Ben Zaricor collects American history and identity, in fabric form. He owns one flag that has not just been to the moon—it was “postmarked” on the lunar surface with tire tracks. He owns two banners that flew on the presidential limousine on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Most impressive, he owns a stunning array of flags from the days when the 13 states were represented by that same number of stars. And each banner has rich meaning. Call it historical texture.

Over the course of more than 40 years, Zaricor has amassed the largest and deepest collection of American flags, and flag memorabilia, in the country, maybe in the world. David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s in New York, calls it nothing less than “one of the most extraordinary private collections ever put together.” Zaricor buys these swaths of emblematic fabric, and authenticates them, and exhibits them, for reasons more intense than the average collector’s motivation. While every flag tells a story, all of his American flags collectively tell the American story.

“They help us understand our country,” says Zaricor, 66, the former CEO of Good Earth Tea. “They contribute so much richness. We do have a very diverse culture, but at the end of the day, people don’t have to agree on any central point about the flag. It has such a commonality and meaning that individuals can tell their own stories. What I’m collecting is old pieces of cloth, but they’re stories, something meaningful to someone else.”

The core of the collection comprises Zaricor’s eight 13-star flags from the very earliest days of both the banner and the country—and by that he’s talking circa 1777. Many are homemade. As he has written, few Americans realize the flag has been from the outset a statement made by individuals, not the government, “something we use in our everyday lives to express ourselves and our political freedoms. Our flag tells a story of diverse ideas, cultures, personalities, races, and political persuasions,” he says. “It is a story of both differences and unity.”

Redden of Sotheby’s says flags are valuable and collectible for a number of reasons: “You have flags that have evolved over time, and you have flags that represent the early stage of the flag, but I’m more interested in flags that have a fantastic history, where the flag has true power and resonance, recognition that it was a significant part of a historical event—that’s when a flag is extremely valuable.”

“When you talk about provenance and so on, you’re really talking about a flag that tells a story,” Redden adds. “Stories are the best part of these kinds of historical objects. Ben has been very focused on his collection; he is one of these people who tries to get as much information as he can get. He works with academics and understands flags very well.”

The stars and stripes have been static for so long, since Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959, that it is easy to forget “flag collector” does not connote an investor in endless iterations of the standard 50/13 graphic representation. Zaricor owns flags from the Betsy Ross era and from the Civil War years, too; he even owns an American flag made in Belgium during the Nazi occupation—its maker anticipating the Allied liberation. And the longer Zaricor has been a vexillologist, as a flag authority is called, the more his views and understanding have evolved. He can look at an 1844 drawing of a slave lashed to a flagpole bearing a flag with 12 white and 14 black stars and see a lesson in the American condition: The country was built by slave labor and nearly dissolved over the same issue during and after the Civil War.

In an essay in a book devoted largely to Zaricor’s collection, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord & Conflict, Washington University English professor Wayne Fields wrote: “It is tremendously important to go back and look at photographs of domestic strife, domestic demonstrations in every generation, to see that the flag is always there. That the suffragettes are waving it at the beginning of the century, that it leads the demonstrations at Selma and at Montgomery, that there is a constant effort to claim it in its fullest and most inclusive terms by people who have often been excluded in every other statement of who we are.”

In fact, Zaricor traces his fascination with flags to an incident in 1969, when the Memphis native was attending Washington University in St. Louis and saw a hippie beaten simply for wearing a flag insignia in a bar. The indelible scene he witnessed made him realize the power of the emblem. “I was interested in the power of a brand, a brand that had such power that not only were people willing to die for it, they were willing to kill for it,” Zaricor says. “We talk in a noble way about how to save the flag of our country and then really feel proud of ourselves if we kill someone. It made me question the whole idea of patriotism.”

In the beginning Zaricor collected flags from other countries—he and his wife, Louise Veninga, once knocked on a door in the Netherlands and managed despite language difficulties to walk away with a Dutch banner. But by his 25th flag he had come around to the red, white, and blue way of thinking. “The idea of having a flag story is comparable to talking about the weather,” Zaricor says. “Not to downplay it, but you get on the elevator and see a stranger and everyone talks about the weather—it gives people the commonality to talk, and talk in a nonemotional way. That tends to be counterintuitive with flags: You don’t consider what it is you’re collecting; what you’re collecting is the story.”

y now he has easily 3,800 stories in fabric form. Asked how he acquires them, Zaricor responds: “I find them in every way possible you can imagine, from looking for them to not looking for them.” He tilts mystical in conversation, convinced that serendipity plays a huge part. “All along over the last 40 years I’ve somehow come across these flags, possibly by accident or possibly by design.” He buys many at auction, which is how he came into possession of the flag from the moon, which astronaut Alan Shepard “postmarked” with the treads of a lunar vehicle. “As soon as I bought it someone offered me three times what I paid,” he recalls. “Someone put the price close to a million. Is it worth $380,000? I don’t know. It’s sexier than a flag patch [from an astronaut’s uniform], and I’ve got several of those.”

Zaricor will not discuss the value of his collection or how much he has invested in it. But to put it in context, about 10 years ago Zaricor consulted on an auction run by Redden at Sotheby’s, where four Revolutionary War flags sold for $19 million. In the past 20 years, Zaricor has also moved beyond collecting one flag at a time to seeking out full collections. So far he has bought seven museum collections and 11 personal collections, “so I can understand flags in a different way than as a single artifact,” he says.

Zaricor and his wife, who live in Santa Cruz, Calif., keep their own collection in an art storage facility with humidity and temperature tightly controlled. But he still feels as though they live with them, because they are always working on the collection. His main job now is research: About 1,000 flags have been documented, along with a number of quilts with flag themes that his wife has collected. He also has amassed at least 30,000 photographs of flags, which can be used to authenticate histories.

In the last couple of years Zaricor has worked with a software designer to create a program to manage the collection; it documents and tracks flags as they move in and out on exhibit or loan. And he has shown them often, in major exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Presidio in San Francisco, and other museums. Still, they are easiest to see on his web site, www.flagcollection.com, which has images and background on most of the elements.

Among the highlights of his collection, Zaricor singles out a stained and battle-damaged flag from the USS Arizona: “It has a richness to it that would make it even more important if people could understand what this flag has been through, what it took to survive from the 7th of December until now. The hands that have touched it to keep it going, what’s going to happen to it. Collectors tend to be very good custodians of items.”

He is also proud of the collection he bought from a small museum near Fort McHenry, the site that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and a flag from the Fourth Louisiana Militia that represents a major unit formed by the U.S. Army as it was getting ready for the Civil War. But there is a magic to the entire collection that cannot be captured by its individual stars.

“It really does talk about us as a people, our national character, but in a way that is so abstract,” Zaricor says. “We all recognize things about this national character we have as Americans because it’s important. I’m hoping this can build national attention to help us understand ourselves as a country.”

Ola Gaute Aas Askheim, an Oslo marketing consultant, realized that the backyard of his house, in the city’s exclusive Holmenkollen neighborhood, was a blank slate for a new way of living.
He decided in 2010 to sell off his 3,874-square-foot 1930s villa and part of the original lot and use proceeds to finance his dream home on the remaining land.

Today, he has a new, smaller three-level structure with dramatic views of the Oslo Fiord and light pouring in from four exposures. The 2,303-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom house also has a soundproof music room for letting loose on his electric guitar, and a winter garden for growing tomatoes and citrus fruits.

The whole house has custom, nearly invisible storage spaces and a discreet 430-square-foot, one-bedroom rental apartment at the garage level for income.

Mr. Askheim moved in January.
The home cost $1.61 million to design and build. In 2013, he sold his old house for 14 million Norwegian kroner, or $2.3 million. Mr. Askheim had bought the property in 2005 for $1.3 million and invested about $294,000 in renovations.
Starting in the summer of 2010, Mr. Askheim worked with Knut Hjeltnes —a local architect and childhood friend—to create what the owner likes to call “an honest house” with as few materials as possible.
“I told Knut that I like glass, oak, concrete and Cor-Ten steel,” says Mr. Askheim, a 53-year-old senior consultant at Opinion AS, an Oslo-based market-research company and a professor of marketing at Oslo’s Westerdals School of Communication. He asked neighbors their opinion on the suitability of his new home’s design.

The living room and dining area on the home’s top floor have oak-lined interiors, in contrast to the industrial look of the double-sided Cor-Ten fireplace. A south-facing glass wall lets in the sun through the day. Select sections of entryway floors are concrete, a low-maintenance choice that took into consideration Mr. Askheim’s 5-year-old pet Weimaraner, Leo, who often comes home wet and muddy after playing outside.

The house’s standout material isn’t something Mr. Askheim had requested, or even had known about beforehand: aerogel. It is a high-tech, lightweight, glasslike substance used in everything from structural insulation to tennis rackets that is finding its way into homes. The architect integrated translucent aerogel panels into three outer walls. “Light can flood in,” says Mr. Askheim, but they are opaque enough for him to maintain privacy.
In the living room, the east aerogel wall is like a floor-to-ceiling light fixture. At the northern end, in a narrow space set up as a home office, Mr. Askheim uses a second aerogel wall as a glowing bulletin board.
Construction on the new house started in July 2012 and was finished a year later. Mr. Askheim was still living right next door. “I followed it very closely,” he says of the construction phase. “I could stand in the kitchen and look down on the building site—that was cool.”
Mr. Askheim decided to hire an engineer to be a project manager and troubleshooter—at a cost of about $95,000.
“Usually, the general contractor oversees everything,” says Mr. Hjeltnes, who specializes in high-end, single-family homes.
Mr. Askheim credits his project manager with helping to get the project off the ground, including locating a builder willing to work with aerogel. The manager also helped with the home’s single greatest challenge and largest unforeseen expense: landscaping the steeply sloped lot for the new house and creating a clear boundary with the former home.
The final landscaping price tag—which included the unexpected construction of the concrete barrier between the lots, and the significant removal of soil and stones—was $139,000, more than twice what he had estimated.
Within weeks of moving in with his teenage daughter, Mr. Askheim says, “I met the love of my life.” He now also shares the home with his partner, Gro Ann Grimsmo, who works for a property developer.
Since moving in, Mr. Askheim has experienced a glitch or two. A rectangular glass window in the master bedroom cracked and must be replaced. A futuristic array of LED lights, capable of transmitting colors like red and violet, is now stuck on yellow-white pending a repair. And he has yet to acquire softer, “more organic” furniture to replace the black-leather pieces from his former house.
He is also looking to fill out his band now that he can rehearse at home. Designed with acoustically sensitive beechwood paneling and an angled wall to absorb echoes, the music room allows Mr. Askheim and his band to play “as loud as I like,” he says. That is something he could never do in the old house.

Most residential rain barrels are large containers (at least 40 to 50 gallons) of some fashion. Drilled and fitted with uncomplicated, inexpensive parts, a rain barrel captures the water that falls on your home’s roof and runs through the downspout. It’s a primitive concept with a big modern impact:
• Save on your water bill. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, lawn and garden water use accounts for almost 40 percent of household water consumption during the summer months. Using rainwater can only reduce your water bill.
• Conserve natural resources. The EPA estimates that the average homeowner in the mid-Atlantic region can conserve 1,300 gallons of water during summer months. No matter where you are, it’s a savings of money and water that anyone can appreciate.
• Reduce soil erosion and water runoff problems. Heavy rains create problems in many areas due to erosion along the banks of waterways, storm drain and sewer overloads, and property flooding, among other problems. Using rain barrels can help reduce these problems.

Choosing a Rain Barrel
Don’t even think of setting an open barrel, previously filled with who-knows-what – under your eaves and calling it a rain barrel. It will gather water, no doubt about that. But it will attract animals and pests and breed mosquitoes on its way to becoming a green, murky swamp.
When it comes to selecting your rain barrel, most of it comes down to personal preference. Before settling on any particular rain barrel, consider your options. Rain barrels come in a variety of materials, styles and even decorative options. You’ll find them at home improvement and garden supply stores as well as online retailers. Your local government may even offer rain barrels for a bargain price as part of a local water and resource conservation program.
While looking at rain barrels, consider characteristics such as the barrel’s shape and how it will fit in with your property. Do you want something cute or something that will blend into the surroundings? What size rain barrel do you want? You can even hook a series of barrels together to capture more water. The EPA offers more information on calculating how much water your roof sheds during rainfall.

• Plastic – These are popular because they’re inexpensive, lightweight and come in a variety of shapes and colors, but plastic rain barrels have a drawback. The sun and weather deteriorates plastic quicker than other materials. They are also more vulnerable to tipping over than heavier containers. Look for thicker plastic and plan to install it with care to avoid conditions where it will tip easily. Try recycled plastic barrels to choose an environmentally friendly model.
• Clay, Ceramic or Stone – If you want a classy, natural-looking rain barrel, try clay, ceramic or stone. It’s a great addition to a landscaping design, and while it’s a little difficult to dismantle, clean and store during winter, the added weight provides stability.
• Wood – Want a rustic, homey looking rain barrel? Try a wooden rain barrel. Heavier than plastic (although lighter than clay, ceramic or stone), wood is durable and avoids the chemical content of plastics. Wood rain barrels often use hardwoods like oak, hickory and beech.
• Galvanized Metal – Metal containers are more permanent and often larger than some of the other choices. Metal barrels usually contain flexible membrane liners while other rain barrels don’t.
During your rain barrel selection, keep in mind that light colors absorb less heat, which helps prevent algae.

Installing Your Rain Barrel
Read the manufacturer’s instructions for specific guidance. There’s a little more to the process than putting it together, plopping it down outside and calling it ready to go.
• Select a spot.Walk around your home’s exterior looking for a suitable rain barrel location. Consider the amount of area you have to hold the rain barrel and the shape of the ground at that location. The more stable the ground or pathway the better. While you can create a hard base with concrete blocks, a wooden platform, bricks, or similar material, if the ground itself slopes, you have to level it before you install your rain barrel.
• Consider your roofing material. If you collect rainwater from a copper roof, a roof with zinc strips to inhibit algae and moss growth, or any roofing material chemically treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) or similar chemicals, the water may contain chemicals. Never use this water on edible plants. To find out what chemicals may lurk in your rainwater, consider having it tested.
• Create a sturdy base. If you have a patch of concrete or ground that is both hard-packed and level, you can sit the rain barrel flat on the ground. Ideally, however, the rain barrel should sit on a raised – but level and sturdy – base at least 12 inches above the ground. This makes it much easier to drain water as you use it, since gravity will create water pressure. Make sure the base can support well over 500 pounds; water weighs approximately 10 pounds per gallon. Use solid material for strength.
• Place the rain barrel. Turn the spigot or water outlet away from the house. Attach a long hose, of at least 10 feet in length, to the overflow outlet and trail it away from your house.
• Attach the downspout. Choose from a variety of connection styles depending on your situation. Some homeowners cut the trough short and allow it to flow into the barrel, while others install a diverter. The diverter is similar to a small chute coming off the downspout. If you choose to shorten your downspout, you will need to extend it again when you winterize your rain barrels.
•
Using Your Rain Barrel
Follow a few simple usage tips to keep your rain barrel flowing smoothly.
• Install screen over the water barrel inlet to discourage mosquitoes and other insects. Alternatively, use a squirt of dish soap (which won’t harm plants or soil) or a few drops of cooking oil. A combination of screen and soap is particularly effective.
• Add bleach if algae becomes an issue. A dash of bleach – about a cap full – is enough to combat algae. If the problem is bad, drain the water and wash the barrel with bleach before reusing.
• Drain water regularly to help avoid algae and insect problems.
• Keep an eye on the water level during periods of heavy rainfall.
• Inspect and clean your rain barrel as part of a yearly schedule.
Once your rain barrel system is up and running, you’ll probably be surprised at just how convenient and painless it is.

In the quiet Silver Triangle neighborhood east of the Venice Canals, Dwell explores a zero net-energy home with a butterfly-inspired roof and two living walls.

AIA architect David Hertz, known for 747 Wing House, looked to the structure of a butterfly wing when designing this Venice home. The inverted roof naturally captures water that collects in a sump and is used for subsurface irrigation. The roof is just one of the home’s sustainable features, which, Hertz says, “are not compromises to the design; they’re part of the design.”

A living wall of succulents faces the street, absorbing southern sun, while the interior living wall set against the pool grows ferns and edible herbs–together the walls total 90 feet of vegetative vertical space. While environmentalism has long been fundamental to Hertz’ work, this project features overt expressions of sustainability new even to him. For example, glass tubing filed with water-heating fluid had been hidden in previous designs, but are expressed openly here.

• Area: Venice, CA
• Livable square footage: 4,000 square feet
• Number of bedrooms: 4
• Construction completed: 2013

David Hertz FAIA Architect and his firm S.E.A. The Studio of Environmental Architecture is well known as a pioneer in sustainable architecture that thinks well outside the box. The award-winning work has been widely exhibited and published internationally. David Hertz is one of the youngest architects to be elected to the college of Fellows of the American Institute of Architecture for his contributions to the profession. The Mckinley Residence was featured on two covers of Dwell magazine, and Hertz’s recently completed 747 Wing House, a home in Malibu made from the wings of a 747, was selected as a 2012 Record House for Architectural Record Magazine.

• Interior design by Curated. to be revealed during the tour
• Solar Thermal Heating with Evacuated Tubes
• Thermostatically Controlled Windows
• Solar Photovoltaic Panels
• Advanced Lighting Controls
• State-of-the-Art Information Systems
• *A Zero Net Energy Building

Materials matter.

“In researching materials to build our house, we were happy to find that we could use a lot of existing resources,” says Gisele Bündchen. “In the end, 90 percent of the materials used to construct our house were reclaimed.”

Energy efficiency begins with your architect.
“Energy efficiency was a huge concern from the planning stage, explains Bündchen. “The design of the house allows for as much natural light as possible. High ceilings and large windows generally allow us to have the lights.”

Go solar.

“We love our solar panels,” says Bündchen. “With them, our energy bill is significantly lower and we can put energy back in the grid.”
LEDs are a must.
“We reduce our energy consumption further by using LED lighting featuring a low-voltage, high-efficiency lighting system equipped with motion sensors in certain rooms.”
Unplug.
“We unplug electronics and chargers when they are not being used.”

Water consumption matters, too.
“We’re very conscious about the water consumption in our home, and we teach our kids the same,” says Bündchen. “For example, we don’t leave the water running when brushing our teeth or scrubbing the dishes (only when rinsing).”

Install a water filter.
“We have a water-filter system on our sink that is the best purchase we’ve ever made,” says Bündchen. “Our Puroserve HT series reverse-osmosis water system 
provides drinking water throughout the house. We refill our reusable bottles with it, which creates a lot less garbage.”

Reuse wastewater.
“Our gray-water system allows us to reuse the wastewater for our garden and lawn.”

Plant a garden.

“We grow 85 percent of our fruits and vegetables,” says Bündchen. “Not only do we know where our produce comes from, but our children experience firsthand the connection between the earth and their food. The children also love going into the chicken coop and feeding the chickens. And it’s a blast to pick up fresh eggs for our breakfast in the morning.”

Recycle and compost.
“Recycling reduces the trash sent to the landfill, but we also created a space to compost in order to eliminate food waste in our home. Leftovers go either to our compost or to the chickens.”

Nurture the world around you.
“Whether you’re talking about a home or the land, it’s the same—if you nurture something, it will nurture you back.”

This is an incredibly picturesque, mostly shaded canyon hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Solstice Canyon Trail is a popular, well-maintained route with some spur-trail opportunities for more adventurous travelers.

Some of the highlights include the oldest still-standing stone building in Malibu, a small waterfall and creek, and several ruins – including the ruins of a moderate mansion.

Tips: While the Solstice Canyon Trail is mostly shaded year-round, the Rising Sun and Sostomo Trails are above the canyon floor and often in the full-sun. If it’s hot and sunny out, you may not want to attempt those routes.

Parking at the trailhead is free, but limited. Try to get there early if possible.

Dogs are allowed, but must remain on-leash.

This video will tell you more.

Best green roof ever! I want a green roof on our new desert home. I would love to have many succulents on the roof. The succulents would require less water and the weight”
“prevent spiders from making their home on it!”
“Great roof! Would you have one on your home? Tons of benefits!”
“First steps: Once your contractor has installed and water tested the membrane, your roof is ready to be planted. There are two ways to do this: Use a modular system of planted living roof trays.Add soil and plant your roof as though it were a garden in the ground, as shown here.”
“lower cabin (the yoga studio), is the initial site experience. The green roof is really the curb appeal of the property — the first facade of the design. Hook took this opportunity to treat the roof as a canvas, more so than a typical green roof, and designed it as a living piece of art, full of succulents”.

Second floor Green Roof with a Built in deck”
“add green roof component to decktop?”
“Combining a contemporary green roof with classic decking, this implementation is good if you don’t want to go full-bore.”
“modular system by liveroof for roof deck with sedum already grown in from local nursery”
“Green roofs needs water proofing, roots non spreading, controlling sheet, nutritional soil/mixture, controlled irrigation.”
“Green area on roof top patio”
“This is a modular green roof system with built in sedum”
“This doesn’t mean that all green-roof systems have to be built in, however. Some professionals in North America are using modular systems in their design specifications. For example, Aaron Kang-Crosby at Spore Design says the company used a modular system by LiveRoof.
“Consider prevegetated mats for your green roof project. Modular units of substrate plus rooted plants simplify installation once the proper structure and waterproofing are in place. A carpet of mixed stonecrop (Sedum) varieties creates a low-muss, low-fuss green roof.”
“Lovely roof top deck with green roof”
“Prevegetated mats. Consider prevegetated mats for your green roof project. Modular units of substrate plus rooted plants simplify installation once the proper structure”
“Consider prevegetated mats for your green roof project. Modular units of substrate plus rooted plants simplify installation once the proper structure and waterproofing are in place. A carpet of mixed stonecrop (Sedum) varieties creates a low-muss, low-fuss green roof.

On June 10, Sotheby’s New York will bring an impressive selection of timepieces to the auction block in for its Important Watches Including the Titanium Collection sale. Most notable among the sale’s 175 lots is the Titanium Collection, a selection of 10 previously unknown Patek Philippe timepieces accumulated by a private collector with an apparent predilection for titanium—five of the pieces feature custom titanium

cases. Holding a presale high estimate of $1.5 million, the auction’s top lot is a one-of-a-kind titanium version of the Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon, an extremely complex horological achievement that features 12 complications, including a tourbillon, perpetual calendar, sky chart, moon-phase indicator, and minute repeater. Another highlight is a vintage 1923 Officier, Patek Philippe’s first split-seconds chronograph, which carries a presale high estimate of $1.2 million.
An auction standout that came as quite a surprise to the Sotheby’s team was one of the custom titanium Patek Philippe models—a relatively unremarkable watch, previously unknown (like the other titanium pieces). During their research, the team had the crystal on the back of the watch’s case tested, only to find that instead of quartz or rock crystal, it was in fact a 9.44-carat, internally flawless D-color diamond. This discovery immediately shot the watch’s presale estimate, which had been in the tens of thousands of dollars, up to a high of $500,000, making it one of the auction’s top lots.
In addition to the Titanium Collection, the sale will also offer exceptional pieces from many of the world’s top manufactures, including Jaeger-LeCoultre, Hublot, Audemars Piguet, and Franck Muller. Beginning June 7, Sotheby’s will display all 175 lots, which have a combined low estimate of $6.4 million, at its New York showroom. (www.sothebys.com)

The size is 3000 Sq ft. and the cost was $280.00 per or $840,000. Pretty cheap by LA standards.
In British Columbia it’s a wet climate, which is great for mold and rot. So when it came time to build Damon Gray’s dream home , he chose concrete and designed a super energy efficient  structure which produces its own energy, the good news? No energy bill.

The L-shaped design emerged as the most advantageous after measuring the sun’s paths.  The property got the most sun on that L-shaped pocket at 3 p.m.   He also discovered If he changed the angle of the house by 15 degrees, it lessened the energy performance by 25 percent.

He didn’t want a two-story design, so Gray made up for the less efficient structure by adding more solar panels, which was a less expensive maneuver than buying better energy-efficient windows. Gray spent four years working out these kinds of trade-offs on paper before starting construction.

The cost of heating was a driving factor. Gray didn’t want high energy bills, so he spent time crunching numbers before making a choice. “If I doubled my wall insulation by spending an extra $4,000, then it saved me well over $200 per month on average for my heating bill. It was a no-brainer,” he says. Once he put solar panels on the roof, his heating bill dropped to nothing, he says.

Seven-foot overhangs provide shade in the summertime. The concrete table was created from a leftover exterior panel. It’s attached to casters so the family can roll it around the patio. Other leftover concrete panels became retaining walls on the property. Loose river rocks create a moat around the house so water can drain. There is also a ramp to the main door for wheel chair access and the inside, the doorways and halls are plenty wide to move a wheel chair through. He must be planning to stay here a long time! His kids are just youngsters.

In the wet climate, concrete walls seemed like a practical choice. “Bugs can’t eat it; there’s no mold issues,” Gray says. Plus, it’s durable and easy to insulate. The walls are a sandwich construction that consists of 2 inches of concrete, then 7 inches of Styrofoam, followed by a 5-inch structural layer of concrete with rebar.
The concrete panels were cast onsite and lifted into place by a crane. The exterior shows the beautiful wood-grain impressions left by the formwork from casting the concrete.

The home is set up for rainwater collection too, but  that will have to be in Phase 2 of the project as it cost $7,000 for tanks. For another $7,000 he could also purchase a battery system that would store energy from the solar panels to take the house completely off the grid.