Over the years, I’ve noticed myself getting more and more away from miter joints. In fact, just before writing this point, I was contemplating using a miter joint for a detail on our new house, but quickly rejected the thought. In this post, I’ll go in depth on why I think a simple butt joint…
I’m currently in the process of building a new off-grid house, and I often find myself wondering: What kind of house am I building, exactly? It’s too big to be a tiny house; it’s too small and boxy to be a ranch-style house; it’s too lo-fi and lacking amenities, mechanicals, etcetera… to be a modern…
The Internet is full of people demonstrating how to make a smokeless fire pit. The problem is: they’re all using the same design. It’s a good design, but it’s a bit pricey and not exactly the easiest thing to make. Firstly, you need a lot of pavers or solid concrete blocks. At a price of…
A few months ago I built a slab on grade foundation for our new house, so I thought it would be interesting to write an article comparing slab on grade to another common type of foundation: pier on beam. I considered several types of foundations for our new home, including pier on beam, so this…
The last time I bought a bunch of 2×6 studs, I noticed a few studs in my trailer that looked quite a bit shorter than the others. The guy helping load up, quickly snatched them out of the trailer and said, “Oh sorry, I guess some 92s slipped in the pile.” He was referring to…
My wife, who also happens to be my editor – I don’t exactly have a payroll for this blog – was reviewing an article I wrote the other day, and had no choice but to admit she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. It’s kind of hard to edit something when everything…
When I was a kid, there was this new-construction, two-story house down the street from us. It was your typical Florida build – slab on grade, concrete block, etc… The second story was stick-framed, of course. It was fascinating watching the process, but then… one day… nothing. Construction stopped. Days turned to weeks, weeks turned…
Portable solar generators have come a long way since I first started writing about them more than four years ago. They’ve advanced so much, no longer are they just an emergency backup power supply for small appliances; the models I am going to share with you in this post could power a small house, if…
I recently wrote an article comparing fiberglass insulation to stone wool. It seemed like a fair comparison because they are both mineral wools that are typically installed in cavities as batts. Today, I thought it would be fun to do a similar comparison of cellulose and denim because they are both eco friendly insulations made…
I spent a long time thinking about whether I’m going to use Rockwool or fiberglass batt insulation in the new house that I’m building. After lots of research, I decided on fiberglass, and in this article I’m going to explain exactly why. Many consumers assume Rockwool is far superior to fiberglass, but what they don’t…
