Though we're renting at the moment, it would be nice to eventually be homeowners again. Though at the rate the economy is going right now, we may be owning something along the lines of a van down by the river.

Homes out here in the godforsaken desert are still listed for entirely unreasonably high prices, and frankly, are mostly crap: 1950's - 1970's concrete block ranches (with no insulation) or more recent stick construction already rotting and foreclosed in distant suburbs after only a few years.

So I started daydreaming about to build something cheap and energy efficient but still cool. I also wanted to play with the latest version of SketchUp, a product Google bought a few years ago, and have brought a number of cool improvements to.

So I give you, my container house sketch, made from six steel shipping containers, three 45' and three 40', with green roofing (as in plants, not shingles).

I really dig how 'sketchy' these drawings can be made by tweaking the rendering settings.

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Our friend Phil is visiting for the weekend as a stop on his tour of the American West. Next stop will be a tent in Utah, apparently.

We drove up to Scottsdale to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's compound, Taliesin West [Flickr].

Unlike Fallingwater, they allow photography there. How 'bout that?