Shay Salomon's newly published book Little House on a Small Planet is an invitation to scale down our housing choices, but not sacrifice comfort and beauty along the way. It chronicles the "small house movement" and provides a guidebook for becoming a part of it. Floor plans, photographs, advice, and anecdotes fill the pages, encouraging readers to live in less space but have more room.
Huh? How can that be? The author will answer that question and share inspiring examples in two slideshow presentations, organized by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, in Los Angeles this weekend. She'll be joined by the photographer for Little House, Nigel Valdez.
Salomon, a carpenter and construction manager who coaches people towards a mortgage-free life, has taught many courses in carpentry, straw bale building, and solar design and is a cofounder of the Small House Society.
Salomon and Valdez worked on this book project for 7 years. Valdez chose pictures of real people on average days in their little houses. Nothing appears staged. People are relaxing with their kids, their feet up on the coffee table, or shaving in the bathtub, which happens to be in the kitchen.
Reading news coverage after Hurricane Katrina, Salomon learned that in Houston, where many of the refugees were headed, 14% of all housing units (homes, apartments, duplexes, etc) were vacant. Salomon did some research on how this compares to the rest of the country. She found that in 2000, 10.4 million units remained vacant while 250,000 people slept in homeless shelters. This meant there were nearly 45 homes that were completely empty per person sleeping in shelters. Salomon asks, "How is it that we have a housing crisis? Maybe a homing crisis, or a sharing crisis, but this isn't a housing crisis":
The Union of Concerned Scientists ranks housing third among destructive human enterprises, just after transportation and agriculture. But our housing need not be destructive. Again we can chose! We can chose human scale, enhancing our connections with those we love. We can chose eco-scale, reducing our demand for the kind of energy that is disrupting life now and for future generations.
She takes a refreshing approach. Instead of focusing on the problem of current housing trends, she draws out solutions that each one of us can choose to follow through on. The book offers practical help on building, remodeling, redecorating, or just rethinking needs. She believes that living close and simple and applying spiritual and social needs to material desires will benefit each of us, the environment, and the culture as a whole.
Says Salomon: "You too can build a joyful, sane life that emphasizes home life over home maintenance. Living small can free up your mind, your wallet, and your soul."
The free event on Saturday, January 20, 2007, will be at Audubon Center at Debs Park, 4700 North Griffin Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90031, at 2 pm. Contact David Kahn at info@sustainablehabitats.org or 323-667-1330 for more information.
The Sunday, January 21, 2007, event will be held at LA Ecovillage, 117 Bimini Place (1 block east of Vermont just south of 1st St), Los Angeles 90004, at 8 pm. Admission will cost $10-$15 (sliding scale). For more information, contact Lois Arkin at crsp@igc.org or 213-738-1254.
