Utah House

Last Thursday My family and I went on a little field trip to a place called “Utah House”. This is a home that was built by the Utah State University Extension to bring awareness and education to the community about the different types of alternative building and landscaping systems that are available. I’ve wanted to go there for some time, and was very happy with what I saw. The home is essentially a showcase, and has information available in various locations around the house. I loved the clerestory roof that they built in the home, the use of recycled building materials such as the recycled glass counters and window moldings and the solar lights that were in place in the bathrooms. (On a side note, my parents recently put one of these in their home in a room we always called “the dungeon” because it was always dark, even though it had a south facing window, due to the ugly behemoth condo that was built 15 ft away in the next lot. It made a huge difference in that room by bringing the sun in from above and I gained a great appreciation for them.) What would normally be a garage, were the house actually lived in, is a classroom where instruction on alternative building and landscaping techniques can be taught to K-12 kids as well as contractors and architects. This room was built with ICF’s and had one straw bale wall to show different possibilities. They didn’t leave a “truth window” however, and I would have loved to been able to see into the wall at least to demonstrate how the walls differ from traditional ones.

Overall, I had a great time, and would recommend it to others. Here’s a Photo Tour of the home, and on the previous link there is a lot of good information to be had.

P~