Your home IS more than where you hang your hat.  Because we realize this, we've compiled a list of links to help you realize your dream home from the bottom up.

Selecting & Building

• Finding the "best place" to move to has an order: and the folks at Cooperative Design have a plethora of tools to help you do just that.  Tools for moving to the country and building a new house; free from Cooperative Design. Fun and informative!

• The BEST House Plans In America! According to Oklahoma Home Builders-

Bill Perry Plans are the most Unique & Cost Efficient Designs.  You can view several floor plans.
 
• Creations West House Plans - because even the best dreams need a plan.

 
• Sunlight Homes build and design their houses with the knowlege and inspiration from Christopher Alexander's book, A Pattern Language.  The home design "patterns" described in this book are nothing short of profound and brilliant. How do you design a home so that it feels comfortable? These simple patterns make a big difference.


Sunlight homes designs their homes to utilize the sun and your natural environment; to enhance your comfort and pleasure, whileprotecting our natural resources. There are Sunlight homes from  coast to coast, in many climate zones and we use specific design strategies to maximize day lighting, natural heating and cooling in all of them.
 

• House and Floor Plans by G. S. Homes.  Several different styles you can look at, including colonial, traditional, one and two story, log homes, Dallas style and ranch/victorian.

 
• Welcome to the LogHome.Net's ... "Log Home Floor Plans"   Browse and print out these

 log home plans at your leisure.  These plans are only a small sample of what these great
 log home companies have to offer.

• An earthship house is made up of rammed earth and tires. The tires are stacked (staggered) like bricks. Each tire has earth pounded into them until firmly packed. Once the tires are packed, they are very difficult to move and form quite a dense wall.

 
• Hand sculpt your own Cob cottage.  The word cob comes from an Old English root meaning "a lump or rounded mass". It's a traditional building technique using hand formed lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw. Cob is easy to learn and inexpensive to  build. It dries to a hardness similar to lean concrete and is used like adobe to create self supporting, load bearing walls. Cob has been used for centuries throughout Western Europe, even in rainy and windy climates, as far north as the latitude of Alaska.

 
• For a host of information regarding stacked cordwood building check out the Cordwood Housing site.  Cordwood masonry is an old building technique whereby walls are constructed of short logs laid up  widthwise in the wall within a special mortar matrix.  The wall derives excellent insulation and thermal mass characteristics from insulation sandwiched between the inner and outer mortar joints. Cordwood houses are low in cost, use indigenous materials, and are easy and fun to build. (Looks like work to me - but one man's work is another man's fun?)

 
• If you've ever wondered about straw bale house construction, House of Straw - Straw Bale Construction Comes of Age is a very comprehensive site on the subject.  Pictures of actual homes - historical and modern, instructions, charts comparing costs, R values; you name it, it's here.  All from the folks at the U. S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  Americans want comfortable, attractive, functional, and durable housing. Yet, many increasingly find high quality housing beyond their means. Conventional building methods rely

on plentiful resources. With some of these resources dwindling, housing costs are sky rocketing. The cost of a home includes materials, construction, financing, taxes, energy consumption, and insurance. This booklet explores recent attempts to reduce those costs. Construction techniques discussed in this booklet focus on building resource efficient and energy conserving homes, without sacrificing affordability or quality.
 
• Another comprehensive fact sheet from the U. S. Department of Energy concerning Earth Sheltered Homes.  If you do your homework, earth sheltered construction can be an attractive and rewarding choice in housing. The sections discussing Advantages, Disadvantages, Beginning Your Project, and Cost will answer some questions you may have. Once you've decided on an earth sheltered house, the sections on Design, Construction Considerations, including location, climate, site, and soils, and Construction Materials can help you make the house a reality.

• North Dakota Manufactured Housing Association - A wealth of information about what to look for, what to avoid, how to finance and where to buy a manufactured home.  The list of manufacturers is a good place to start looking for floor plans of mobile/manufactured homes.

• Manufactured Homes Direct -  Several manufactures have their floor plans listed here for you viewing.  You can also fill out a form to recieve further information on the mobile/manufactured home you're interested in.

• When you want something done right.  Do-it-yourself.com  If you can't find it here, it just can't be done!

• Let the folks at hardware.com help you out with their growing project library.  There's a little bit of everything here: Ceilings, walls, floors, electrical, exterior maintenance, kitchen and bath, paint and wallpaper, plumbing, windows and doors, insulate and weatherize, general.

 
• Michael Holigan's How To Library A keyword searchable, comprehensive site that consists of scripts from Michael Holigan's how-to show, along with shopping  links for supplies and project plans.
• Home Maintenance and Repair Advice and tips on hundreds of home maintenance and repair topics from the Michigan State University Extension Service.  Topics arranged alphabetically or you can search by typing in your keyword.

 

• Color plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes,

raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. Find out more about how color affects us at: Color Matters.
 
• You may also be interested in Herman Miller's research on how the colors of rooms affect us.  Designed for the workplace but still useful and interesting.

 
• The syndicated column The Home Doctor is now a most useful web site!  Here you can find information on a wide variety of home topics including: Allergy & Health Appliances, Bugs & critters, Electrical, Energy Savings, Heating & Cooling, Plumbing, Remodeling & Repair, Plaster & Sheet rock, Plumbing, Remodeling & Repair, Safety & Security, Tools & Gadgets - you can even Ask the Home Doctor a question if you have a question that hasn't already been addressed on the site.

Lawns, Gardens & Outside Things
 

• Thinking about . . . . The Effort ?  The Money ?  The Decisions ?  that went into the last time you painted your home? Does the memory send a shiver down your spine ?  Relax !

Let PANDITJI guide you through the rituals and with his blessings you will be able to create your own magic with colors & textures.  This site, while in english is from India so some of the translations are a tiny bit funky, but the information here is interesting and useful.
 
• Traditional Gardening A journal of practical information on creating and restoring

 classic gardens
 
• Wise Water-Use Landscape How to plan and design an attractive, useful and

water efficient landscape