Yearly Archives: 2013

/2013

Single Mom Builds a Home Out of a Shipping Container

Lulu, a single mom from Southern California, recently went back to school, which prevented her from working full time to pay a market rent. Due to this she was forced to move out of her conventional home, so instead she decided to build for herself and her small daughter a home from a shipping container. She built the home herself with no prior construction experience.

Lulu was given the shipping container for free, and it took her about a month to cut out the windows and doors using a saw. She then installed the needed insulation to which she added bubble wrap to prevent condensation buildup. For the floor and ceiling, she opted for Styrofoam insulation. She also performed some basic plumbing to get running water in the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen is equipped with a propane camp stove and a portable, propane-powered on-demand water heater.

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By |December 18th, 2013|Container Design|5 Comments
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Sustainable Passive Living in Lake Ridge House

The Oregon–based architect Jan Fillinger, founder of Studio-E architecture firm, recently completed a residence for a young family of three near Fern Ridge Lake. The house was build according to Passive House standards and features a number of other sustainable features. The house was built by Six Degrees Construction of Eugene, Oregon. The future owners, Tim Gift and Sarah Peterman wanted a sustainable house that blended well into the surrounding woodlands and offered a minimal footprint.

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By |December 16th, 2013|Green Building|2 Comments
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Net-Zero Living in Equinox House

When their children went off to college, Professor Ty Newell and his wife Deb were faced with the so-called empty nesters problem of finding themselves living alone in a house too big for them. Instead of just buying a smaller home, the couple decided to build Equinox House, a net-zero home located in Illinois. The house was designed and constructed by Ty and his son Ben in 2010.

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By |December 15th, 2013|Energy Efficiency|0 Comments
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Habitat For Humanity’s Westford House Receives LEED Platinum

The non-profit organization Habitat For Humanity has built another super-efficient house, which has received the highest LEED rating, LEED Platinum for homes. The 1,340 square foot, 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom, 1.5-story single family home, called the Westford House, is located in Westford, Massachusetts. The house has an estimated savings of roughly 40% over a similar more traditional home, which come to an estimated $1295 per year. The additional initial investment for making this home so efficient was $10,000.

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By |December 15th, 2013|LEED|0 Comments
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Shipping Container Cabin in the Woods

When Kam Kasravi and Connie Dewitt were faced with the decision on how to build a cabin on their woodland property in the Santa Cruz mountains they first considered buying a prefab house. But after realizing that there simply wasn’t enough room to bring in a prefab house down the narrow forest path that leads to their property, they started considering building the cabin out of recycled shipping containers. They enlisted the help of architect David Fenster of Modulus Architects, who designed for them the modern yet spacious shipping container cabin.

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By |December 12th, 2013|Container Design|13 Comments
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Home That Can be Constructed in Less Than a Minute

JAYZ Building Solutions of Melbourne Australia have come up with an innovative solution for providing modular, prefab homes. They have recently launched the fully transportable InstantSlide house model, which is part of the company’s latest series of SMART2 (Superfast + Modular + Affordable + Robust + Transportable) accommodation buildings. Most of their designs cater to companies wishing to provide temporary housing for their staff on remote locations, such as on mining sites for example, while they also provide single-family modular homes.

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By |December 10th, 2013|MODULAR HOMES|4 Comments
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