The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in one of the featured stories in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

Our garden and pondless waterfalls at the 2014 Denver Home Show complete with spider crane, turtles, tortoise, aquatic plants, landscape lighting, outdoor living room, garden kaleidoscope, annuals and perennials! Rocky Mountain WaterScape

The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in one of the featured stories in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

The Duncan home is a custom designed log home. It is a 1,440 sq. ft. home on a crawl space, open loft and upstairs bedroom/bathroom. The home is situated in beautiful Leatherwood Mountains, a 5,000 acre equestrian development in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photos are by Roger Wade Studio. More information about this home can be found in one of the featured stories in Country's Best Cabins 2015 Annual Buyers Guide magazine.

Four Seasons Landscape
Photo of a large transitional full sun backyard stone retaining wall landscape for summer.

Lincoln Farmhouse LEED-H Platinum, Net-Positive Energy OVERVIEW. This LEED Platinum certified modern farmhouse ties into the cultural landscape of Lincoln, Massachusetts - a town known for its rich history, farming traditions, conservation efforts, and visionary architecture. The goal was to design and build a new single family home on 1.8 acres that respects the neighborhood’s agrarian roots, produces more energy than it consumes, and provides the family with flexible spaces to live-play-work-entertain. The resulting 2,800 SF home is proof that families do not need to compromise on style, space or comfort in a highly energy-efficient and healthy home. CONNECTION TO NATURE. The attached garage is ubiquitous in new construction in New England’s cold climate. This home’s barn-inspired garage is intentionally detached from the main dwelling. A covered walkway connects the two structures, creating an intentional connection with the outdoors between auto and home. FUNCTIONAL FLEXIBILITY. With a modest footprint, each space must serve a specific use, but also be flexible for atypical scenarios. The Mudroom serves everyday use for the couple and their children, but is also easy to tidy up to receive guests, eliminating the need for two entries found in most homes. A workspace is conveniently located off the mudroom; it looks out on to the back yard to supervise the children and can be closed off with a sliding door when not in use. The Away Room opens up to the Living Room for everyday use; it can be closed off with its oversized pocket door for secondary use as a guest bedroom with en suite bath. NET POSITIVE ENERGY. The all-electric home consumes 70% less energy than a code-built house, and with measured energy data produces 48% more energy annually than it consumes, making it a 'net positive' home. Thick walls and roofs lack thermal bridging, windows are high performance, triple-glazed, and a continuous air barrier yields minimal leakage (0.27ACH50) making the home among the tightest in the US. Systems include an air source heat pump, an energy recovery ventilator, and a 13.1kW photovoltaic system to offset consumption and support future electric cars. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE. -6.3 kBtu/sf/yr Energy Use Intensity (Actual monitored project data reported for the firm’s 2016 AIA 2030 Commitment. Average single family home is 52.0 kBtu/sf/yr.) o 10,900 kwh total consumption (8.5 kbtu/ft2 EUI) o 16,200 kwh total production o 5,300 kwh net surplus, equivalent to 15,000-25,000 electric car miles per year. 48% net positive. WATER EFFICIENCY. Plumbing fixtures and water closets consume a mere 60% of the federal standard, while high efficiency appliances such as the dishwasher and clothes washer also reduce consumption rates. FOOD PRODUCTION. After clearing all invasive species, apple, pear, peach and cherry trees were planted. Future plans include blueberry, raspberry and strawberry bushes, along with raised beds for vegetable gardening. The house also offers a below ground root cellar, built outside the home's thermal envelope, to gain the passive benefit of long term energy-free food storage. RESILIENCY. The home's ability to weather unforeseen challenges is predictable - it will fare well. The super-insulated envelope means during a winter storm with power outage, heat loss will be slow - taking days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. During normal conditions, reduced energy consumption plus energy production means shelter from the burden of utility costs. Surplus production can power electric cars & appliances. The home exceeds snow & wind structural requirements, plus far surpasses standard construction for long term durability planning. ARCHITECT: ZeroEnergy Design http://zeroenergy.com/lincoln-farmhouse CONTRACTOR: Thoughtforms http://thoughtforms-corp.com/ PHOTOGRAPHER: Chuck Choi http://www.chuckchoi.com/

Four Seasons Landscape
Inspiration for a large transitional partial sun backyard stone formal garden for summer.

Basalt stone to concrete risers along a sloped path leading to a Hot Tub/Patio area. Trees: Witch Hazel Trees, Mountain Hemlock. Shrubs: Sword Ferns, Salvia and Grasses. Groundcover: kinnikinnick

Annabelle Hydrangea, Boxwoods, Pink Diamond Hydrangea, Green Mountain Boxwoods and annuals were added to begin the process of restoration. Trees were limbed up to bring in more light and lots of added compost to restore the soil structure.

The goal of this project was to provide a lush and vast garden for the new owners of this recently remodeled brick Georgian. Located in Wheaton this acre plus property is surrounded by beautiful Oaks. Preserving the Oaks became a particular challenge with the ample front walk and generous entertaining spaces the client desired. Under most of the Oaks the turf was in very poor condition, and most of the property was covered with undesirable overgrown underbrush such as Garlic Mustard weed and Buckthorn. With a recently completed addition, the garages were pushed farther from the front door leaving a large distance between the drive and entry to the home. This prompted the addition of a secondary door off the kitchen. A meandering walk curves past the secondary entry and leads guests through the front garden to the main entry. Off the secondary door a “kitchen patio” complete with a custom gate and Green Mountain Boxwood hedge give the clients a quaint space to enjoy a morning cup of joe. Stepping stone pathways lead around the home and weave through multiple pocket gardens within the vast backyard. The paths extend deep into the property leading to individual and unique gardens with a variety of plantings that are tied together with rustic stonewalls and sinuous turf areas. Closer to the home a large paver patio opens up to the backyard gardens. New stoops were constructed and existing stoops were covered in bluestone and mortared stonewalls were added, complimenting the classic Georgian architecture. The completed project accomplished all the goals of creating a lush and vast garden that fit the remodeled home and lifestyle of its new owners. Through careful planning, all mature Oaks were preserved, undesirables removed and numerous new plantings along with detailed stonework helped to define the new landscape.

Above and Beyond is the third residence in a four-home collection in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Originally the site of the abandoned Kachina Elementary School, the infill community, appropriately named Kachina Estates, embraces the remarkable views of Camelback Mountain. Nestled into an acre sized pie shaped cul-de-sac lot, the lot geometry and front facing view orientation created a remarkable privacy challenge and influenced the forward facing facade and massing. An iconic, stone-clad massing wall element rests within an oversized south-facing fenestration, creating separation and privacy while affording views “above and beyond.” Above and Beyond has Mid-Century DNA married with a larger sense of mass and scale. The pool pavilion bridges from the main residence to a guest casita which visually completes the need for protection and privacy from street and solar exposure. The pie-shaped lot which tapered to the south created a challenge to harvest south light. This was one of the largest spatial organization influencers for the design. The design undulates to embrace south sun and organically creates remarkable outdoor living spaces. This modernist home has a palate of granite and limestone wall cladding, plaster, and a painted metal fascia. The wall cladding seamlessly enters and exits the architecture affording interior and exterior continuity. Kachina Estates was named an Award of Merit winner at the 2019 Gold Nugget Awards in the category of Best Residential Detached Collection of the Year. The annual awards ceremony was held at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Francisco, CA in May 2019. Project Details: Above and Beyond Architecture: Drewett Works Developer/Builder: Bedbrock Developers Interior Design: Est Est Land Planner/Civil Engineer: CVL Consultants Photography: Dino Tonn and Steven Thompson Awards: Gold Nugget Award of Merit - Kachina Estates - Residential Detached Collection of the Year

In an additional effort to conserve water while also contributing to the native plant and wildlife populations, we use drought tolerant perennial plants such as Echinacea and Salvia in our designs to attract pollinators and shrink the planting area of the thirsty annual flowers. The results were healthy plants, water savings and a happy customer.

Four Seasons Landscape
Inspiration for a transitional full sun backyard stone landscaping for summer.

The uniformity of these green mountain boxwoods fits perfectly in with this beach house

We started with larger annual plants wherever possible so that we could space them up to 1 foot apart instead of 5-6” apart. This helps the root systems to compete less for the available water. We also reduced our labor costs by about 25% by installing fewer plants more quickly while still covering the same square footage.

Alex Ostblom
Photo of a rustic landscaping in Denver.