Modern Homes New England

“The design of this cabin was premised on three goals. First, to provide the required spaces for an extended stay cabin within a minimal footprint. Second, provide a quality of space and abundant natural daylight typically not found in this size of structure. And third, to allow for simplicity of construction and maintenance.”

via Treehugger. “Plans are also cheaper than hiring the architect for full service; V+C are selling these for $ 2,000.”

From Grassroots Modern:

We knew we had the choice of settling for something that was less than what we really wanted, or splurging and getting something beautiful that would hopefully hold up for a long time.

And boy are they right. Our son at ~11 weeks really needs a crib. Trips to Babies R Us and Baby Furniture Warehouse are disappointing. There are 1 or two styles that we find tolerable, and while the stuff at Baby Furniture Warehouse is good furniture, we’d spend hundreds of dollars on something we feel so-so about. Truthfully, every swoopy, curvy, or ornate nursery furniture item seems made for girls or parents who want a nice room in traditional style. There were a couple mission or shaker style items that featured cleaner lines, but didn’t thrill us.

We like modern stuff. Our home is full of IKEA. I was happy to see IKEA expanded the crib line since we were pregnant. There are now 5 models online. None seem so solid. So we look at sites like 2modern.com and moderntots.com and wonder where the affordable options are. Without a mainstream market, these niche products are priced out of reach.

Sahara crib - $685 + $198 for a toddler conversion kit. (Modern options don’t convert to twin beds like many we saw today do.)

Loom crib - $650 + $180 for a toddler conversion kit.

Neither of those include mattresses.

Grassroots Modern got it right:

Luckily for us, the folks at Nurseryworks were kind enough to help us out, and support Grassrootsmodern by sponsoring our nursery. We ended up getting the Aerial Crib with a diamond end panel, all white except for the light pine rails.

And we continue to ponder plunking down $1000 on crib + conversion kit + mattress for Jack.

According to Wired, “Gang worked with engineering powerhouse Arup to calibrate the facade. Using a computer model, they gradually angled the glass until they hit the sweet spot — skewed enough to keep living rooms from baking, but not so much that they feel like the inside of a boat. The magic number for Chicago’s latitude? Exactly 71 degrees. Which should also be the temperature inside.”

So by tilting the glass and utilizing principles that have been around for ages, she designs a building that needs less air conditioning in summer yet gets the heat gain in winter. Thats good design.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/tilting_windows.php

I can’t help touching upon lifestyle issues here, as the topic at hand is our homes in the New England region. I was in Boston yesterday, having taken the commuter rail from downtown Salem to North Station, the Green Line to Park St, and Red Line to South Station, walked a few blocks, and then reversed course to Park Street and out to Longwood, where I walked up the street for a second meeting. By the time I got off the commuter rail again in Salem I was reeling from the constant smell of exhaust that hung around my neck like a noose all day. It was especially prevalent while I sat waiting for the train to depart North Station.

Today brings an article from Forbes on how our commutes affect our health, and it’s not about our diet during those commutes or around that schedule, nor is it about stress. It’s about exhaust and fumes.

Even if you live in a city with low pollution levels, don’t kid yourself; that doesn’t necessarily mean your commute is healthy. A 2007 report by the Clean Air Task Force that investigated diesel exhaust levels during commutes in New York, Boston, Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, documented diesel particle levels four to eight times higher inside commuter cars, buses and trains than in those cities’ ambient outdoor air.

America’s Unhealthy Commutes

One of the attractions of modern prefab has always been that one gets the design talent of a good architect without having to go through the time and expense of actually working with one; many people also are afraid of architects, fearing that they will get what the architect is selling rather than what they want to buy.

This is particularly an issue with modern design, where people are much more likely to be comfortable if they can see plans and pictures of a house that has already been resolved. It is the reason for the success of Michelle Kaufmann’s modern prefabs; once the first is built the others are much easier.

For quite a few years now Greg Lavardera has been selling modern home plans, and now quite a few of them are getting built.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/click_your_way.php

Linked in the article:

http://www.lamidesign.com/plans/homepg.html

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/realestate/greathomes/06online.html

Road-weary travelers on a 7-hour drive back from Northern New York State to Salem, MA with a 10-week old, my wife and I decided to stretch out the trip and stop in the Berkshires for the night. She had worked at the Porches Inn in North Adams one summer and we thought it’d be fun to be a guest instead of a staff member. A last-minute phone call got us a Junior Suite for the rate of a Standard room.

Self-described as “a North Adams inn where real history meets contemporary culture in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts,” its location was determined by proximity to MASS MoCA - the Museum of Contemporary Art.

I’m not sure that it lived up to the reputation that preceded it, but the lodging and amenities were comfortable and nice. The room’s color scheme was lively, and the spacious rainfall shower was simultaneously invigorating and relaxing after a long, steamy day on the road.

North Adams itself didn’t seem to have much going for it. Down the road in Adams, and further down the road back toward the Mass Pike in Pittsfield, there was a lot going on, including Tanglewood, various upscale lodging options and strollable downtowns.

I was actually trying to capture a spider’s web on our balcony in this photo, but the dew was gone by the time I was up.

The king size bed was wonderfully comfortable, the central AC fine. We had a private balcony. There were a few disappointments, however: Our room was in the main building and I was awoken throughout the night not only by a building entrance below, but also by food preparation, such that I could actually hear a can opener running and eggs being beaten! Not at 7:00 am, mind you, not at 6:00, 5:00, but more like 4:00 am, and silverware and glasses being sorted awoke me closer to 1:00 am. Breakfast was enjoyable, but the cute lunchpails my wife remembered lugging to each room contained milk and juice in old-fashioned mini milk bottles…that dripped their contents EVERYWHERE when we tried to pour them into glasses. That’s a quibble; the noise, all the more acute because the surroundings were so quiet, cost me sleep, and I thought I was paying a cost to guarantee myself some.

If you’re planning on visiting the region, up for the rates, and plan ahead for a room not in the main building, I’d recommend the Inn. There’s a nice pool and hot tub in back too, though our stay was too short to take advantage of them.

I did (sorry, Porches!) snag the latest issue of Berkshire Living home + garden from our room. Look for highlights as I glean regional architect and architecture links from its pages.

The mkLotus: Looks like it would be a nice model for a New England retreat.

From Treehugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/how_not_to_build_green.php

From the list:

1. It ain’t green to ignore perfectly good homes.
2. It ain’t green to build massive homes.
3. It ain’t green to encourage urban sprawl.
4. It ain’t green to build as if space for homes has nothing to do with transportation.
5. It ain’t green to ignore advantages of multi-family homes.

And the article:

reject the idea that you can build green one house at a time, create an urban space with a high density of multi-family homes to minimize the use of cars

And I again find myself faced with the dilemma of reality vs. theory that I touched upon with No Impact Man’s passed along guidelines for reducing personal carbon emissions by 90%. Let me share with you just how badly I want to live according to this list:

• Our first purchased home is a 1,050 sq ft condo.
• It’s a corner unit in a former school in a historic district in Salem, MA. Many old homes here (centuries old) have been converted to multi-family condos. Our unit was once a classroom, in a portion of the building from the 1870s.
• All our utilities are electric, I pay for GreenUp (investments in renewable energy) on every bill, which is a good thing because we’re in a terribly inefficient situation in the winter, with an unheated basement below us, and our forced air heat rising to help out our upstairs neighbor’s unit.
• We selected this home and location so that we can walk downtown as an option, and so I could walk 15 minutes to the Commuter Rail stop to catch the train into Boston.
• I’m currently working at working from home, freelancing, contracting and managing client projects.

Not too bad, eh? Let me share with you the reality:

• While management obsesses with mysterious water usage rates (it’s probably just a lot of washing machines, both common and in-unit, and strong water pressure), which is paid for by condo fees, and more efficient lighting, I’d be hard-pressed to see a further investment in any additional renewable energy features. There was enough push-back just on recent renovations. I’m sure there’s room on the roof for solar alongside everyone’s heat pumps.
• While we’re comfortable with our multi-family arrangement and our in-building neighbors, the situation outside the building is an entirely different story. To put it briefly: A 3-member household in a 2-bedroom condo in a historic home next door possesses a total of 5 vehicles at present; 3 crammed in an overtaxed driveway under our windows (shared with their downstairs neighbors), including a blasting Harley, two GMC SUVs, and then the twentysomething son’s two project cars in front on the street, one a souped-up Subaru with a blasting muffler worse than the motorcycle.
• This is not atypical, but status quo in this community, with streets packed with cars and engines revving at every intersection.
• We switch from heat to central air come spring, and it runs til fall. Opening our windows opens our home to ceaseless disruptive noise and street exhaust.
• Quality-of-life policing is not a priority. In two years here I’ve not seen one vehicle pulled over for disrupting a residential community. There’s been widespread graffiti since we moved in. I do, however, receive notices in the mail inviting me to come weigh in on someone’s efforts to redo their home’s fence, in the interest of community aesthetics.
• One does have to get in their car occasionally, unfortunately. We rely on Peapod for groceries, but other shopping errands, doctor’s appointments, etc, necessitate getting behind the wheel, and facing endless frustration with local traffic and reckless drivers. Some of whom have accosted me as I’ve tried to enter a crosswalk when walking to the train stop.

While I’ll do everything I can to not contribute to sprawl, make smart choices about my vehicles and consumption, and continue to make an effort at working from home, the next home we own will be new (as new as a container home can be considered) and will not be in an urban setting. I don’t have the resources to keep fighting this fight and getting burned. I grew up in rural homes; it’s a factor in my comfort in this setting. My home is my sanctuary. I’ll be glad to make it a modest home, but I need a guarantee it’ll be respected.

From my experience, I’ve concluded that smart, sustainable communities need a majority buy-in. That doesn’t have to be 50%: It needs to outweigh the factions that just don’t care, or those that are shining examples of conspicuous consumption. I’ve also concluded that in trying to cultivate high-density urban spaces, noise pollution must be taken as seriously as carbon pollution. Unfortunately, where I am, neither seems to be taken very seriously at all. And I can’t afford property in communities where it is taken seriously.

Link

http://gosunsolutions.com/home/content/view/82/2/