Brook Cottage is ideally located at the end of a private lane on a spacious and partially fenced property walking distance to the center of Woodstock. This newly renovated classic Woodstock artist’s cottage features 2-story north light windows, cathedral ceilings and skylights, and a gas-fueled fireplace with an exposed stone chimney in the great room. On the south (sunny) side of the cottage there’s a second sitting area with a gas-fueled cast-iron fire stove, flat-screen TV, and 2 sets of French doors that open onto a blue stone patio and spacious lawn next to Tannery Brook, a year-round stream that flows through the back of the property and right past the house! The master bedroom is on the second floor in a loft space with an interior balcony that overlooks the great room. It features a sitting area, skylights, and queen bed under a large triangular-shaped window facing the stream. In addition, there’s a second bedroom on the first floor with a full bed. The fully-equipped kitchen is newly remodeled with marble countertops and new appliances. Amenities include AC, skylights, ceiling fans, WIFI, cable TV, DVD player, dishwasher, washer/dryer, gas grill, outdoor seating, and private parking.

Source: Brook Cottage: Top-rated luxury by the… – HomeAway Woodstock 

These incredible images were shot by photographer Mike Taylor. 

See more great images by photographer at Mike Taylor.

If you have never been to Colorado it’s a pretty great state, but Lake City, Colorado is absolutely amazing for several reasons, including the 14,000 feet high mountains surrounding the small, but really quaint historic mining town. I spent most of 2013 there and had such a great time getting to know some of the 350+ locals who live there full time.

Lake City is a tourist town from June through September and can swell up to around 4500, or so, who are primarily from Texas, and have summer homes there. I designed quite a few of our plans while I was there, as reflected in some of our renderings and exterior elevations. Engineers Pass, Alpine Loop is a 6 – hour trek from Lake City, but brings you back or takes you over to Montrose, or Ouray I believe. Along the drive you experience visual beauty that words can not adequately describe. And there are other times it can be pretty frightful, if you are afraid of heights, or experience Vertigo as I do. I had no idea what I was getting into when a couple of friends and I headed out for a mountain drive. Along the journey we came across several old mining camps that have been long abandoned, so we got out and explored a few of the old homes, buildings. It was easy for me to visualize what the people who once lived there must have encountered while building them, and while living there. Not for the faint of heart, or lightweight city slickers.

This particular camp is now undergoing a full restoration and I will become a lodge with shops and restaurants.

I will look forward to seeing the finished product someday, who knows, I may build a Texas Tiny Home there someday.

It was quite an experience to take this drive, see this history, and recommend it for those who like adventure in the great outdoors. Just make sure you don’t have vertigo, and you’re in a 4- wheel drive vehicle designed for the extreme you will experience.

ANTOINE is a tribute to the alpine experience and to the writer. The small wooden cabin, big enough for the life of one man, is hidden inside a projected concrete rock. Referring to the long lasting Swiss tradition of hidden bunkers, the project integrates the highly urbanised landscape of the Alps. Already described by the French philosopher Paul Virilio in 1975, military architecture conducted by principles of camouflage has, for long, fascinated the architects.

ANTOINE creates an alpine shelter, a precarious «Existenzminimum» somewhat subversive in its use where one can freely enter and hide. It contains the very basic architectural elements – fire place, bed, table, stool, window – but demands to the visitor some risk taking as the rock hangs literally on the rock fall field.

Source: BUREAU A — Antoine – Divisare by Europaconcorsi

Almost all of us have complaints about the government, which probably range from high taxes to too much bureaucracy. Periodically, we get to take our frustrations out at the voting booth. But no matter how unhappy you may be, you probably never thought, “I’m going get out of here and go start my own country.”

A group of rich techies in Northern California is planning on starting its own nation on artificial islands in the ocean. They call themselves “seasteaders” and are sort of a mix between geeks and hippies.

The visionary behind the group is Patri Friedman. The former Google software engineer also happens to be the grandson of the Nobel Prize-winning economist and free marketeer Milton Friedman.

It’s his voice that opens a trailer for a documentary about the seasteaders. As his words float above visuals of rolling waves we hear what sounds like a vision of paradise at sea.

Friedman imagines that on these islands there will be “a lot of tourism from the world. The most cutting-edge hospital facilities on the planet. Probably the largest fish farms in the world.”

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A winning entry in the Seasteading Design Contest by Emerson Stepp.

Courtesy of The Seasteading Institute.

For-Profit Communities

The seasteaders have been meeting regularly at bars in Silicon Valley and San Francisco to discuss their plans for creating nations at sea.

One meeting at a bar in Millbrae, Calif., drew a mix of people with long hair, beards and wizened faces; casually dressed engineer types; and a few suits. It was mostly guys.

There was a lot of chatter about what’s wrong with our country — everything from the school systems and the bickering in Washington to the rising price of health care and long lines at the department of motor vehicles.

“They just want to avoid taxes so they can own what they make,” says filmmaker Adam Jones, who became part of the group because he shares their frustration. “So they can truly be free and that’s the nature of true liberty and that’s what the founders wanted in America.”

To find out more about Seasteaders click on this link