Thanks for your email. In response to your questions –

1. Bedrooms are separated when possible by closets. For the rooms where this is not possible, we suggest using insulation in the walls for privacy.

2. The entry foyer can easily be enclosed with French doors or a curtain to keep the cold air out of the living room.

3. See Builder online letters to the editor from the Feb. issue of Builder Magazine in regard to the garage.

4. We believe in all of the products that we specified for this house, not because we were bought by corporate sponsors, but because we feel the products contribute to making this house a sustainable long term design. Both Mark LaLiberte and myself reviewed the specs to make sure everything
fit our vision.

5. There is a pantry to the left of the refridgerator. It is not large, but fitted out with storage shelves, it can hold quite a bit. We have also added a double layer of upper cabinets to accommodate more storage.

6. This house is designed to be future-proofed as much as possible. It is based on timeless principles of design that have proven their value through the years.

I hope that these answers address your questions. Thanks for your post.

Marianne

In such a relatively small house how is the sound proofing from room to room compared to other new homes? To an older (1980s say) home?

I live in a COLD place. Wouldn’t an arctic entry make sense? The recessed garage seems like a disadvantage to me. I know snout houses are ugly and all, but the closer the garage is to the street the less I have to shovel the drive way.

I read magazines like Popular Science and they often talk about this and that innovation (e.g. some fancy window that’s supposed to save me oodles of heating cost & save the planet). I see so many products out there promising to be the gold standard or be some new innovation and I am confused as to which is actually the best value for the $. For me, it doesn’t have to be luxury, for me it’s all about cost quality & durability, i.e.value. My standard is some repairman showing up 100 years from now and saying, “Damn they built ‘em good in 2010.” Not, “Looks real pretty but damn the thing is like my wife, high-maintainence”. How did you pick the “right” window (or whatever other product) did you have a rubric on which product to pick?

I see you have all these corporate sponsors. Sorry for being cynical, but I just worry you picked a given product because you could get a tie-in deal, not because it’s the best value.

I wish your design had a pantry. I find mine so useful. Since it never really gets hot here I put all my semi-perishables in there that I want relatively cold but not taking up space in the fridge.

Did you take into consideration future proofing? Are there technologies on the horizon but aren’t quite here yet? How does the house anticipate being able to adapt to these?

What about the lawn? I know this isn’t the house per se, but I’d like to have a zero or no maintainence yard. I don’t want to mow it but don’t want to piss off the neighbors either. Is there some certain vegetation you can suggest?

What is compelling to me is the size of your house. Where I live the property taxes are partly determined by the square footage of the home, size of the lot and any added improvements (e.g. deck, shed, garage, etc). See they don’t tax quality. I like that. Build a small home on a small lot but extremely high quality as opposed to a larger home with poor design & construction.

Lot’s of questions I know. But hey, you said not to be shy. If some of these are simply ignorant of basic concepts & ideas is there some literature you can suggest?

Thanks, love your house and am leaning towards buying something like it.