Comments on: A (smaller) Modern Farmhouse in Vermont

By: BILL

BILL — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:32:45 +0000

I love your house, I would also be interested in purchasing your plans if
available?

By: Chad

Chad — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:32:54 +0000

Congrats on the completion of a fine project. I’m glad our site could offer some inspiration. It’s nice to see some elements like the standing seam metal and ICF’s that we considered but had to eliminate due to budget.

It’s also encouraging to see a project stick to its guns on the envelope and not sacrifice long-term efficiency for the sake of interior finishes that could be replaced within 5 years.

Lastly, I’m curious if pellet boilers were ever considered to power the radiant heating? As someone who is starting to investigate this concept, it would be great to hear your thoughts on them.

By: SHS

SHS — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:37:25 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful response J. I think you are right, we all need to bend our minds a little bit. I tend towards the radical as well but we bent the “rules” on this post (and categorized it in our “not so small” section. And you are absolutely right, the house is a great inspiration for smaller house construction. Some people need or want more space than others and at different times of their lives as well. I think tolerance is the lesson here. I’m often quick to jump and make assumptions b/c I see a snapshot of somebody’s life. It is often not the whole story. Glad you like the images!

By: J

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:27:53 +0000

Your right, it does make the green cut. Sometimes I get a little blinded by radical views. I always imagine a green house revolution as something completely different from our tradition view of housing. We will always have to make sacrifices in the structures we build if we don’t want to go back to living in tents and in caves.

The house is smaller than most being built these days. You did say in your article that 1500sqft does not include the finished basement that I would estimate to be another 500sqft at least. I haven’t read their blog yet, but I’ll get to it. My idea of a small house is 1000 sqft or under, but maybe I have a tiny house in mind. I currently comfortably live in 900sqft. I could stand to get rid of some furniture, and live in less. I’d actually prefer it, but I have to compromise with the wife.

If nothing more the house is a great inspiration for features to include in a smaller house. I collect pictures of features I like in houses, and I will be saving a few from this one.

By: SHS

SHS — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:29:47 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts J. Many of the builders that we talk to indicate that the choices that Susan and Ryan made (ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms) for the basement, SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panels) for the exterior walls, closed-cell blown-in insulation for the truss roof, fiberglass windows, fiber cement lap siding, a propane-fired radiant heating system, an HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator), and standing-seam metal roofing plus future plans to install solar panels on the property to incorporate into the heating and/or domestic hot water systems) would make the green cut. The house is larger than most houses we feature but is also smaller than most houses being made in North America. For whatever it is worth we did put the word green in parenthesis. It seems like the standards haven’t been written on that word yet. In other words, the jury is still out. What is your definition of green and small?

By: J

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:15:44 +0000

It looks really cool. I like the country feel, but modern.

I don’t see how this is green or small. That house is a monster. They used some green technology, but it doesn’t make it a green house.