*faircompanies – videos & articles for the beginning of infinity

68 & starting fresh: building DIY 2-cabin dream homestead from scratch

by Kirsten Dirksen on September 1, 2025

At 68, Jeannette Belliveau sold her Baltimore home and moved to rural Idaho to build her dream homestead from the …
Veteran’s underground home in Maine Homestead is affordable little marvel

by Kirsten Dirksen on February 16, 2025

Jim’s idea of happiness includes a 1-mile zipline that descends an entire hill and crosses a lake to get from …
She built underground cabin in remote Arctic for $200 as cozy Stealth Home

by Kirsten Dirksen on December 29, 2024

Franciska Eliassen built an underground earth home inspired by traditional Norwegian sod huts to live simply and sustainably from what …

Couple buys whole ghost village, tells others to join & fix their own ruin

by Kirsten Dirksen on February 1, 2026

On a freezing winter day in northern Spain, we arrived in Bárcena de Bureba, a ghost village in the remote, …

The housing ladder broke ages ago. What can prefab & modular do?

by Nicolás Boullosa on January 29, 2026

Blame interest rates. Blame investors. Easier than admitting America stopped building enough homes, never modernized construction, and quietly relies on …

When the alarm never stops: attention in an age of permanent emergency

by Nicolás Boullosa on January 22, 2026

In a time of constant alerts, moral urgency, and outrage, attention dissolves into a permanent state of alarm, eroding judgment. …

Military couple turns forsaken mountain ruin into off-grid family oasis

by Kirsten Dirksen on January 18, 2026

After leaving Navy careers behind—Maartje (18 years) and Clemens (22 years)—this couple packed their lives into 8 suitcases, sold or …

The elephant’s belly: an urchin living inside Napoleon’s monument

by Nicolás Boullosa on January 15, 2026

Some monuments were never meant to be inhabited. Yet in 19th-century Paris, a child lived inside the hollow body of …

Quitting 9-to-5 to build genius off-grid homestead, permitted & loan-free

by Kirsten Dirksen on January 11, 2026

Five years ago, Mathieu Munsch walked away from the “normal” script— rent, bills, loans, a 40-hour workweek (35 in France)— …

Normal until it breaks: A modern life with few redundancies

by Nicolás Boullosa on January 10, 2026

How car crashes, blackouts, and bureaucratic glitches reveal the fragility of our optimized world—and why resilience now means living with …

Why we still want humans to hesitate: preparation vs. memorization

by Nicolás Boullosa on December 30, 2025

In an age of bland scripts—human and machine—we’re oddly hungry for the stumble. The pause, the self-correction, the sentence that …

Got factory ruin. Now builds Nordic prefab homes with industrial precision

by Kirsten Dirksen on December 28, 2025

A few months ago, we visited Vipp and met its founder and owner, Jette Egelund, who gave us a full …

Earned $700/month as mayor in Silicon Valley. A backyard cottage became home

by Kirsten Dirksen on December 21, 2025

When Susan Landry became mayor of Campbell, California, she took a pay cut — earning about $700 a month to …