Singapore Garden Festival 2014

“Have you ever imagined what 18,000 orchids in one place would look like?”

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That idea was enough for us… and yet it was only one highlight of our trip to the Singapore Garden Festival. What an inspiring day! Continue reading

Relax in a jungle bathroom!

One of the best luxuries is a fantastic bathroom. If any hotel, mall, rented room, or suburban home has a surprisingly awesome bathroom that makes you go “ooh!”, somehow the whole place seems fancier. So how about creating a green bathroom – literally – in your own private jungle?

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What can a cat teach us about heating and cooling our homes?

Romeo in the Sun

This looks like a nice warm spot for Romeo.

Imagine it is a cool winters day. The sun is shining, but, our cat, Romeo is rather cold. Where does he go? He finds a nice spot in the sun. This is the simplest aspect of heating your house with the sun. You might say it is rather obvious but houses really aren’t designed to make the most use of this simple idea.Romeo is Cold

 

One of the latest books we have read in our quest for knowledge has been “The Solar House” by Daniel Chiras, about ‘passive solar’ heating and cooling. If you don’t know what a ‘passive solar‘ house is don’t worry because you aren’t alone. It is a term that is relatively new to us but if you are looking to design or build a house, some day, it is something worth knowing about. Continue reading

We want a tiny house!

One thing we have been thinking about is where we would like to live when we decide to settle down. The tricky thing is that you don’t know what it’s like living somewhere until you’ve actually lived there. We don’t want to buy a piece of land in a nice little town, only to find out that the community isn’t quite what we had hoped.

Our friend, Gabriel Williams of Molecule Tiny Homes, in California has a solution – build a TINY HOUSE!

from Molecule Tiny Homes

What is a tiny house?

A tiny house is just that – a very small house. They usually contain everything a couple or small family would need; a place to sleep, a kitchen and a bathroom. They are so small that they are often built on a flatbed trailer, giving them the added benefit of mobility. Continue reading