Thanks to jgizzi's earthship post, I thought it might be fun to have a thread for discussion of these unusual homes. I will try to find some good sites with examples of extreme (or maybe not so extreme anymore) homes.

I had to go to Wikipedia to remember they were the tire homes. I actually thought they were just underground. The new thread will help us keep the "fun" homes separated from the more common (and some would say "more boring") technology that is now becoming mainstream. I'll move jgizzi's post over here to get things rolling.

Darlene

I want to build an earthship. I can't beleive how many good books are out there on the subject nowadays.

Here's an Elephant House in the Philippines



http://www.google.com/search?q=elephant+...GGGL_en___PH231

WOW!!! I watched the video. I think the news lady liked it as much as the owner. He may hide his satellite dish in one of those ears. Let's keep an eye on this one...it's not done yet. I don't know what he has planned in the way of energy efficiency, etc., but he may just want an elephant house and doesn't need any of the new tech stuff. This one may make the HGTV show about unusual homes. Thanks for posting it. Can you imagine how excited his kids are over it.

-

There's a really good movie that I just watched about earthships.
It's called "Garbage Warrior" and it's about an architect in New Mexico who had a dream of different types of buildings and the struggle he faced to be allowed to build them.
Worth the watch.

Still having internet trouble...your movie is on the top of my list when I get back to cable.

http://sicarius.typepad.com/althouse/

Once in, click on any of these sites to get good info. I found the container site to be very interesting. What a nice office that would be with french doors at the end and some heavy insulation.

I like the tree house in one of the older posts!

I checked out your Lake Wallenpaupack page...a very nice 30 minutes. That is some breathtaking photography. I can see someone stopping by your page a while and maybe deciding to pack their bags and come on over. You must love living up there.
I'll go try to find the tree house in the other post. I probably should combine these two threads.

This was it, Darlene:

Treehouse Post / Alternate Housing

Thank you for the nice words. I'm still working on it. I love taking pictures, and yeah, I love this area. Sometimes the drizzly weather and the long winter wear me down, but from May to November, this is a terrific area.

Alternative housing is here to stay, that's for sure. What impact alternative housing will have on a Realtor's pocketbook in years to come is unknown to me. As Realtors, we believe the SFD or apartment life is basically the only option most Americans want. Yet living here in Houston, I am seeing more and more people throw in the towel and head for the hills. Okay, that was a little corny but it summed it up. These people are moving for a lot of reasons. Either they lost their new builder home with the large mortgage, tax and light bills and just had to downsize drastically OR they are getting out because of some personal desire to embrace the green movement and grow their own food OR they just don't want the screaming freeways and rush, rush, rush lifestyle anymore. Do Realtors need to be concerned about this? I have no idea because I do not know how big the number is. Here in Texas we still have folks coming in from less affordable areas of the country. I assume when real estate starts to rebound around the country, most Realtors will get back to a more normal (?) workload and maybe not even notice these folks slipping out of town. The state of the economy and many other factors will mold this picture in the coming years.

BTW, Perky...if the treehouse is cooler than my travel trailer, I am going to make an offer on one. Ha, ha. R-5 is not a lot of insulation in Texas. I do love the little roof vents that let the hot air out, though. So far, I am willing to continue living in my little 31-foot alternative house. Don't try it with kids, though.