Gower Design - Custom Home Designs - Building, Property & Homeowners Links

This "links" page is in the process of becoming a "mini-portal" that leads to other places on the web that provide information about house plans and home design. We've selected these links because we believe they will be valuable to people who want to create beautiful and sustainable homes. We'll continue to develop this collection of links, so check back from time to time to see what we've added.

Building & Maintenance
Fine Homebuilding Online: Tools, Techniques, Materials, and Design
ImproveNet: Everything you need to succeed with home improvement.
Sunlight Homes: This Southwest US-based design-build company offers complete custom home packages with an emphasis on comfort, functionality, design aesthetics, and lots of natural light. See their great section on "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander et al, an excellent source book for ideas on house design.
The Radiant Design Institute: Information about radiant heat used in a variety of contexts.
Building Green Inc.: Environmental Building News: A subscription based resource for energy-efficient, resource-efficient, and healthy building practices
Oikos: The Green Building Source
ToolBase Services: The housing industry's resource for technical information on building products, materials, new technologies, business management, and housing systems.
Hometime: This site has a great "how-to" section on basic home repairs.
Advanced Water Filters: Quality water filters, including shower and whole house systems, are available at Advanced Water Filters.

Building Products
Good Shepherd Wool: A site discussing the benefits of wool insulation.
Bonded Logic: Natural insulation materials. LEED certified.
The Tile Doctor: Lots of information about installing tile.

Building Technology
NOVA Independent Resources Ltd.: This British Columbia-based company provides a wide range of products for remote living including renewable (solar and wind) energy systems, micro hydro, composting toilets and more.
IDUS Home Conserve Pump Home and Garden Systems: iDUS Controls Ltd. develops award winning water recycling products that make it easy to reduce and recycle water consumed in and around your home. Delivering water recycling solutions that are reliable, affordable and easy to use, iDUS products help you reduce your water bill, and protect the environment by conserving your local water resources.

Design, Decorating & Interiors
Designs in Tile: Many images and useful information about traditional and creative uses of tile.
Novica: National Geographic's site of carefully selected hand crafted home furnishings and gifts.

Gardening & Outdoors
Online Garden Service: Landscape designer Viktorie Hladik, owner of Bloom Garden Design, provides an online garden design service "tailor-made to your property and your expectations".
Natural Home and Garden: A site exploring native plants, and sustainable gardening techniques. Although this site contains information related to Oregon, it pertains to gardening in the Pacific Northwest, and contains a lot of information useful to sustainable gardeners everywhere.
Bullfrog Spas and Hot Tubs: Bullfrog Spas strives to be earth-friendly in every way possible. Each hot tub is built using systems, materials, and technology that are energy efficient and environmentally safe.
Allscapes Horticultural Services: Creating designed spaces that open and close with the seasons—an ongoing celebration reflected in a ray of sunlight, the bloom of a flower, or the shadow of a leaf.

Organizations
The Small House Society: A cooperatively managed and sustained global organization dedicated to the promotion of tiny houses and small house solutions that are affordable and ecologically responsible.
A Pattern Language.com: Information on Christopher Alexander and his books, "A Pattern Language" and "The Nature of Order", among others.
The Arts & Crafts Society: Offers a range of historical and contemporary sources on the Arts & Crafts Movement as well as an active forum, bookstore, and marketplace.

Prefabricated Building Companies
AJIA Canadian Building Systems Inc.: DESIGN→SUPPLY→DELIVER→SET-UP, AJIA offers Canadian-made prefabricated house packages shipped to anywhere in the world.
Chateau Building Products Ltd.: Chateau Building Products Ltd is a manufacturer and exporter of Canadian building technology, panelized homes and building materials, using BC species in all of their products.
Pacific Homes: This Vancouver-Island based company is a division of Pacific Building Systems and benefits from an in-house truss plant, panel shop and building supply store.Packages can be shipped anywhere on the Coast or throughout Western Canada.
Insulspan: For over 30 years, Insulspan has been an industry leader in the development and manufacture of structural insulated panels.

Real Estate & Finance
Green Mortgage Guide - Canada: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
- United States: Mortgageloan.com
BC Waterfront Real Estate: BC's Premier marketplace for Waterfront and Water View properties.
Reals.com: "The Most Comprehensive Real Estate Directory On The Web!"

Sustainability & Green Building
Oasis Design: Applies ecological principles to the design of everyday hardware and systems to make them more efficient and elegant. They publish a number of useful books on the topic of grey water use and offer design consulting services with a focus on integrated water, wastewater, energy and landscaping systems in interesting, extreme sites.
Metropolis Mag Online: Has a section on urban sustainability and lots of interesting articles on home design.
Rocky Mountain Institute: A series of useful reference articles on sustainable home design and sustainable living.
Renewable Choice Energy: A good reference page on wind power in the United States.
Canadian Wind Energy Association: The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) is a non-profit trade association that promotes the appropriate development and application of all aspects of wind energy in Canada, including the creation of a suitable policy environment.
E3 EcoGroup: Simplifying the complex world of Sustainable building and renovations for home owners, builders, designers and architects.
Title 24 Online: Offers California Title 24 energy compliance calculations and Title24 reports for commercial and residential projects to engineers, architect, designers, contractors and homeowners.
BC Sustainable Energy Association: The mission of BC SEA is to facilitate the transition to a sustainable energy future in British Columbia through education, advocacy and tangible community projects.
Cascadia Green Building Council: Striving to become a leading force in green building by forging alliances with organizations that have a stake in the future of this region.
Home Wind Turbines: - Positioning to be the largest social network for the wind turbine community where the public and the wind energy profession can come together to get advice, share ideas and network for career advancement.
BC Hydro Energy Conservation Assistance Program: The Energy Conservation Assistance Program (ECAP) will provide qualified low-income BC Hydro residential account holders with a home energy evaluation, the installation of energy saving products, and personalized energy efficiency advice. All of this is free of charge to the participant.
Found Solutions : Found Solutions provides sustainability consulting for non-profits, companies, government institutions, and private individuals. Jason Found draws upon his diverse background to deliver solutions that are uniquely suited to your specific needs.
The WaterPage: Powered by Water: A Resource Guide to Hydroelectricity. The Water Page is an independent initiative dedicated to the promotion of sustainable water resources management and use. A particular emphasis is placed on the development, utilisation and protection of water in Africa and other developing regions.

Sustainable Culture
Farm Folk / City Folk: FarmFolk/CityFolk Society is a non-profit society that works with farm & city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system.

Timber Frame Companies
Hamill Creek Timberwrights Inc: A full service timber frame supplier based in the beautiful Lardeau Valley of BC's West Kootenay.
Island Timber Frame: Innovative Timber Work & Design based in Cumberland, in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Purcell Timber Frames: Full timber frame home packages, barns and carports, roof systems, components and architectural details. "The Art and Craft of Structure"
Spearhead Timberworks: Spearhead Timberworks is a multi-faceted design, project management and value added wood manufacturing company based in Nelson, B.C.

Directories & Portals
Sustainable Building Sourcebook: Energy and water conservation, green building materials, waste reduction.
The Not So Big House: A site devoted to promotion of the ideas in the popular book by the same name.