THE BOOK WORLD UNITES TO RAISE £1 MILLION FOR REFUGEE CRISIS

WATERSTONES ANNOUNCES UK’S BIGGESTCHARITY BOOK SALE FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES28th September 2015: Today, Waterstones, the UK’s biggest bookseller announces its ‘BuyBooks for Syria’ campaign, with the goal to raise one million pounds for Oxfam’s Syria CrisisAppeal.From Thursday 1st October, Waterstones booksellers will sell a selection of books by bestsellingauthors such as ...

source Random House Group Latest News http://ift.tt/1MAh1IG

Ten reasons I prefer small houses to tiny houses

Tiny house or small house? 

 

1. They're bigger without being big.
2. They're energy efficient without being too tiny. 
3. They encourage fidelity to places (as opposed to passing thru them).
4. They're not much harder to build than tiny houses.
5. They can handle extreme weather better.
6. They can be insured.
7. They have longer potential lifespans, which means they'll probably last generations.
8. They're not much more expensive to build than tiny houses.
9. They have better resale value than tiny houses.
10. They appreciate; tiny houses, like cars and RVs, depreciate. 

Oh, and they can enjoy the sound of a piano, so that makes eleven. 

Weighing in on experience buying land, designing small and tiny houses, building them, living in them, and selling them, I'm convinced small is the way to go. Small houses are a better choice in almost every case. I say, almost...because tiny houses have their places too.

But I'll leave that for another time.

source Small house living, tiny house design - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1PIySxJ

The Ladybug House: finished roof, windows and doors

This week we saw our roof assembly completed and not too soon as our seasonal rain pattern has started establishing itself. For now we're still enjoying some sunshine, if cooler, and this has allowed us to make progress on getting the cedar bevel siding painted and we'll be able to install it as the season gets colder. Crisp, sunny days will be great weather for hanging siding.

In addition, this week we'll finish the rough-in plumbing and electrical.

The Ladybug House get its roof and windows!

With our roof shingling completed and Marvin Integrity black windows installed we're finally closed-in.

The clipped gables take on their own appeal now that the roofing assembly is finished.

A fusion of Asian and North American traditional elements.

The Asian influence on the Ladybug House. Looks like a Samurai's helmet!

Jamie single handedly paints our houses...it's amazing!

Jamie has been enjoying our unexpected sunshine and cool temperatures to prime and paint the cedar bevel siding. She's nearly done! 

source Small house living, tiny house design - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1Wm2UeE

New Beekeeper's Bungalow

Do you recognize this house?

That's right, it's another *NEW* Beekeeper's Bungalow under construction. 

This is the only photo we've received so far but we hope to get more.

The builders have enlarged the dormer system and redubbed it Dragonfly House. 

Please make some noise, let's encourage them to send more photos!

source Small house living, tiny house design - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1j4vfYI

How I did my own 200-AMP Service Connection, Part 1

Not all home electrical service entrance requirements are the same. In the past I've simply had electrical meters professionally installed directly to my houses. However, out here on the island, my meter sits over 150 feet away from my house, on a post, inside a meter box, with its own breakers and an emergency shut off, whew... . 

Truth be told, I wanted to have my service connection installed by a licensed electrician  but when I got bids ranging from $1000-10,000 I thought the universe, and definitely my local economy, was telling me to visit the local library. With a couple of books, the internet, and generous advice from a local electrician from whom I bought some of my equipment, I was able to complete installation myself. It was my first one and I must have done a good job since I not only passed my initial inspection but the local power company came out to photographs the work to use as an example. 

The work wasn't easy; there were plenty of irritating moments, muddy wet socks , sweat, and a few choice words. But it wasn't so bad I'd never do it again. The money saved was well worth the effort and little bit of time invested.

what was needed?

1. A permit from Labor & Industries.
2. A backhoe, on site from my foundation work, and a shovel to dig the 18" deep trench.
3. 2-1/2" schedule 40 grey PVC conduit, couplings, elbows, lock nuts, bushings, and PVC cement, installed underground between my service panel and interior breaker panel.
4. 4/0-4/0-4/0 aluminum service entry (SE) wire fed thru the conduit connecting the two panels.
5. 2/0 encased ground wire also fed thru the conduit grounding both panels together, to the ground rods (see below), and the UFER ground inside the house.
6. 5/8" galvanized ground rods (2) driven near minto the ground and connected to my outdoor service panel with unsheathed copper grounding wire and acorn ground rod nuts.
7. 200 AMP service panel with shut off.
8. Unistruts
9. Anything else I forgot to mention!

Stay with me. Next time I'll walk you through how I did it and how to make it a little easier for yourself than I did for myself and my wife. In the meantime, why not get reading!

check out these books from the library

I utilized a couple of electrical books from the library, mostly Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell, which was decent for this aspect of electrical work, and a surprisingly well illustrated edition of The Complete Guide to Home Wiring by Black & Decker. The best resource was straight from my local power co-op, OPALCO. Their Meter & Meterbase Specification Pamphlet was superb and I highly recommend anyone considering a similar undertaking inquire about any available literature from their local power company. 

You might also consider the latest pocket edition of the NEC as well as Code Check Electrical. 

The internet was mediocre at best as most of my searches yielded board conversations. But it offered some modest value.

Disclaimer: Although all of the electrical work performed was inspected by Labor & Industries for safety, I'm not a licensed electrician. Anyone considering doing any DIY electrical work should be well read on the subject and obtain the required permits and inspections.

 

 

 

 

 

source A blog about designing, drafting, building, and living in small and (sometimes) tiny houses! - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1Qopkbc

Tamarack tiny house SketchUp model

Tamarack Tiny House Model (SketchUp) 7.95

This is the SketchUp model used to develop the Tamarack tiny house building plans. The model can be fully customized. Model includes scenes and some "layer" and "outliner" organization. License to modify included. Immediate download. User must download SketchUp to properly utilize file.

Add to Cart

source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1Lg7NT7

The Moschata tiny house SketchUp model

Moschata Tiny House Model (SketchUp) 7.95

This is the SketchUp model used to develop the Moschata building plans. The model can be fully customized. Model includes scenes and some "layer" and "outliner" organization. License to modify included. Immediate download. User must download SketchUp to properly utilize file.

Add To Cart

source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1LxkuVm

Front porch of the Beekeeper's Bungalow

The simple Beekeeper's Bungalow has a covered front porch with decorated pillars and lots of color to add curb appeal.

source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1Kl3g0W

Bestselling author James Patterson allocates over £110,000 in successful bids from 69 independent bookshops

Bestselling author and bookshop devotee James Patterson has announced 69 successfulindependent bookshops across the UK and Ireland to be allocated a share of £110,000 in grants, following his latest pledge in April 2015 to donate £250,000 over the next year.Since the first round of applications in September 2014, this third announcement takes the total allocated by James to over &pound...

source Random House Group Latest News http://ift.tt/1NZaREU

Penguin partners with Waterstones to celebrate 80 years of storytelling with a pop-up shop at BOXPARK, Shoreditch

For six days only (8th – 13th September 2015), visitors to BOXPARK, Shoreditch, will be able to step into the world of Penguin to discover classic and new books, browse coveted merchandise and celebrate a British publishing icon, as part of celebrations to mark 80 years of the much-loved brand.The Penguin Shop (Unit 26 BOXPARK), in partnership with Waterstones, will be a treasure trove of be...

source Random House Group Latest News http://ift.tt/1FteHyf

Wrapping up for the first rains

Our island land is dusty dry this summer, unlike any summer we've seen.

The Seemingly Endless Drought

It’s been a long and droughty summer in the Pacific Northwest, almost eerily so. It’s a quirk of PNW weather that one despairs of the rain, but when it gets dry for very long, another distress sets in as forests become tinder dry and all the moisture is sucked from the ground.

Here on San Juan Island, fire danger was high throughout most of the summer and there were strict measures in place to restrict fires of all kinds, from back yard recreational fires to campfires in public parks and lands. We watched in surprise as the fields became parched and brittle and pond levels fell precipitously all around us…it became uncommonly common to hear people say they had never seen local ponds fall so low, regardless of the number of years they’d called the island home. 

When rain appeared in the forecast late last week, I originally thought showers, the sorts that have blustered through here and there the last few weeks but amounted to very little and were parched out of remembrance by soaring temps ensuing the very next day. This rain forecast, however, was different.

Rain, and I Mean, RAIN, At Last!

And we were without the most important parts of a roof, the paper membrane and the shingles themselves. Our roofer is busy right now and couldn’t make it out to us before the rain was forecast. We decided to paper the roof ourselves, despite disliking the heights. It seemed only sensible and given the amount of rain we received over the course of the next days and really the last week straight, this was a very good choice. We spent a six hour day, the last hot day of the summer perhaps, papering the entire roof. We used 30# felt and rather than take the huge rolls up with us, we cut off lengths to fit the areas we were working on and slowly rolled and stapled it into place. Because a huge wind storm was predicted for the Saturday after our papering work (which took place on a Thursday), we were concerned about the staples holding. We also used tabbed roofing nails to secure the edges and then hoped for the best as a truly Murphy’s Law inspired storm rolled through last Saturday. Winds were around 30-40 miles per hour and gusts were reported to 50 mph. I am not sure what the accurate wind levels were clocked at here, but it was plenty windy. The storm mellowed out around 2 pm and we headed out to the property to see if our paper had survived. And it had! Hooray!!

We have been delighted with how well our temporary roofing is keeping the rain out, very little coming through the staples. We have had a couple of inches of rain this past week at least, and all is well. Hopefully (such a huge emotion contained in the four little letters spelling hope) the roofing shingles will go on this week. It will certainly be a delight to be closed in this year. Summer seems to have roared in early and is departing early as well. Sigh. Always a lot of sadness for me associated with the end of summer, although fresh corn helps. 

I have spent the week resting my shoulder a bit from a trim paint a thon that left my rotator cuff a little irritable. Shawn has been roughing in the plumbing. It’s nearly done. We had to spend some time laying out the upstairs bathroom again and got a good design in place and all the venting and draining is installed. We also ran cold and hot water lines and got many of the stub ins in place ready for fixtures, essentially. 

We are now preparing for the roughing in of the electric. We won’t have wire until after next week, but have installed the panel box and have roughly mapped out switches and boxes throughout the house. 

The Chimney Chase

After chasing down a fireplace we like, we built a chimney chase for the Valor Senator propane stove. We have ordered and will pick up this weekend. It should look pretty neat!  It was something of a decoding project to figure out the framing requirements for it, but sort it out we did and now the chase is built. We also tied up some other loose ends this week around the house, putting in ceiling catches for drywall and building in the walls for the bathroom and framing a small door from our bedroom closet into the bathroom and building the half walls between the dining room and living room.

Coming up...

Tomorrow we will begin the week by working on some small projects as we prepare to get closed in. We will be building the rest of the chase for the chimney (second floor), putting in the sloped walls for the stairwell, hanging the garage doors and assembling all the materials we’ll need for the electrical work we’ll start the week of the 14th. Windows are also supposed to arrive the week of the 14th and hopefully insulation will be going in by then…since we’re on the subject of hope, we hope to show the shingled roof sometime in the very near future as well! I think that for me this is the most stressful part of the build. We are relying a lot on others to do certain important work (relying on others in comfort is not a strong area for me though I very much appreciate the work) and the weather is changing, closing up the house is such an exciting time, but till certain things get done, we are somewhat restricted in what we can do. Still and all, good progress is being made and it’s hard to be disappointed with how much we’ve accomplished so far!

Thanks for reading along...

source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1Xwkuye

Collaborative Tiny House Project

Last month I mentioned my interest in the Collaborative Tiny House Project, a gathering of my fellow Washingtonians - and tiny house enthusiasts - working to create a tiny house construction curriculum for high school students.

In addition to be used in schools, the videos will be available for free to anyone interested in building a tiny house.

Check out their latest video to learn more.

This is a video for school administrators from the official Affiliates of The Collaborative Tiny House Project. This video explains the mission to develop a curriculum to build tiny houses in high schools across the country.

source Blog - THE small HOUSE CATALOG http://ift.tt/1PJ1C9n