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small house: REALLY Recycled Housing! - 06/11/09 01:02 AM
In the process of working with a client who is dedicated to sustainable living, I discovered a really cool company in Austin, TX. These folks really know how to walk the talk.  Their homes are built and then hauled to the site ready to be occupied. They are constructed from reclaimed materials.
The materials used are from deconstructed homes and would otherwise wind up in landfills. The utilize passive solar design, great insulation and thoughtful touches like single pitch roofs which makes collecting rain water much simpler. These are designed to be small spaces so they can be  relocated  but I can't imagine any … (4 comments)

small house: Recycled Housing A Definition in Three Parts - Part One- Reduce - 01/24/09 04:16 PM
Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. We have all heard the slogan and hopefully most of u do something to try to apply it to our daily lives. How does it apply to housing? When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I recycle houses.  That is almost always good for some questions about what I mean. This series of three blogs will be an attempt to explain what I mean by recycling houses and it may give you an opportunity to look at things in a different way.
REDUCE - Seems obvious, doesn't it" Use less, Build smaller. Okay. On … (0 comments)

small house: Downsizing and Energy Efficiency Just a Fad? - 01/12/09 09:28 PM
Fortunately I was on my best behavior today. I was able to hold my tongue and remember that sometimes you have to choose your battles. We had lunch with some representatives from a large regional builder.They build good, energy efficient homes for the most part and they build in different parts of town and at different price points. They have floor plans from just over 1100 square feet to over 4500 square feet.
During the casual part of the lunch conversation (versus the formal presentation part) I overheard someone ask one of the builder's agents who has been in the business over 15 … (1 comments)

small house: A Room of One's Own--Small house living - 07/26/07 11:14 PM
 I was musing the other day about small space living. A friend who lived i a 25 foot fifth wheel trailer for a couple of years pointed out that it really felt like he had much more space because he spent so much time outdoors. Another small house (650 square feet) dweller said that just having a 36 inch tall bookcase as a divider behind the desk and chair at one end of the living space was enough give him the sense of having a separate office  space of his own, even when the rest of the family was in the room with him.
We are used … (4 comments)

small house: THE NOT SO SMALL HOUSE - 06/09/07 09:36 PM
  A lot has been written lately about the "Not so big house". I agree with most of what has been written but I would like to address the Not so small house. Part of the reason people seem to think that they need large spaces is that they have such an urge to buy as much of everything as they can and they need somewhere to put it all. Then they rent a storage unit for the overflow. That doesn't take into account the stuff they left at various relatives homes or at their second or third home.....
If most people were … (0 comments)

small house: WHAT IS "NOT SO BIG"? - 09/03/06 10:54 PM
Americans are larger than they used to be. We are taller and heavier. We are not twice as tall or twice as heavy even though our homes have become twice as large. Moving from a 3500 square foot home into a 2000 square foot home certaqinly qualifies as downsizing but I don't think it qualifies as moving into a small home. One of the things I love about doing residential resale in established neighborhoods is that the houses really do tend to be smaller. Many are between 1100 and 1600 square feet if they have not had additions. Often you wind … (0 comments)

small house: How Much Space Do You Really Need? - 07/25/06 10:06 PM
  As "McMansions" continue to pop up all over the country, I am wondering why people keep buying them. More and more when I visit people, I find that they have one or more rooms that they never use. If I inquire about a closed room as they are showing off their home, they say something like "Oh, that's the junk room". We keep meaning to do something withit but we just store stuff in there." I think this is yet another illustration of our "stuff" owning us rather than the other way around.
In the 1950's the average home had a … (0 comments)

small house: Small is Beautiful - 07/14/06 05:30 PM
  I have noticed that houses seem to be getting larger even as family size gets smaller. Since I specialize in residential resale, I have a need to be able to explain to people the advantages of older homes and smaller spaces. I have often had people be pleasantly surprised when they learn that a particularly well designed home is much smaller in square footage than what they thought they needed. Use of Clerstory windows to add natural light and give a feeling of openess and height can work wonders as can using walls of glass and large overhangs ovet a … (0 comments)

 
Deb-small-0044

Deb Hurt, ABR, e-Pro,Green, TRC

Albuquerque, NM

More about me…

Realty Pro Albuquerque

Address: 6700 Jefferson NE , Suite C-2, Albuquerque, NM, 87109

Office Phone: (505) 892-4400

Cell Phone: (505) 321-0562

Email Me

My blog is as much about a philosophy of life and living as it is about real estate as a business. E.F. Shumacher subtitled his book SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL "Economics as if People Mattered" In the real estate industry we realize that people matter and that where they live matters. We now also have a larger responsiblity, I believe, to get them to consider HOW they live. Everyone in the developed world using less energy and resources makes it possible for those who have access to neither to experience a better life and to make the difference between their being able to having a roof overhead or not or for their children to eat or not. 



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