Green Building Tips n’ Tricks

November 16th, 2014 Posted in energy conservation, green construction | No Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!

If you’re contemplating upgrading your simple hovel into a natural palace, you might want to check out these green building tips n’ tricks thoughtfully provided by AbleSkills. Thanks, Ableskills!


View Interactive Version (via Able Skills).

How to Save Money and Make Your House Greener

February 20th, 2014 Posted in energy conservation, green construction, save money | 3 Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!

Hey you. You trying to save some money, AND reduce your impact on the good ol’ planet Earth? Well here are some easy ways to do both, by making your home more efficiency and environmentally friendly.

Some notable tidbits from this nifty infographic:

  • Up to 40% (almost half!) of our drinking water literally goes down the toilet.
  • Low-flow showerheads can use less than half what a normal, wasteful, Earth-hurting showerhead uses
  • Installing good insulation can cut your heating/cooling costs by 30%!! Hot dang.
  • Putting aerators on all your water faucets can cut your water use by up to HALF!

I’ll let you peruse the rest of it at your leisure; chiggity check the helpful picture below:

Eco-friendly house graphic

Image provided by none other than EcoSmartFire dot com.

16-Year-Old Builds His Own Tiny House

September 1st, 2011 Posted in eco hero, green construction, save money | 4 Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!


Have you ever wanted a tiny house of your own, but thought it’d be way too hard to build? What if you found out a 16-year-old (by the name of Austin Hay) was about to finish his very own small home? It’s just 130 square feet, but it’s 100% custom-made, plus has no mortgage!

Not only does it waste a lot less building materials to build (plus use a less resources to maintain) a tiny house, but it can save you a chunk o’ change. As Mr. Hay himself put it, “Living small means less bills, living big means more bills. I don’t want to pay big bills”.

Without further ado, I’ll let Austin take it away and give you a tour of his very own tiny house.

If you’re all pumped up now to go off and build a lil’ casa, take a looksie at this tiny house book, first, just to see what you’re getting into.

Is a Tiny House Right for Me? Little House on a Small Planet

May 10th, 2011 Posted in books, construction, eco footprint, green construction, green living, save money | 2 Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!



A few months back I came home to find a nifty book on the front stoop of one of my houses. After becoming intrigued by the title, Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities, I dove into this tome.

I have to say, I enjoyed reading it a lot. If you have any questions or curiousity about living in a tiny house (or even just a smaller-than-normal house), then I recommend this book. It examines this lifestyle from many different angles, and covered some questions I didn’t even have a clue I had.

I’ll go into some of what’s inside Little House on a Small Planet here, in bullet point form: READ MORE »

Three Cool Earthship Videos: Eco-friendly cheap house

April 13th, 2010 Posted in construction, eco footprint, energy conservation, green construction, reusing, save money, solar power | No Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!


Earthships. The very name conjures up an image of otherworldliness, but there are more earthships around than you might think. Whether you have no idea what an earthship is, or you are an earthship guru, hopefully you can enjoy the following moving pictures (“talkies” as the old-timers say), and maybe even learn a thing or two about these mystical structures.

Earthship Video Uno

Earthship Video Dos

Earthship Video Tres


Dang, now wasn’t that informative? If you feel that your brain can handle yet MORE information about earthships, then head on over to Earthships 101.

Monk Temple built from Reused Glass Bottles

December 6th, 2008 Posted in green construction, reusing | No Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!




One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster. But what about the rest of Thailand? Journey with me, if you please, 370 miles to the north-east of Bangkok to the Wat Pa Maha Chedio KaewSisaket temple (nicknamed Wat Lan Kuad, or “Temple of a Million Glass Bottles”).


Wat Lan Kuad monks started collecting discarded glass bottles way back in 1984 so they could decorate their buildings. Apparently, their creativity with how they reused the glass bottles inspired tourists to start bringing bottles to the temple. Today, their seemingly fragile (yet actually pretty sturdy) temple is infused with over a million reused glass bottles! Hot dang!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of this magnificient temple. It’s purty cool how they used the glass bottles and even the metal caps of the bottles. ¡Disfrute los fotos!





I found out about this from good ol’ Been-Seen, who in turn found out about it from some Yahoo page that don’t exist no more.

Stray Cat House from Reused Wood and Mess

September 16th, 2008 Posted in animals, green construction, projects, reusing | 6 Comments » Make sure you like EcoJoes on Facebook to stay updated on green ways to save money and help the environment. Just click the "like" button below. Muchas gracias!


Right, let’s “cut to the chase”, as “they” say. There’s a stray cat that roams our neighborhood (not Gimpy the stray cat, a different one), and me and Tiff have been feeding him/trying to adopt him for a while. So far he’s not ready to stay in our house, and since the weather is ’bout to start getting chilly, I decided it was high time to build him his very own homemade cat house from reused materials. Luckily I still had a bunch o’ materials left over from our kitchen remodeling, even after making a kitchen cart from reused materials.

First, I cut the floor and walls from some old wood I had from our kitchen remodeling. After some screws n’ glue, this is what I had:
Floor with side walls

I had some carpet left over from mi casa, so I cut out a lil’ chunk and oh-so-carefully fitted it to Charlie’s cat house.
Carpet installation time: 2 seconds!

READ MORE »