Construction
The big goals are to be self-sufficient, sustainable, comfortable, and off the grid.
General
- Autodesk Instructables, Backyard Projects - a wealth of ideas with tutorials by the builders
- School of Natural Building, Resources & Research
- Pin-Up Houses Plans
Wood
- YASUHIRO TV, 40 Simple Circular Saw Hacks | Japanese Woodworking
- Lee Wallender, the Spruce, Learn the Basics of Floor Joist Spans
- The Handmade Home, Building a Handmade Hideaway
- Family Handyman, 8 Tips for Building a Deck That Will Last for Decades
Bamboo
Plastic
- Autodesk Instructibles, Milk Jug Vacuum Forming - Recycled HPDE Plastic
- HubPages, How to Build a Milk Jug Igloo - also, Ideas2Live4, Making an Adorable Milk Jug Igloo With Kids – DIY Style 101 has lots of photos
- Autodesk Instructibles, How to Recycle HDPE Plastic the Easy Way
Masonry
- Mike Day Concrete — YouTube Playlists
- This Old House, The Basics of Masonry
- This Old House, How to Make Concrete → "While there is a bit of leeway, making your own concrete requires following a certain recipe. Using your smaller bucket as a measuring cup, dump a ratio of 3 buckets of sand to 2 buckets of gravel to 1 bucket of portland cement into your wheelbarrow. You can make as much or as little concrete as you’d like, as long as you follow the 3:2:1 ratio."
- hunker, How to Make Lightweight Concrete Using Styrofoam → "Lightweight concrete, also known as EPScrete (expanded polystyrene concrete), is a material widely used in the building of environmentally "green" homes. The substance is often made using small Styrofoam balls as a lightweight aggregate instead of the crushed stone that is used in regular concrete. While it isn't as strong as stone-based concrete mixes, it has several advantages over the more traditional mix. EPScrete has increased insulation properties, and because it's up to 88 percent lighter than stone-based concrete, it has smaller structural support needs such as foundation sizes and steel reinforcement requirements."
- Wikipedia, Rastra → "Rastra created the name Insulating COMPOUND Concrete Form (ICCF), used to make walls for buildings. It is one of the earliest such products, first patented in 1965 in Austria. Rastra is in production since 1972, and is composed of concrete and Thastyron. Thastyron is a mixture of plastic foam and cementitious binder that is composed of eighty-five percent recycled post consumer polystyrene waste that is molded into blocks and panels."
- Rastra, ICCF Insulated Compound Concrete Form
- The Cool Down, These light, ultra-powerful bricks are made of sugar — and there’s a big reason they may replace concrete in our buildings
