This is an awesome innovative green tip we stumbled upon recently. It's the inspiring story of Terezinha Silva and how she is helping her community in São Paulo, Brazil. Here is an innovative idea of how to safely reuse rain water for the use of "gardens, cleaning, (and) flushing your toilet." This may or may not make the garden plan, but seeing how the drought is affecting a lot of us here in California - it doesn't seem like a bad plan.

To read the full article, click here.

Every now and then, we catch a visual force of nature online that inspires elements of the house. This video, in particular, touches upon two themes/projects the home will have: a LIBRARY and an ARTIST WORKSHOP. The colors and design of the video are also inspirational elements. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

To see the full article and site where this video was found, click here.

One of the first things we did after finding out that we would be getting a fixer-upper home, was have a couple of beers and cheer. We celebrated for about two minutes and then it "sinked" in. Okay, we have a home...now what? 

A couple of Blue Moons and cocktails later we drew up chicken scratch blue-prints on bar napkins with a list of our priorities. What do we want to focus on first? 

Thankfully, Amos is a real estate broker and has taken architecture courses. Additionally, my father has been a licensed contractor in the Los Angeles area since the mid-80s, and I am familiar with the world of construction and its terminology. The two of us put their heads together and voilà!  

It came down to the basics:

• Are the pipes in order?  + Any water damage?
• Are the alarms set up properly: fire, carbon monoxide, etc. 
• Roofing + clearing palm tree leaves off roof + Leaking?
• Wiring + Electricity (any needed updates and protection)
• How properly sealed are the windows? 

This is because one of our priorities during this process is conservation, being water-wise, re-using/recycling material already in the house, and being efficient. Meantime, we're about 3 months away from being able to even take pictures of the property, properly measure it, and do a walk thru with Luis, our licensed contractor/my dad. We are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. 

Looking forward to sharing more of the pre-production with you! 

Hello! This is Rosa of "Casa Amos Rosa." Amos and I are moving into a new home in June 2015 and we're super excited and kind of nervous about the whole process. Who are we? Just a couple of goofballs trying to grow up together. Oh, and along for the ride will be my sister Jacko, who will also be living with us and sharing the experience through photography.  One of our contractors will be non other than my father; who is going to help us make the house smoking hot. Well, actually we're going for a cozy colorful feel. We'll also be soliciting help from friends in the Los Angeles area (who have gone through this process before), and we will also be attempting "Do It Yourself" tasks (God help us). Join us for the ride! 

As of today, this is what we have to work with:

1. 2 bedorooms
2. 1 office
3. Entry/library
4. Living room
5. Dining Room
6. Kitchen
7. Laundry Room
8. Back yard space

Let's see what comes of it.