The family that built this home in the beachside community of Narragansett, Rhode Island has proven that a home of the future can still find plenty of inspiration in New England's past.
A High-Tech & Green Traditional New England Home
Narragansett, Rhode Island
While we love modern architecture, it's nice to see a traditional-style home that incorporates the old — we're drooling over those reclaimed wood floors — and the new — it's LEED Gold certified and utilizes innovative technology to automate many of the systems in the home, from the lighting to the entertainment.
The project is documented on the website, www.greenlifesmartlife.com, which includes pictures, videos, and detailed accounts of the home building process. Some information from the homeowners:
From ENERGY STAR™ to LEED®-H (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and with a unique set of building constraints, such as managing Coastal Resources, a building budget of under $200 sq/ft, building codes in a 120 MPH wind zone, and maximizing ocean views, the project will be a step-by-step demonstration home for builders, sub contractors, product manufacturers and technology companies to showcase their solutions as more and more of today’s families look to adopt green living.
For more news and information on the Green Life Smart Life project, visit their website and blog.
Comments (10)
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I strongly dislike the kitchen/dining room thing. I must be the last person in the US that like a formal dining room...
The rest of the house is stunning and clean looking.
The entertainment stack is waaay over the top and whoever fudged that one last patch cord needs to be kicked...
view charnov's profile
A green home would really be 1/10th that size...sustainable thinking and living is more than green consumerism. that being said, nice house!
view kwak's profile
@ Jason
I agree. I too am saddened by the dissappearance of the formal dining room.
view Volvoguy's profile
@Jason - rest assured you're not the only one who prefers formal dining rooms. I think they are much cozier places when they are set apart from the kitchen. Also, I dislike entertaining with the dining/kitchen combo because then everyone sees your messes of pre-party kitchen utensils and dished in the sink.
I'd also prefer curtains on the windows over the bathtub, but maybe the owners have no neighbors??
Other than that, nice home.
view Trish1980's profile
Nice home. I like the open floor plan.
view ithink's profile
LOOVE the bathroom shower. Everything else is pretty unoriginal.
view equalityjones's profile
Great house, but so sick of hearing about people building these "green" houses that could house a small village of people. I guess if you're an architect/designer/contractor, then you have to market to the folks who want to feel good while still having their 4,350 sf house. ($200/sf = $870,000 building budget the price of the waterfront property!)
view ghunt's profile
I had to look up where this house is located in Narragansett since my mom has a beach house there. Anawan Cliffs is a pretty upscale location with incredible views - the lot would not have been a bargain. Sounds like the guy's PR job was the premise to get free / discounted products from the "sponsors" to get his dream home built without laying out $870k himself.
view sfgirl's profile
Oy. I am definitely one who loves a good debate about green issues, but I am so tired of hearing people complain when someone claims a larger home can't possibly be green.
Let's examine here. First of all, yes, this is an upscale neighborhood - so are you saying no one should have built there at all? People are going to build big homes, we are never going to convince everyone to live in a small village. Should we just ignore this? No - this is why "green" has never gone anywhere, because people in the movement are too small minded.
The home saves 93,000 gallons of water per year. It is 42% more energy efficient than homes of comparable size (and probably more efficient than your home). It uses geothermal (no reliance on oil or gas) to heat and cool the home (not a very cheap thing to do, might I add), reclaimed floors and all FSC-certified wood (so NOT contributing to deforestation), ALL LED lights (also not cheap) and a home energy monitoring system. They diverted 87% of the construction debris from the landfill by putting in a comprehensive waste management plan. I'd be willing to bet this house "consumes" less than yours does any day of the week.
While the home gave companies with green products the opportunity to sponsor the home, I promise you it was by no means free and if anything, the homeowners paid way more than necessary to ensure everything was done as environmentally responsible as possible.
So while you sit there and criticize, you should step back and realize that while they might not have built the smallest house they could have, they did more than probably 90% of the population when it came to being environmentally responsible both during the design & construction.
view ALD714's profile
Why do so many people still think that to be green you must live in a yurt off the grid somewhere...drive a hybrid and not own a single electronic device...It's folks like that who give the rest of us a bad rep. Plenty of us are as green as we can be given our current individual circumstances.
So to all of you that are complaining--would you turn down the opportunity to live in what looks like a beautiful home with the latest technology while saving amazing amounts of water and electricity...?
I agree...it's probably a heck of a lot greener and energy efficient in the homes or apartments that you all live in.
view LostSailor's profile