We don't call it an environmental house, because it's about people too.  If we only cared about the environment, we'd live in a tent.  Instead, it's about reducing environmental impact and getting a better house in the process, and that's why we call it The Sensible House.

Each project was documented from start to finish as it proceeded.  In addition there are performance notes, and a virtual tour.

For those interesting in more of the people versus planet tradeoffs, sustainability and other thoughts on what Green Building means to us, should read the Philosophy section. This was written before we built anything.

Since green building is a relatively new aspect of a field that has traditionally been slow to change, we don't expect we will make all the right decisions.  Some may even argue that we haven't used the right principles.  Our goal isn't to be perfect, but rather to be part of the baseline that future sensible builders can learn from.

If your unfamiliar with "green building" or  "sustainability", everything you need to know is in  the theory section.

Seattle Home, built 2004

In Origins we describe our motivation for the project.
In Design we document all our design decisions.
In Construction we describe what we actually built.
In Epilog we give our on-going thoughts & performance data about the house since we moved in.
To find out who worked on this project, click here.

For a summary of the green features,  see what's different.
To see pictures, take a Virtual Tour of the house.

California Central Coast Cabin

In Origins we describe the beginning of this project
In Design we document all our design decisions  -- TBA winter 2007/2008
In Construction we describe what we actually built. -- TBA winter 2008/2009
In Epilog we give our on-going thoughts  --TBA 2009 sometime
To find out who worked on the project, click here  -- TBA winter 2007/2008

To see pictures, take a Virtual Tour of the house.  -- TBA winter 2008/2009