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Family Builds Impressive Straw Bale Home & Dream Homestead – Sustainable Green Building



This family’s ecological home is packed with sustainable features, including straw bale walls, natural materials and finishes, composting toilets, grey water plant beds, a green roof, a solar hot water heater, earthen floors, and a lot more! They manage their forest and use the crowded, dead, or dying trees they remove as firewood to heat their home and they mill any quality wood to be used for projects around the house and property. They also grow and raise a lot of food, including fruit and nut trees, a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, and laying hens for eggs.

You can find out more about Evolve Builders Group and their climate-conscious construction here:
https://evolvebuilders.ca/

The home was designed by Martin Lieffhebber and includes sleeping pods at one end, an atrium in the middle to capture passive solar energy, and a living and kitchen area at the other end.

After 18 years of living in this natural home and working on multiple green building projects, Chris thinks that Passive House (Passivhaus) is where the industry is heading because it drastically reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool a home (often by more than 70%) and it can be done anywhere (urban and rural).

We’ve made a few videos about Passive House if you want to check them out here:

A big thank you to Chris, Christine, and Mola for sharing their home with us!

Thanks for watching!

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STAY IN TOUCH!
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Website: www.exploringalternatives.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exploringalternativesblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exploringalternatives/

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COMMENTS
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CREDITS
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Music Credits: Exploring Alternatives

Editing Credits: Exploring Alternatives

Filming Credits: Exploring Alternatives

Photo Credits: photos of the house being built, and of Evolve projects were provided by Chris Vander Hout

#greenbuilding #strawbale #sustainable

22 Comments

  5. British Ants

    8 ton concrete foot path may take a few decades to pay back carbon wise but it’s a good start and although we focus on the positives they a way off being holier than thou!

  8. MadGraph

    Love reading all the fools try and disprove straw bale building techniques. Humans have been doing it for more than 10,000 years you zoomers. Stop trying so hard.

  14. George Vue

    On Puerto Rico the greywater went directly to my parents garden in their retirement home. 30 miles south of Boston, the grey water from my home is used to water the lawn.

  17. Anna Lisa Vajda

    I like your mention of the "engineered lumber" too instead of old growth logging the truth is ancient trees are not or soon will not be an option at all there are so few left so best to figure out an alternative now.

  18. Greg Appelgren

    I see confusing messages from Huge Gov, about outlawing burning firewood, wants everyone off natural gas and onto the Electric grid. The “Water protection act” classifies ditches in some cases as bodies of water. Don’t get me started on what to do with human waste. I’m seeing it as an attack on self sustainability. Obviously at this point depends on where you live. Myself, in corrupt IL

  21. Janoh de Groot

    Next thing to learn seems to bee no-dig gardening, mulching the garden to keep the moisture for the plants. And maybe permaculture..

  22. Carole Warner

    Stunning home… Clearly they're young and not thinking about aging there though. Too many steps/level changes. Otherwise both the design and aesthetic are amazing!

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