Category Archives: Green Building and Bamboo
Green building in the tropics- thermal mass
When I first started researching green building I found pretty quickly that the vast majority of material, books, websites, etc. are made for people living in the temperate zones of the US and Europe. There is a ton of material … Continue reading
Cool Roof Design by Kim Obermeyer
Kim Obermeyer of hipEhabitat.com talks about his design for a cool roof – a double layer roof that will prevent heat from the sun from radiating into the living space. The roofing system features pre-painted structural zinc roof panels with … Continue reading
Posted in Building in Nicaragua, Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged cool roof, design, hipehabitat, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, structural zinc, tropics, white roof, zinc
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Beach House Progress – Plycem Walls and Bamboo Siding
We started building the beach house way back in March – or was it February 2013? The point is, it’s been so long that it’s hard to remember. The main delay has been caused by an irresponsible carpenter with a … Continue reading
Finding Fallen Wood
Our wood dramas continue…. If you’ve been reading about the progress of our beach house construction you’ll see a repeated theme – we’ve been delayed by the local carpenter again and again. Now, the house is pretty much finished – … Continue reading
Teak Post and Concrete Block Bodega
We have begun building up on the ridge! First project – a place to store our tools, saddles, surfboards, wheelbarrow, and the building supplies that we’ll need to collect when we’re ready to start building the actual house. The name … Continue reading
Windmills In Nicaragua
One of Nicaragua’s most valuable resources turns out to be wind. Super strong (often hurricane force) and consistent winds blow across lake Nicaragua. These amazing winds are basically Trade Winds that are funneled and amplified as the high pressure on … Continue reading
Tiny House with Bamboo Construction on the Osa Peninsula
On a trip to the Osa Peninsula last year we looked up someone called “Super Steve” who we were told was building some beautiful things with bamboo. Despite the fact that we showed up out of nowhere, Super Steve aka … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged bamboo house, building with bamboo, costa rica, guadua, nicaragua, steve juries, super steve
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Earthship in China
Our friend Ben is really excited about earthships. He wants to build one here in Northern Nicaragua. I didn’t know much about them, but undertook a program of self-study reading through all three volumes of Michael Reynolds’ Earthship books. The … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Make your own
Tagged china, earthship, michael reynolds, new mexico, nicaragua, thermal mass
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Growing Guadua bamboo
We had been searching for it for nearly a year, since we learned about it in Ecuador. Guadua bamboo (Guadua angustifolia and other species) is the giant bamboo species native to Central and South America. It is one of the strongest … Continue reading
Dome Treehouse in Ukiah by Jay Nelson
Everyone loves a tree house. This one is particularly pleasing. Inspired by an acorn, this 8′ domed tree house was made of fiberglass, resin, wood and glass by San Franciscan artist Jay Nelson in 2007 for Larry Rinder. It was … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged artist, california, dome, dome living, jay nelson, tree house, ukiah
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Kauai Treehouse by Jay Nelson
San Francisco based functional artist Jay Nelson built a tree house in Kauai for pro surfer family Aamion Goodwin and Daize Shayne. The top floor is 30 feet up, with 140 square feet of interior living space. Imagine sipping coffee … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo
Tagged aamion goodwin, artist, build you own, daize shayne, jay nelson, kauai, photos, surfer, tree house, treehouse
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Eco Friendly Fire Ant Killer
Fire ants suck! They’re just like regular ants except they swarm, bite, and then leave a painful itchy reminder for hours – usually all over your feet and ankles. I dislike mosquitoes but I hate fire ants. Even though I … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Nicaragua
Tagged eco friendly solution, eucalyptus oil, fire ants, kill fire ants, without poison
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Building a Cabana in Nicaragua – Walls up and Siding on
The walls are up, the siding is on, and our cute little 18’sq cabana is nearly finished! We had to leave Nicaragua at this point and are very excited to get back down there and put in the details like … Continue reading
A Tiny House in Hopland
On our standard tri-yearly drive between Oregon and LA we finally stopped in the deliciously named Hopland to check out the Real Goods Solar Living Institute. The Tiny House was obviously appealing – a micro home on a trailer built … Continue reading
Posted in Eat drink and be merry, Green Building and Bamboo, Make your own, Pacific Northwest
Tagged alex fang, car camping, duck egg, hardly strictly bluegrass festival, holly beck, hopland, kim obermeyer, lagunitas brewery, petaluma, real goods solar living institute, recylced solar panel, sumpin wild, tacoma, tiny house, trouble coffee co
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Geodesic Dome with solar, wind, geothermal power
A friend of a friend’s place in NY, also has old tire terraced gardens, crushed rubber paths and an awesome 40’+ foot inside climbing rope!! Click the link to watch the video: http://www.sciencefriday.com/embed/video/10407.swf
Framing the Octagon Window
Designing the window placement was a fun experience that involved measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again, then erasing, measuring, and changing the dimensions multiple times. Our friendly red-headed framer was smilingly patient as we changed our minds back and forth. Right … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Nicaragua
Tagged building a cabana, framing, hipehabitat, holly beck, kim obermeyer, nicaragua, northern nicaragua, octagon window, pine
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Building in Nicaragua – Concrete Floor, Tile, and Wood Dilemmas
Building in Nicaragua is both much easier and much more difficult than it would be in the States. This project in particular is easier than most since we’re building on Coco Loco property with full access to power (except when … Continue reading
Guanacaste Horizontal Siding
When trying to figure out what type of siding we’d use for our new cabana we checked out the cabanas at the French Guys restaurant (who also have a few cabanas). They used guanacaste horizontal siding and it looks really … Continue reading
Building in Nicaragua – Palm Fronds for the Thatch Roof
Accessing the palm fronds for the thatch roof turned out to be one of the easiest things we’ve had to do so far. There’s a property nearby owned by a friend full of the right kinds of palms, so we … Continue reading
Building in Nicaragua – Is Cutting Mangroves ever Sustainable?
Mangle, mangle, mangle! We were told we needed to get some varilla to support the palma (palm thatch leaves used for our roof). So we said “OK, where do we get that”? We could either buy it from a local … Continue reading
New Ocean View Eco Community in Northern Nicaragua
It’s been brewing for a while and now we’re going for it. We’re planning an eco-friendly community on an amazing piece of land consisting of two ridges, a hilltop, and valley situated behind a bay with great waves and a … Continue reading
Posted in Green Building and Bamboo, Nicaragua
Tagged eco community, holly beck, kim obermeyer, land for sale, lots, northern nicaragua, ocean view
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Building in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus Plantation and Roof Assembly Video
The video footage of the Eucalyptus plantation experience and the start of the roof assembly.
Building in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus Plantation Politics
The house progresses rapidly. It’s amazing how quickly the eucalyptus posts can be assembled into home shape. Our nine supporting pillars were bought, cut, delivered, and cemented into place within four days. For the rest of the roof structure we … Continue reading
Building in Nicaragua – Shopping for Eucalyptus Video
A video summary of shopping for the eucalyptus posts that will become the pillars for our cabana in Nicaragua.
Building a Cabana in Nicaragua – Eucalyptus posts
Lately our home base has been a thatched roof cabana at El Coco Loco, the Eco-hotel where we run our women’s surf and yoga retreats. Since the guys at Coco Loco have been letting us crash there in between retreats, … Continue reading
Building with Bamboo – Making Esterilla
Esterilla is essentially flattened bamboo and can be used as flooring, wall paneling, and anything else where you need a strong flat material. In Ecuador we saw it used as walls in many local homes. We happened to come across … Continue reading
Bamboo: Hip-E habitat?
The search for a sustainably built home has led us all over the place in the past months. We’ve been learning a lot about various green building methods and materials, from hay bales, to clay, earth ships and bamboo. … Continue reading
hip-E habitat 