Southern
Exposure
By
Jeannine Patané • 4 October 2004
When
I hear stories of destroyed homes caused by this season’s southern
storms, I can empathize with the homeowners that have no home insurance
and limited resources. I never had home insurance for the house I built
in Alaska. Alaskans living in the Interior of the state don’t
have to contend with hurricanes or tornadoes, but we have to deal with
extreme temperature fluctuations, permafrost, floods, seasonal wildfires
and frequent earthquakes. During the four years I owned land to build
a house, I applied environmental concerns into the home’s design.
Fortunately I overbuilt the structure with the earthquakes in mind,
so the house stands soundly, but I also know the effort, time and costs
involved to rebuild the house myself if it was destroyed.
Giving
time to people’s damaged homes will help us share construction
knowledge, and hopefully we won’t have to rebuild again, because
we’ll use the experience of what didn’t work and make it
better. There are several levels of agencies and organizations dedicated
to educating contractors and the public about building safer, sturdier
homes, and building codes continue to get more specified to help us
build better for our environments. I credit the ideas of my home design
to the several people and organizations that educate Alaskans on how
to build efficiently in northern climates. Uninsured homeowners that
have a limited budget might be especially concerned about building their
home soundly with quality materials, because it can be too expensive
for us to build a house more than once.
The last thing I’d ever want to argue
for would be stricter, heavily enforced building codes. I could build
a home in Alaska because it was one of the few places in America that
I could afford to build a home so quickly and inexpensively without
being stalled by a multitude of regulations and red tape. However, it’s
my personal responsibility to educate myself on how to do things better
with the information that already exists, and when finances are limited,
it may be my only shot at getting it right the first time. Mother Nature
is a force to be reckoned with, and our survival may depend on the quality
of our home construction.
Homeowners understand the importance of a quality
home, built with the best methods and materials to comfortably live
with what Mother Nature whips up. When it comes to rebuilding efficient,
safer homes, the wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented; we just
have to continue advancing through our failures. Soon I will be in the
storm-ravaged South, sharing hands-on experience with homeowners who
are building themselves a better home.
The house that Jeannine constructed
in Alaska. Photo taken March 2004.
I built my house with limited tools and few resources. Most of my construction skills had been proficiently practiced on a thirty-something-year-old Skill saw that had chewed-up bearings. The entire multi-level deck was cut with the old Skill saw and a chainsaw. I didn't have tools such as a miter saw, laser level or pneumatic nail gun. During the house’s construction, the only other power tools I had were a 14.4-volt screw gun, a cheap scroll saw and 5” orbital sander. My collection of hand tools was a little more impressive, and I had the time to resourcefully figure things out. I believe having limited tools forced me to approach construction more creatively, which in turn, taught me to learn more about material composites and basic physics.
