Regarding restricted flushing: If it's yellow, be mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.
4
Fascinating story. A 2500 sq ft home in Los Angeles. Cost, obviously not an issue. My area local weekly did a spread on homes in "the jungle", an area of homeless persons. The difference is that the homeless reuse of items that are found nearby. This method is akin to other species in the sea.
3
So, speaking of a "colony of bacteria", how do you clean the floor and the sides of the tub between the tub and the wall? Love the recycling aspect. Question holds for new free standing tubs as well.
7
Interesting house, love the fungal allusions, but as an example of environmental responsibility, it falls flat.
20
The roof of my old Spanish Revival home (50 years old) in Tempe had a terrible leak in 2013, so I hired a roofer who agreed to re-use the terra cotta roofing tiles after replacing the under-tile paper on the roof. I was very concerned about the potential waste and the carbon footprint of replacing the old materials needlessly. It seems the business owner featured in this article had the same instincts. From Mr. Pallrand's webpage: "Furthermore, clay tiles are extremely durable making them an ideal material to be salvaged. A benefit of clay tile is that once installed, they don’t necessitate the repair that asphalt shingles need, which reduces both the demand for more tiles, and waste generated."
Unfortunately my roofers in AZ were incompetent and the new roof leaked for 5 years after they completed their work, for which I unwisely, paid cash. How to select a competent contractor, maybe that's a story for another day. Lucky, I live in the desert :-/
6
clay tile roofs are notoriously hard to build and maintain. they are expensive to install and very expensive to fix. they are heavy, so they must be supported by quite a substaintial building. also, they can be welcome nesting chambers for pests from bees to rats to birds. and the clay tiles can break. otoh, they impart a kind of antiquated charm more suitable to an old building than a new but fake-old one. they are fireproof and not likely to suffer wind damage (unless something blows or falls onto them). personally, unless you have an old tile-roof building, I think they are more an affectation than a practical roof for a new building. all that said,,there are areas where they are still required by code.
6
We restored an old farm house with fantastic material from Habitat for Humanity. It is actually beautiful, built with good grade paint, ceramic tile. shower hardware, doors, and a new window for the bathroom. We even found some fantastic rose bushes and landscaping tools there.
This article is not the run of the mill story about recycling. Buying from a recycling place is an economical blessing for many. Do not cut short the value of Habitat for Humanity by connecting this story and recycling.
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The basics, recycle, conserve water, etc are good principles. However I can’t see any public benefit to one more beautiful project marketed to the wealthy, so they can feel superior. Really, I live in Los Angeles , and I see no shortage of marketing aimed to make wealthy consumers feel that they are spiritually and environmentally aware. I see it as a self indulgent syndrome, somewhat like Marie Antoinette building a cottage in her backyard.
Meanwhile, just north of Los Angeles, a new mega city development is breaking ground in pristine open space of the Tejon Ranch. It is a heartbreaking destruction of nature. The construction of tract homes there will include no recycled construction materials, no greywater systems, no improved public transportation, just profit profit profit for the developers.
Until “visionary” architects such as Mr Pallrand have some effect on real life urban planning, his work is quite useless. Get back to me when he is designing a large scale urban project that recycles blighted neighborhoods into humane communities, and I will admire his work. Recycling a few redwoods for an elite clientele, who then feel they have done their part, well that is actually just another facet of the problem.
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I love the patterns! Especially the wood panels of microscopic plant cross sections in the corner seating area. Neat!
Very much agree that recycling makes sense. (Our house has a reclaimed hardwood floor (used to be a school gym), beams reclaimed from an old barn, and carpeting made from recycled plastics.)
2
And how, exactly, does one clean under the tub?
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@Deborah I suspect that they have people who do those things for them.
Seriously, good design cannot ignore something so basic as this kind if maintenance.
11
1% Green.
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How precious.
17
This is stupid. Printing pictures on pillows and tiles doesn't make anything more organic or at one with nature.
52
Im so happy these people had a million dollars available to they could build a 2500sf home using some recycled redwood, custom created tiles throughout, old cement for the foundation, custom loomed throw pillows, and some solar panels. And, with a get-back-to-nature bacteria theme! How clever! Our grandchildren will be so grateful for the sustainable practices of these folks.
39
please let me know the bargain basement tricks that would result in being able to build 2500' to code in LA for only a million, especially with real plaster walls and loads of labor intensive things like tiling, wood paneling, and even a tile roof. I lived and built there for many years and while people in other areas would faint dead away, a million at that size is starter home territory and probably impossible, even if you already owned the land and used the cheapest, thinnest drywall on all interior surfaces. it would be very hard to build a custom home in LA for any less than about $500 a foot, and the example shown has loads of upscale extras.
6
4 bedroom 3 bath house in suburbia, a collection of 'green'
bits that don't quite go together, whats the point? Looks like an etsy showroom, is this design? or architecture?
28
I apologize in advance, what struck me w hat the novel idea of a glass enclosed wet room! I love it. Soaking in the tub and being warm while the rest of the bathroom outside your sanctuary is usable is wonderful! Excellent idea!!
5
Building a new 4 bedroom house is hardly environmentally responsible no matter how much you spend on recycled redwood cladding. They wanted to build a large custom house with new aesthetically pleasing tiles etc. Fine. Just don't use it as an excuse to lecture other people on their bathing habits. This is hypocritical on so many levels. Real environmental change has to happen on a system wide level. It cannot depend on the upper middle class watering their gardens with grey water. The water saved by the few families who can afford to install these systems is negligible.
41
Love this house. Love the design and colors. I get so bored with all the minimalist house designs and interior decorating. Bravo for thinking carefully about redesign and reuse rather than throw out,
9
This is nice but it’s only marginally “green”. If everyone lived in a fancy 2500 square foot home, regardless of the material sourcing, the world would be taxed beyond capacity. Is this really contributing to the systemic changes we need to build a truly sustainable society?
59
Yes, thank you for pointing this out. I appreciate the reuse and upcycling here, but 2500 square feet and three bathrooms for a family of four (one of whom will likely be leaving in a few years)--really? This is like the housing equivalent of a hybrid SUV.
40
We will be (hopefully) closing on our construction loan next week for a build on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Our floorboards come from a Vanderbilt cottage in CT. Our marble floor tiles come from a retired mason on LI. Our lighting fixtures are from Ebay. Our sinks and toilet are from Craigslist, recycled. Our kitchen sink is from the 'Can you hear it now?' guy's kitchen when he remodeled his home. Our Ethan Allen wicker set for the screened-in porch is from the Restore Store, 8% of original cost. Coffee table hand made by Dad. Kitchen table/chairs, Craigslist. Bed? Auction house, king size 37$, solid oak. Quilts for the beds are made by me. Coffee cups from Goodwill. Carpet for Living room, another house auction. And we've kept track of every penny spent, and every penny saved. It's been a blast.
36
Suggest you take this idea and enlarge it into a blog that tracked your progress, the costs, and the outcome, while comparing it with buying everything new and at cost. Heck, you could even write a how-to book. Lots of people would like to have a template to follow!
16