Ahoy mateys!

Pirate-themed house in
California listed for $1.88 million

Pirates sure know how to decorate, even if they argh

on dry land. This Spanish-style Hacienda estate in
Riverside, California has a swashbuckling spirit, with
five bedrooms, five bathrooms and a lagoon-style pool.
The mansion is currently listed for $1.88 million and is

rife with nautical decor.

Each room of the house opens onto a lush courtyard,
with palm trees, seating areas and a fountain depicting
a group of scantily-clad women raising a bucket of
grapes above their heads. The formal living and dining
areas are brimming with antiques, artwork and ornate
chandeliers. The kitchen recently underwent a quartermillion dollar renovation and boasts custom cabinetry,
stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and a
pair of wooden mermaids flanking the hood range.
The bar and games room is welcome to scallywags
and scurvy dogs alike, with a billiard table, slot
machines, poker table and a life-size figure of a pirate
swinging from a rope. A nearby hallway is lined with
antique liquor bottles were guessing rum is the
owners drink of choice. Theres also a 16-seat

theatre and a wine cave that holds over 2,500

bottles.

The master suite is a bit less theatrical, with a flat

screen TV, working fireplace, walk-in closet, gym
and a newly installed euro shower. The guest
bedroom, which the owner refers to as the Captains
Quarters, features wood walls and a ceiling with
exposed beams, stained glass windows, an elegant
four-poster bed and a large desk for spreading out
navigational charts.
Outside, theres an expansive pool area with four
waterfalls, a water slide, stream and private grottos.
The barbecue and bar are covered by a shade
structure, while the pool house provides extra seating,
and yes, even more pirate memorabilia.
For those with an interest in celestial navigation, there
is a rooftop observatory with a new 14 telescope, mini
fridge, television and bunk beds. Other notable
features include a G-Scale model railroad, koi ponds
and a 10kw solar panel system.
Fancy a career as a buccaneer? The listing price has
been reduced by $410,000 since it was first put up for
sale in October of 2015. Check out more photos of the
estate below:

Houses built from scrap

.

As inspiration for realizing how beautiful

other ways of looking at our current way
of living are, 12 astoundingly cool houses
built from scrap.

This house built out of 25,000 recycled

bottles cemented together is situated in CapEgmont, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Photo by
Keith Watson via Flickr.
.

Many earthships have ingenious water

recycling systems, solar panels for free

energy, and greenhouses for free food. It

may come as a surprise to you that some of
these 100% sustainable buildings have
amenities many traditional buildings not
even have

Apart from building a tropical island, plastic

PET bottles are very useful for building walls
too. This home created by the Alfredo Santa
Cruz family in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina,
consists of thousands of plastic bottles.
According to the building, Casa de Botellas is a
tool for promoting ecological and social
responsibility. Via Planet Magazine.

Figure-

Earthships are ultra-sustainable homes built

from recycled trash such as bottles, tires,
aluminum cans, and other litter. The cans and
bottles are filled with soil and then plastered
over with natural mud.
Interesting fact, many of these seemingly
primitive structures around Taos, Mexico use
solar panels or small wind turbines to create
renewable electricity. Image credit and more
info at Laurel Kallenbachs blog.

FigureSpiral Island is the name of a floating artificial

island built in Mexico by British artist Richart
Rishi Sowa. Completely build out of plastic
bottles inserted in bags.
The island consists of two layers of these bags
with soil in between and on top of it. Thus
enabling vegetation to grow creating a root

system that keeps the island more tightly

together.
In 2005 hurricane Emily completely destroyed
Spiral island version 1 but Sowa didnt give up
and picked up his project naming the second
version Joyxee Island.

Victor Moore built The Junk Castle completely

out of scraps and salvaged materials he found

on a nearby junkyard. The artist and high

school teacher started building the place in
1970 at a total cost of only $500.
The fairy-tale-like structure is situated atop a
defunct rock quarry in Washington state. Photo
by David Patterson via Inhabitat.

This house built out of 25,000 recycled

bottles cemented together is situated
in Cap-Egmont, Prince Edward Island,
Canada. Photo by Keith Watson via Flickr.

This (not so) tiny home is built with two

reclaimed shipping containers and some

additional material to create the part that

merges the two partially opened up containers
to one stunning home.
This eco-friendly small house has a patio deck
and is just one of the best container homes
weve seen so far. Check out TinyHouseTalk for
more photos.

Dan Phillips has built many houses from trash.

Make sure to watch his entertaining and pretty
funny TED Talk presentation too.(at the end of
this post).
Dan puts it eloquently, Although its a small
contribution to nature, hopefully it can have a
deep impact on our consciousness to treasure our
mother earth. Take a tour of this beautiful
house here.

Evictions are of all times but since the financial

crisis the amount of people that got evicted
and was forced to live in tents grew
exponentially. So while tent cities are nothing
new we might pose that considering
the increasing wealth inequality in America tent
cities may be here to stay. (I highly recommend
watching the video on wealth inequality if you
havent seen it yet).

Modern day tent camp dwellers are far from

just drug addicts and the mentally ill. You can
find veterans, college graduates, and middle
class families who have fallen on hard times in
the encampements in woods, parks, under
bridges, and other locations.
On itself a sad sign of our modern times but an
outrageous development when you realize that
governments are trying to shut down tent
cities, effectively evicting people again, this
time from their tents.
It gets even worse, some cities pass ordinances
that ban camping on city-owned and
residential property and prevent anyone from
sleeping, bathing and shaving in public
restrooms.
Where will it end? Will the contrasts between
poor and rich continue to grow until we end up
in a situation comparable to the one outlined in

the dystopian flick Elysium? Or will new

technologies such as 3D printing, nano tech,
and others close the gap? Whats your take?

3D Printing is the future. In China they recently

3D-printed 10 houses in a single day and they
areprinting a canal house in Amsterdam as we
speak. It wont take that long before we will
print almost anything. These 3-D printed
portable houses are designed for commuters.
The idea is to place these homes next to office
buildings or factories.
The German creators think they will be able to
fit in a bathroom, kitchen and sleeping space.
The pods ar made of sand and special binder.

The surface of the house can collect the water

and use for heating, cooling and toilet system
by the water that runs through the capillaries
in the walls. Via NBC News.

SKY CITIES

Cities are getting bigger, land is getting more

valuable and building techniques are
increasing in unsurmounted pace. The result?
Skyscrapers that literally tower above the
clouds housing thousands and thousands of
people.
Containing whole cities, including indoor farms,
hospitals, gyms, police stations and all other

things necessary (including pool bridges for the

not so faint of heart). Often, the richer you are
the higher you live. The cleaners and other
service personnel are living at the lowest
On the photo: Sky Habitat capitaland, Bishan
Singapore. Heres a short video impression.

Transportable houses

As we are working more from home (and we

are losing jobs to machines) portable homes
are becoming a more viable option for many.
Architects are anticipating such developments
resulting in beautiful new forms of living.
Again from Spanish studio Abaton is this
tranportable house named APH80.
Transported by road this pre-fab home can be
placed almost anywhere. The home features a
living-room/kitchen, a full bathroom and
double bedroom. Its large doors and windows
bring the outdoors inside thus blending ind
with the environment. Prices start at 21,900.

Urban off-grid communities

No solar panels so no electricity. Some tents

are isolated allowing people to live here even in
the cold Berlin winters. One of the most harsh
alternative home environments. On the other
hand it is located in Kreuzberg near the
Oberbaumbrucke, one of the most fun districts

in Berlin. Theres even a hostel, you can sleep

in a tent for 1 euro, breakfast included

Tiny

houses

(and

dedicated

parks)

Tiny homes are the perfect example of people

taking control of their lifes. By downszing they
areable to step out of the rat race. Less costs for
utitilities, less rent, and increased mobility

provide freedom. Breaking the shackles of the

crumbling and progressively stifling system.
The big question that rises, where to put your
tiny home? Dedicated tiny home parks dont
exist. This is because the same land, when
allocated as tourist designation is far more
profitable. So offten they are parked at friends,
or arrangements are made with land owners in
change for some maintenance work.
Tiny house movement pioneer Jay Shafer is
working on the first community based tiny
homes park in Sonoma, California. The village
of tiny houses bears the working
title Napoleon Complex with the
byline cohousing for the antisocial. ( really like
that name and, have to admit that the tagline
appeals to me too)

Shipping container homes

Upcycling is hip yes. Its a trend started by the

environmental movement that is currently
embraced by an increasing portion of the
world population.

Its much more than a fad though, its a logical

development. The practice of mass producing
building materials while at the same time
discarding vast amounts of useful materials
such as shipping containers as waste is just
insane.
And if you look at what can be done with
only two shipping containers and some
material to create a connection youll be
amazed. (check out the interior on photo 5,6,
and 7)
Visit Inthralld for an eco, off the grid
version of a shipping container home. Or
check out this post for some amazing homes
built with recycled material.

Rural off grid communities

Slab City is located on an abandoned World

War II navy base in the Colorado desert,
California. The city of snowbirds and squatters
is mainly occupied in winter by RV owners and
squatters. During the summer, when the
desert turns into an oven, most inhabitants
migrate to cooler climates.

The city that exists outside society has no

toilets or sewers, no electricity, and is both
decommissioned and uncontrolled. It is known
for its artwork such as East Jesus and Salvation
Mountain and open air nightclub The Range.