So Ive learned that I will have to move out of my cob house in January. I built it 8 years ago in a friends backyard in Kenton/NoPo but do not own the property. The folks who bought the property in 2009 from my friend have now sold it themselves. The new owner (who lives in Brooklyn, NY) was fine with me staying, but apparently her realtor was unable to find renters for the main house who, for what they are being asked to pay in rent (to cover the mortgage on a house whose value is higher *because* of the presence of the cob house,) were not okay with someone else being in the cob house. So Ive been given my 60 day notice. On the one hand it feels very weird, the idea that people are profiting off my handiwork, that there is a transaction taking place which simply ignores me even though the cob house was a major selling point for the property. The sellers realtor never told the buyers there was a renter (who moreover built the place and had lived in it for almost 8 years) just billed it as your very own straw-bale (sic) studio. In fact she actually wanted me out of there before the house even went on the market but the old owners, to their credit, refused to ask me to leave. But she had zero interest in the larger story of the place or the human element. On the other hand I never imagined I would be in the house for 8 years. It is the longest I have ever lived in any house. I had decided it was time to move on anyway, to let go and open up the space in my life for whatever is next. But it is weird nonetheless. I will miss the place mightily. I pioneered both tiny-house and cob-house building in Portland and generally. To my knowledge there is still not another dwelled-in cob house inside a major city in North America. The project has inspired a lot of people. This is good. So Ill move on from it with a certain pride, knowing that it was the right thing at the right time for me, a grand small-scale experiment and something that continues to inspire.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:59:52 +0000
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