Portable Houses by Irene Rawlings, Mary Abel

From the Publisher

Sheep wagons, houseboats, RVs, tents, yurts, even prefab homes and old converted school busses... people are finding creative ways every day to build and adapt homes that aren't confined to one geographical location.

Portable Houses features traditional movable dwellings around the world, from a houseboat in Sausalito to a gypsy wagon in the English countryside. Authors Irene Rawlings and Mary Abel provide essential information on making movable homes functional and practical, along with chapters on acquiring the necessary tools and gear for travel, problem solving with each type of portable house, and converting the dream into highway-legal reality. With photography of some of the world's most ingenious and unique portable structures, Portable Houses will inspire the migratory-minded to turn ordinary modes of transportation into creative living spaces. Rawlings proves that it really is possible for the dedicated, nomadic, do-it-yourselfer to make the road a comfortable home!

About the Author

Irene Rawlings is editor-in-chief of Mountain Living and Log & Timber magazines. Since age seven, she has wanted to buy a retired school bus, take out the seats, paint it a shiny red, and travel around the country. She is the author of many books, including The Clothesline (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2002) with Andrea Van Steenhouse.

Mary Abel is the managing editor of Mountain Living and Log & Timber Style magazines. She wants to buy an old trailer, paint it pink, and take it into the mountains to fly fish and cook chili over a campfire. She's still working on it.

Publishers Weekly

This attractive book is sure to awaken daydreams of leaving the settled life and going on the road, down to the sea or into the wild blue yonder. Rawlings and Abel, editors at Mountain Living and Log & Timber Style magazines, present movable homes for all tastes and income levels. Divided into sections by type-Trailers; Buses & RVs; Trains, Planes, and Boats; Tepees, Tents, & Yurts; and Sheep Wagons-the book discusses how to procure, remodel and/or build your own traveling home, with tips on what to look for and what to avoid. The first chapter specifies how to choose and remodel a trailer, down to types of floor coverings (new wood flooring or vintage linoleum), naming your trailer and painting portraits of cowgirls on the exterior. As the book progresses, however, the number of how-tos declines. The last section contains some of the most intriguing structures: a high-tech portable "ski haus," moved from place to place by helicopter; a 36-square-foot acrylic "home box" designed for a Young Architects Competition; and a 3,000-square-foot house built of packing crates, shipping containers, recycled newspaper and bamboo. Frustratingly, these unusual designs receive cursory attention, often warranting only abbreviated descriptions and a single, exterior view. The Boats section is also meager, represented by a single pricey vintage yacht. Where are the houseboats? 60 color photos. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

These books showcase the variety of ways that housing can pack up and go. Rawlings and Abel, editors of Mountain Living and Log & Timber Style magazines, focus on plush movable living arrangements. They provide examples of how, in the United States primarily, people have customized and revamped vintage Streamline trailers, school buses, sheep wagons, Volkswagen buses, train cars, planes, tepees, and other portable dwellings. Each example describes the owner's desire for the interior and what to consider when attempting the same. Color photographs show lavishly decked-out interiors, many in a vintage or rustic style. Topham (Blow-Up) takes a similar approach in that he shows real-life examples and prototypes of portable or temporary dwellings, with descriptions of the designers' intent. Color photographs depict structures from all over the world, including unique, forward-looking styles like a park bench that converts to a bed and a parka that converts to a mattress. Neither book is intended as a how-to; instead, the aim is to show what people are doing to expand the idea of a mobile home. Rawlings and Abel's book is recommended for large interior design collections, while Topham's is a definite purchase for professional and academic libraries. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

Portable houses are getting more attention today than they've had since the frontier closed. And this "new nomadism" concept calls for living small, taking advantage of new technologies, and being free to travel.

The idea of a portable house—of traveling while accompanied by our favorite possessions—is endlessly appealing. It starts when we are still children, listening with fascination to stories of pioneers living out of prairie schooners for months at a time while slowly making their way out West. That sense of adventure does not leave us when we become adults; it just intensifies. The portable houses of today have to be cozy and warm, but they also have to be practical. They must fit with our idea of simplifying our lives, of living lightly on the land, yet must have a technological component. We may want to travel small, but we also want our favorite creature comforts—radio, CD, wireless Internet access, and portable GPS.

Folks who enjoy living on the move cut across a broad spectrum—from young people just getting started to retirees following the sun. The portable houses they choose to call home cut across an equally broad spectrum—from old steel shipping containers to shiny Boeing jets, from vintage trailers to new RVs, from tents, tepees, and yurts to floating homes, from remodeled sheep wagons to restored train cars.