Home Design Find

Straw Building Blocks Make Warm Sustainable Homes

I’ve covered other straw bale construction techniques here before. This machine for tying straw into tubes on the field to build with, and these prefabbed walls of straw from a British company that stuffs straw into prefabbed wall-sized units near the farm…

…but these are the first straw bale building blocks I’ve seen. What [...]

Read more »
DIY Hot Water Retrofit Cuts Energy Bill Up to 70%

If you are a homeowner looking to take advantage of the new 30% tax credits to cut your energy bills, here’s a simple retrofit that attaches to a water heater, costs about $500 and can reduce your heating bill by 50% to 70%. If you use radiant heating for floors, rather [...]

Read more »
A Shipping Crate Kitchen

Here’s a great remodel that has a funky frugal charm. Grocers throw out shipping crates routinely. Here’s just one way to reuse that wasted packaging.

Read more »
An Ancient Fire-Resistant Wood-Finish That is Green…and Very Elegant

There is an ancient traditional Japanese wood finish to make houses resist fire and rot.
The finish is based on the discovery by the ancient Japanese that it is harder for something already charcoaled to catch fire again. I’ll take their word for that; I had no idea.
Here’s how to do it. The [...]

Read more »
Living in the Warm Sunshine of a Swedish Greenhouse

Think this would be hard to build? Here’s how it was done.
First, take 1 boring typical house in a cold climate…let’s say in Sweden.
Next…

Read more »
Straw Bale Building Goes Mainstream

Building houses out of straw is as old as, well, as old as the medieval nursery story about the Three Little Pigs, and their houses; one of Bricks, one of Straw and something… it’s been a while.
Straw building has a long long history. It is a great natural insulator. But it’s not so easy for [...]

Read more »
Cooling Your Living Room With a Water Wall

Ever consider a waterfall in the living room? I thought not. But there are very good reasons to consider one. If you live in a hot and muggy climate and want to build a new house that is naturally comfortable and energy efficient, this is one simple and carbon neutral way to do it.
Normally, flowing [...]

Read more »
Zero Carbon Town in Sonoma Makes YardPods

In Northern California an entire town is being gradually recycled out of the most unlikely raw material.
Once, it was just another boring industrial park in the middle of nowhere – – partly visible behind this model.
At the center of that very unusual town-in-the-making is a giant industrial building, powered by solar panels. YardPods are prefabbed [...]

Read more »
Commuter Cuts Carbon, Calories With Gorgeous Treehouse Office

Here’s a great way to cut the carbon and the calories at the same time. Work at home to cut the carbon of the commute, and build your home-office in a treehouse to climb up into, to cut those calories!

Read more »
Build a Bamboo and Earth House

Step 1. Gather thinner bamboo sticks about a 1/4″ diameter for the wattle (woven bamboo) that will go into the wall. Cut these bamboo sticks so that they are as long and as straight as possible. They need to be flexible enough to weave without breaking and thick enough to hold up the daub.

Read more »