Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

This LEED Platinum certified house reflects the homeowner's desire for an exceptionally healthy and comfortable living environment, within a traditional neighborhood. INFILL SITE. The family, who moved from another area of Wellesley, sought out this property to be within walking distance of the high school and downtown area. An existing structure on the tight lot was removed to make way for the new home. 84% of the construction waste, from both the previous structure and the new home, was diverted from a landfill. ZED designed to preserve the existing mature trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize site impacts, and to maintain the character of the neighborhood as well as privacy on the site. EXTERIOR EXPRESSION. The street facade of the home relates to the local New England vernacular. The rear uses contemporary language, a nod to the family’s Californian roots, to incorporate a roof deck, solar panels, outdoor living space, and the backyard swimming pool. ZED’s careful planning avoided to the need to face the garage doors towards the street, a common syndrome of a narrow lot. THOUGHTFUL SPACE. Homes with dual entries can often result in duplicate and unused spaces. In this home, the everyday and formal entry areas are one and the same; the front and garage doors share the entry program of coat closets, mudroom storage with bench for removing your shoes, and a laundry room with generous closets for the children's sporting equipment. The entry area leads directly to the living space, encompassing the kitchen, dining and sitting area areas in an L-shaped open plan arrangement. The kitchen is placed at the south-west corner of the space to allow for a strong connection to the dining, sitting and outdoor living spaces. A fire pit on the deck satisfies the family’s desire for an open flame while a sealed gas fireplace is used indoors - ZED’s preference after omitting gas burning appliances completely from an airtight home. A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space. A first floor guest bedroom includes an accessible bathroom for aging visitors and can be used as a master suite to accommodate aging in place. HEALTHY LIVING. The client requested a home that was easy to clean and would provide a respite from seasonal allergies and common contaminants that are found in many indoor spaces. ZED selected easy to clean solid surface flooring throughout, provided ample space for cleaning supplies on each floor, and designed a mechanical system with ventilation that provides a constant supply of fresh outdoor air. ZED selected durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no added urea formaldehyde. YEAR-ROUND COMFORT. The home is super insulated and air-tight, paired with high performance triple-paned windows, to ensure it is draft-free throughout the winter (even when in front of the large windows and doors). ZED designed a right-sized heating and cooling system to pair with the thermally improved building enclosure to ensure year-round comfort. The glazing on the home maximizes passive solar gains, and facilitates cross ventilation and daylighting. ENERGY EFFICIENT. As one of the most energy efficient houses built to date in Wellesley, the home highlights a practical solution for Massachusetts. First, the building enclosure reduces the largest energy requirement for typical houses (heating). Super-insulation, exceptional air sealing, a thermally broken wall assembly, triple pane windows, and passive solar gain combine for a sizable heating load reduction. Second, within the house only efficient systems consume energy. These include an air source heat pump for heating & cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and high efficiency appliances. Lastly, photovoltaics provide renewable energy help offset energy consumption. The result is an 89% reduction in energy use compared to a similar brand new home built to code requirements. RESILIENT. The home will fare well in extreme weather events. During a winter power outage, heat loss will be very slow due to the super-insulated and airtight envelope– taking multiple days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. An engineered drainage system, paired with careful the detailing of the foundation, will help to keep the finished basement dry. A generator will provide full operation of the all-electric house during a power outage. OVERALL. The home is a reflection of the family goals and an expression of their values, beautifully enabling health, comfort, safety, resilience, and utility, all while respecting the planet. ZED - Architect & Mechanical Designer Bevilacqua Builders Inc - Contractor Creative Land & Water Engineering - Civil Engineering Barbara Peterson Landscape - Landscape Design Nest & Company - Interior Furnishings Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

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 Michael Eric Berube, Maine Virtual Home Tours

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Luminette® Sheers Help Diffuse Daytime Sunlight and offer UV protection on Furniture. Photo by Hunter Douglas®
Example of a transitional living room design in Boston

The design build team selected Clopay Canyon Ridge Collection Limited Edition Series insulated faux wood carriage house garage doors with built-in WindCode reinforcement for the home’s two-car attached garage. The cladding looks like real wood, but it won’t rot, warp or crack, which is an important benefit for exterior products installed in a damp, four-season coastal environment. The boards are molded from real wood pieces to replicate the grain pattern and natural texture, and they can be painted or stained. Photo credit: Nat Rea.

Stay warm and enjoy natural light with Krumpers Solar Blinds, engineered for fall and winter comfort. The two-sided, turn-around design helps retain heat indoors while maintaining a clear view of the outdoors — keeping your home bright, cozy, and energy efficient. Proudly Made in Canada and featured on HGTV’s Vacation House Rules, Krumpers Solar Blinds are lab-tested and proven to deliver up to 41% energy savings. Available in manual and motorized options, they provide year-round insulation, UV protection, and timeless elegance for any home.

Have you ever wished that you could get more use out of your porch? Jans Awning Products can help you do just that with our wide selection of patio enclosures. With non-insulated patio enclosures, you can take what is essentially an outdoor space and turn it into a three or four-season room. This shelters you from the elements as well as added security for your home. Even if your porch or patio does not have a roof, we can install an aluminum patio roof or acrylic patio roof to meet your home’s exact requirements.

Who needs or wants municipal water when GREEN POWER 4 TEXAS can help you Catch All You Can -- 20,000 gallons here -- 10 to 12 times per year, and drip irrigate wisely with a Hydrawise Irrigation Controller? Decorative, native and edible plants love Hydrawise.

The design of this home was driven by the owners’ desire for a three-bedroom waterfront home that showcased the spectacular views and park-like setting. As nature lovers, they wanted their home to be organic, minimize any environmental impact on the sensitive site and embrace nature. This unique home is sited on a high ridge with a 45° slope to the water on the right and a deep ravine on the left. The five-acre site is completely wooded and tree preservation was a major emphasis. Very few trees were removed and special care was taken to protect the trees and environment throughout the project. To further minimize disturbance, grades were not changed and the home was designed to take full advantage of the site’s natural topography. Oak from the home site was re-purposed for the mantle, powder room counter and select furniture. The visually powerful twin pavilions were born from the need for level ground and parking on an otherwise challenging site. Fill dirt excavated from the main home provided the foundation. All structures are anchored with a natural stone base and exterior materials include timber framing, fir ceilings, shingle siding, a partial metal roof and corten steel walls. Stone, wood, metal and glass transition the exterior to the interior and large wood windows flood the home with light and showcase the setting. Interior finishes include reclaimed heart pine floors, Douglas fir trim, dry-stacked stone, rustic cherry cabinets and soapstone counters. Exterior spaces include a timber-framed porch, stone patio with fire pit and commanding views of the Occoquan reservoir. A second porch overlooks the ravine and a breezeway connects the garage to the home. Numerous energy-saving features have been incorporated, including LED lighting, on-demand gas water heating and special insulation. Smart technology helps manage and control the entire house. Greg Hadley Photography

Stay warm and enjoy natural light with Krumpers Solar Blinds, engineered for fall and winter comfort. The two-sided, turn-around design helps retain heat indoors while maintaining a clear view of the outdoors — keeping your home bright, cozy, and energy efficient. Proudly Made in Canada and featured on HGTV’s Vacation House Rules, Krumpers Solar Blinds are lab-tested and proven to deliver up to 41% energy savings. Available in manual and motorized options, they provide year-round insulation, UV protection, and timeless elegance for any home.

Stay warm and enjoy natural light with Krumpers Solar Blinds, engineered for fall and winter comfort. The two-sided, turn-around design helps retain heat indoors while maintaining a clear view of the outdoors — keeping your home bright, cozy, and energy efficient. Proudly Made in Canada and featured on HGTV’s Vacation House Rules, Krumpers Solar Blinds are lab-tested and proven to deliver up to 41% energy savings. Available in manual and motorized options, they provide year-round insulation, UV protection, and timeless elegance for any home.

Stay warm and enjoy natural light with Krumpers Solar Blinds, engineered for fall and winter comfort. The two-sided, turn-around design helps retain heat indoors while maintaining a clear view of the outdoors — keeping your home bright, cozy, and energy efficient. Proudly Made in Canada and featured on HGTV’s Vacation House Rules, Krumpers Solar Blinds are lab-tested and proven to deliver up to 41% energy savings. Available in manual and motorized options, they provide year-round insulation, UV protection, and timeless elegance for any home.