Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World

For fifteen years, Evelyn and David Hess lived in a tent and trailer, without electricity or running water, on twenty acres of wild land in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. When they decided to build a house – a real house – they knew it would have to respect the many lessons of simple living that they had learned in their camping life.

They knew they could not do it alone. Building a Better Nest chronicles their adventures as they begin to construct a house of their own, seeking a model for sustainable living not just in their home, but in their lives and beyond its walls.