Going Green

I visited Maryland's "Green Show" at the state fairgrounds today.

What I haven't mentioned is that next summer, hopefully, a year or two before building a house, I will build a machine shed-with sixty feet of south-facing roof.

My question was, and still is, "Does anybody make an integrated roof panel?" I am looking for a solar panel that will replace the steel on the roof instead of covering it up. I want a building structure solar panel that will last at least fifty years.

I don't ask for much.

A Dome in the Hills

We stayed in this dome in North Carolina-a long way from northern Minnesota, and a lot smaller than we are considering, but it gave us an idea of what life in a circle rather than a square would be like.

A dome, or not?

A house is just a house, right? Square corners, slanted-or flat-roof, rectangular rooms...pretty much like most other houses in the neighborhood. But is that design the most energy efficient? The most visually appealing from the outside? The most welcoming inside? Or is it simply what we are familiar with and therefore, what we all must live in: A rubber-stamp domicile?