studduck

One of the more substantive and soulful testimonies Congress will hear this year--or any year. Congratulations to Mike Rowe for telling like it is and for Fine Homebuilding for reporting on it.

I wish I shared your optimism.

Yes, remodeling has a has a pulse, but your statistics' relevance to foreclosures is lost on me. Nearly 40% of home sales in California last month were foreclosures and banks are sitting on a vast shadowy inventory of foreclosed properties for fear that releasing them too quickly will further depress prices and submerge more homeowners.

And, witness the tens of thousands besieging the state house in Madison, Wisconsin, this week, state finances across the country are a sea of red ink.

For a less sanguine take on what's really happening in housing, you might want to check out the site of a contrarian who called the housing collapse two years before it happened. He continues to glean stories from a multitude of sources, http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

To get an answer for Habitat Nail Pounder, the second commenter, I spoke Stephen Shoup, the designer-builder featured in this story.

Shoup said that Nail Pounder hit it on the head: Getting such projects permitted in local municipalities is a bear, particularly if you call them ADUs, which have limits on how you can use them and what they can contain--that is, whether they have bathrooms or kitchens. In this instance, Shoup sidestepped those issues by limiting the containers' use to office space and not installing a kitchen or a bathroom--although the latter item would have been handy. Also, the containers were never presented as ADUs because they were never intended to be accessory living spaces.

Shoup goes on to say that "planning and zoning are also the 'arbiters of taste' and don't particularly like the container aesthetic, so regardless of whether we wanted to leave the containers looking like containers...we couldn't. But it was always my intention to have them as visually appealing as possible, so it was kind of a moot point."

But news from city hall was not all dour. The building department and its engineering compatriots, for example, appreciate some of the unique structural qualities of shipping containers--they are very much like big box beams--and inspectors seem to appreciate the green building aspect of reviewing such a project.

Renosteinke's dour take on basement suites is not without merit but he's using a sledge to drive a finish nail. Yes, if you build a house on a flood plain, you are asking for trouble and few remedies will do much good. But the vast majority of houses with basements are not built on flood plains and the brief excerpt above is intended for them. NOTE: Since the original posting, I added a sidebar on insulating a basement, partly in response to Renostenke's gripe that the article didn't have enough meat to it.

In fact, this "blog" on converting a basement is an excerpt from a very substantial book (In-laws, Outlaws, and Granny Flats) that features five handsome basement conversions among its 30 case histories. As my intent is to sell books rather than give them away piecemeal on the internet, this excerpt is just a taste, not a meal.

Having started this food fight I have been struggling mightily to stay out of it, but beer3's comment broke my reserve.

Yes, it really does depend on who's ox is getting gored. Those who bellow "gummint intrusion" the loudest are often those benefiting handsomely from it. Fact is, zoning regs are created by people (aka government) and people can damned well change them when they become onerous. Shortly, in the new year, I will write a blog encapsulating efforts to change zoning re second units--there have been some mighty battles and signal successes. BTW, I am not against zoning per se, but many of the zoning regs governing second units are as foolish, futile and intrusive as Prohibition was in the 1920s and 1930s...and we know how that turned out.

If there are compelling reasons to create second units and ossified laws trying to stop them, guess which side will prevail. One measure of how compelling in-law units are is the number of illegal ones. Hence the title of my new book (sorry, gotta eat) IN-LAWS, OUTLAWS, AND GRANNY FLATS, which Taunton will publish this March.

So thanks one and all and keep the fur flying. I love reading all comments, even the ones that flay me. And BeerBeerBeer, I owe you a beer. A few months back I got into a terrible row (over beers) with tradesman who was complaining about "government intrusion" and my response wasn't as strong as it might have been. Now, thanks to you, I'll be ready next time around.

Stay tuned, amigos, and keep writing! --Mike

Thanks, Kevin, for yet another thoughtful piece of journalism.

I was particularly struck by your observation, "Now builders are so desperate for work they can’t afford to be particular about what they build."

Even well-established builders are scrambling for work. And one wonders, given the ferocious pressure to low-ball bids and cut costs, if green building practices will come under the knife because their up-front costs are typically a big higher than construction-as-usual.

Larry, You are clearly one of the folks who emerged from those dark times with a generous soul. Or maybe it wasn't quite so dark because people knew they were all in the same boat. Your account is particularly important today because, I fear, blaming other people is a more common response to adversity. So thanks to you for a fine story and thanks to Fine Homebuilding for running it.

What an earnest face. Dunno what it is about labradoodles (my dog louie is the next photo over) but they have the best mix of temperament and smarts I've ever found in a dog. Congrats.

Lends new meaning to permeable house wrap, eh>