Clients are often worried about staying within their budget when creating a custom house plan that is green, and the kitchen and baths can often be the biggest budget busters. Finding cabinets and counter tops that are affordable and sustainable is sometimes a challenge, but there is one idea that is often overlooked. Reusing kitchens and baths from homes that are being remodeled or knocked down to build a bigger home, and units that are overstocked or someone just changed their mind before installing, can save money and cut down on landfill.

Craigslist – Craigslist is the mecca of getting rid of and finding household goods. The benefit of Craigslist is that you can really negotiate with sellers as they are eager to clear out their homes and garages. You will have to continually monitor the site in order to find what you are looking for, but after furnishing an entire second home I can tell you the deals are amazing.

Green Demolitions – I had the honor to meet the founder of Green Demolitions at the Green East Expo in NYC this past month and I love what this company is doing. Run as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, you can donate your kitchen when you are remodeling or tearing down, and you can also find some fabulous full kitchens at incredible prices to build or remodel your kitchen. They have also expanded now to include bathrooms and appliances.

Antique Stores and Auctions – While you won't often find entire sets of cabinets, you can find some amazing furniture pieces that can be converted to islands or plumbed to be used in your bath. Many auction houses will also be able to let you know of homes that may be on the market to see if upgrades will be made and what they will do with the old materials.

Reusing cabinets in your kitchen or bath can save money and it's incredibly easy to do. Since cabinets generally come in standard sizes they can be rearranged to numerous configurations to fit your needs in your new custom home design. Take the time to look around so you can help the environment while impacting your budget in a positive way.

This post has been submitted by 5 Elements Design, a residential architecture firm that creates small house plans that are eco friendly for families.

One of the great things about sustainable architecture is that great sustainable features can be added easily onto your existing home. One of those that you might not have thought of before, is adding a greenhouse to the south side of your home to grow your own food, and heat your home. Just like solar heating, heat is stored in the greenhouse insulating the home, and allowing heat to enter. Heat moves through the house by convection.

On the outside, you can design it to go with your landscaping, and reap the benefits of having a greenhouse if you don’t have the space in your yard, for a detached one. Check out www.aces.edu, where they talk about the benefits of an inside entrance, so you can won’t have to walk outside to visit your greenhouse in bad weather. Another option is to have doors that close off the area and keep it as a separate living space. They also report that an attached greenhouse ‘may also cost less per square foot to build than a freestanding greenhouse.’

Check out www.greenhousebuyersguide.com for more details on an attached green houses. Although I find the best explanations of how they work, types, advantages, and disadvantages are best explained on educational publications, like, extension.umd.edu. If you want to get right into building and design check out www.builditsolar.com. They have designs best suited to transfer heat to the home, plus ideas for cooling the home with an attached greenhouse as well.

Among all the great building projects you have to choose from this summer, one of them you may want to consider is a tunnel greenhouse. There are low tunnels, that are close to the ground, and High Tunnels, that you can walk around inside.

Building a tunnel greenhouse is a great idea because you can generally keep your veggies and plants growing all through the year. High Tunnels, also called Hoophouses, can be very large, as they were designed to increase the growing season for farmers — see www.hightunnels.org. But the tunnel design is very popular with all levels of growers. This is because it heats up very fast, and has less interior air to heat 'compared to any other shape.

There is no roof to build and less cover is needed for each square foot of growing space. The wind is deflected over it, and the sun will continually, 'directly strike' the green house. This gives it 'maximum heat and light'- see www.northerngreenhouse.com.

Tunnel design raises the temperature a few degrees each day over the period of several weeks. The design is also said to 'insome instances control insects, diseases, and predators such as varmints and birds (www.plasticulture.cas.psu.edu/H-tunnels.html). WWW.TWOWEST.CO.UK has the 'Opaque Tunnel Greenhouse available, it looks well-suited for a home owner. One of our favorite websites is www.frugal-living-freedom.com/greenhouse-kits.html, which features a detailed explanation of how to put together a high tunnel greenhouse.

If you've made it to our site and are reading this post, you probably already knew that it's Earth Hour day!

According to Wikipedia, "Earth Hour is an international event organised by the WWF, and held on the last Saturday of March each year, which asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change." The hour occurs at 8:30 PM, where ever you are, just as it's getting dark (we love daylight savings time)!

If you're getting closer to the hour (it's just 2 hour away for us), before turning off your computer, make sure you check out the official WWF Earthhour site (www.earthhour.org). It's packed with all sorts of real-time updates and content coming in from all over the world– I heard on the news that over 88 countries are participating.

There's also other great activity happening around the web– we liked the Twitter Earthhour tweet-up where greenies all over the place are talking about their experiences with Earth Hour (tweet #earthhour — watch the action here. ). By the way, have you added BuildingGreenTV on twitter yet?

By Guest Author Joe Lederman

In the home design and construction world, there are many additional responsibilities home owners have. Highly regarded throughout the 20th century, asbestos was the pinnacle of building materials, containing flame resistant and durable qualities that industries sought out. Fueling many aspects of life in the United States, environmental sustainability is on the minds of citizens and those involved in construction in many states.

Potential home buyers, designers or those involved in construction should be aware that homes may contain asbestos and other obsolete methods of construction. This isn’t to make you worried because asbestos exposure is easily prevented by taking simple precautions. There are now many green Eco-friendly design alternatives that replace the need for harmful asbestos and can reduce annual energy costs in the home.

If you locate asbestos in the home, you shouldn’t panic. Most asbestos that is in good condition does not pose any health risks. Most experts suggest leaving it undisturbed until an inspector can determine the legitimacy of concerns. Asbestos still regularly appears in roof shingles, dry wall, attic insulation, popcorn ceilings, joint compounds and electrical wires.

Frequent exposure to airborne asbestos fibers may lead to the development of peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare but severe form of asbestos lung cancer. Manufacturers of asbestos were aware of its toxic qualities, but repressed any evidence that demonstrated that. The amount of asbestos incidents has lead to mesothelioma lawyer firms fighting for victim rights. Thousands of workers, citizens and military personnel were wrongfully exposed as a result of the asbestos scandal. This has become known as one of the more formidable cover-ups that took place in the 20th century.

Green: Better for Your Health and Your Pocket

Most people are unaware to the fact that Eco-friendly products can cut energy costs by 25 to 35 % per year. Many cities in the U.S. have created lumberyards which re-store where you can purchase recycled building materials that are authentically strong and inexpensive. Rather than expensive and mal-treated wood, interior walls can be made from steel and concrete, avoiding many of the problems associated with asbestos and other insulation methods. Green alternatives to asbestos include the use of cotton fiber, lcynene foam and cellulose.

Cotton fiber is also becoming a favorite insulation method. Made from recycled batted material, it is then treated to be fireproof. Water based spray polyurethane foam, Icynene, is a healthy insulation which contains no toxic components. These new environmentally-sustainable alternatives create healthier, quieter and more energy efficient homes in the 21st century.

Joe Lederman is the Awareness Coordinator at the Mesothelioma Cancer Center. (www.asbestos.com)

This post was submitted by ThinkDwell. Visit Our Blog.