Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Back of large family home with window film installed could help save energy and help with solar heat control in the summer and winter. Photo Courtesy of Eastman

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Sunlight and home orientation are a big factor when considering how to build an energy efficient Net Zero home. Exposure to the sun has a lot of implications for heating and cooling. This was the case with our clients' home which was southeast facing with a bank of large triple pane windows. That provided very bright, insulated spaces that got a lot of sunlight, reducing the need for heating in the winter time. For the hot summer days, the blinds help to reduce the amount of heat generated by sunlight, while the triple pane windows help to insulate the cool air, reducing the need for A/C cooling and leading to year round energy conservation.

Front of large family home with window film installed could help save energy and help with solar heat control in the summer and winter. Photo Courtesy of Eastman

Example of a 1950s men's walk-in closet design in San Francisco with open cabinets and gray cabinets

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/

Farmhouse shed photo in San Francisco

Naturalistic meadow.
Design ideas for a large rustic drought-tolerant and full sun backyard gravel garden path in San Diego.

This condo was full of 70's and 80's bad design heritage that needed to brought into a more modern scene. The old acoustic ceiling tiles and soffits were removed and replaced with one level ceiling throughout to help unify the small spaces. Budget friendly ideas were implemented to help reduce overall costs but improve aesthetics to the space. The original carpet was pulled up exposing the aged concrete floor below which was refinished into a durable and modern floor.

An infiltration basin gets all dressed up!
This is an example of a transitional landscaping in DC Metro.

Whether it’s arthritis, joint or back pain, restless leg syndrome, muscle injuries or fibromyalgia, hot tubs are a proven form of chronic pain relief. The heat of the water increases blood flow and relaxes the body, while the massaging action of the jets and the water’s buoyancy loosen muscle tension and soothe sore joints. The New England Journal of Medicine (08-16-1999) found that, after just 10 days, patients with Type 2 Diabetes who used hot tubs 30 minutes a day/6 days per week required reduced doses of insulin, lost weight, slept better and showed distinct decreases in plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin. Hot tubs can be a great fix for those suffering from insomnia, helping your body to wind down before bed and get the natural sleep you need. Even if you don’t suffer from chronic sleep problems, the Better Sleep Council recommends establishing a relaxing bedtime routine, such as soaking in hot water to help maintain a healthy sleep cycle. According to the Council’s findings, warm water releases muscle tension and increases blood flow, both of which contribute to a relaxed and deeper, more comfortable sleep. Whether it’s a new exercise routine or an unusually active day on your feet, most of us know the “day after” feeling of sore, overworked muscles that make it hurt to move, period. The water pressure from hot tub jets relieves muscle tightness and soreness by removing lactic acid, opening up the blood vessels and promoting the flow of endorphins. LPGA Sports Medicine Director Caroline Nichols and former President of the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine Dr. James Andrews recommend hydrotherapeutic activity for athletes at every level. Nichols says that hot tubs especially help with recovery since jets focus on overused muscle and joint regions, while Andrews supports hydrotherapy as a good tool for improved circulation, sensory impulses and stiff joints. Whether you’re looking to alleviate stress, feel healthier or simply spend more time with your loved ones, you’d be amazed at how as little as 10 minutes in a hot tub can help you relax and put everything in perspective. There are hot tubs for every type of user, regardless of whether it’s just you or it’s the entire gang piling in, looking for some much-needed relief after a long day.

Compost is a natural, long-lasting way to feed your soil, and a wonderfully sustainable way to dispose of kitchen and garden waste. These spacious bins are big enough to fit plenty of vegetable scraps as well as lawn clippings and leaves. Systems are made entirely of rot-resistant cedar and enclosed on all sides with sturdy wire mesh that allows air to flow to and through the compost. Removable front panels and hinged lids make for easy access. Systems are available in triple, double, and single bin configurations. Comes with the classic book about composting Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting by Stu Campbell.