Homes and Hues

A House You'll Want, For One Silly, Cool ReasonA house for sale in Ellicott City, Maryland, has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in a 14K square foot interior. It also comes with more than four acres of land. It has all the amenities you'd expect in such a large, modern house that will cost you $3,750,000. You can see how nice it is in 110 photos at the real estate listing. It's got a pool, heated bidets in all bathrooms, a glass elevator, a four-car garage, gym, sauna, and laundry chutes. When I see listings like this, I think, that's nice, it's pretty, but it's way too big for me, I don't need all those amenities, and I'd have to pay someone to clean it, and besides, I don't have a few million. But then I see the one amenity that you don't often see in a home for sale.

For Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Housing, Get a Fixer-UpperWhere you live and how you live says a lot about you. More and more people are taking the health of our environment into account when they decide what kind of home to live in. Apartments reduce one's footprint, both in carbon and in use of space. Tiny homes are a statement against consumerism and greed. Solar-powered homes and 3D printed homes are the wave of the future. But for the most eco-bang for your buck, you want to get an existing home that might otherwise go to waste. No, I'm not advocating purchasing a wreck that should be demolished, but something that's affordable because it needs some work.Buying an existing home means that all the labor and materials of building a new home aren't necessary. Sure, you'll have to buy materials for repair, but that's miniscule compared to the resources that go into manufacturing a new house. It also saves space in a landfill when the house without TLC has reached its limit. The lot doesn't have to be cleared, so it retains the soil and trees that have been there for years. You also may be saving a piece of history. There are plenty of factors that go into selecting a home, but rest assured that putting effort into an old home is an eco-friendly choice. Moss and Fog explains the sustainability of a fixer-upper in more detail, plus you'll get an overview of what you should do to make that old but worthwhile house an efficient and long-lasting place to call home. (Image credit: Matthew T Rader)

How to Make a 600-Square-Foot Apartment Seem SpaciousAn apartment that's only 600 square feet may seem tiny to someone who is used to a bigger home, but it's a perfectly fine amount of space for someone who doesn't need to store a lifetime of possessions, or doesn't need an extra room for a serious hobby, or who doesn't keep decorations out away for every holiday. Even if it feels small, there are ways to make your space look bigger and therefore feel bigger. It's a matter of priorities and what you do in the space you have. One way to make a small apartment work is to create separate zones for different activities in one room. Or you set up movable dividers that can be adjusted as your needs change. Windows always make a small space feel bigger. And a consistent color scheme can make several rooms feels like one big room. See what ten different people have done to make their small apartments not only look and feel large, but how they made them work for their individual lives, at Apartment Therapy.(Image credit: Hannah Breen)

There's an Airbnb That Looks Like a Polly Pocket SetPolly Pocket toys have entertained many little girls, including my own, since their debut in 1989. They're fun playsets for imaginative adventures that neatly fit into pocket-sized compacts--hence the name.Now you can stay in one!Airbnb announced the creation of a temporary vacation home in Littleton, Massachusetts that looks almost exactly like a Polly Pocket toy. It's available for slumber parties with up two four guests and can be booked for one-night stays from September 12-14. Guests will be able to play with a life-sized Polly Pocket doll and play dress-up with the accessories included in the house.-via Nag on the Lake

You Can Buy a Hobbit HouseThe Lord of the Rings films were recorded in New Zealand, which seems like a very Shire-like place. But the temperate and wet forests of British Columbia are also remarkably similar. And now it's possible for you to live in your own Hobbit hole there.The Spaces reports that an extensive ranch outside of Bridesville, which is just a few miles north of the US border, includes a second house on the property clearly inspired by Frodo's home.

The Fancy Home You Are Glad Not to OwnAt first glance, this 12K square foot house for $2.5 million looks really nice. But then you get into the details, and no one is better than honing in on those details than Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell. If you need a house with six bedrooms and 11 bathrooms on 12 acres with a guest suite and lots of room for entertaining, and you have a couple of million to spare, check out the real estate listing. Oh yeah, and there's an interior basketball court.