A Good House: Building a Life on the Land

This is NOT a book about the construction skills that are required to build a house. It IS a book about the philosophy that is required for such an undertaking.I've been 2 feet away from the edge of building my own for a while, and this book made me feel like I had to take one step closer.Even if you are not near that edge, it's a good entertaining read that will get you thinking about the way most of the "civilized" world looks at shelter.

.. Or buying. Everyone who lives in modern America should read this, to understand the complexity of living in a household with on-demand conveniences. Where does water come from? Where do our feces go? Where does electricity come from? Manning considers the source of all of these, plus the material- lumber, chemicals, etc.- that go into building and living in a house. He has actually worked with his own hands to build his own house, and so he understands the craft and care necessary to build a good house. He has worked for too long as an environmental journalist to overlook the consequences of building and living in a new house. This book and his craft-activism are anathema to the cookie-cutter profit-fueled home building that has generated sprawl and leaves dull houses standing empty in the suburbs, where the greatest asset to a home is its resale value. Manning's poetics get a bit trying sometimes, when he philosophizes overly much on some task or detail of homebuilding, but overall the information and story are instructive and enlightening.

A thoughtful couple, knowing that we were planning to build our own house gave this book; it was a pleasure to read because the question "What is a good house?" leads to the question "What is a good life?" For the author this led to more searching questions - a house takes forests from mountains, coal from hills, life from the planet. As these are all major contradictions for those who value nature, the author set out to build his house in such a way as to ensure his happiness with minimum damage to the earth. Building a house is an environmentally destructive act which, multiplied millions of times, is responsible for the degradation of some of our best land. The threat is that unless we are careful we may live our lives in an unsustainable manner. On a fairly superficial level Manning set out to build an environmentally sensitive, energy efficient house but at a deeper level he wanted a house that would rebuild his life from a failed marriage. He did not want frugality to preclude beauty nor asceticism to preclude art. This meant that the land and the author had to cut a deal which is really what this book is all about - the factors that we have to consider, the trade-offs that we have to make and the process of reaching our decisions. The first lesson that we can learn from Manning is that the land is our first teacher, something that really came home to him in his search for water. The second lesson we learn is about money and how the house loan business works. Because he and the owner of the adjacent property needed a bank loan to build, they planned only basic environmental goals such as a 30% reduction in water consumption compared with national averages, superefficient lights and appliances, recycling of gray water, joint ownership of some facilities, and granting open-space easements for wildlife. With a loan secured he was ready for the third lesson - locating the house. In his case "feel" played a major consideration, once he had settled on a south facing slope and the house footprint. He established a rule that the house would be no bigger than his city apartment, although it was small by national standards, so that he could do without an architect. His golden rule was "If I don't understand it, I don't do it." Manning tells us how he started digging and his plans for earth sheltering - burying the lower part of the house to reduce heat loss and take advantage of the earth's insulation - a special advantage on a south facing slope with the house buried on three sides. This is another way of saying you live in the basement and take advantage of a large area of the house. He decided on concrete rather than wood because of the concept of thermal mass. But concrete is a gamble; when it's done its either right for all time or its wrong. There's no middle ground. When it goes wrong, it goes dreadfully, terribly wrong and all hell breaks loose. If you have ever toyed with the idea of building a house in the country and starting the good life

Richard Manning is an environmentalist writer who can write. He has a voice—an open, honest and emotionally engaging one—one that makes this book a pleasure to read. Manning puts his cards right out on the table, addressing the contradiction of trying to act in an environmentally sensitive way while embarking on a building project that from the start appears less than environmentally sound (building where there was no building before in "ranchette" fashion). Like most of life the resolution is in gray rather than black or white. But Manning succeeds in getting the reader to intimately understand the environmental impact of all facets of modern housing. Whether you build a new home like his or not this is worthwhile information. In my case it prompted me to give my 100 year-old home an "eco-overhaul," a process which has to date reduced its energy consumption over 60%. And now my family, friends and students occasionally get an uninvited lecture on the virtues of compact fluorescent lighting, on-demand water heating, shutting off "ghost loads" and the like… And you can’t avoid Manning’s contagious love of the art of building and tools. There are all sorts of small gems hiding within this relatively straightforward work, and all of them are worth digging out and mulling over for a moment. ....

The approach is honest as the author wrestles with his desire to do what his conscience tells him is right for the land v.s. the market signals that make those decisions much more expensive. As a complete novice to homebuilding, it gave me a basic understanding of what is involved in building my own home, and made it seem less intimidating.