The Fallgren strawbale home, recently certified a Net Zero Energy Building through the Living Building Challenge, will be featured on this year’s Green Homes Tour! The tour is Sunday, October 21, 2018 from 10 am – 4 pm at locations all over the county. More info and registration can be found here. *** Update: There are …
Category: General
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Our new net zero strawbale article is published
Our newest article on high-performance strawbale building is out in this month’s Home Power magazine! The article is all about our recent strawbale project that achieved Net Zero Energy Building certification through the Living Building Challenge. This home will be part of the USGBC’s Green Homes Tour on Oct 21, 2018. Here’s a link to …
Trying to building your dream natural home? Make your Guest House your Best House
The idea of living in a high-performance, natural home has been calling to you but you… … haven’t found build-able land where you want to live. … can’t cover the cost of buying land and building a house. … don’t want the hassle and expense of selling and moving. … can’t afford to live in one …
Can construction really be “regenerative”?
At its most basic, construction requires taking a lot of stuff from somewhere and using it to build. It is an inherently destructive and consumptive process: no stuff = no building. Because of this, it is has been hard to imagine truly regenerative construction: building in a way that not only does less harm to our …
Fallgren Strawbale Home receives Net Zero Energy certification through Living Building Challenge
On Jan 3, 2018, the Fallgren Home in Campo, CA, became the second building in Southern California to be awarded “Net Zero Energy Building” status through the Living Building Challenge. This third-party certification is based on actual performance data and verifies that the building uses less energy than it produces annually, as well as meets …
Why are houses in San Diego so unaffordable?
On average in San Diego, it will cost about $500k for an existing house with land or about $200k for land plus $300k for a new house to be built on it: either way it’s a pretty steep climb for many of us. Wondering why you can’t find an affordable home to buy in San …
Edible San Diego strawbale article now online
In case you missed it back in June, here is the article published in Edible San Diego magazine:
Exciting new rules about “guest houses” in San Diego!
Whether you call them guest houses, granny flats, or second dwelling units, there’s some exciting news about them! New legislation passed in CA lifts some of the restrictions around these units, which are now all called Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Two of the most exciting features of the new rules, which went into effect on …
KPBS features us in a story on strawbale building
Our local public broadcasting station came to our current project at Coral Tree Farm to interview us and learn more about strawbale building. Here’s a link to the story they produced: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/aug/08/straw-bale-homes-san-diego-are-not-just-three-litt/ And in case you are a tickled by the Little Pigs reference, make sure the read the Story of the Fourth Little …
Workshops for the tiny strawbale building for Coral Tree Farm
We’re excited to be making progress on the 120 sq foot turmeric growing building for Coral Tree Farm. We held three wonderful workshops already (framing, straw bales, and clay base plaster) and are looking forward to the Finish Clay Plaster workshop on 8/12. As of 8/8, there is only one spot left in the finish clay …