The Good House Book: A Common-Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding

by Clarke Snell

From Lark Books and Natural Home magazine—which has a circulation of 200,000—comes an illustrated, unique guide to building an earth-friendly home.

To create a dwelling that’s both ecologically sustainable and attractive, Natural Home magazine is the place to go. With this exquisitely illustrated guide, packed with 400 photos and illustrations, anyone can put environmentally friendly ideas into beautiful practice. Here’s an intelligent look at how a home is supposed to function and a variety of different building approaches. What’s important is finding the right solution to fit your individual needs, local climate, and natural resources. The broad range of topics covered include choosing a site; selecting materials; building with straw bale, cob, adobe, or rammed earth; and plugging into alternative home power systems. Interviews with six homeowners, and photos of the dream homes they built, provide invaluable insight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sustainability

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2004

About the author

I never intended to have a career in building. I became interested in construction because I wanted to build my own house. Now, many years later, I’ve built that house and along the way learned a brainfull of useful information that I'm dedicated to sharing with anyone who cares to listen, discuss, watch, or participate. I do that by writing, lecturing, consulting, designing, and, if the project is just right, building. In addition to a number of articles, I’ve written two books on “green building” techniques, “The Good House Book: A Common Sense Guide to Alternative Homebuilding” and (with Tim Callahan) “Building Green: A Complete How-to Guide to Guide to Alternative Building Methods”.

Reviews

[Aleatha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A realistic, practical book on how to build a house that will be energy-efficient and connected to its environment. Not exactly a how-to, just gives very complete basic info and points you in the direction of more resources. Lots of pretty pictures, very inspiring.

[mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very broad introduction to various means of alternative home building that addresses everything from foundation to roofing. inspiring...

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coffee table-type book that looks at some very interesting houses. Simple living, and the like. Not very technical, but nice photos. A good place to start.