Category Archives: Homes & Green Homes

Green homes are a passion of my husband’s and I get involved too. See our About Us page for a couple of his websites, one a general one on green home building and the other focused specifically on earthbag building.

Here on this website, I write about earthbag building and about living in a green home, things like tiny homes, the meaning of Energy Star appliances, and books on alternative homes such as the marvelous Lloyd Kahn books. We are in two of his books…first, we were in his original Shelter which came out in the 70s and showed us as young hippies living in a remodeled bus by the ocean in California. Much more recently, his Home Work included our earthbag house in Colorado… That link is to my article about the book here on this website.

Green homes do not have to be massively expensive. In fact, the tiny homes movement is showing that people can be very happy living in such small spaces that their overhead costs are very low. Also, remodeling older homes is another way to go. That’s what we are currently doing with the 1940s New Mexico adobe house we bought last year.

Hot, Dry, and Smoky: Ways to Cope with Summer in the Southwest

It can be hot, dry, and smoky during the summers here in the Southwestern United States. Sometimes it’s just hot and dry. Other times it’s smoky from distant forest fires until the wind changes. So on a regular basis here, you have to deal with heat, very low relative humidity, and smoke… in varying combinations. (This article isn’t about coping with fire so close that you may have to leave.) What can you do? Quite a lot, it turns out. Here are tips to help you endure the worst of summer and still enjoy the best of it. The dry … Continue reading →

Kelly’s Tiny Earthbag Dome

This video is about a small earthbag dome that my husband Kelly built early in 2015, on a small piece of land we have in the New Mexico desert. The dome is 8 feet in diameter, and he built it while we were roaming around NM in our motorhome,with our home base still Colorado. He explains what he was doing in the video… It was shot some time later by a couple who have a lot of videos up on youTube. We enjoyed them and the kids! Updated: Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Continue reading →

The Tiny House Summit Going On Now, Complete with My Husband!

The 2017 Tiny House Summit is an online program going on for the next few days, and that link takes you to their homepage. Over 40 people who are involved with tiny houses and small-scale living are doing presentations. My husband, Kelly Hart, is one of them. If you go there during this week, each day you can watch a bunch of the presentations for free. Here is what they offer. I had to ask Kelly what skoolies are… they are school bus conversions. (Kelly was living in one when we met and I moved in with him.) Presentations about … Continue reading →

Best Portable Space Heaters to Keep You Warm

There are many times when a portable space heater is a good choice for staying warm. You may be concerned about your heating bill or you may want to just heat where you are, not your whole home. In our home office we have small electric space heaters near our desks for when we are sitting there. The newer portable heaters tend to have some great temperature control and safety features… If you are using older models, you might want to upgrade. In a hurry? These two heaters, at different price points, are highly regarded in many places online: Lasko 754200 Ceramic … Continue reading →

How to Find and Get the Best Solar Panels for 2016

What are the best solar panels for 2016, and is now a good time to install solar panels on your roof? These questions have been on my mind for a blog post here. Having some measure of independence from the power grid has seemed more important to me ever since I read Ted Koppel’s book Lights Out, which spells out how vulnerable the aged US power grid is. (That link goes to my review of the book here on this site.) My husband Kelly has installed solar panels on three of the homes we’ve had, so I’m familiar with many of … Continue reading →

Want One of The Best Fireproof Home Safes?

What I’m looking for is a safe that will offer the best fire protection for a bunch of documents and a few things without costing a huge amount. Here you will find the results of my quest for the best fireproof home safes, and I’m a librarian by background so I tend to go overboard on research! There are further ways to protect your documents that I hadn’t heard of before, such as fire chests and fire resistant document bags that I’ll explain further down. If you are in a hurry, head over to Amazon.com to look at the or the … Continue reading →

Does Insulating Paint Work? Not for Us!

Insulating paint, also called ceramic insulation paint, is said to add insulation to the exterior walls of a house. You just paint it on! But does it work? How much insulation does it really add? Those are the questions at our adobe house as we contemplate the aged stucco exterior which definitely needs improvement. My husband Kelly brought up the idea of insulating paint, so I volunteered to do some research. Our house is a 1940s house, a fairly typical New Mexico adobe home, which we bought half a year ago. People often think that an adobe house would be warm in winter … Continue reading →

Earthbag Building Books

There’s an information explosion going on, about earthbag building! When we built our earthbag house over fifteen years ago, there was almost no information in print. My husband Kelly Hart is part of the trend, with his website earthbagbuilding.com and the book he wrote recently. On this page I’ll draw on my background as a librarian to describe the books available. In a nutshell, earthbags are what you might think of as sandbags, polypropylene bags often filled with rice and other foods. To build with them, you fill them with earth from the site or with other materials, and you put down a row … Continue reading →

Staying Cool in a Hot Summer

Is there a contradiction between advocating simple living and writing about cheap backyard swimming pools? If it’s hot–which it is in plenty of places in summer–then an inexpensive plastic pool can save you a lot of gas and time if you have kids at home. I considered the under-$100 version for Kelly and me, but we came up with an easier solution. We are keeping our hot tub at about 85 degrees. It’s been way too hot to even think of a nice hot soak, so this is working great. If you did get a pool, once it wore out–which happens … Continue reading →

Earthbag Building is Taking Off!

In January my husband Kelly flew to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a couple weeks. Vacation basking in the sun? Not hardly. He was there to consult and train on an earthbag demo home going in. His accommodations were conveniently located — he stayed in the motorhome you see just behind the project. You can see a lot of photos of the Puerto Vallarta earthbag project, and read Kelly’s comments at the link. He was invited by Mike Parker, an American who lives there and has a site called Children of the Dump. All over the planet, earthbag building is becoming … Continue reading →

Clothesline or Dryer?

When my husband and I lived in Mexico, in a little cabin that we bought, we had a 25-year-old washing machine which worked great and didn’t mind the vagaries of our electric current there. We dried our clothes on clotheslines. At the start of our second rainy season I muttered something about getting a clothes dryer and Kelly responded by putting a roof over a walkway behind the house and adding more clotheslines. Worked fine. Now we are back in Colorado, and our house came with a relatively new washer and gas dryer. Kelly plans to continue drying his clothes on a line he … Continue reading →

When Off the Grid Is Not Green

My husband and I recently watched a television documentary about a couple who set out to live off the grid. The whole thing had us shaking our heads in disbelief throughout the program. They were going on about how much they would save in future years on their electric bills, but it was evident that they were continuing their urban-focused lifestyle, for his career and their children’s dancing and soccer dates at least. What they would save in electricity they would more than make up in transportation costs, gasoline and more than one vehicle and all the rest. How green … Continue reading →

Low Energy Ways to Stay Warm

We’re heading into the cold months now, and staying warm becomes at times a challenge and even at times a preoccupation. Here are some tips for staying warmer, first in by what you wear and then by what you do around your home. Warm Clothing The concept of wearing layers is well-known. On top, wearing an undershirt or camisole, then a long-sleeved t-shirt or turtleneck, then a sweatshirt or heavy wool shirt should do a good job of keeping you warm indoors. I sometimes throw a large sweater over all of that, or a warm bathrobe. Cotton or silk long … Continue reading →

Save Water

There are many free and inexpensive ways to save water at home. The most important thing is to develop the habit of being water conscious. If you do that, you will notice ways that you can cut back on water usage. Here are some ideas for saving water inside your home. Saving Water in the Bathroom Keep a small bucket in the bathroom. When you start the water running for a shower, put the bucket underneath where the cold, clean water comes out. This water can be used for pets’ drinking water, for watering house plants, and for numerous uses … Continue reading →

Good Ol’ Mother Earth News

I’ve just been reading the current issue of the Mother Earth News, and while its downhome ultra-folksy style has been modified a bit over the years, it is still the same magazine I have loved for decades. Hadn’t read one for a while, though. I read this one because a friend of ours, Owen Geiger, has an article in it titled Low-cost Multipurpose Minibuilding Made with Earthbags. The article mentions that more could be found on their website, and here is the link to that article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Earthbag-Building-Garden-Shed.aspx But the whole Mother Earth News website amazed and delighted me. It seems … Continue reading →

Baking Soda for Cleaning Your House

Baking soda is a common, inexpensive household item that can be used for many kinds of cleaning projects. In an era when we are all exposed to many toxic chemicals, it’s nice to know that something so mild can be effective. We actually make a form of baking soda in our own saliva, where it helps keep plaque from forming! Here are some of the uses of baking soda for cleaning: I’ve long used baking soda and white vinegar to keep my kitchen and bathroom drains clear and fresh smelling. I just put a teaspoon or less of baking soda … Continue reading →

The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome, by John Wasik

“Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream” is the subtitle of which my husband and I have just been reading. Kelly’s green home building blog has a long review of it, so I just want to reflect on one of its themes. I pretty much missed the macmansioning of America. Sure, I would see the big castles when driving around the US, but in the last couple of decades I’ve lived mainly in an old neighborhood of a city (Olympia, Washington), in an unusual small town in rural Colorado (Crestone, home of numerous spritual centers of all faiths), and in Mexico. … Continue reading →

Small Houses and Plans for Them

Kelly and I currently live in a very small house and we have discovered that there are many advantages. Of course, it cost less to buy, and it uses less in the way of utilities. To our surprise, after decades of having separate offices, we are enjoying working in different parts of the same room, separated by a huge bookcase so we aren’t breathing down each other’s necks but we can quickly discuss something. (I’m the software geek, he’s the natural building expert). Our friend Owen Geiger has been designing small houses, Kelly has recently been putting some of the … Continue reading →

The Cheap-Ass Curmudgeon’s Guide to Dirt (Building, That Is)

The Cheap-Ass Curmudgeon’s Guide to Dirt: Hand-Building with Adobe, Papercrete, Paper-Adobe, and More, by Michael Van Hall, is a delight. This downloadable ebook will take you through the steps to make your own simple dirt structure. He doesn’t go into all the details of how to build a house, as he points out that you can find that information everywhere. This 100-page ebook focuses on… as you might guess from the cover… dirt. With close to 100 photographs and numerous drawings, the book is a relatively quick and very enjoyable read. It will motivate you even if you already are … Continue reading →

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter – Great Idea Book for Green Building

, by Lloyd Kahn, is a large paperback filled with two-page spreads of a wide variety of interesting homes from around the world. The earthbag-papercrete house that we built in Colorado is on pages 88 and 89, so of course I’m always pulling our copy out to show it to guests. And usually they starting browsing the pages. The book is full of amazing and outrageous designs and buildings, but I’m sure that many people have adapted these ideas less dramatically. Whatever your interest in natural building, this is a great book to have around. But watch out – your … Continue reading →

Should You Buy Energy-Efficient Appliances?

Can you save enough money or power to bother with by replacing your older appliances with newer energy-efficient versions? After all, no large appliances are all that cheap, so there will be your out-of-pocket cost right away. If you are starting from scratch and building a new home or doing a major remodel, then it makes sense to choose the most energy-efficient appliances you can. But what about for the rest of us? The US government provides consumers with a lot of information, and one estimate I picked up from them is that the average family can save about $75 … Continue reading →

Earthbag Building

My husband Kelly and our close friend Peter Rice, with some help from me, built an earthbag home in Crestone, Colorado. We used thousands of bags meant to hold rice but they had been misprinted and we got them as seconds. Into them we put scoria — small volcanic rocks commonly used on lawns in dry climates. They are great insulation. We plastered the house, inside and out, with papercrete, which consisted of recycled newspapers, junk mail, water, and a small amount of cement. The house has a wonderful handmade quality. Here’s a page on the earthbag building site that Kelly runs … Continue reading →

Simple Green Living

With Rosana Hart