Question:
As for lacking a septic system, the water that normally disappears down the drain -- from showering, dishwashing, clothes laundering, teeth brushing, all but toilet waste -- gets recycled. is it right?

Answer: Instead of being wasted, household gray water does a continuous loop-de-loop as part of a multistep purification system that uses some of the same principles as a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Only this one is a whole lot easier to live with.

The centerpiece of the treatment process -- the only stage that's part of the Crosbys' living space -- is a miniature wetlands teeming with aquatic plants inside the house's two-story, 12-foot-wide, passive-solar greenhouse. This greenery creates the ambiance of the tropics while serving as the "biofiltering" system. In nature, wetlands and swamps around coastal areas do the same job.

From the wetlands, cleaned water overflows into a pond, then seeps down into a leach field below the greenhouse, where the treatment process continues out of sight. The goldfish swimming about are the canaries in the mine. Should they go belly up, the Crosbys would know they had a water-quality problem. Never happens; their fish die of old age.

Purely for aesthetics, the Crosbys added a little waterfall and a series of gently cascading ponds lined with plants running most of the length of the greenhouse. So together with the wetlands, it's like they have their own indoor creek.