The neighbours have this little set up outside their caravan, but I've never seen them sit out. I always want to sneak round, put tea, scones, jam and a jar of flowers on the table then knock at the door and run away. But they'd probably just find that freaky and still not sit out. And here is some more nice seating, it's the fabric I really love on this one...
Read about the eco-friendly Tio chair by Concious Design here at Inhabitat. I like how my green coloured posts, turned to small scale eco green (ie peeing on my compost) posts and then to green blogging (sew green) so that the whole week has all my favourite kinds of green in one place. And speaking of green and blogging, Louise (of Gracia & Louise) has a great post about her latest zine " How to... be a little more green' which is so cutely illustrated and at the same time, a genuine little 'How To' guide. Go and see for yourself.
My main effort to be green still focuses on renovating my home. I could have it done in 3 months if I just bought new and put it together in the 'normal' way that mobiles are constructed. But that's not for me. I'm insulating beyond the standards that are law even for solid homes. But it's hard work.
As I dismantle all the cheap crap inside I am saving it to make art, rather than to end up polluting our beautiful scottish landscape by getting dumped in a landfill site, which is where, currently, 90% of Scotland's household waste gets dumped.
There are days, so many days, when I think how my home could be transformed overnight if I just threw that stuff out, but my concience won't let me. There are even more days when I half wish I had just flattened the whole thing on day one and put in a brand new eco mobile with all the wool insulation already in the walls, with all the wood panelling and siding already on the building. I yearned, a lot, for 1/3 or the houses featured in prefab friday at inhabitat or on fab prefab.
Like the Retreat home which I like a lot, except I wanted 2 butted together to form an internal courtyard). Or an M-house (the cedar shingle one) so I can betten down the hatches during gales, or a Wee-house. Or even couple of eco space studios with a turf roofs...
I'm a big fan of turf roofs. I keep telling the local Council they should make it part of the planning regs. for new shopping builds around here. I live on the Edinburgh Green Belt, which is rapidly dissappearing under concrete as they build more and more out of town shopping on it. I know we can't stop the shops, but I still think they could at least be told they'll only get planning permission if they build green, and have turf roofs to maintain the green space that was bulldozed to make way for them. Not much help for the trees or dog walking, but the birds and insects could continue to thrive.
1/3 of my house has a flat roof and once the main house is fixed up my next plan is to re-roof that section so it can take the weight of a green roof. I'm thinking I might to a test run on my shed roof first, to make sure the high winds that hit my house wouldn't just whip it all away!
4 comments:
Turf roofs are simply the best! Dwell magazine (from Australia) featured them awhile back, I think you might like the magazine, it's great, and mostly eco-friendly design for homeowners and designers.
hi cally,
thank you for the very kind comments you left me. nice to meet you too. i look forward to hearing what you post about on sew green also.
cheers.
Amy
So funny you should mention it, I had never heard of it before and then at the weekend I kept seeing it mentioned everywhere. Sounds like something I'd really like, I'll see if they stock it in the Internation Newspaper place, or Borders Books.
Cindy
It's just so damned exciting! Lovely new women (plus the gems I already knew) and a wonderful new place.
You are so cute with your ideas to setup afternoon tea and flowers at your neighbours :) How wonderful to see that you are doing so much in renovating your house to make it 'greener', the only turf roof I have ever seen was in Amsterdam.
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