false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175704320m/547405.jpg 547405 1 Are you ready for the Cob Cottage? This is a building method so old and so simple that it has been all but forgotten in the rush to synthetics. A cob cottage,cobb, however, might be the ultimate expression of ecological design, a structure so attuned to its surroundings that its creators refer to it as "an ecstatic house."<br />The authors build a house the way others create a natural garden. They use the oldest, most available materials imaginable&#151;earth, clay, sand, straw, and water&#151;and blend them to redefine the future (and past) of building. Cob (the word comes from an Old English root, meaning "lump") is a mixture of non-toxic, recyclable, and often free materials. Building with cob requires no forms, no cement, and no machinery of any kind. Builders actually sculpt their structures by hand.<br />Building with earth is nothing new to America; the oldest structures on the continent were built with adobe bricks. Adobe, however, has been geographically limited to the Southwest. The limits of cob are defined only by the builder's imagination.<br />Cob offers answers regarding our role in Nature, family and society, about why we feel the ways that we do, about what's missing in our lives. Cob comes as a revelation, a key to a saner world.<br />Cob has been a traditional building process for millennia in Europe, even in rainy and windy climates like the British Isles, where many cob buildings still serve as family homes after hundreds of years. The technique is newly arrived to the Americas, and, as with so many social trends, the early adopters are in the Pacific Northwest.<br />Cob houses (or cottages, since they are always efficiently small by American construction standards) are not only compatible with their surroundings, they ARE their surroundings, literally rising up from the earth. They are full of light, energy-efficient, and cozy, with curved walls and built-in, whimsical touches. They are delightful. They are ecstatic. 534670 1 6 2002 The Hand-Sculpted House: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage (The Real Goods Solar Living Book) total:69|5:40|4:22|3:7|2:0|1:0| 69 309 126 18 5 3 false false Sat Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 22:56:39 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 17:25:17 -0700 2008
I love this book but it'll take me forever to read it, it's just so detailed. Like a textbook. Another book I borro...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Sep 29 17:56:52 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 14:16:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Sep 29 07:04:11 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 07:04:53 -0700 2008 5 1 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon May 18 17:41:59 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 17:47:58 -0700 2009 My copy is splotched with mud and torn in multiple places... if you shake it copious amounts of sand will fall out... all signs that it has been used and loved (the authors would be proud to see the sorry state of my...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 22 15:58:46 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 05 13:18:20 -0700 2009 Mortgage Free, my desire to pursue the owner-builder route was solidified, so I turned to this book to start learning the actual ins and outs of constructing a home. The Hand-Sculpted House is truly an amazing book, providing a brief history of cob construction, as well as in...more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 00:54:37 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 00:58:01 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Feb 04 03:48:40 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 08:28:20 -0700 2009 3-5
If b...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 23:02:14 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 15:55:05 -0800 2008
I'm totally sold on it....more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Nov 16 20:16:18 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 16 20:20:22 -0800 2008 2 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 23 20:02:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 20:02:32 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Mon Aug 24 23:27:29 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 23:28:06 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Mar 29 14:01:19 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 14:10:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 14:42:42 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 22 14:44:56 -0700 2008
The people who wrote this did a service for humanity in offering us their words, experience and wisdom.]]> 5 0 false false Mon May 26 10:35:10 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 10:37:54 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 20:38:58 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 20:41:54 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Fri May 15 13:32:20 -0700 2009 Sun Feb 10 11:29:44 -0800 2008 Fri May 15 13:32:20 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Jul 06 22:45:22 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 06 22:46:30 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Thu Sep 25 09:53:29 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 25 09:53:40 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Nov 16 23:11:53 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 23:11:53 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 14 10:41:37 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 10:41:37 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=547405