Fire burned through the walls and smoke smoldered in the ceiling of Steven and Cindy Ambers' California home on Christmas Day 2011, the result of a candle that tipped over on the kitchen table. Two years later, the Ambers family became the first on the West Coast to live in a new "Eco Bungalow" built from the ground up to be safe from fire, high-energy costs and toxic pollutants. Steven, Cindy, their three children and a live-in grandmother recently moved into the high-design structure on the same location where their old home used to stand, on the west side of Los Angeles in Beverlywood.
The Eco Bungalow was built with more than $75,000 in labor, services and product from builders, architects, designers and other tradesmen with eco-friendly materials and sustainable design. The goal is to demonstrate that eco-friendly design can be affordable, and the home was designed by New York-based Robin Wilson Home as a multi-generational house that includes wider doorways and a first-floor living space for the Ambers' grandmother.
Among the businesses that contributed is Hardwood Bargains, a retail company with four locations, including one in Long Beach, Calif. "Steven came into our local showroom in need of new flooring after the fire," Hardwood Bargains' founder/CEO Ben Thompson told Hardwood Floors. "We have done many different charity projects over the last few years. Anytime we have an opportunity to give back to the communities that support us, we always do." The company's ebony wide-planked, hand-scraped, strand-woven bamboo was chosen for use throughout the entire Eco Bungalow. "It really does work well in both contemporary and traditional spaces," Thompson says, "so it's always a good fit."
To learn more about the Eco-Bungalow, click here.
Below are three images of the home.
