Apartment Therapy House Tour

So sorry for the long lag in blog posts. Truly don't know where my time goes these days. But it's time to get started again, documenting the crazy, hectic, but fun-filled days that make up our life in the country of Vermont!

First up, a much belated post about the tour of our house posted on Apartment Therapy last fall! We were so stoked when we heard that AT was interested in our place--I leaned on AT heavily for ideas during the design and build phase. Many elements of our home including the chalkboard wall, the apple crates as side tables, black and white hexagon bathroom tiles, mason jars instead of glasses (pictures to come!), etc. all made their way into my head compliments of some AT post. So it was super cool to see OUR house on their site! So without further ado, click here to see the house tour. And here are some of the awesome photos they took for us.

(Also, please ignore the baby-on-the-counter drama. Totally predicted the backlash and am still kicking myself for allowing that picture to be posted--I was really right there. The kiddo was never in danger.)




Upcoming posts to include our backyard composting system (should really have started it a long time ago) and our most recent project--chickens!!! Ryan is starting the coop next weekend and our chicks arrive on May 27th. What is it about us and putting off building projects until the last possible minute? We moved into the house December 2009 and Milo was born February 2010. We build the chicken coop in May and the babies are due the same month. I see a pattern developing here...

More to come!

[Edit: Just realized that my last post was almost a year to the day ago...ridiculous! Promise to be better!]

More progress pics!

Little details are coming together. Here is our lovely porch light from Conant Metal and Light in Burlington. It's a great shop that carries a fantastic line of lights and interior details including some really dynamite original pieces. Thanks to a generous gift certificate for Christmas last year from Ryan's parents, we were able to purchase two of these beauties--one for each porch entrance.

Since we're showing off porch details, I'll point out one of my favorite...the basket weave of our ceiling, which you can somewhat see in the picture above. It's more visible in this second shot, looking north (and you can see the other porch light!) The neat thing is that the design of the ceiling matches the interlocking pattern of the floor boards, as well. Bill and his crew are truly masters when it comes to touches like this. I'm proud to say that my dad helped out with this little project, too.

Now for some fun interior shots. Ryan did a wonderful job painting our entire dining room wall with chalkboard paint. We also hung the barn-inspired light fixture above what will be our dining room table (currently a stack of hardwood flooring and a random assortment of tools).

And speaking of floors, Bill laid them like a mad man last weekend finishing the nursery and starting on the guest bedroom. I think the lightness of the maple will help these small rooms feel more spacious. In addition to looking nice, we're happy with our flooring because it was milled from a sustainably harvested forest just over the border in Canada so it didn't have to travel far. Planet Hardwood in St. George is the place to go if you're looking for locally, sustainably harvested floor products.


Finally, progress on the bathrooms. Tony has done a tremendous job laying tile and we're really excited with the way the flooring and the subway tile around the tubs turned out.

Army chic

Sorry for the lack of posts. Now that we're actually doing a lot of work on the house I find that I'm doing less writing about it. Most of the work at this point is of the grunt-variety...lots of painting and staining. I've had white streaks in my hair (from the paint, not stress...although maybe there is a mixture of both at this point) for the past four weeks. It's sort of becoming my new look, I guess. But we're making progress. Accomplishments of this past week include: finishing priming the basement including the drum studio, the largest room in the house (go figure), transforming one wall of our dining room into a large chalkboard with chalkboard paint (love it!), painting almost all of our interior doors, and putting a final coat of stain on the stair treads. Our builders are hard at work laying down the maple floors, installing the kitchen cabinets, and tiling the bathrooms. Our electrician also began putting in fixtures. I will take pictures soon.

Another small triumph of the week was my discovery of our local Army/Navy surplus store in Barre, Vermont. I have been coveting a nice wool army blanket for our new bed for months now. Army chic is definitely on the rise. (Photo credits, in order of apperance: Ace Hotel, House Beautiful, Plastolux, and Apartment Therapy).





I particularly liked the reproduction Swiss army blanket with the red stripe and little white cross. Turns out you can buy one from the dreamy Sundance Catalog...if you want to part with $300. Yes, $300 for a wool blanket.



Lucky for me that the Barre Army/Navy Store sells them for the slightly less shocking price of $19.95. The folks at the store looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how much people were willing to spend for this item. I actually don't think they believed me. But you might want to put your order in for one now as they could raise their prices soon! As of yesterday afternoon, I am a proud owner of one of these beauties. I think it will look stunning on our new iron bed with all white sheets and pillows.

ERV or HRV?

We debated this question for months. Efficiency Vermont advised us to go with an ERV (energy recovery ventilator) but many homes in this region use an HRV (heat recovery ventilator). We did a lot of reading to make up our mind and spoke with a variety of folks including our electrician, Larry Wyckoff, who installed the system for us. Eventually we, in consultation with Larry, decided to go with an HRV.

What is an HRV? A heat recovery ventilator (or any sort of air exchanger) is critical for a house like ours that is super insulated. Because of the tightness of our walls, windows, and doors, our house will not "breathe" on its own. An HRV provides mechanical lungs for the house by constantly exchanging indoor air with air from outside. This helps maintain a high quality indoor air environment. A "heat" recovery ventilator also ensures that the fresh air coming in from outside is warmed up before entry. Here is a summary of how an HRV works from Popular Mechanics:

A heat-recovery ventilator (HRV) is similar to a balanced ventilation system, except it uses the heat in the outgoing stale air to warm up the fresh air. A typical unit features two fans-one to take out household air and the other to bring in fresh air. What makes an HRV unique is the heat-exchange core. The core transfers heat from the outgoing stream to the incoming stream in the same way that the radiator in your car transfers heat from the engine's coolant to the outside air. It's composed of a series of narrow alternating passages through which incoming and outgoing airstreams flow. As the streams move through, heat is transferred from the warm side of each passage to the cold, while the airstreams never mix.

What is the difference between an HRV and an ERV? According to the experts, HRVs make sense in climates that do more heating than cooling (e.g. northern Vermont). Again, Popular Mechanics:

Although an HRV can be effective in the summer months, when it will take heat from incoming fresh air and transfer it to stale air-conditioned exhaust air, it's most popular in colder climates during the winter. HRVs are ideal for tight, moisture-prone homes because they replace the humid air with dry, fresh air. In climates with excessive outdoor humidity, an energy-recovery ventilator is more suitable. This device is similar to an HRV, but dehumidifies the incoming fresh airstream.

You can read the article from Popular Mechanics here. Another good resource is this article from Eco Home Magazine.

For those of you building super-insulated homes, are you going with an ERV or HRV?

Porch work

These great photos were taken by our builder, Bill Litchfield. The porch is going on! Scott is hard at work on the roof of it. Soon enough, I'm going to get a shot of the whole crew...Bill, Tony, Scott, and Nick. Also, some of our Marvin Integrity windows are in! Woohoo!




Another major accomplishment this week is that our fantastic plumber, Mike Lavoie, installed all the PEX tubing for our radiant heat floors. Ryan and I are proud of the fact that we placed and drilled all the black clasps that hold the tubing...


And finally, to clear up any confusion, the mastermind behind our project is Bill Litchfield of Speciality Design. I know I featured a picture of the Fine Homes trailer awhile back. That was Craig, the dynamite that came in and installed our SIPs. But Bill is top dog. So here is the requisite shot of his ride.


Next up: more photos of the porch once it gets its roof. Also siding and metal roofing.

More wallpaper

So I posted awhile back about how much I adore Cole and Sons "Woods" wallpaper. It's just stunning. But when I was perusing the Door Sixteen blog this morning, I fell in love with another design, "Berry Black," from Danish company Ferm Living.


Check out Anna's gorgeous dressing room decked out in the stuff. The company's website has some other great finds. They're all just so rich and intricate. I really don't think of myself as a wallpaper person and I definitely don't have plans to use a lot of it in the house (not a fan of each room having its own texture and color scheme...am going for coherence and simplicity). But browsing is fun.




And how cute are these kids' rooms?

Homestead General

So I have lots to post from my weeked jaunt to my hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. Sometimes it takes a bit of time away from a place to make you realize how beautiful and special it is. Fairhope is literally awash in blooms. The city has its own nursery and greenhouses and it plants gorgeous flowers on every street corner downtown. There are even flowers planted on the top of trash cans--no lie! In addition to the physical beauty of the town, I am happy to say that they are catching on to the green building movement (post to follow on my tour of the Fairhope Green Home) and to the localvore movement. They host a farmers market downtown every Thursday and several restaurants are serving locally raised grass-fed beef. It all makes me very happy...and very proud of the town I called home as a kid.

But one of the most exciting discoveries of the trip was a new store on Fairhope Ave. called Homestead General. My parents and I drove past it Saturday evening and I fell in love as soon as I saw the window diplay--a large set of wire baskets with weathered picture frames on top. Ahh, industrial rustic. Love it. So with less than 30 minutes until I had to leave for the airport on Sunday afternoon, my mom indulged me and we dashed downtown for a quick look. The window display was only a teaser. The entire store was filled with gems--rustic tables and vintage signs, metal wire baskets and tubs, organic canvas bedding, iron beds, rustic/modern furniture. It actually had a vibe similar to the White Flower Farmhouse. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I spent more money per minute than I ever have in my life (although the pieces were very reasonably priced). Below are some shots of my purchases. This woman blogged about her trip to Homestead General and took some great interior shots of the shop. (I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera!)






The last one has an interesting story. A woman in the area collected wood scraps after Hurricane Katrina and turned them into unique decoration pieces. I think I'm going to hang this in the master bathroom to hold wet towels.

Green paint

Well, not green as in color...as in not stinky, not bad for the planet, and not bad for humans. We're going to exclusively use AFM Safecoat in our house. It seems to have the best reputation among the "green" paints and Planet Hardwood, less than 2 miles from our building site, is a distributor. Works out well.

AFM Safecoat is not low-VOC...it is Zero VOC. Check out this review of it from inhabitat. Peter from Green Home Guide says, "In the current world of paints, Safecoat stands above most others." Here's another review of several green paints where Safecoat comes out on top.

IKEA run

Sara and I had a blast at IKEA in Montreal. Who doesn't? I'm happy with our purchases...

Salvage=green

I've been remiss in not mentioning one of my favorite stores in all of Vermont...Mason Brothers Salvage in Essex Junction. I can spend hours strolling through their collections of architecturally salvaged doors, sinks, light fixtures, etc. It's a treasure trove of goodness. Plus, using salvaged products is green because it doesn't require the production of new materials or the transportation of goods from far off places. Here's a short article about the green properties of salvaged materials that includes a list of salvage spots around the country.

Since Vermont has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country, salvage shops in this area are overflowing with excellent, one-of-a-kind pieces. And the guys at Mason Bros. are great. They always know the history of the items they sell and are really committed to protecting them by giving them a new home. We've actually purchased several things from them already, mainly two matching wall-mounted sinks for our master bathroom (I'll take and post a pic soon--they're in storage right now.) Both were made in the 1950s and were salvaged from dormitories at Middlebury College! So cool.

So my sis (who is the awesomest shopper ever--I love picking out home stuff with her) and I went to Mason Brothers this week and took lots of pictures to give you a sense of what's available. We didn't make any purchases because I've found that the hubby likes input. But we might go back on Saturday and choose a pedestal sink for the guest bathroom. I also adore their glass door knobs and am thinking about using those throughout the house.