I just recently learned of this contemporary retreat designed by CCS Architecture for an eight-person family. The 2,800 square-foot home sits on a picturesque, 20-acre site nestled about five miles inland from the beach town of Aptos, California. It's a vacation place, which some of you won't think is all that green, but the owners and design team worked to make the $1.8 million project a low-impact one.
I’ve always loved recycled paper countertops and recently noticed ShetkaStone from All Paper Recycling. SketkaStone is made with old paper and can be used in countertops, vanities, sills, and moldings. It will also hold up to use; the manufacturer told me in an email that no other similar product on the market “can match our durability.”
A reader was kind enough to send us listing information on this contemporary home that's located three blocks from Kehena Beach in Hawaii. The home has two masses separated by a breezeway — one side has the living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, while the other side has the master suite and bathroom. It was built to a Built Green 2-Star level of certification and includes some of the following green elements:
Dave Brach, architect of the first Passive House in Utah, and Benchmark Modern, builder of this modern LEED home, are working on a new project in the Salt Lake City area called Zevon. The home, which is under construction right now, is being built – for the most part – to Passive House standards and will seek LEED Platinum certification when completed.
Let’s say you get a lot of floor traffic or you have a kid that jabs Hot Wheels into the ground. Maybe you have a dog that runs in circles, and you want a strong wood floor. You’ll probably look for a high Janka scale rating — a measure of hardness — to find something that will hold up against denting and wear. You might even consider this strand woven floor from Cali Bamboo that the company says received a 5,000+ pound score in recent tests.
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