DIY | Home Design Find - Part 3

Home Design Find

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 aÂ 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 than air heating, it [...]

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A Shipping Crate Kitchen

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

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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 first [...]

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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…

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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 somethingâ€¦ itâ€™s been a while. Straw building has a long long history. It is a great natural insulator. But itâ€™s not so easy [...]

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