Jill and Charles have created a beautiful off-grid yurt homestead in Vermont, on a forested hillside, with solar power, rainwater collection and a rocket mass heater. But this project didn't come together overnight – it's the result of over 8 years of planning and working towards this dream of theirs! You can follow and find out more about Jill and Charles's off-grid yurt homestead here: https://www.youtube.com/@OvertheRiverandThroughtheWoods It all started 8 years ago when they visited Vermont to look at properties and ended up buying a beautiful forested 20 acre piece of land. They went home ..read more

Check out our Earthsip playlist with lots of fascinating stories of people building and living in them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLslKBpzJILeszhgpmnHfNQwoRgAcXYBXr Earthships are one of the more beautiful, ambitious and labour-intensive types of alternative homes that we’ve seen people build. The goal with an Earthship is that the home would be completely self-sufficient in terms of its inputs and outputs. The concept and design came from Michael Reynolds, who is an architect in New Mexico. They’re built using waste products like old tires, bottles and pop cans, and natural materi ..read more

This beautiful 300 square foot tiny house is the perfect combination of three things: a super clever layout, lovingly hand-crafted details, and an uber cozy interior design. Some of the highlights include handmade wooden windows that add character and bring in loads of natural light, a downstairs bedroom that you can stand up in, a spacious wrap around kitchen for cooking and baking, loads of useful storage spaces throughout the house, and unique features like a round window, hand plastered walls with reclaimed wood touches, and more! You can follow and find out more about Nick's tiny house bu ..read more

Amber has been living in her tiny house for 4 years and has no regrets about downsizing to a smaller home on wheels! To start, she did a ton of research and then worked with a builder to bring her vision to life by customizing one of their standard floor plans. She is parked in a beautiful forested area that has a well and electricity, and space for her two small dogs to run around. You can follow and find out more about Amber here: https://www.instagram.com/ambernaturally/ https://www.adaptdaily.ca/ The tiny house has a beautiful and functional kitchen because Amber cooks 90% of her own meals ..read more

Watch full video here: https://youtu.be/Hz6qomFM_dw Passive House is an incredible building standard for designing and certifying energy efficient buildings, including homes, schools, hospitals, offices, and more. Passive House uses these five green building techniques to reduce the energy required for heating and cooling by up to 90% (compared to a conventional home): - Highly insulated building envelope - High performance triple glazed windows - Elimination of thermal bridges - Continuous air sealed layer - Heat recovery ventilation To learn more about passive house, and to get a peek inside ..read more

Pam and Dave bought an old disassembled grain silo and converted it into a stunning round tiny house. They lived off-grid in the home for 4 years using solar power for electricity, a well for water, a composting toilet, and propane for heat and hot water. You can visit and find out more about the silo here: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/840547780717448346 The barn home has a small mud room for coats, boots, and cleaning supplies, and then the main round space is an open concept multi-use space with a living room, dining room and a kitchen with a pantry built into the staircase. Upstairs they hav ..read more

This might be the BEST tiny house ever! It's a compact size at only 25 feet long, but it packs in a massive chef's kitchen, loads of built-in storage, a spacious bathroom, a cozy living room nook, a master loft with standing head room, and a spare loft for kids, guests or storage. It was built by Devin Heck on Vancouver Island, BC – he's a red seal carpenter who builds tiny homes in his spare time. This is his second DIY tiny home and he has a third underway. Not only is the design incredibly functional and liveable, but the price he sold it for is very reasonable at $120,000 CAD (approx. $87 ..read more

Watch full video here: https://youtu.be/Y_WJcQCs3yQ In this video we’ve rounded up 10 alternative housing ideas, including Yurts, Earthships, float homes, natural buildings, tiny houses, and more. Plus we share some pros and cons about each one. We’ve been exploring and filming alternative homes for close to 10 years now and we’ve seen hundreds of incredible and unique spaces, so we have a lot to share! We just want to quickly mention that “alternative housing” for us is anything that’s a little bit different. For example it might be a different building technique, material, or size. It’s also ..read more

Alicia is an extreme minimalist living in San Diego, California. Over the past 10 years she has gone through many phases of decluttering and this is the simplest she's ever lived. She is furniture-free, so there is furniture in her apartment (no couch, no bed frame). Just a futon mattress on the floor and a folding chair on her balcony. She also has a minimalist wardrobe, all of her photos and documents have been digitized, and she lives without a TV, computer or wifi (she does have a cell phone). You can follow and find out more about Alicia's ultra minimalist lifestyle here: https://www.yout ..read more

Watch the full tour here: https://youtu.be/BqV6lUOVCr0 In this video, we’re touring a unique 1-bedroom home that was built with a 53’ foot used shipping container. It’s called a Plunk Pod, because it’s built completely off-site, and designed to be plunked down and ready to use wherever it’s needed, whether that’s in a backyard with full hookups, or in a remote location with off-grid systems. You can find out more about these Plunk Podz, and see more container and prefab homes built by Northern Shield on their website and social media: https://nsd-corp.ca/ https://www.instagram.com/northernshie ..read more