MNN - Mother Nature Network

Grist explores how to make a residence of limited square footage work for the kiddos. Writes Jennifer Langston: " ... when my family had our day of reckoning about whether we would stay put or move, what did we do? We refinanced into a smaller mortgage payment and started counting the days until our 4-year-old would be coordinated enough not to fall out of a loft bed. Why? Because like many people who’ve opted to live in smaller spaces, it gives us flexibility to do other things with our time and money. I wish I could say it has redefined our relationship with stuff, but our basement allows for a lot of overflow." 

 

Smart Planet digs into Philip Jodidio's latest corpulent, coffee table-ready title for Taschen titled "Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air."

 

The Atlantic Cities braces itself  for a look at The Citadel, a "highly idealistic" and self-sufficient development planned for northern Idaho that, according to Kaid Benfield, possesses many "hallmarks of a textbook sustainable community." Oh, and I should probably mention that the HOA-less, property tax-less "Community of Liberty" of up to 7,000 potential households has the thumbs up from Glenn Beck (and shouldn't be confused with the TV pundit/crazy person's own Disney-inspired intentional living community/theme park, Independence, USA). Anyhoo, the Citadel is walled and fortified, to live there you have to carry a firearm, and strictly no "Marxists, Socialists, Liberals, and Establishment Republicans" allowed. Patriots only!

 

Architizer compiles a list of "Groundhog Architecture: 10 Houses to Ring in Spring." In other words, these are "houses that photograph real well in the springtime." Prepare yourself for plenty of grass, blue skies, and Photoshopping involving large rodents. 

Curbed shares "10 Bonkers States About the World's Most Expensive House."(Remember Antilia, Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani's 398,000-square-foot skyscraper/private residence on chichi Altamont Road in Mumbai?) Where should we even begin? For starters, it has a staff of 600, a six-floor garage, nine high-speed elevators, and a helicopter control center. Seems like pretty average amenities to me.

 

The Los Angeles Times chats chicken with Matthew Wolpe and Kevin McElory, mod coop designers and authors of the just-published DIY book "Reinventing the Chicken Coop." Says Wolpe: "Chickens are a symbol of the local food movement. We wanted to design chicken coops that would make a statement and that people would be proud of.”

 

TreeHugger goes searching for sustainability at this year's Interior Design Show in Toronto and comes away mostly empty handed.

 

The New York Times conquers the stairs at a rather lovely — albeit spendy — water tower conversion project in London's Elephant and Castle neighborhood. Owners Graham Voce and Leigh Osborne forked over about $3.2 million in remodeling/rebuilding costs in an effort to transform the landmark brick structure built in 1867 into a stylish modern home.