Customer Reviews

Portable Houses

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had an opportunity to see an advance of this book and must say I am impresssed. The photography alone is a reason to pick it up. What a wonderful topic. I continue to be impressed by these authors works. Cozy, comfy, like a crackle of a corner fireplace in an wintry cabin this book takes you to those bitty homes with great charisma.

"The idea of a portable house - of traveling while accompanied by our favorite possessions - is endlessly appealing."

If you feel your free spirit calling you, this book is going to intrigue you because it features trailers, buses, RVs, Trains, Planes, Boats, Tepees, Tents and Yurts.

Irene Rawlings and Mary Abel traveled around the country to discover new portable home ideas. All the homes feature specifications like model, size, owner, home base. There are also tips for what to look for, what to avoid and what it is going to cost.

Cooking while on the road is also a feature. There are beautiful pictures of making homemade food from organic foods collected during a families travels. There is an authentic reproduction of a tepee, luxuriously decorated with Navajo rugs and Adirondack-inspired furniture. There is a stone fire pit in the center of the room. The section on an American Gypsy wagon looks so romantic and cozy.

So many ways to live, so little time. This book also features the mini rolling gothic home that can be pulled behind a car or truck. It even has bookshelves. The most unique house in this book has to be the Ski Haus. Solar Cells and a wind generator are also features. It is aerodynamically designed and can be moved from place to place by a small helicopter.

~The Rebecca Review

This book is an interesting addition to my classic RV library. A camp trailer is the portable home they speak of, but by no means are they limited to that. For example the book also showcases a real gypsy wagon, a sheepherder wagon, a school bus conversion, houseboat, a tepee, old restored camp trailers, and more. My favorite is the sheepherders wagon, and I return to the pictures again and again. The book has some great advice on what to look for and what to avoid in restoring an old RV, but it is not really a how-to book, just some good advice. Instead it is a photography book, showcasing for the reader what others have done. The book starts off with a section that would be worthy of it's own book, a showcase of vintage canned ham trailers that have been restored and redecorated by a club of women that go fly fishing together. About 60 pictures, big an beautiful images. I recommend this book, and also take a look at "Ready to Roll" for some more trailer nostalgia.

This book does a nice job of surveying the portable housing around the world in traditional and upscale modern applications. However did not cover the mobile home, RV's, double-wides and Modular industries here in the US which is the largest use of mobile housing in the world. Yeah I know, no style, history of crappy cheap construction and lot's of bad press. Regardless, millions are still sold and built in the US and will continue to be, as Mobile housing fits our culture and pocketbook better than Mac-mansions do ! Portable houses does a great job of introducing what other cultures have and continue to use.