PURGULA

Call Me Trimtab August 16, 2026 Hi Reader, Peter Tobia is 80 years old. Decades ago, he built geodesic dome homes—one of them featured at NAHB’s National Builders' Show in Las Vegas around 1979—during the brief American moment when domes looked like the future of housing, with the energy crisis and counterculture optimism fueling the appeal. That moment faded. Financing grew difficult, insurance turned unpredictable, and the shape became a punchline. Tobia never stopped believing in it. “The...

PCBC 2026: What We Took Away August 9 2026 Hi Reader, Every industry likes to believe innovation comes from the top down—bold builders, visionary architects, a keynote speaker with a big idea. What we kept noticing at PCBC 2026 was closer to the opposite. The homes getting real attention right now—the ones winning pitch competitions, showing up in valuation frameworks, driving what buyers will and won't compromise on—aren't being handed down by the industry. They're being pulled forward by...

Home Is Where the Calm Is July 26, 2026 Hi Reader, Home has always been where we recharge—but for a growing number of people, it's also become the place where every kind of stress now converges: work, family, health, home maintenance, even neighborhood friction, all under one roof. A home with that many competing demands on it needs to be resilient, flexible, and adaptable—and increasingly, so do the people living in it. The numbers make the case. According to the National Institute of Mental...

The Cost of Owning, Not Just Buying July 19, 2026 Hi Reader, America's housing affordability crisis isn't only a story about who can afford to buy a home—it's increasingly a story about who can afford to keep one. According to Census Bureau data, roughly 20.7 million owner-occupied households—nearly a quarter of all homeowners—were burdened by housing costs in 2024, spending more than 30% of their income just to keep the lights on and the mortgage paid. Much of that strain correlates to the...

When Basic Building Science is the Difference July 12, 2026 Hi Reader, Early summer record-breaking heat has pushed electrical grids to the brink, with millions of homes relying on air conditioning just to stay safe. In some regions, emergency measures were needed to keep residential power flowing during peak demand. While many homeowners watched energy bills climb and worried about outages, some fortunate homeowners barely noticed the heat at all. The difference wasn't solar panels,...

Closing the Loop on Water Waste June 28, 2026 Hi Reader, There is a version of homeownership that used to feel like a reasonable bargain: pay your taxes; follow the rules; maintain your property; carry your insurance; and the system would more or less hold up its end. But that bargain is fraying—and homeowners across the country are starting to notice. A post on Nextdoor this week captured something our new graywater guide is designed to address directly. A longtime Southern California...

Go Where the Fun Is June 20, 2026 Hi Reader, Some of the best summer nights happen in your own backyard. You know the feeling. The evening stretches longer than expected. Someone refills the glasses. A song comes on, or a troubadour pulls out a guitar, and a few people start singing along. Nobody's checked their phone in an hour. These are the nights people reminisce about for years—and they almost always happen at home. There's something quietly powerful about hosting a social gathering...

Is Your Home Ready for the Long Haul? June 15, 2026 Hi Reader, Home is more than four walls and a roof. It's the morning light through a familiar window, the scuff on the hallway floor from years of family footsteps, the neighborhood you know by heart. For millions of Americans, it's also where they intend to spend the rest of their lives. According to a national University of Michigan Healthy Aging poll, 88% of adults ages 50 to 80 believe it is important to stay in their homes as long as...

The Soil Beneath Your Home June 7, 2026 Hi Reader, Last weekend Purgula attended the Earthstock Regenerative Summit—an intimate sustainability festival held in the beautiful hills of Ojai, California. We went as curious observers, as we often do, looking for emerging ideas, innovative thinkers, and the kinds of conversations that don't yet show up in mainstream channels. We found all three—and then some. Among the speakers was Michael Wittman of Blue Sky Biochar, a soil scientist, innovator,...

Why Rebuild the Same Way? June 1, 2026 Hi Reader, This week’s newsletter is a natural next chapter to our ongoing coverage of resilience, rebuilding, and the future of homes in an era of increasing challenges and opportunities. The topic is one we have been looking forward to writing about for some time: LGS: Light Gauge Steel Framing It was at Werkwell's (re)Building with Resilience Symposium where we first encountered Tal Karasso, CEO of Lytemods. His presentation stopped us in our tracks....