to feed my solar power into and be there for me on cloudy days.

   Being in Florida you know that for nine months of the year you can fry an egg on the side walk…no joke…that’s a lot of free energy just wasted, I purchased a solar hot water system for 2100 dollars it has a list price of 3100 so i bought it before i had a house to install it in because deals never come around when you need them…
   Hot water in the average home is responsible for 15+% of your electric bill if you only use it for normal household things. I plan to heat my home with it as well…yeah, florida does get cold for a bit of the year…so i set up my solar system for a test run in february when it was about 65 degrees during the day and in the forties at night…and the 40 gallon tank held steady at 144 degrees for ten days…no electricity needed save a tiny circulating pump i ran off of a twelve volt car battery…outstanding results considering i keep the thermostat on my regular water heater at 120 degrees to save energy!

   Reducing your electric bill is easy, but not always cheap at first. Solar panels are pricey if you buy good ones, but there are other ways too. When designing my soon to be home energy use will be a priority, every electrical outlet will have a light switch next to it so i can shut of power to everything i plug in without pulling out the cords…almost everything you plug in these days bleeds energy even if the device is off, that can be 5% of your monthly electric bill or even more!

   Site planning in Florida is a huge money saver in air conditioning. We have an abundance of daylight even in winter so sunlight and window placement is the opposite from being in the northern climates…no east/west windows, or at least having them shaded by trees or something…i prefer northern exposures in Florida, plenty of light and no heat from the north.
   Over roof…it sounds silly, but down here the sun will turn your home into an oven so whatever i build will be under a large roof supported by posts that will cover my home like an umbrella and extend about five feet from the outer walls of my home. this will give me a completely shaded home with a 360 degree wrap around porch…and a home with two roofs will likely never leak. That is not cheap to build, but will cut my air conditioning cost in half or more…

   Any tips, or things i may have missed would be very much appreciated!! The time for me to learn is before i build it!!

   1. I would love to rent space on your land in the future. I am planning a tiny house and would like to keepin touch.

      Iwas originally planning a house on a foundation, but have reconsidered and will probably be building mobile. I would suggest an insulated concrete house (ICF) with small windows and a cupola for passive cooling. Hope yours turns out as you like.

7. Lisa
   You know…renting to tiny house folks seems the best idea yet. I rent the land and you tow in your tiny home. I need to research the viability and legal issues with the county and zoning, though i already know that on my two acres i can have four homes at most, but what’s a tiny house on wheels in the eyes of the zoning officials? i will have to look into it and will keep updating my situation as it evolves.

   I like the rural woodsy nature of the property and wouldn’t want to crowd it in any way. i would rather a couple of people with the tiny home mindset much better than the average renters. Two acres should be ok for three or four homesites and still maintain the quiet and scenic place i want without having to be too close or in anyones direct line of sight.

   ICF is a great way to build, truly hurricane proof!
   I want four elements in the build, wood, stone, metal, and glass. The stone need not be real, but i love the texture. The glass is going to be very limited as the most expensive of the elements. The metal will be on the roof, it’s guaranteed for fifty years. Thankfully it’s going to be a really small home, otherwise it would be impossible for me.

8. I guess this should be in a better place, the contact area wasn’t the best choice….sorry.

   1. No worries I’m glad you’re sharing and that you connected with Lisa and I so far. 🙂

9. I designed this solar house on wheels to be built on a tandem axle 8×20 trailer. Approximate trailer and material costs for an insulated shell would be well under $20,000 depending on materials used and a good scrounger could do it for much less.

   I entered this design in the Jack Daniels Instructable contest with a first prize of $25,000 and if I win I will construct the solar house on wheels and do a step-by-step video, ebook and printed book with the plans.

   Even if I don’t win I will release the plans as an ebook and the sketchup files which are completely modifiable so anyone with basic carpentry skills could build one.

   The video should give you some ideas for how to build one and feel free to offer suggestions for improvement.

   The youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZKtGRGW1-U

   Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Solar-House-On-Wheels/

   LaMar

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