Affordable Housing, 1972

Anne and I and our land partner, Joel Beak, had scraped and hustled to put together the down payment on 210 acres of Surprise Valley Ranch for which we paid $242 an acre. Now we had no money left to build our houses. Joel found an old travel trailer and moved he and his two young sons in. He would build a lovely home over the next few years but those first years were mud and blood. Anne and I had three kids. I built a plywood platform attached to four redwood trees in a grove over a dugout. Miss Anne wove a home around us -as she always hasbeds, dressers, throw rugs. No walls, no roof except those mighty trees. A wood fired cookstove and table below. A most splendid idyllic Summer. Then the rains came. Friends lent us a their vacant house for the Winter. No more lovely fantasy- I had to come up with a real house for the five of us. Now. 

We had lots of redwood trees of various ages so I figured I'd build a log cabin. City boy pioneer mentality massive confidence no reality.

I draw working blueprints for a two-story 24'x48' log house and take them into the Mendocino County Building Department to get a building permit. They said no. I rolled up my plans went home and bought a Homelite Super XL, a Hudson's Bay ax and an Estwing 32oz framing hammer. (I still use them today). 

I cut down 51 12" diameter redwood trees and Joel and I felled one big tree. I found a very used '50 Chevy ton and a half flatbed truck and my dear Dad bought it for me. It would drag and haul. Now the work began. Bark had to be laboriously cut, pried and scraped off the logs. Tedious beyond belief and the kids were heroic. Green logs are really heavy but they cut and shape easily with a chainsaw and an ax. 

It took two years. Very little cash, much hard labor. Here is how: My younger brother, Tim and I were on every bit of every thing. Joel Beak helped so much so often. Bill Shandel leveled the site. A 25' redwood slab came from Ronnie Mitchell. Chuck Bush and his class lifted the first massive foundation log into place. Ronnie Kempner drew and built the queen post big south window and the large triangular north window. Daniel Parker milled the big tree into flawless lumber for window and door framing and huge rafters. The previous summer I had cut 1,200 redwood rounds and traded them to Johnson Ornamental Stone in Santa Rosa for several tons of Russian River rock which Jerry Zalpis used to build the stone wall and the 24' chimney around the big 17th century design fireplace. Part of the trade was 1,000 square feet of Pennsylvania slate which Anne set and mortared in for the floor. Jed Houston built the heavy front door of tight grain redwood. Brian McCormick contributed the huge hinges. Frank Baden brought the damper. John Pitts did the plumbing. Carl Gallagher gave us his old wooden bay windows. All of the windows were salvage. Scott Beach (he appeared in "American Graffiti") did the stained glass. Dennis Charette wired the 24 volt electric system. 

Norman Shandel (Fort Bragg's Paul Bunyan) helped Tim and I lift the last 50' logs to top up the walls. Larry MacDonald worked on the roof — covered only with tar paper for the first 10 years. James Maddock fashioned a heat exchanger. Ken Hucek brazed a broken bit of cast iron stove. Art Stoughton, Neil Blackfield and so many others…I once calculated 36 people were part of the construction. Their friendship and energy was the extreme high cost of our low cost home. Many of these men are dead now. Happily Joel, Tim, Anne and I are not. It took me five relentless years to legalize the house. And now, more than 50 years later, it sits in its redwood grove aging beautifully, as do we.