A Carpenter's Life as Told by Houses

by Larry Haun, Milagros M. Haun

Overview

“… Larry Haun is as much a historian and philosopher as he is a 60-year veteran carpenter. Larry’s memoir would be equally at home on the bookshelves of home building and architecture enthusiasts as anyone on a spiritual journey.”
• Brian Pontolilo, Editor, Fine Homebuilding Magazine

The unforgettable memoir of a legendary builder. You don’t have to be a carpenter to appreciate this fascinating book that Publishers Weekly calls, “a first person timeline of 20th century American residential architecture… combining …two literary styles: the memoir and the how-to book.”

A moving story of that place we call home. An early advocate for building lean and green and an avid blogger, Larry Haun tells his unique story in terms of twelve homes – built over the last 100 years. These are homes he knows intimately, drawing the reader in with detailed descriptions and thoughtful observations.

“Just like any good carpenter, Haun brings his own artistic flourishes to the job of storytelling…. But where Haun’s true personality comes across is when he describes the construction process for the many houses he has lived in and built—from his parent’s 1,000-sq. ft. wood-frame house and the adobe and cob structures of the Southwest to the mid-century pre-fabricated and tract houses, and the more recent Habitat for Humanity homes he has donated his time to help erect.”
Publishers Weekly , 6/13/2011

A delight to read. A great gift. This engaging memoir will appeal to anyone who appreciates a well-told story. A Carpenter’s Life As Told in Houses explores our love of home – feelings so deeply rooted that they go far beyond wood and plaster and shingles. Share the author’s deep connection to the natural world, his yearning for simplicity, and respect for humanity – and see why he believes that less is more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781600854026
Publisher:	Taunton Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/13/2011
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	122,480
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Larry Haun began his building career on the Nebraska prairie, where at 17 he helped to build his first house. In 1950, he began framing in Albuquerque, N.M., and in 1951, he joined his older brother in a Los Angeles building boom that brought about rapid change in tools, materials, and building methods. Later, seeing a need for passing on production-framing techniques, Haun began teaching two nights a week at a community college—and stayed there for 20 years. He retired to Coos Bay, Ore., where he built houses for Habitat for Humanity, wheelchair ramps for poor people, and backpacked in the High Sierras, the Rockies, and the Andes. He is the author of "Habitat For Humanity: How to Build a House, Homebuilding Basics: Carpentry, The Very Efficient Carpenter, " and three companion videos on how to frame a house. Larry also kept a blog, A Carpenter's View: http: //www.finehomebuilding.com/blog/a-carpenters-view, where he wrote until a couple of weeks before his death at age 80 in October, 2011.

Read an Excerpt

Foreword

The first time I saw Larry Haun swing a hammer, I knew that I wasn’t nearly as good a carpenter as I had thought.

It was 1987, and I had only recently walked off of a job site and into a job at Fine Homebuilding magazine. The Taunton Press was starting to make how-to videos, and one day the video producer invited me to watch an instructional tape from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. The star was a tall, thin man in his 50’s. Over and over, he drove sixteen penny spikes with two licks—one to set and one to sink. The nails disappeared so fast I wondered if some magician’s trick were secretly pulling them into the wood ahead of the hammer blows. I never saw Joe DiMaggio play baseball, but those who did describe his movements as seamless and fluid, as having no beginning and no end. One observer quipped, “He made the rest of them look like plumbers.” That’s how I felt watching Larry Haun drive nails. Not long after I saw that video, Larry wrote his first article for Fine Homebuilding. He went on to write countless more, along with several books, mostly about the production framing techniques he helped pioneer on the frenzied tract developments of Southern California. His amazing skills were due, at least in part, to the fact that he kept at it long after most carpenters move on to jobs that are easier on their bodies. It’s telling that when Larry finally did retire and stopped building houses for a living, he joined Habitat for Humanity and started building them for free. I would like to have been there the first time Larry Haun showed up on a Habitat project. At the peak of his powers, Larry and his two brothers could frame an entire house in a day. I imagine the Habitat foreman asking Larry if he had any experience and him replying, “Some.” On the surface of it then, this book is the story of Larry’s life as seen through the houses he has known, lived in and built. This experience ranges from the sod houses of the great plains (his mother grew up in one), to the kit houses sold in the Sears catalog, to the little boxes of the post-World War II housing boom, to the McMansions of today. And given that we now take plywood, nail guns and the overflowing shelves at The Home Depot for granted, it is fascinating to read about a time when carpenters made their own framing hammers and soaked nails in paraffin so they’d be easier to drive. But it would be a mistake to think of this book simply as a carpenter’s memoir, or as a history of houses. As prodigious as Larry’s carpentry skills are, and as fascinating as the span of his career has been, neither is what makes him remarkable or this book so worthy. Larry is indeed a great carpenter, but he is hardly typical. Despite a lifetime spent on raucous job sites brimming with testosterone, Larry is a quiet, unpretentious man who has long been more interested in Buddha than Budweiser. Larry didn’t write this book to impress anybody. He’s looking for deeper truths. When he reflects on the houses in his life, it is not so much to marvel at how far we’ve come, but to see what we’ve lost, and most important, to see what we can learn. For him it is a small step from where we live to how we live. Gently and humbly, he raises questions about the decisions we’ve made as a society, about how we treat each other, and how we treat this planet that we live on. In this entire volume, otherwise filled with charming tales and timeless wisdom, only one assertion rings false. Having grown up on the high plains of western Nebraska, in an uninsulated farmhouse with no central heating, Larry says he was always cold, even in the summer. He claims that cold has dogged him to this day, which leads him to conclude “that all my efforts, all my struggles, the reason for my existence, has been to do whatever was necessary to keep myself warm.” Hardly. Anyone who has ever known Larry will attest, and readers of this book will soon discover, the reason for his existence has been to warm others with his remarkable spirit. Kevin Ireton

Table of Contents

Foreword
Intro

1. The Soddy
2. The Straw Bale
3. The Old Frame House
4. The Dugout
5. The Pre-Cut House
6. The Adobe
7. The Manufactured House
8. The Quonset Hut
9. The Tract House
10. The Habitat House
11. Small Houses, Small Spaces
12. The Greenhouse

Afterword
 

Interviews

Coos Bay, Oregon

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on a life spent building houses all over the U.S., Haun creates a first-person time line of 20th-century American residential architecture by wonderfully combining two literary styles: the memoir and the how-to book. The former editor of Fine Homebuilding, Haun writes like a carpenter, setting up the foundation of his life story with his childhood growing up in rural, Depression-scarred Nebraska, where people still lived in houses made of sod and straw. This upbringing gave Haun a connection to the land and a disdain for waste that informs his life and beliefs as he builds upon his story with the life lessons learned building houses all over the country. Just like any good carpenter, Haun brings his own artistic flourishes to the job of storytelling, adding prose poems or ruminations about consumerism that convey his creativity and thoughtfulness. But where Haun's true personality comes across is when he describes the construction process for the many houses he has lived in and built—from his parents' 1,000-sq.-ft. wood-frame house and the adobe and cob structures of the Southwest to the mid-century prefabricated and tract houses, and the more recent Habitat for Humanity homes he has donated his time to help erect. In the final chapter, Haun's passion for building and his love of "Mother Earth" come together as he outlines how he built his own "6-ft. by 8-ft." greenhouse out of salvaged and recycled pieces, bringing the story full circle and furthering the author's message that less can certainly be more. Photos and drawings. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"If the best writers draw from their own experience, Larry Haun is as much a historian and philosopher as he is a 60-year veteran carpenter. Larry's memoir would be equally at home on the bookshelves of home building and architecture enthusiasts as anyone on a spiritual journey." -Brian Pontolilo, Managing Editor, "Fine Homebuilding Magazine"

If you are lucky in your life, you are fortunate to encounter people who are passionate about their lives. Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying; "People always say what we are looking for is a meaning for life...I don't think that's what we're looking for. I think what we're looking for is the experience of being alive." Larry Haun is very alive, and has shared with me his passion for building, his passion for community, and his passion to serve. All of us at Habitat have been blessed by Larry's energy, enthusiasm and commitment to his trade. Bert Green, Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte

The New York Times

The late Haun—one of Fine Homebuilding’s most popular writers—reflects on a long life through an exploration of the houses he lived in and built, in the audio edition of his fascinating memoir-cum-carpentry history. Narrator Patrick Lawler delivers a compelling performance, enriching the text with skillful modulations of emphasis, tone, and rhythm. Equally important, Lawler manages to downplay the author’s various assertions about how people today are just not as good as they used to be—something that would certainly alienate younger listeners if mishandled by the narrator. An additional treat for listeners, Haun, who died last year at the age of 80, reads the book’s introduction. An absolute must for carpentry and woodworking enthusiasts. --Publishers Weekly

If the best writers draw from their own experience, Larry Haun is as much a historian and philosopher as he is a 60-year veteran carpenter. Larry’s memoir would be equally at home on the bookshelves of home building and architecture enthusiasts as anyone on a spiritual journey. -Brian Pontolilo, Managing Editor, Fine Homebuilding Magazine

If you are lucky in your life, you are fortunate to encounter people who are passionate about their lives. Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying; 'People always say what we are looking for is a meaning for life…I don't think that's what we're looking for. I think what we're looking for is the experience of being alive.' Larry Haun is very alive, and has shared with me his passion for building, his passion for community, and his passion to serve. All of us at Habitat have been blessed by Larry’s energy, enthusiasm and commitment to his trade. -- Bert Green, Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte 

Drawing on a life spent building houses all over the U.S., Haun creates a first person timeline of 20th century American residential architecture by wonderfully combining together two literary styles: the memoir and the how-to book. The former editor of Fine Homebuilding, Haun writes like a carpenter, setting up the foundation of his life story with his childhood growing up in rural, Depression-scarred Nebraska, where people still lived in houses made of sod and straw. This upbringing gave Haun a connection to the land and a disdain for waste that informs his life and beliefs as he builds upon his story with the life lessons learned building houses all over the country. Just like any good carpenter, Haun brings his own artistic flourishes to the job of storytelling, adding prose-poems or ruminations about consumerism that convey his creativity and thoughtfulness. But where Haun’s true personality comes across is when he describes the construction process for the many houses he has lived in and built—from his parent’s 1,000-sq. ft. wood-frame house and the adobe and cob structures of the Southwest to the mid-century pre-fabricated and tract houses, and the more recent Habitat for Humanity homes he has donated his time to help erect. In the final chapter, Haun’s passion for building and his love of “Mother Earth” all come together as he outlines how he built his own “6-ft. by 8-ft.” greenhouse out of salvaged and recycled pieces, which serves not only to bring the story full-circle but also succeeds at furthering the author’s message that less can certainly be more. Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher