Recent drought and water use restrictions have highlighted the need for more water capture systems. Also, known as rainwater harvesting, these systems collect runoff water from your gutters and store it for future use. This post is about how I built my rainwater harvesting system.
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Building an Accessory Dwelling Unit
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are quickly becoming popular additions to existing homes. They can be a source of income and provide housing options for aging family members. Building an ADU requires a bit of planning and a lot of coordination.
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Are Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) a solution to the Affordable Housing Crisis?
The United States is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. Since the 1970s, the cost of buying a home has gone up 500%. That's an average of 4% a year for the past 50 years. With inflation up an average of 7% per year, in that same time period, it's easy to see that buying a house is out of reach for the majority of earners. Additionally, higher labor and materials costs have compounded the overall affordability of new construction. This has made home builders and contractors tend to focus on more expensive housing in order to bring in higher profits. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are becoming a popular option for the affordable housing crisis. But are they the solution?
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Sunroom Addition
For this project, we had to squeeze a 12 x 20 ft addition between the house and the garage. This was done by removing the breezeway and the garage roof and building a whole new structure for it to sit within.
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Hot Tub Pergola
This project built a hot tub platform on the side of a steep hill and topped it with a pergola that used polycarbonate panels for the roof.
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Winding Staircase
This project removed a rickety old staircase and designed a winding staircase to fit in the restricted footprint of this 1920's house.
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