Page 22 RAIN June 1982 ACCESS Yestermorrow Box 344 Warren, VT 05674 802/496-3437 Yestermorrow's focus is on design- integrated or "whole system" design. Founded in 1980, this is one of the schools trained by the Owner Builder Center and the only one of those offering summer residency as well as evening courses. Like the other schools, Yestermorrow requires no previous expjerience — "only conunon sense and the desire to learn" — and imposes no age requirement — "you're never too old; students under 15 must be interviewed." Heartwood Owner-Builder School Johnson Road Washington, MA 01235 413/623-6677 Elias Velonis began teaching ownerbuilding in 1978. He had just returned from "7 years of carpenting and teaching" in various communities in Europe and India — "I knew the great value of human energy given in building, shrama- dana, how it symbolizes for all of us the making new, the shelter of our hope. It unifies us, and I enjoy that. Heartwood began as a school for lay people in the design and construction of houses, but we've discovered that each one of our students is in the midst of a personal transition that involves questions of lifestyle, identity, motivation, even the spiritual. And so it happens that all of us here become models — examples of a lifestyle that most of them didn't know was possible — whereas we're just folks up here in the Berkshire hills trying to make sense out of it all, and live kindly and lightly. Several students have told me we give them permission to take control of their lives!" Heartwood is enHrely residential, offering 3-week courses from June to September. The Shelter Institute 38 Centre Street Bath, ME 04530 207/442-7938 The Shelter Institute began in 1974 because Pat Hennin, the director, was asked to build more environmentally conscious houses than he could in 1972 and 1973. "We realized," co-director Patsy Hennin says, "that if more people had the right information they could design and/or build their own houses better — more to suit their own needs and their finances. ■ Pat grew up believing that people were capable of solving problems, that given the right understanding of physical problems they could be self- sufficient. There are no insurmountable problems — if you're certain you can do it, it'll get done." The Shelter Institute has taken its 3-week intensives on the road to North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Cornerstones 54 Cumberland Street Brunswick, ME 04011 207/729-5103 Founded in 1976 by Charlie Wing, Cornerstones was an outgrowth of his Bowd- oin College course, "The Art of the House." Besides the owner-builder school. Cornerstones maintains a fulltime research and development department devoted to developing a steady flow of state-of-the-art information on energy efficiency and passive solar building techniques. Cornerstones also offers special housebuilding and carpentry courses for women. The Owner Builder Center 1824 4th Street Berkeley, CA 94710 415/848-5950 The Owner Builder Center began teaching housebuilding classes in 1979 and within a year was seeding the owner- builder movement across the country by offering training for people to start other owner-builder schools. About a dozen more schools have begun this way, from Anchorage to Chap>el Hill, most of them, like the Berkeley center, in urban areas. Courses are offered in several California locales as well. Before You Build: A Preconstruction Guide, by Robert Roskind, 1981,150 pp., $7.95 plus 500 p&h from: Ten Speed Press P.O. Box 7123 Berkeley, CA 94707 Buying land and building a house is a tremendous organizational challenge. All too often unexpected costs or poor planning introduces such stress to the owner- builder that the fxrtential for creative personal expression is lost. Robert Roskind, of the Owner-builder Center in Berkeley, has developed a preconstruction guide to significantly reduce that stress. At first glance, the workbook format, with its abundance of empty page space, suggests simplicity. However, anyone who is seriously considering buying land and building her or his own home had best take a good look! All those empty blanks are preceded by well-organized, in-depth questions on subjects ranging from understanding your land, to dealing with permits and codes, to developing the inner resources necessary for undertaking such a project. After a more careful look at the book I was overwhelmed by the number of questions I couldn't answer. Fortunately, its excellent organization provided relief. Each chapter is arranged by subject, such as water systems, wastes, power, phone, and codes. I found the easiest way to answer many of the questions was to visit my local county planning office and just start asking. Though I found one outdated entry on septic size requirements (at least for Oregon), I came away impressed by the depth and scope of this guide. In short. Before You Build can help lead owner-builders toward that satisfaction that arises from a job well done, that satisfaction which draws most of us to inihate such a venture in the first place. — Rusty Park Rusty is an owner-builder and a board member of the Matrix Institute in Applegate, OR.
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