Here’s an interesting story: a company is hoping to be build a new town in New Mexico. Only thing is, you can’t live there. It’s a ghost town.

The town (currently called the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) will have all the amenities that a real city would have, including houses and businesses. Everything would be fully functional with utilities. It would even have a mall (not filled with merchandise presumably)!

So why on earth is this town being built? For research of course! Pegasus Global Holdings will use the town to test energy efficient and green home innovations. MSN Real Estate gives an example of what might take place there:

If it all sounds too crazy, here’s a down-to-earth example: Say scientists want to see if a new kind of smart thermostat can make an entire neighborhood more energy-efficient. They could hand out the thermostats to homeowners in Albuquerque and check in on their meters for the next year. But the results would depend on a lot of factors out of the researchers’ control, such as how warm or cool individuals like their rooms to be or the houses’ insulation quality. And if the experimental system doesn’t work, the scientists would have disrupted people’s lives and maybe increased their utility bills.

But nobody would live in the center’s buildings. Computerized systems would mimic human behavior such as turning thermostats up and down, switching lights off and on or flushing toilets, but they would do so under the scientists’ control. A research team could install the thermostats in a block of the center’s two-story suburban houses, then run multiple long-term scenarios, manipulating the imaginary residents’ behavior to see what the energy use is under different circumstances.

Oh, and since there will be researchers and scientists there to run things in the imaginary city, they’ll be staying in facilities underground.

Although building an entire city that no one lives in might seem odd, having this sort of research space might lead to all sorts of discoveries with energy efficiency in the home. What do you think?

Image courtesy of pascalbovet.com on Flickr.

Here’s another example of a tiny house that is built imaginatively and attractively. It comes from Japan, a place where space is at a premium, but has a long history of beautiful architecture. We found this house while perusing  Design Milk; you can check out the rest of the Mizuishi Architect Atelier-designed house here. It may be only 312 square feet, but it houses three people comfortably. We’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Images courtesy of Design Milk

We ran across an article with some interesting tidbits about what homeowners want in 2011. Are any of these on your radar?

• Outdoor living areas: Are you paying more attention to things like porches and patios? An outdoor kitchen (from simple to grand) and a fireplace can add a whole new dimension. Who doesn’t love an extra room in the great outdoors?
• Green features: Green is hot right now, but homeowners are demanding practical things like energy efficient windows and water and electricity-saving appliances.
• Open kitchens: If the hearth is the heart of the home, it makes sense people want to be in it. Open kitchens allow that cozy feeling while allowing the cook some additional space to maneuver.
• Smaller homes: To go along with the green theme, smaller homes are easier to heat and cool, easier to clean and discourage the mindless filling of rooms.

Do you see these trends in your house hunting and remodeling plans?

Crazy Rooms (That We’re Crazy About) From New York Magazine
Shelter Pop
“This week’s issue of New York focuses on extreme design…and we’re extremely excited. Check out our five favorite spaces.”

Do You Dance While You Iron?
DIY Life
“Everybody, at some point, has busted a move while cleaning. These people were kind enough to share their methods on YouTube. ”

America’s Most Decadent Kitchens
MSN Real Estate
“Forbes compiled a list of some of the most luxurious kitchens in homes now for sale, with help from Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker.”

How Much Can You Save with Green Remodeling Tax Credits?
Calfinder
“Happy Earth Day, folks! In honor of the 41st anniversary of this greenest of holidays, I’d like to share a breakdown on energy-saving home improvements, and the federal tax incentives that make them affordable.”

It’s that time of year when we maybe get a little introspective and start to take stock of how the last year has gone. Did we lose that weight we wanted? Read all those books? Finally get on board with this whole Twitter thing we’ve been hearing about?

Since home is, for many people, an important extension of self, Apartment Therapy recently featured five home resolutions they’ll be keeping in the next year. Great ideas, and it inspired us to think about what resolutions we want to do, home-wise. Here goes:

• Organizing: We’re going to rid ourselves of extraneous paper and shred old bills, as appropriate. We’ll also be organizing our closets and not just shoving the mess into there. New closet organizers, boxes and bins may also be pressed into use.
• Cooking: Eating out and supporting local restaurants is great, but cooking at home not only saves money, but allows you unprecedented control of the food you put into your body. Plus, you can flex your culinary muscles and become known for sparkling hosting and fabulous dinner parties.
• Curb appealing: With all the zeal over interior decorating, it’s easy to forget the home’s exterior. No more! This year, we will be painting, repairing, refreshing and landscaping to make our houses the envy of the neighborhood. New walkway? Flowerbeds? Our only limit is our imaginations!
• Greening: We want to make this year the greenest ever. So we’ll be looking at ways to make our homes — and our lives — more energy efficient. We’re going to try to re-use stuff more, evaluate whether we really need something and think of ways to buy locally as needed.
• Learning: We’re going to attempt to pick up some sort of DIY skill this year. Whether that means something like learning some home repair basics, or a softer skill like making our own throw pillows, we’ll be doing it for ourselves.

New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep, but we believe that if you start small and have a purpose, it can be done. What are your home resolutions? Let us know in the comments.

It’s true: the average size of the American home is shrinking, according to USA Today. The median square footage for new homes is 2,100 square feet, down from a high of 2,300 feet in 2007. Now, this isn’t surprising: more space often equals more money, something that is in limited supply for many of us! And beyond the purchase price, there are other things to consider when owning a larger house, like the heating bill for all that space. Sarah Susanka, a leading architect and friend of Marvin was quoted as saying, “The whole glow of bigness kind of wore off all of a sudden.”

So homeowners are demanding, and builders are building, smaller houses that reflect the way that people really live. For instance, according to the article, we are going to see less and less of rooms like libraries and media rooms. For that matter, homes will have fewer formal rooms like living and dining rooms that are only used a few times a year. Family rooms and great rooms where people congregate will fill the void.

Additionally, rooms will need to be able to serve dual purposes over the course of the house’s life: a guest room could turn into a game room for the kids which could turn into a home office. Flexibility with rooms’ purposes is important since our needs change throughout our time in a house.

What do you think is an important part of a house? Do you regret the formal dining room that gets used only at Thanksgiving? Do you wish you had more private spaces (such as bedrooms) as opposed to public spaces? What about your yard? Would you be all right with giving up mowing, raking, watering and shoveling for more community green space or does a big lawn give you pleasure in the form of gardens, room for kids and pets, etc.?

Overwhelmed by cleaning? You’re not alone! We all have busy lives and jobs and sometimes in the evenings it can just seem too exhausting to think about cleaning. And then the weekend rolls around and, well, isn’t the weekend better devoted to the pursuit of fun rather than cleaning?

And so the grime continues to build. If you can do a little bit each day though, the rewards will come in the form of a clean, uncluttered and calm home. To get you started, Apartment Therapy offers an awesome tutorial for how to get (and keep!) your home clean.

Our favorite Apartment Therapy tips include dealing with things right away, whether they be credit card offers to be shredded or dirty dishes in the sink, finding an awesome soundtrack and setting a timer on your cleaning. Everyone has 15 minutes to clean before your favorite television show starts (or during the commercial breaks!). Anything is easier when you know it won’t go on forever.

They even offer a day-by-day cleaning guide that you can follow every month. No more excuses and no more weekends spent feeling guilty you haven’t been cleaning. Check it out!

Image courtesy of Todd Baker on Flickr

Looking for a small place? A really, really, REALLY small place? Well then, you might want to consider this Italian getaway. For the low price of $68,000, this 55 square foot location can be all yours. You’ll get a tiny bathroom and a bed in a sleeping loft. They even manage to fit in a window!

OK, so it’s not terribly practical, but the location is amazing. The world’s smallest apartment is on the Piazza di Sant’ Ignazio and is right behind the Prime Minister’s residence. Who knows, it might be just the thing for a Roman holiday or sleeping the night away after living la dolce vita. Besides, think of the bragging rights that come with owning the word’s smallest apartment!

Image courtesy of The Telegraph.

One Project Closer has an awesome post about building, renovating and living in a green home, asking the central question, “How do you measure green?” Here are a few of their benchmarks:

• Water conservation
• Energy efficiency
• Resource efficiency
• Community and site impact
• Indoor environmental quality

The fact is, there’s no one measurement for green. There are a lot of things to consider. Are you just interested in a product’s energy efficiency or is it important how they treat their workers? What if something is made of non-sustainable materials but provides an energy savings over its lifetime? Or what if the “non-green” product lasts longer than the green one? Or if a local product is widely available and the green option needs to be shipped halfway across the world?

Lots to think about! What’s most important to you? What would you like to see as standards for green home products?

Photo courtesy of Stuck in Customs on Flickr

Laundry. It’s the eternal chore — never seems to be done. No matter how many loads, there’s always a mountain of clothing. And let’s not even get started on the folding!

With all the laundry being done out there, it’s no surprise to learn that most of us have room for improvement in this area when it comes to living green. Between using bleaches and hot water and drying every single last item of clothing, we’re due for a laundry overhaul.

Without buying an entire laundry room’s worth of new things, there’s some things you can do immediately:

• Cold water works great for washing! Please note that MayoClinic.com does recommend laundering sheets in hot water to kill dust mites and allergens.
• Hang it up! Buy a clothes line or a a drying rack and use it. In addition to saving money and energy, line drying will help keep your clothes looking great for longer.

If you are ready to make some larger changes, then the most obvious place to start is by looking at replacing your washer and/or dryer. The Green Guide recommends that when shopping for a washing machine, you look at ENERGY STAR ratings, water factor, top loaders vs. front loaders and programmable wash cycles.

For dryers, their recommendations are a little different. They point out that if your washing machine is energy efficient, that will help speed drying time. A good thing to look for however is moisture sensors — clothes get just as dry as you need them. And if you can hang on to your old dryer until 2011, you may have some options. The Green Guide says that “smart dryers” are “green machines…designed to use power only during the electricity grid’s non-peak periods. That reduces overall demand and the emissions from largely coal-fired power plants.”

And for some ratings on washers, visit Re-Nest’s round-up of energy efficient washing machines.

Photo courtesy of aussiegall on Flickr