Mark Squibb | Free Home
June 11, 2012, our dream log cabin in the Rocky Mountains, turned to ash. In a shell-shocked attempt at levity, I announced that my family was Home Free. It felt weird. On one hand I did feel free – of a huge mortgage, and a network of artifacts that connected me to my past. On the other my wife, me and three young boys, would be home-less the day after the temporary housing insurance ran out.
My quest became to say those shocked words backwards – Free Home. I wanted a nice place for our family to live, without having to pay pesky bankers, or anyone else to live. The size of our housing and food budgets – that grew with the kids – clarified why wine had become increasingly important over the past few years, and why it felt like my wife and I had to work way too hard to keep up.
As mother nature wiped our physical slate clean and insurance cleared the mortgage – we transformed the memory of those artifacts into a 75 page list and traded that list for another insurance check. That check was far too small to build a new house – at least the same way everyone else did.
I spent my whole life inventing stuff, so the clean slate could be like a gift. Besides I had a mountain of dead trees, dirt – and God bless – craigslist.
Somewhere along the way the adventure became a super-creative and fun process with new friends. We re-invented refrigeration, heating, doors, concrete, and more. After a lot of nudging, and 400 blown-away tourists I decided to share designs, and call it open-source building. The new stuff is on http://ultracrib.com.
Articles written by Mark Squibb:
The Solar Doubler, September 2015