A Place in the Sun

The article was first published in O, The Oprah Magazine, in 2007.

Heather Ferreir wanted her first home to be as kind to the environment as it would be to her bottom line. As Jaime Gross found, Heather ended up with that and more-a light-bathed house that has something to teach all of us about clean living.

As a child, she'd struggled with asthma and allergies and understood how a home could affect one's well-being; now a vegetarian and a "conscious consumer," she says she's always "looking for ways to tread more lightly on the planet." So the Ferriers hired Dallas-based architect Gary Gene Olp to design a home that would be, according to Olp, "contemporary, easy-to-build, highly energy-efficient, and lovely."