Fine Homebuilding Flashback: 1981, The Magazine’s First Year
Follow along throughout 2021 as we revisit our archives and celebrate 40 years of sharing the ins and outs of home design and construction, starting off with the year we launched.
Over the past month, our editors have been dusting off old issues of the magazine, leafing through the pages, and jotting down notes about the articles they believe best exemplify the quality, style, and depth of coverage that has made our magazine a success for the past 40 years. It takes talented and dedicated editors, art directors, writers, and photographers to make this magazine happen, but more importantly, it takes a vibrant community of skilled, generous designers and tradespeople to fill the pages full of inspiring and informative articles. And, of course, it takes a community of devoted subscribers who aren’t afraid to write in to tell us what we get right and what they want to see more or less of.
Over the next year, we’ll be sharing some notes about our favorite Fine Homebuilding articles so that you, our readers, can revisit the stories that have made the magazine special all these years, or discover them for the first time. We’ll start off with editorial director Brian Pontolilo’s snapshot of FHB‘s first year. If you’re an FHB All Access member you can read a digital version of every single issue in our Online Archive (follow the links for the first 5 issues below), plus anyone can find find web versions of many of our articles in the Magazine section of the website.
Feb/March 1981 FHB #1Fine Homebuilding launched 40 years ago, and the first issue set the tone for what the magazine continues to be today. In the words of Taunton Press founder Paul Roman, FHB is “…a magazine that covers the whole broad and vital field of home building with quality, style and depth.” The cover story of issue #1 was the tale of a Greek revival relocation. The back cover offered a rather technical look at how to build an igloo. In between, the issue featured articles on restoring a staircase, raising a timber frame with only the help of a tractor and some nearby trees, a passive solar house, a site-built rooftop thermal-solar collection system, and, at only 600 sq. ft., our first small home. Notably, the issue had the first Tips & Techniques column edited and illustrated by Charles “Chuck” Miller. Chuck is still at it today. |
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April/May 1981 FHB #2If FHB has a reputation for throwing in some esoteric articles among the more practical content we publish, it started early, as the cover of our second issue proves. Perhaps the editor knew that the story of this New Mexico studio may seem a bit wild for the new magazine and tried to justify it by opening the article with a note arguing “…that the construction was less complicated than appearances would indicate.” In 1978, the studio was built for $30k, plus a $5k budget for cabinetry. For those looking for some help with more common home-building tasks, issue #2 included articles on restoring a porch, upgrading electrical service, repointing brick, and making moldings on a tablesaw. |
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June/July 1981 FHB #3We get regular mail from readers complaining that we publish too much about green building and energy efficiency. Maybe so, but it’s nothing new. In the first two issues we’ve seen articles on solar energy, passive heating, passive cooling, and earth-sheltered homes. Issue #3 features articles on landscaping for energy efficiency, Trombe walls, how to design and install a passive solar thermosiphon, and a Florida house built to keep the owners cool without air conditioning. Tips & Techniques featured our first site-built door buck, a helpful tool for steadying doors while mortising hinges and installing locksets, and a tip which would provide lots of variation over the next 40 years. There was also a homemade wooded wheelbarrow featured in the column—a tip that was never repeated, though we will later show you how to use a wheelbarrow as a chair on your lunch break. (Okay, we don’t always hit the nail on the head!) |
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Aug/Sept 1981 FHB #4If you haven’t noticed by now, Fine Homebuilding did not start as a mainstream magazine. Early issues were as much for the intrepid owner/builder as they were for the professional builder, and issue #4 made this abundantly clear. The cover photo shows Len Bracket and his friends pouring the grade beam foundation for the traditional Japanese-style house he would build for himself in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada after apprenticing as a builder in Kyoto. Another apprentice, architect Rudolf Schindler, was sent to Japan, unpaid, by Frank Lloyd Wright to work on foundation drawings on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Later Schindler would design and build for himself the classic King’s Road House, which is also featured in this issue. These projects were meant to inspire the owner/builder ethos and ingenuity—and he issue included and article on estimating construction costs for the aspiring do-it-yourselfer. |
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Oct/Nov 1981 FHB #5A house traveling down the road on the back of a truck is always a site to be seen, so this was probably an easy cover choice for the editors to mark the end the first year of Fine Homebuilding. And no task seems more daunting that moving a house. If you want to know how it’s done, this issue is for you. Also in the issue: how to make curvilinear, semi-elliptical window sash. As you can imagine, layout is everything. And if you missed the recent Building Science + Beer episode on permanent wood foundations, consider reading a copy of FHB #5, where the topic is covered thoroughly. |
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Click here for more glimpses of previous issues, follow us on social media, or sign up for our weekly newsletter to read more highlights from the formative years of Fine Homebuilding magazine.
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