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Our family home was purchased in August 2002. It was 1200 square foot white 1889 colonial in significant disrepair, although exhibiting great potential to the discerning eye. The first construction phase the rear one story kitchen addition to the home was dismantled and rebuilt from the basement to a third story using Polysteel concrete forms that meet both and environmental and earthquake resistant standards. This section of the home we redesigned as a authentic, and up to date kitchen and 1 3/4 bath & laundry room with radiant heat in the floors. The remainder of the home was stripped down to the studs with the original floors, front staircase, samples of the original moldings, and four rooms of original horse hair plaster preserved. All heating, electrical, and plumbing systems were replaced to meet Energy Star requirements. The basement, both unused and deteriorating was structurally reinforced, with the foundation strengthened and re pointed. After digging down through two feet of clay, to achieve optimum head room, French drains and a complex draining system were put in place. On top of this we laid pex tubing for a radiantly heated floor that heats the entire house. A handsome 1 3/4 bath was added to this separate entrance dual use space.The second phase of the home was designed and built to appear as though it had always existed. The addition added a master bedroom, sitting room, two bathrooms, sleeping porch, & extra bedroom. To further our commitment to the health and quality of the environment, planet, animals and people we installed a Dawn Solar thermal solar system on top of the sheathing of the roof. This system will harness the heat of the sun to produce energy that will heat our living space and hot water. About forty percent of these needs will be achieved without the use of natural gas, our current energy source. On top of the thermal solar we placed a recycled Energy Star metal roof. This roof acts like other roofs, with the additional ability to absorb even more energy from the sun to optimize both the thermal solar tubes, and the the thin film Unisolar photo voltaic laminate panels applied to the metal roof. This system will meet about 50% of our electricity needs.
Throughout all aspects of this project we reused objects found on site, such as foundation rocks for a retaining wall, doors, fixtures, and so on. This is our model home that we say "LEEDS by example."