Virtual Home Tour!

We're finally living in our green home! It feels a little surreal. Actually, a lot surreal. But ultimately awesome.

I don’t think either of us can believe we own a house—even though that’s all we’ve been saving for these past five years!

I know you've been waiting very patiently for this...so without further ado, here is your very own virtual tour of our green home. Room by room.

Living Area
- Natural Vermont slate
- Wood stove
- Two ceiling fans (no AC)
- Reclaimed farm table
- Efficient windows/doors
- LED recessed lighting
- Zero VOC paint



Kitchen
- Natural cork
- Efficient windows
- Energy star-rated appliances
- Environmental Stewardship Program-certified wood cabinets
- Zero VOC paint
- Salvaged kitchen sink
- LED lighting
- Beeswax-sealed concrete countertop


The photo below is a bit dark, but I wanted to capture the view from the stovetop, so you could relate to my stove hood dilemma!


We looked into green countertops (such as Paperstone and Icestone), but they were out of our price range. We settled on concrete and are happy with the results. (Just don't let a glass jar of milk slip out of your hands...)


Guest Bedroom
- Natural cork
- Transom window to living area
- Zero VOC paint
- Efficient windows


First Floor Bathroom
- Salvaged bathroom vanity
- Low flow sink faucet (uses 20% less water than standard faucets)
- Natural Vermont slate
- Dual flush toilet
- Zero VOC paint
- H2Okinetic® Delta Shower faucet (uses 36% less water than standard showerheads)
- Transom window to kitchen
- Energy Star-rated fan
- Compact fluorescent light
- Salvaged window pane/soon-to-be mirror



Second floor office
- Bamboo flooring
- Zero VOC paint
- Efficient windows
- Ceiling fan
- Hidden sleeping area



(We love our Murphy bed...and it already got used when our friends visited!)

Second floor bathroom
- Natural Vermont slate (bathroom floor & shower floor)
- Dual flush toilet
- Low flow sink faucet
- Salvaged bathroom vanity
- Zero VOC paint
- Energy star-rated fan
- Solar tube
- Compact fluorescent light
- Efficient window
- Salvaged window pane/soon-to-be mirror


You can see in the photo below that we chose galvanized metal to line the shower instead of tile. This option was much less expensive and goes with the industrial barn look we wanted.




Nope, that's not a fluorescent light; it's the solar tube--on an overcast day!

Master bedroom
- Bamboo flooring
- Zero VOC paint
- Ceiling fan
- Sliding barn doors
- Efficient windows

I think a lot of people didn't get the sliding barn door concept. So, let me try to show you in photos. This is looking up at the master bedroom from the first floor.

With the doors shut...

...and with them open.

We also have a sliding barn door as you enter the master bedroom. Here is the view from inside our bedroom, looking down the hall.


Whew, I think that's about it for the interior...there's also a pantry off the kitchen and a full basement, but neither are very photogenic at the moment. ;)

I'll give you a tour of the exterior soon. So, stay tuned!

Why We Chose an Open Floor Plan

Making my way (ever so slowly) down the “About Our Home” list, I’d like to highlight now why we decided on an open floor plan for our home.

Let there be light. As mentioned in an earlier post, we built our home with a passive solar design in mind to take advantage of the sun’s natural light and heating capabilities. Our open floor plan compliments this design as fewer interior walls means more light reaching rooms on the North side of the house. Minimizing walls will make our space bright and open—and will maximize every inch of space. A good thing, since those inches are limited in our small footprint!

Air it out. We won’t have a need for air conditioning—our super-insulated home will work wonders to keep cool air in during hot summer days. At night, and on cooler days, an open floor plan will allow wind currents to bring fresh air into our home via strategically-placed windows.

Heat it up. According to Wood Heat Organization Inc., houses with an open floor plan and fewer separations between rooms can be heated entirely with a wood stove (depending, of course, on their size and energy efficiency). To maximize our stove’s highest performance, it will be centrally located in the middle of the main floor with the flue pipe running up and out of the roof. Heat will easily flow to the main living area, kitchen and loft above with this set up. A warm house in a mountain town that boasts more than 200 inches of snow a year? Yes, please!

Some home magazines point out a few disadvantages to having an open floor plan, namely inefficient heating and lack of privacy. As mentioned earlier, we plan on using our wood stove quite a bit during winter months, and our open floor plan will actually increase the efficiency of our heating. Lack of privacy doesn’t concern us either. Bathrooms and bedrooms (excluding the Murphy bed on the second floor) all have doors.

It’ll just be up to us—and any visitors—to shut them!

Wood stoves

I’ve been talking about soil, land and neighbors lately because I want to give you a background of how we got to where we are today (waiting to break ground any day!). But I need to revert to the future for just a moment. We will be heating our home with radiant heat, and supplementing with a wood stove. Wood is a renewable energy source that, when used effectively, is a first-rate fuel when compared to fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal which lead to global warming. (Here is an enlightening article if you’d like to do some further research.)

Though we haven’t started construction yet, we were recently told by our builder that we must choose which wood stove will heat our home. I couldn’t wait! We researched a bit and called around to local New England suppliers. Here’s what we narrowed it down to—the Jøtul F 3 CB, Morso 2110 or Vermont Castings Encore 1250 in RED!



Since our woodstove will be our main source of “entertainment”—we’re not having a T.V. for various reasons—I’m leaning towards the red Vermont Castings Encore. It’s striking, yet classic, and will hopefully stir some conversation.

It has a spark screen for open door fire viewing, a griddle for stovetop cooking (for use during power outages…or whenever!), and a HUGE plus—it boasts the lowest emissions in the wood stove industry! From the website:

We call it the EVERBURN System and it’s designed to deliver cleaner emissions and longer burn times, similar to a catalytic system. Our state-of-the-art design enables Defiant and Encore stoves to burn more steadily and longer on a single load of wood compared to other non-catalytic stoves.

We know two people who have this stove and love it. What do you think?