FreeGreen, an online source for green house plans, recently announced a strategic pivot to make homes better and cheaper. The company wants to give homeowners the opportunity to save money by helping them get involved in some of the finish work. FreeGreen has a DIY series of house plans, and the first design — the DIY Shed — isn’t value engineered to meet a budget. It’s designed so that certain portions can be finished by the homeowners themselves.
FreeGreen, a provider of free and premium green house plans, recently unveiled a new premium plan called Loop House. The modern design features a two-story rectangle covered in fiber cement panels with a loop of cedar that creates a covered porch space. It’s easy to envision using this space in several ways — watching movies, gathering around a fire pit, and relaxing with friends.
Recently FreeGreen launched a contest for designers to create an affordable, contemporary, green home. Seeking to redesign single-family living in less than 1,800 square feet, designers could opt to design a starter or empty nest home, or both. After receiving +400 entries, the field has been chopped to 12 finalists with public voting now open through April 5, 2010. The winner will receive $5,000 and other opportunities with FreeGreen. Check out the top 12 (click the text link above the photo for more info), and tell us your favorite in the comments
This is the question: What do you consider to be the single most important factor in determining if a home is ‘green?’
According to the results of a study performed by Synovate and commissioned by FreeGreen (the semi-free house plan provider that’s designed Tiny Houses, Smart Boxes, View Boxes, and more), American homeowners collectively feel that in terms of a home’s greenness, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly materials rank higher on the list than healthy materials and location. Here’s how homeowners answered:
This month, (not so) Free Green added a payment structure to some of their offerings, but can you blame them? They’re providing high-quality home design for next to nothing! And with the roll out of this new structure, Free Green also introduced some tiny house plans that look pretty slick. You’re going to have to pay $19.95 / year to get the details, but here’s what we know. The tiny houses will be net zero energy homes with about 525 square feet of space and a bedroom and bathroom. Tell us which is your favorite:
This is the View Box green home plan by FreeGreen, a company we mentioned earlier with a similar house plan called the Smart Box. Since we mentioned the Smart Box in May 2008, FreeGreen has been tearing it up with new green plans of all sorts of styles. But not only are they expanding their selection of in-house plans, they’re also on Twitter and Allison Arieff gave them a NY Times shout out about a week ago. Things are going well …
