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Environmentally-Friendly Homes

We are so concerned about air pollution outside - what about inside our homes! Sometimes indoor air quality is worse than outdoor air quality. Many home-building products contain toxic chemicals. There is formaldehyde in plywood, foam insulation, laminates, cabinets. There are toxic chemicals in the paint, and carpets. Plastics slowly release estrogen-like chemicals that really mess with your body. Our homes are now more tightly sealed for improved energy efficiency; however, this prevents fresh air from coming into our homes. Indoor plants are a great way to improve indoor air quality naturally. A lot of wood goes into making a house and it is almost never recycled or sustainably harvested wood.

Environmentally-friendly homes are built with renewable, recycled or sustainable products that are non-toxic. Often environmentally-friendly homes also take into consideration the energy used to produce and transport the materials (therefore they look for local eco-friendly building materials). You can use low or zero-VOC paints or natural plasters and paints pigmented with minerals. Environmentally-friendly homes also use renewable energy sources such as: sun, wind, geo-thermal heat, and rain.

We are looking into building a home out of straw-bales (great insulation and cheap) or clay and straw (also known as cob). The timber frame would be of recycled or sustainably harvested local wood. The home would be heated with solar radiant-floor heating and passive solar heating (orienting your house so that there are lots of windows on the south side bringing in heat with a low overhang to prevent too much heat in the summer). Power would be a combination of wind and solar. Energy-efficient appliances and fluorescent lightbulbs. I'm not ready to make the leap to a composting toilet, but definitely low-flush. Natural plasters or low or zero-VOC paint. Non-toxic counters and cabinets. Sustainbly harvested or renewable resource floors (bamboo or maple) and cabinets.

Resources

Econest
Homes made of straw, clay and timber. Non-toxic building materials. Stunningly beautiful. These are the type of homes I aspire to build.

Home Alive!
A straw-bale home in Ontario, Canada. Solar, wind, composting toilet, off-grid, grey water treatment, energy monitoring and automation. All kinds of cool eco-friendly technology and products have been used in this house.

Sterling Homes
A solar-powered R-2000 housing development in Alberta, Canada. Reasonable prices: under $250,000.

Bullfrog Power
If you live in Ontario, Canada, you can now choose to buy 100% green electricity (from wind and low-impact hydro). It costs about $1 a day more than what you currently pay, but it's worth it! It's easy to switch, just sign up online - it takes about 10 minutes.

Straw House Blog
Great blog about building a straw-bale home in Ontario, Canada.

Kate's Cob Home
Photos of a very beautiful, creative straw-bale home in B.C., Canada.

Balewatch
50 straw-bale home floorplans. Very creative

Healthy Home Plans
Plans and photos of homes designed by Sarah Susanka (The Not So Big House) and others.

Camel's Back Construction
Builder for straw-bale homes in Ontario. Read about Chris, Pete, and Tina - it's hilarious.

Harvest Homes
Builder of straw-bale homes in Ontario.

Environmentally Friendly Pre-Fabricated Homes
Michelle Kaufmann Designs has created some really beautiful modern pre-fab homes that are environmentally friendly. I have dreams of buying 40 acres of farm land, reforesting it and plunking one of these GlideHouses in a big, sunny open area. These houses are simple, beautiful, eco-friendly and reasonably priced.

Benjamin Moore Paints
Benjamin Moore offers a line of paints called Eco-Spec. It is often available in your local store but you have to ask for it. It is normally used in hospitals and schools but you can buy it too. Especially if you are buying a large quantity (i.e. doing the whole house) you can usually get a good price. When I used it for my own house, I was able to buy it for the same price per can as Home Depot's Behr paint.

Healthy Homes for Sale
A listing of healthy eco-friendly homes for sale throughout North America.

Green Builder Real Estate
A search engine to find eco-friendly homes in North America

J. David McAuley Architect Inc.
Sustainable Design - David McAuley is a certified Building Biologist and Feng Shui Practitioner. He can incorporate healthy, sustainable design philosophy into an architectural design project.

Sustainable Landscapes
Brad Peterson provides environmentally friendly landscape design.

Medex and Medite II are brand-names of formaldehyde-free MDF's. Sierra Pine and Rodman Industries are two companies that sell formaldehyde-free MDF's and particle board.

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