Top Ten “Cash for Clunkers” Cars

You’ve heard about the “cash for clunkers” legislation that allows U.S. car buyers to get up to $4,500 in cash vouchers for replacing gas guzzlers with fuel efficient vehicles. If you’ve got an older car or pickup truck with rotten gas mileage, you can replace it with a new car getting 22 mpg or better or a new pickup getting 18 mpg or better and receive a break on the price courtesy of your government.

Which cars should you be looking at? Marketing service Autobytel complied a list of auto makers that have vehicles that qualify for vouchers, and even figured...

What's Your Financial Paper Footprint?

If you're like most American households, you're probably drowning in bills -- and not just in the amount you owe, but in the amount of paper that comes into and out of your home.

Paying bills online is a great way to go green, and help to save the environment. Getting your bills sent to you online is even better.  That's where I fall down, to be honest. I pay all...

Pros of Bamboo Homes

Lately I’ve seen more bamboo home builders popping up. However, just because these homes are available doesn’t mean they’re right for you. There are pros and cons of bamboo houses. We’ll look at some pros first and later discuss some cons. Tomorrow I’ll post some bamboo home builders for you to browse as well. Bamboo house by home builders Sol Habitat The benefits of bamboo dwellings:

Are wood burning stoves and fireplaces green?

Wood burning may seem like a weird summer topic, but plenty of folks burn fires at night in the summer, and it’s been on my mind, so let’s take a look at the greenness (or not) of wood for heat.

In Humboldt my family lived in a little house near the beach, in a super small ex-logging town. The homes hadn’t been updated since their initial building, and all the heat...

What is off-grid living?

Off-grid living is a fairly basic premise. Off-grid indicates that your home is self sufficient. vs. dependent, as in you’ve set your home up to be energy producing vs. paying the energy company for power or having your own well vs. paying the water company. Sometimes an off-grid home is referred to as a homestead, although homestead doesn’t exactly mean you’re not dependent on other sources of energy or water.

If...

Green 4th of July Planning Guide

If you celebrate 4th of July, and you’re here at this blog, there’s a good chance you’d like your celebration to be green. The 4th is a tough one because the mainstay of this holiday, fireworks, have yet to be made eco-friendly, at least not to the general public. Some movies and major events do use a more eco-friendly firework method, but that’s not going to help you at home.

If...

Maison IDEKIT Container Home

Canadian architect, Bernard Morin and his wife Joyce Labelle have the most luscious container homes I’ve seen in a while. The house, Maison Idekit Home was a quick build, with the containers being installed into the foundation in just a half and the rest of the home was completed in 10 months.

Amazingly, this 3,000-square-foot dream home cost just $175,000. According to a piece in the CTV, this home is the...