Your Green Dream Home: First Things To Consider

(Page 6 of 6)

December 2005/January 2006
By Clarke Snell 
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The Paradox of a Good House

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For me, green building isn't about fads, right versus wrong, how things ought to be or how you wish things were. Its about how things are: How you are, how your land is, and how the two can come together.

Yet the true reason most people are drawn to building their own homes is to fulfill a dream that place where you can relax, where all the pieces of your life come together in a harmonious whole.

The paradox of building a good house is that you have to remain grounded in reality while dreaming. To do that, you have to understand and deal honestly with the realities of your situation your skills, your finances, your site conditions, your time constraints, your personal likes and dislikes, your social network while allowing yourself to push the envelope of your perceived limitations. It's the dance between these two poles that ultimately will lead to what will be your good house.

Adapted from The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding (Lark Books).
Clarke Snell entered construction with a clear goal: to build his own good house. Twelve years later, Snell has experience with a variety of conventional and alternative building techniques, and a partially bermed, passive solar home he built in the mountains of western North Carolina. He and his wife, Lisa, plan to live there for the rest of their lives with an array of plants, some cats and tons of ladybugs. Contact Snell through his Web site, www.thinkgreenbuilding.com.
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