Hi, I'm Kristina Munroe from Sustainable Home Resource and the author of Twisted Oak: A Journey to Create a Self-Sustaining Life and Home.

But, before I discovered the freedom of sustainable living, I was a typical professional woman with a husband, two kids, two cars, a mortgage and a mound of utility bills.

As a structural engineer working in the residential building industry, I was experiencing first-hand the age of the McMansion. I was horrified when I learned about all of the wasteful and toxic building materials going into our modern homes. I was also concerned about the expense and the destruction of our natural resources to build these over-sized houses.

As a mom, I longed to spend more time with my young children rather than working on projects that compromised my values. But, like most everyone I knew, we needed two incomes to pay our mortgage and household bills.

Even though I couldn't leave my job, I decided to immerse myself in the study of natural building. I had to believe that homes could be designed and built with healthier materials and with less of an impact on the planet and our bank accounts.

After several years of studying natural building, passive solar heating and cooling, sustainable energy, and still dreaming of a lifestyle in which I could spend more time with my family, our lives changed in an instant, and I found myself a solo parent.

As the only remaining parent of two young boys, I found the pressure of meeting our monthly expenses overwhelming.

After a lot of pondering and contemplation, I made a decision that would dramatically change our lives. I decided to build a small, solar-powered home. We sold our conventional house and used the proceeds to create Twisted Oak, our self-sustaining home.

This mortgage-free, home has allowed me to live my dream lifestyle - spending more time with my family and the freedom to pursue heart-centered work by helping and teaching others how to create sustainable homes for themselves.

We live without heating or cooling expenses. Powered by the sun, our home provides us with clean, regenerative electricity, as well as fresh water, and a comfortable and beautiful place to live.

We still enjoy all the modern comforts of home - hot water, a full-sized kitchen, a complete bathroom, washing machine, tv, internet, computers, and smartphones.

Whether you are considering building a home yourself or working with a builder, the best place to start is learning about some well-proven, but relatively unknown essentials. These basic principles will help you understand that you can choose to reduce or eliminate utility bills by making decisions about the kind of home you build.

You don't have to spend years studying like I did or reinvent the wheel.

I've put together a free guide for you that lays out the Six Essentials you'll want to incorporate into your home design. They are not expensive or complicated to include, and you can design this type of home either off-grid or on the grid.

Click the button below the video to download your free Guide: Six Essentials of a Sustainable Home.