This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

James Kruger, LandMark Photography, Peter Eskuche, AIA, Eskuche Design, Sharon Seitz, HISTORIC studio, Interior Design
Inspiration for a huge rustic beige two-story mixed siding house exterior remodel in Minneapolis

Example of a large mid-century modern gray one-story mixed siding house exterior design in Denver with a shed roof

Greg Reigler
This is an example of a large traditional front porch design in Miami with a roof extension and decking.

Richard Leo Johnson
Inspiration for a small cottage gray one-story exterior home remodel in Atlanta

The addition of an updated entry porch with red painted trim creates a welcoming focal point. WKD’s experience in historic preservation and antique curation restored this gentleman’s farm into a casual, comfortable, livable home for the next chapter in this couple’s lives. The project included a new family entrance and mud room, new powder room, and opening up some of the rooms for better circulation. While WKD curated the client’s existing collection of art and antiques, refurbishing where necessary, new furnishings were also added to give the home a new lease on life. Working with older homes, and historic homes, is one of Wilson Kelsey Design’s specialties. This project was featured on the cover of Design New England's September/October 2013 issue. Read the full article at: http://wilsonkelseydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Heritage-Restored1.pdf It was also featured in the Sept. issue of Old House Journal, 2016 - article is at http://wilsonkelseydesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016-09-OHJ.pdf Photo by Michael Lee

Screened Porch | Custom home Studio of LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD. | Photo by Inspiro8 Studio.
This is an example of a large rustic screened-in back porch design in Other with decking and a roof extension.

A beautiful screened in porch where the homeowners can relax and enjoy cool evenings.
Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary back porch remodel in Atlanta with decking and a roof extension

Inspiration for a mid-sized modern screened-in side porch remodel in Raleigh with decking and a roof extension

Classic stone front porch idea in Other with a roof extension

Inspiration for a cottage porch remodel in Other with a roof extension

Mid-sized cottage entryway photo in Orange County with white walls and a gray front door

Nantucket Architectural Photography
Entryway - coastal entryway idea in Boston with a brown front door

see it 360
Mid-sized country gray two-story wood gable roof idea in Atlanta

View of the new entry of the Madrona Residence after the addition and renovation. Paul Bardagjy
Elegant entryway photo in Austin with a red front door

Our client, with whom we had worked on a number of projects over the years, enlisted our help in transforming her family’s beloved but deteriorating rustic summer retreat, built by her grandparents in the mid-1920’s, into a house that would be livable year-‘round. It had served the family well but needed to be renewed for the decades to come without losing the flavor and patina they were attached to. The house was designed by Ruth Adams, a rare female architect of the day, who also designed in a similar vein a nearby summer colony of Vassar faculty and alumnae. To make Treetop habitable throughout the year, the whole house had to be gutted and insulated. The raw homosote interior wall finishes were replaced with plaster, but all the wood trim was retained and reused, as were all old doors and hardware. The old single-glazed casement windows were restored, and removable storm panels fitted into the existing in-swinging screen frames. New windows were made to match the old ones where new windows were added. This approach was inherently sustainable, making the house energy-efficient while preserving most of the original fabric. Changes to the original design were as seamless as possible, compatible with and enhancing the old character. Some plan modifications were made, and some windows moved around. The existing cave-like recessed entry porch was enclosed as a new book-lined entry hall and a new entry porch added, using posts made from an oak tree on the site. The kitchen and bathrooms are entirely new but in the spirit of the place. All the bookshelves are new. A thoroughly ramshackle garage couldn’t be saved, and we replaced it with a new one built in a compatible style, with a studio above for our client, who is a writer.

New front entry with new canopy cover. An existing mid-century ranch was given a new lease on life with a whole house remodel and addition. An existing sunken living room had the floor raised and the front entry was relocated to make room for a complete master suite. The roof/ceiling over the entry and stair was raised with multiple clerestory lights introducing light into the center of the home. Finally, a compartmentalized existing layout was converted to an open plan with the kitchen/dining/living areas sharing a common area at the back of the home.

Photo Credit: JLF Architecture
Example of a large mountain style entryway design in Jackson with a metal front door and beige walls

Large transitional entryway photo in Philadelphia with red walls and a dark wood front door