MNN - Mother Nature Network

AOL Real Estate chats with Angie Hill, the brave soul who purchased and gut rehabbed a down-and-out Los Angeles bungalow with a scurry cinematic past: 22 years prior, Hill's home on Elm St. N.Genesse Ave. was the same spot where No-Doz-popping horror movie heroine Nancy Thompson went head to head with some ugly looking dude named Freddy Krueger. When Hill bought the famous filming location it was in a total state of disrepair, casting off both "weird energy" and an "oppressive odor." So she burnt some sage, rolled up her sleeves, and embarked on a massive, year-long renovation project. Apparently, she's finally gotten around to going into the basement.

 

The Hairpin provides instructions on how to assemble an IKEA bookshelf. Step number nine: "Deconstruct everything and start over."

 

Dwell pays a visit to a tiny green home set amidst the great big landscape of rural Ontario.

 

Gizmag is intrigued by HomeBox, a portable wooden abode from Germany that fits snuggly inside of a shipping container. When not in transit HomeBox is actually placed upright, not on its side, making it "reminiscent of a small tower, requiring significantly less space than regular compact homes."

 

TreeHugger applauds an "exciting and ground-breaking" partnership between Blu Homes and Homeward Bound Marin that will bring truly affordable green prefabs to the nation's fifth most affluent county. Although "poor" and "Marin County" aren't two words you'd normally see together, the supportive housing project dubbed Oma Village will consist of 14 compact, high-performance modular homes in a community-centric environment. Each net-zero-aspiring residence will be rented for $500 to $600 per month to families transitioning out of homelessness.  

 

The Wall Street Journal travels to the 20th annual Texas Mesquite Art Festival where the much-maligned shrub — a "trash tree" — is put to good, non-BBQ related use. At the festival, visitors will find handcrafted mesquite furniture and questionable objecs d'art aplenty. Says furniture maker Roger Ellison of the cursed tree: "Deep down inside, it says something about us as Texans. We're fiercely independent, rugged and maybe a little hardheaded. People look at that wood and kind of see themselves."

 

The Smithsonian offers a dispatch from the formidable decorating jobs file: making a retired missile silo looking a touch more homey. You can read  more about the retired missile silo in question here.

 

The Los Angeles Times has the deets on the newly launched California Paint Stewardship Program, a recycling/take-back scheme for unwanted/unused housepaint. 

 

The Atlantic Cities takes a look at a most unusual, October-appropriate "Beneficial Reuse of the Day:" Bricks made from sand and cow blood. 

 

Co.Exist is digging the latest from humanitarian-minded industrial design superstar, Yves Béhar: The Sodastream Source. The Source, a new release from the popular manufacturer of fizzy water-makin' gizmos, can save the average home about 550 plastic bottles per year, and, as Ariel Schwartz puts it, "makes conservation look sexy."

 

Curbed gets a new weekly green architecture/real estate columnist.