So since I recently found my new favorite real estate website we’re going to have to visit at least once in a while. Or at least until we all our own great green abodes.
My green picks of the week include:
This Off-Grid Solar Mountain Retreat Dome Home in Saguache, Colorado. Domes already have that unique flavor going for them. This one is extra special due to that cool offset doorway. Very slick. Plus, I do like the color, which seems to have been kept natural, yet looks sort of orange.

Learn more about this off-grid solar home.
My second green pick this week …read more

This last week and a half we saw some new treehouses – not as many as I’d have liked. You know, I don’t think Offbeat is the kind of place that suits series. I spend all week thinking about what I could post if we weren’t doing a series. Hmmm, maybe no more. In any case, we have seen plenty of treehouses over the week, and over time here, so in case you missed something here’s a round-up.  

Snapshot: Old School Beauty
It’s a Love Shack, Baby!
Tree Houses of Korowai
A Different Kind of Treehouse
Baumraum Designer Treehouses
Okinawa’s Treehouse Restaurant
Bestest. Treehouse. Ever.
Gotham …read more

For the last 2 years, the pilot study rating for residential LEED has been going on. Now the U.S. Green Building Council has the revised residential LEED rating goals and system ready to go. The revised system’s goal is to help architects and designers achieve a whole house approach to green living.
LEED has traditionally been applied to commercial structures – and some don’t think the LEED standards are entirely well thought out. Still, there are obvious benefits if we can achieve green homes, and LEED is offering one checklist for that goal. This is a good tool for consumers …read more

If you haven’t guessed yet; it’s Blog Action Day. At last count (I’m not updating all day so…) but at the last count there were 15,568 blogs signed up to participate with a total rss reach of 12,507,731. Not bad. That’s a whole lot of bloggers blogging about the environment. Many bloggers participating are part of the b5media network.
Following are the b5media blogs that are participating in this fine event today. There could be more too — yup, I miss stuff.

Hippie Sounds
Tree Hugging Family
Simply Thrifty
Declutter It!
The Golden Pencil
Yielding Wealth
Daytime Talk
Oz Music Scene
The Sydney Traveler
The Rock Dose
Our Digital Music
Copyblogger
Problogger
Quilting and Patchwork
Alzheimer’s …read more

Usually when I feel like going somewhere else it’s Humboldt or Montana. Then, every once in a while, I start feeling like a sprinkle of San Francisco. It’s a crowded city which I don’t adore but even with all the people it still feels large around you.
The thing about the city is you can walk everywhere still. Once I stayed in this awesome hostel on the edge of China Town and I’d walk to the Haight, the park, and than over to SOMA. At twilight you could walk to the water and see the bridge starting to twinkle.
And then of …read more

Today we’re going to continue with more of Michael Jantzen’s work. As noted yesterday, it’s hard to pick favorites, but when I first saw Jantzen’s designs, his Wind Shaped Pavilion was the one of the designs that first drew me in. So, I’m sharing that one today. The other design I picked to share was inspired by a readers comment — but more on that later.
The Wind Shaped Pavilion:

What I like about this design is that it’s not static. Literally. From Jantzen’s site:
“The Wind Shaped Pavilion is a design proposal for a large fabric structure that …read more