Documenting a personal quest for non-toxic housing.
Monday, July 4, 2005Update - Site Reorganization
After a harrowing Spring and a 2000 mile relocation, a reorganization of the Shelter web site and a change of focus for this project.
Readers of this site will recall that I was facing the loss of my home of 40 years after the sudden New Year's Eve death of my last supporting relative. Things looked quite bad. With no local prospect of work within the limits of my disability, not enough inheritance to afford any kind of housing but just enough to threaten my continued disability income, and no real help emerging from this web site, I was facing imminent homelessness or -even worse- permanent internment in some hellish state nursing home. But thanks to the help of a kind and generous colleague I was able to find a low toxic adobe cottage to rent in a quiet high desert location south of Santa Fe and have obtained help is establishing a simple home business to pay for it.
For someone who has been effectively home-bound for decades, the 2000 mile relocation was something of an ordeal. And I arrived in a period of freakish cold and stormy weather for the region. I own little aside from books and computers so had to scramble for basic furnishings. Thankfully, the region is quite well supplied with thrift, consignment, and pawn shops where some decent bargains in used furnishings could be found. (these having the advantage of being outgassed as well as cheap) Though I had to rent the cottage sight-unseen, it proved to be much as advertised and though not ideal for my needs, is sufficient for the time being. The mesa-top location is quiet, low in pollution, and offers nice views of the surrounding hills, mountains, and the lights of Santa Fe. Santa Fe is also one of the few centers in this country for sustainable architecture and interest in non-toxic housing. There are many contractors and architects here with the skills and sensibilities to construct the kind of housing I need. So future prospect for a non-toxic home of my own look good. Considering my situation, I could probably have not done much better.
Having gained a reprieve and largely settled-in, I have begun a reorganization of this web site and a change in its role. Shelter will now change from a personal project site to an on-going catalog of non-toxic housing technology and products. As can be seen from the navigation links in the adjacent side-bar, this site now features several new category sections cataloging entries in the matter of more conventional technology and architecture review blogs.
The Building Systems section will catalog the various building technologies I have found and studied.
The Designs section will collect examples of existing homes using alternative and non-toxic architecture and will also feature discussion on new and speculative home design concepts.
The Infrastructure section deals with the technologies of power and energy distribution, heating and cooling, plumbing, waste handling, and the like.
The Materials section catalogs alternative non-toxic materials and the companies supplying them.
The Tools section catalogs interesting tools for home building and design -both hardware tools and computer software.
The Products section collects all the other types of products relevant to the non-toxic home including furnishings, household care products, household health products, some complete kit homes, and anything else which seems relevant to the theme.
The Literature section will list books and other media on the subject of non-toxic housing and related themes of alternative architecture.
And, finally, the Links section will catalog links to other sites relevant to the non-toxic housing and alternative archiecture subjects.
Right now you can examine the Building Systems section where I have completed a large list of articles cataloging and discussing the non-toxic building methods I have found to date. Future articles will be seen both here on this home page and in their respective category sections. Readers may link the individual cateogry pages to filter out any articles they might have less interest in.
Most of the original content of this site can still be found in the Gallery section. I have removed a few things now less relevant, such as much controversial (for some reason...) autobiography.
In the near future this site may also spawn another web site on the subject of Post-Industrial technology and the cultivation of Post-Industrial culture. Keep an eye out for further announcements on this soon.
To close, a thank you to all readers who have been following this project and expecially to those who were kind enough to write with their feedback and enquiries. I trust this site will still be of interest to you all.
