June 29th, 2008 by Suw
If you’re an avid Grand Designs fan, you’ve probably seen the work of Carpenter Oak and Carpenter Oak & Woodland, who built the Argyll timber-framed house. I met Carpenter Oak at Grand Designs Live, and was delighted to later discover that their sister company, Carpenter Oak & Woodland (yes, I know it’s confusing!) have a blog. Although it is updated only sporadically, it’s worth taking a look through the archives as there’s some very interesting stuff hidden away there. Andy Parker points out that oak isn’t the only timber and gets cross at Martin Clarke of British Precast (whose job it is to promote concrete) for calling for a moratorium on timber use in multi-storey developments because of one fire. Tim Burrell talks about how no one seems to know what ‘environmentally responsible’ means, writes a really interesting post dissecting the poor build quality of an oak frame house featured in an issue of Homebuilding and Renovating magazine, and explains what green oak is.
The quality of the writing is great, but I’d like to see a lot more of it! The blog hasn’t been updated since March, and it’d be great if we could get at least one blog post each week. I’d also like Tim and Andy to remember that not everyone reading their blog is an expert in timber framing - they need to explain their jargon as they use it, so that us novices can learn something as we go along. Unfortunately, their RSS feed provides only headlines, and the archive navigation is so difficult that I gave up trying to dig into their old posts via the website and just read the ones still in the RSS feed. With my social media consultant hat on, I’d suggest getting Wordpress installed and using that for all things bloggish.
June 11th, 2008 by Suw
LiveModern is an “online community for modern, sustainable housing design, products and services” which provides forums, blogs for members and aggregates content from relevant blogs around the world. It also has a handy blog directory which features a lot of build blogs, most of which are in the US, but others of which are in places as diverse as Montserrat in the West Indies, and the Swedish archipelago. (Thanks to Alex for the tip!)
April 18th, 2008 by Suw
More of a meta-blog really, Best Green Blogs does pretty much what it says on the tin: It gathers green blogs all in one spot. You can search alphabetically, by country, or by category such as alternative energy or sustainable development. They’ve got a nice Green Blogger Map, although you’ll need to zoom out or manually scroll over to see Europe. Kits and Mortar is how proudly part of the Best Green Blogs, and I’m looking forward to making it onto the map!
There are so many links here that it’s going to be a long time before I’ve looked through them all. How Timothy Latz, who runs the site, finds the time, I do not know!
April 13th, 2008 by Suw
I’m continuing my search for real, live blogs about self-building, but it’s hard to find ones that are still being updated. A Selfbuild Experience hasn’t been updated since September 2006, and Wicklow Self Build Project has just three posts, last one in October 2007. Self Build Ireland stopped in December 2007 after a three year run, and although Architect’s Self Build Eco House posted last month, it looks like it’s winding down given that they’ve now moved in.
I suspect the archives of these blogs will prove to contain some rich pickings in terms of information and ideas, so I will have to find the time to go through them at some point. But I still want to find more self-builders who are actively blogging.
One person to add to my RSS reader is Robert Bagnall, who writes 127a Church Street: Diary of a self-build. His blog started in April 2007, and it’s clear from reading the archives that the build is progressing apace. The house is up, the windows in, (even if some are wrong!), and he’s currently battling with awol electricians and plumbers who aren’t returning his call, so fingers cross the carpenter turns out to be more reliable!
Despite the fact that it seems he’s had a bit of a hard time herding all the relevant cats, Robert seems to have kept a sense of humour, and his blog is very readable. It also gives a real sense for the nitty gritty that every build has to deal with, from what it’s like dealing with local contractors and suppliers, to how much plumbers and their apprentices cost. (Plumber: £220 per day; plumber’s apprentice, an additional £40. Poor apprentice!).
Well worth a read!
April 11th, 2008 by Suw
I’ve started my search for kindred blogs, and one of the first I have came across is the fabulous Shedworking, by Alex Johnson. Shedworking is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration, with posts about micro-compact homes, a shed that looks like a Romany caravan, and a whole weeks’ worth of posts about treehouses.
Alex is clearly mining a very rich seam, as almost every post makes me go “Oooh!” There’s tons there that I want to spend more time investigating. I think you can expect a lot of inspiration “via Shedworking” here over the next few weeks! The blog is very busy too, with three to five posts a day - way more than I have time to write.
Alex also has a book, Shedworking - The Alternative Workplace Revolution, slated to come out in July and published by The Friday Project, although it’s unclear what effect their recent bankruptcy is going to have on whether the book comes out. I hope it does, because if the quality of the blog is anything to go by, the book would be a fab addition to my library. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
UPDATE 13/4/08: Alex reports that Harper Collins have taken over The Friday Project, but have declined to publish the book. That’s a shame, but hopefully Alex can find another publisher soon.
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