Here's an idea: grow food year-round and keep your house warm during the winter months by surrounding your abode with a greenhouse! That's what a Swedish family has done.

As Ecosol reports, a family near Stockholm renovated an existing summer home and added agreenhouse structure outfitted with 4-millimeter single-pane glasses around it.

Credit: Fair Companies / Screenshot

The innovative concept was first proposed by Swedish architect Bengt Warne back in the 1970's. Called the Naturhus ("Naturehousing"), the design works as a "sun collector" of sorts, where the cyclic flows of nature are utilized for producing energy, cleaning water, air and generating things like compost. It works great in the Scandinavian climate, which the in-depth video from Fair Companies video (above) discusses.

The owners of the unique home, Marie Granmar and Charles Sacilotto, were inspired by Warne's work when they built their own version of the Naturhus abode years ago. They began by purchasing a property with an existing summer home and then installed a conventional greenhouse around it. In total, it cost about $84,000 USD.