photos: Kyle Born
Example of a large eclectic enclosed light wood floor and brown floor living room design in New York with a bar, blue walls, a standard fireplace and no tv

Jason Roehner
Urban home design photo in Phoenix

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

The addition of a deck transformed this once boring, lawn-based garden into an oasis for birds and butterflies. This garden will be open to the public as "Tranquil California" on Saturday, April 9th for the California Native Plant Society spring garden tour. Register here for tour info: http://gngt.org/GNGT/HomeRO.php This home went from "blah" to beautiful with the addition of a deck and lush, California native plantings. All that boring, time-consuming lawn is gone, making room for bids, bees, and butterflies. Now this garden is a fit habitat for a much wider range of party animals!

"We love having a large island where we can sit around and talk, eat, and spend time with our family and friends." - The Pasquarello Family
Mid-sized transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen photo in New York with a farmhouse sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and beige countertops

When you're installing a supercharger, the last thing you want to worry about is hunting for a lost tool. Trying to find a lost tool is frustrating, time consuming, and can quickly derail your train of thought at critical times. End the game of tool hide-and-seek with Wall Control pegboard tool storage products! Thanks for the great customer photo Steve!

Design Builders & Remodeling is a one stop shop operation. From the start, design solutions are strongly rooted in practical applications and experience. Project planning takes into account the realities of the construction process and mindful of your established budget. All the work is centralized in one firm reducing the chances of costly or time consuming surprises. A solid partnership with solid professionals to help you realize your dreams for a new or improved home. Hand fabricated barn doors create a clean and modern twist to compliment this homes historic charm

"We love having a large island where we can sit around and talk, eat, and spend time with our family and friends." - The Pasquarello Family
Mid-sized transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen photo in New York with a farmhouse sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and beige countertops

Inspiration for a transitional u-shaped gray floor kitchen remodel in New York with shaker cabinets, white cabinets, white backsplash, stone slab backsplash and an island

"We love having a large island where we can sit around and talk, eat, and spend time with our family and friends." - The Pasquarello Family
Mid-sized transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen photo in New York with a farmhouse sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and beige countertops

"We love having a large island where we can sit around and talk, eat, and spend time with our family and friends." - The Pasquarello Family
Eat-in kitchen - mid-sized transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen idea in New York with a farmhouse sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and beige countertops

Photo: Robert Burns ˙© 2015 Houzz
Shed - industrial shed idea in Portland

The best way to figure out how to put your finished basement to use is to determine what your home is missing. Working out and keeping on track can be very time consuming and the thought of working out in a crowded gym does not make the situation any better No excuses if you have a workout room with your own bathroom and refrigerator –right?

The Owners of a home that had been consumed by the moving dunes of Lake Michigan wanted a home that would not only stand the test of aesthetic time, but survive the vicissitudes of the environment. With the assistance of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as well as the consulting civil engineer and the City of Grand Haven Zoning Department, a soil stabilization site plan was developed based on raising the new home’s main floor elevation by almost three feet, implementing erosion studies, screen walls and planting indigenous, drought tolerant xeriscaping. The screen walls, as well as the low profile of the home and the use of sand trapping marrum beachgrass all help to create a wind shadow buffer around the home and reduce blowing sand erosion and accretion. The Owners wanted to minimize the stylistic baggage which consumes most “cottage” residences, and with the Architect created a home with simple lines focused on the view and the natural environment. Sustainable energy requirements on a budget directed the design decisions regarding the SIPs panel insulation, energy systems, roof shading, other insulation systems, lighting and detailing. Easily constructed and linear, the home harkens back to mid century modern pavilions with present day environmental sensitivities and harmony with the site. John Allegretti

This is a mix of food palette recycled glass tile mosaics. We utilize a combination of sizes to break up the tic-tac-toe grid of the tile mounting. This provides a more organic and comfortable aesthetic. Our glass tile mosaics are completely customizable to suit our customers' taste. We have over 300 colors to choose from. We do mockups in our showroom and send samples for out of state customers. Lead time is usually about 2 weeks from time of order. Our photos are mostly not shot by professional photographers. Please excuse. We hope our products speak for themselves.

"I purchased the Hickory stair tread and risers and they came quicker than the delivery date promised!. There was no damage and no need for further sanding. I simply applied one coat of "natural" color stain and 3 coats of clear satin and they were ready to cut to size and install. The cutting was time consuming because each step had to be cut individually to fit the location it was going into, but the end result was fantastic!!. I recommend Hardware Lumber for anyone thinking of redoing their stairs!!!" Steve

CHATHAM MARSHVIEW HOUSE This Cape Cod green home provides a destination for visiting family, support of a snowbird lifestyle, and an expression of the homeowner’s energy conscious values. Looking over the salt marsh with Nantucket Sound in the distance, this new home offers single level living to accommodate aging in place, and a strong connection to the outdoors. The homeowners can easily enjoy the deck, walk to the nearby beach, or spend time with family, while the house works to produce nearly all the energy it consumes. The exterior, clad in the Cape’s iconic Eastern white cedar shingles, is modern in detailing, yet recognizable and familiar in form. MORE: https://zeroenergy.com/chatham-marshview-house Architecture: ZeroEnergy Design Construction: Eastward Homes Photos: Eric Roth Photography

"I purchased the Hickory stair tread and risers and they came quicker than the delivery date promised!. There was no damage and no need for further sanding. I simply applied one coat of "natural" color stain and 3 coats of clear satin and they were ready to cut to size and install. The cutting was time consuming because each step had to be cut individually to fit the location it was going into, but the end result was fantastic!!. I recommend Hardware Lumber for anyone thinking of redoing their stairs!!!" Steve

Working around spindles can be time consuming (they're incredibly stubborn) but it's all work it when the work is done.
Inspiration for a small modern carpeted l-shaped staircase remodel with carpeted risers