What do you think of my house plans- if I win the lotto?

Question

House is going to be made completely of recyled products and the furniture is going to be made of recyclable milk bottles.

There is going to be solar energy and insulation, too keep me cool in summer and warm in winter. No heating or air conditioning.

I am going to have in my house only recycled products and furniture and items.

I am having organic food and fresh grown fruit and vegetables.

I am going to use only earth friendly cosmetics and cleaning products.

I am going to have free tours through my home to adopt others to take the earth friendly approach.

I know I am dreaming, but it really is my dream.

Answer 1

haha sounds fun.

but the right thing to do would be to recycle the money you win!

Answer 2

Why don't you instead build a straw bale house, and put in brand new triple paned windows that have the best insulative value possible (they have inert gas trapped between the window panes).

Or you could build a rammed earth house, which would help dispose of many, many used tires?

In either house, you can put in a southern facing sun room, that runs the length of the house.  This sunroom can have one long running area to put in plants.  That way you can grow much of your own produce year around, as well as some attractive plants.  This will produce not only food, but a much better air quality inside your house.

The plants in the sunroom can be watered with your grey water...water from your sinks, dishwasher, and washmachine.  This can be plummed in to happen automatically.  You can even plumb it in to be watered and fertilized with your brown water...water from your toilet.  Yes this is all quiet doable, as well as perfectly sanitary, with no oder if done correctly.

You should have radiant heat floors, since this is THE most efficent way to heat your home...from the very floor up.  Your roof should of course be extremely well insulated, and the roofing matterial itself should be metal.  White metal would be best.  It reflects back the hot sun in the summer.  It's very fire resistant if a fire rolls through your are.  It can sluff heavy snow loads easily if this is a problem too.

As for your cosmetics and cleaning products if your house sits on a bit of land, you can keep a couple of dairy goats.  You can easily learn to make your own wonderful soaps and lotions from the goat milk.  If controlled and not allowed to overbreed, goats are very easy on the environment, producing far more, with less land, food, and water than any cow would ever require.

If you are a meat eater, you can easily learn to raise your own meat rabbits, and a few chickens (meat and eggs).  These can both be butchered right on your property, by you, and thereby produce zero transportation or industrial slaughterhouse/factory farming cost to the environment.  Rabbits also produce far more meat, with far less resources than any beef cattle ever could.

Since you are going to have some land, why not have enough so you can grow your own crop, like let's say rapeseed (canola) and produce your very own biofuel right there on your property?  That way you can become totally independant of foreign oil.

You should power your house, via solar, and wind, both of course very green, and earth friendly.  

I'm not sure why you want plastic furniture made from used milk jugs.  Personally, I would have very stury and beautiful wood furniture made by local artizans.  It would be gorgeous and last for many, many generations.  Or you can shop garage sales, and thrift stores and learn to re-fininsh furniture yourself, thereby giving it a second chance at life, and keeping it from going to the dump.

Your house should of course have a HUGE pantry, so you can learn to go grocery shopping only once a year.  Practicing food storage and learning to cook from scratch is one of the very kindest things you could ever do for the environment.

Use ceiling fans to not only help keep you cool, but to move warm air downward in the winter, and keep the house warmer.  LED lights as well as tons of natural light via windows and skylights, or solar tubes is the way to go for lighting.

Free tours through your home?  Nice idea, but I think you'll tire of it really quickly.  It takes 30 feet of carpet (don't have carpet in your house, by the way) to knock the dirt off of a very low tread shoe.  It can take 300 feet of carpet to knock the dirt off deep tread shoes, which many people favor these days.  The dirt from everyones shoes is going to end up all over your home, causing undo wear on your floors.  Not to mention having to keep people from stealing items from you.  

Better to invite some journalist from magazines into your home, for them to do well written articles, and photo layouts.  That will reach millions more people than local tours will.  Open your home once or twice a year for an open house event...otherwise keep your home private, and just allow journalists.

Oh, by the way, I live on a permaculture farm.  We raise meat goats, and meat rabbits, as well as much of our own food in the garden.  We raise rapeseed and make our own biofuel.

We will be building the straw bale house I talked about.  Yes I practice food storage, and cooking from scratch.  I make my own soaps, lotions, butter, yogurt, cheese, ect from my dairy does.  I shop at thrift stores, and garage sales all the time for our furniture.

This summer I got a brass bed from the 1920's for $75 at a thrift store (gorgeous!) as well as a wooden high chair that is over 100 years old (I'm refinishining it).  I don't like plastics, and rarely promote their use, even as recylced products.  

So I'm wondering....why wait until you win the lottery to follow your dreams?  If I had done that, I could still be stuck working a 9-5 job, and renting a duplex.  How very dull my life would be then!  Start to follow your dreams and passions right now...you won't be sorry!  It's not always easy, but the struggle is well worth the effort when you see your dreams coming true.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 3

The problem with reusing really old 35+ years,

lumber with hidden rot. Remanufactured materials are good but just picking up say an old 2x12 that has to support 800 lbs

is a really bad idea and no one makes old lumber testers --

ultrasonic?  X-ray?  Microwave ??  Builders and engineers

pay alot for insurance and I just dumped  a project where the

owner wanted to use 51 year old roof decking and roof had bad leaks for 6 months 10 years ago; and has bad leaks again this year....... Somewhere there's' going to be rot..

Answer 4

i am going to use recycled materials too

ocean shipping containers.

http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/

very cheap.

screws china as then they have to make more.

plus if built right tornado and earthquake proof.

Answer 5

You don't really need to win lotto to do all that .

We have rubbish collection twice a year where people put all items they don't need onto the verge ....wood, bricks,tiles, paints, fencing, metal sheets etc etc. I can do enough rounds and build a dwelling from all these material !

I am already growing my fruits and vegies plus catching my own seafood...fish, crayfish , scallops, mussels, prawns and crabs .Only need a cow  to keep me from shopping for milk !

Got compost bin and worm farms, nothing is wasted in this house !

Answer 6

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Answer 7

Dream on my Dear..........it doesn't hurt anything.