I’ve got real estate on my mind these days. I just hired a realtor to help me sell my townhome (hopefully not for a loss; I will be happy to break even!) and I’m looking for a new place to buy.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a ton of places that meet my (long list of) requirements. One idea that has really intrigued me, though, is buying a plot of land, as opposed to buying a pre-existing home.
This is old news, but Dwell Magazine (do you guys read this? It’s one of my favorite publications) announced a few years ago their line of pre-fab homes. According to Wikipedia, a pre-fabricated home is manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled. They are generally earth friendly - typically incorporating sustainable materials and energy efficient design. The techniques used are designed to reduce waste and improve manufacturing & construction efficiencies.
I’m totally in love with the idea of getting a pre-fab home - it’s too bad that land in the Bay Area is not only scarce but expensive. However, I’d love to know if any of you have ever thought about pre-fab homes for yourself, or better yet, if you’ve taken the plunge and gotten one?
Anyone interested in going to Dwell on Design? It happens June 5-8 at the LA Convention Center, and includes an exhibition of 200 exhibitors, a Speakers Conference of 50 speakers, and full size Sustainable Pre-Fab Neighborhood built on site, as well as 16 Home Tours of private green residences and evening parties at the Dwell Ford Brady (www.fordbrady.com) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (www.MoCA.org).
We were contacted by the good people at Dwell, (or their people, anyway) and have some free tickets to the exhibition, discounted conference tickets, and access to a free electronic issue of the magazine. Enjoy!
Codes and Links:
- Registration Link http://www.dwell.com/peopleplaces/conferences/17691009.html
- Free Ticket To the Dwell on Design Exhibition: BDODEC
- Discounted Conference Ticket ($50 Off): GRP22SP
- Digital Issue of Dwell Magazine: http://www.zinio.com/delivery?issn=1530-5309&of=PHoneissue
Did you know you can build a house out of straw? Yeah, I didn’t either until someone at work decided to build one. But apparently it’s an age old building technique which is surprisingly relevant today. Some benefits of building using strawbale, including:
- Cost of materials - a 2000 sq. ft home requires about 300 ‘3 wire’ bales of straw, and cost only about $1000.
- Strawbale is a renewable resource, and helps lessen our reliance on wood.
- Strawbale houses are extremely well insulated, and are highly efficient
According to the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Program website,
Properly constructed and maintained, the straw-bale walls, stucco exterior and plaster interior remain water proof, fire resistant, and pest free. Because only limited skill is required, a community house-raising effort can build most of a straw-bale house in a single day. This effort yields a low-cost, elegant, and energy-efficient living space for the owners, a graceful addition to the community, and a desirable boost to local farm income.
There are a variety of ways to build these houses, including adding strawbale in addition to a wood frame, or using the strawbale as load bearing walls - you just use rebar or something like that to hold the bales in place.
If you’d like to learn more about this, I’d recommend checking out the DOE’s great site, which has some background, some fascinating case studies, as well as information about other energy saving building techniques.
Want to learn how you can make your house green? Or how you can start a green business? West Coast Green is having it’s big show coming up this September 20th-22nd, in San Francisco.
They say, “West Coast Green is a feast of innovations, ideas and opportunities designed to expand your business, widen your vision, and stimulate your thinking with the latest, best practices and key players in green building.”
If you want passes to the whole event, you’ll need to shell out $450 bucks or so, but a day pass to the Saturday “Homeowners Day” is only $25. See ya’ll there!
In my previous post, I mentioned that McKinsey noted how important energy efficiency in your house is. Well, if you’ve taken that guidance to heart, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy have a 
