A Real House From the Shire
I could not help but think of Lord of the Rings when I saw this website. This home is environmentally sound and it does look quite comfortable.
From the list on the website, the owner lists the process they went through to build this amazing home. He/she made sure to carefully chose the site for the home: the side of a small hill. By working with nature, it can help prevent unnecessary remodeling of landscape, erosion and potentially be safer to live in.
The materials for the building and furnishes were also chosen with much consideration. First, he/she looked at dump sites to find old, usable materials. This is a great way to reduce the amount of garbage in landfills and lowers the impact on the earth because new ones are not needed. The owner also chose materials that were from the area, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly.
Since the owner and builder is detail oriented, they also remembered to consider the tools they used to construct the building. He/she (I honestly am not sure about who they are) boasts of using "chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really." Only the chainsaw has obvious negative consequences to the environment but considering the owner used so few things, it can be overlooked.
If you want more information on this home and similar projects they have, go to http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm.
