Extreme Healing Homes: Nontoxic Building Could Cure What Ails You

posted by Robyn Lawrence
Source: care2.com/greenliving

I’m proud that Natural Home was one of the first magazines to recognize the importance of healthy homes. I’ve been in many houses built from natural materials over the years, and I’ve felt the difference that keeping out chemicals and fumes makes. Homeowners who move in with health problems see their symptoms clear after living without ubiquitous toxins such as flame-retardants and formaldehyde.

The people who built and remodeled these three houses were forced by health issues to keep their homes completely free of chemicals, petrochemical fumes and other poisons such as arsenic-treated wood. For all three, better housing has meant better health. Most of us don’t need such extremes, but we can learn a lot from their healthy, nurturing homes—and we might choose differently next time we order curtains.

Casa Natura

Santa Fe, New Mexico 

After a chemical-heavy remodel in the late 1970s made Daryl Stanton sick, she and her daughter fled Los Angeles in a travel trailer retrofitted with all-natural materials. They landed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she opened a store featuring healthy, nontoxic materials and had a chemical-free straw-clay cottage built by Econest Homes. We featured Daryl’s home in 2003, and she now runs Natura Design and Consulting in Nelson, New Zealand. Econest has moved to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.  Photo by Laurie Dickson

Breathable straw-clay walls are covered with light mud plaster dug from nearby Galisteo, textured with mica and straw. Photo by Laurie Dickson

The sofa cushions are stuffed with down and feathers. Antique or recycled tables, chairs and cabinets have had time to shed potentially harmful chemicals. Not having curtains in areas where they’re unnecessary eliminates a dust trap. Photo by Laurie Dickson

An organic mattress, hemp/silk sheets, organic cotton and wool blankets, a plant-dyed hemp/silk bedspread, and hand-dyed hemp/silk pillows keep chemicals out of Daryl’s bed. The metal-free Samina Sleep System bed was designed by an Austrian orthopedist who studied baubiologie (building biology). Photo by Laurie Dickson

Cleanly Colonial

Scottsville, Virginia

 

Linda and Peter Mellen stripped down and rebuilt this 18^th-century 2-over-2 farmhouse south of Charlottesville, Virginia, after the stains and sealers they used to finish their newly built log home triggered Multiple Chemical Sensitivity symptoms in Linda. With the remodel, they eliminated anything made using petroleum or formaldehyde: carpet, plywood, particleboard, stains, sealers and glues When Linda and Peter bought it, termites had eaten through bottom floor; everything sagging and falling in. They used borax and nontoxic Sentricon pest-repellent system when they replaced the home’s joists and its stone and concrete foundation and sided the house with wood from a fallen poplar tree. Photo by Philip Beaurline

 

In the kitchen, new cabinets were made from vintage wood and wainscoting, which was sandblasted by professionals to remove old lead paint. Found behind the wainscoting, 14-inch planks with the original saw marks were re-used for the kitchen walls. Aging red and white oak from the Mellens’ property was used to make new ground-level floors. “We had as few finishes as possible,” Peter says. “We wanted to keep a simplicity, as if the house had been built 150 years ago.” Photo by Philip Beaurline

 

With the renovation, Linda and Peter opened up the farmhouse to bring in passive solar heat gain. Radiant heat eliminates blowing dust, and exterior doors with screens allow for summer cross ventilation. Fans frequently exchange air when the windows are closed. Photo by Philip Beaurline

This simple shed houses the home’s mechanical heart—keeping fumes and allergens out of the house. Heat is pumped to the house through underground water pipes. The building also houses a VACUFLO 460 central vacuum system that doesn’t recirculate dust and dirt because the suction takes place outside. Photo by Philip Beaurline

Shaker It Up

Columbia County, New York 

Cathy Grier was suffering from hepatitis C and needed a place to heal when she built this modern saltbox with her partner, Michele Steckler. She specked nontoxic materials, from untreated lumber to glue, grout, spackle and sealers—and she watched carefully to make sure the builders used them. Decorated with family heirlooms and natural materials, Cathy and Michele’s bright, airy home has the warm feel of a house that’s been around for centuries and has provided the healing space that Cathy needed. Photo by Michael Shopenn

The kitchen’s wood countertops are made from a maple on the property and finished with tung oil, and the wood floors are finished with tung oil and citrus based solvents. Photo by Michael Shopenn

The bedroom has non-VOC paint and organic bedding. Concerned about electromagnetic fields, Cathy installed a “kill” switch, which turns off electricity to the room when she and Michele sleep. Photo by Michael Shopenn

 

Sunlight streams through the great room’s insulated, double-glazed windows and French doors in winter, providing passive solar heat. This room is Michele’s favorite. “It’s the center of the house—a place for hearth, home, food and gathering together,” she says. “It’s where we begin and end our day; it’s where we nap, relax and connect.” Photo by Michael Shopenn

 

This is where I would nap. This shot always brings to mind the Navajo Blessingway Prayer: “May our home be sacred and beautiful, and may our days be beautiful and plenty.” Photo by Michael Shopenn

Robyn Griggs Lawrence writes the daily Natural Home Living blog for Mother Earth News, the original guide to living wisely. The editor-in-chief of Natural Home magazine from 1999 until 2010, Robyn’s goal is to help everyone create a nurturing, healthy and environmentally friendly home. Her book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House, introduces Americans to the 15th-century Japanese philosophy of simplicity, serenity and authenticity