Name: Nancy
Location: Winnetka, IL
Size: 4000 sq/ft
Years lived in: Owned 6 Months
Nancy’s got a great eye — when she first saw this mid-century gem she knew it had potential. At the time however, it was seriously in need of an upgrade: the interior reeked of early 90’s décor, the structure was thermally deficient and it wasn’t quite large enough for her family of three boys. A couple of years later the house is a shining example of a sustainably swanky renovation.
To add additional square footage to the house, without enlarging the footprint, the garage was rebuilt with a full basement below and a new “teenager suite” above. Connection of this new space to the main house was achieved via the construction of a masonry stair tower, which was designed as a continuation of the existing serpentine brick exterior wall. The tower is punctured by obscured glass block and circular domed skylight at the roof to provide lots of natural daylight.
Visually, the original home design had an interior/exterior relationship through the use of expansive glazing and brick masses that punctured the building shell from the exterior into the interior. This theme was expanded in the redesign in several ways: the existing upper-story stair railing was raised and re-clad in exterior cement fiberboard siding to visually extend from the exterior deck half wall; at the living room, an existing corner planter was extended to the exterior to complete the rectangle; and at the rear courtyard new black bluestone pavers extend the existing interior slate flooring.
One of the other main issues was a poor thermal envelope, which was primarily due to large expanses of un-tempered and single-glazed windows. Almost all of the windows were replaced with new Marvin insulated, low ‘E’ glazing and a number of rooms were reinsulated with rockwool and spray foam insulation. Additionally, the existing exterior was previously clad with very badly deteriorating wood siding. This was replaced with low-maintenance and long-lasting cement fiberboard siding.
Other green elements introduced during the renovation were solar thermal panels (for hot water and furnace assist), Retroplate concrete flooring in the basement, bamboo flooring and stair treads in the addition, no VOC paints and low VOC sealants, ECOmax recycled tire flooring at the exterior deck and locally sourced ground face block by Trenwyth for the stair tower.
AT Survey:
My/Our style: Functional and flexible, comfortable for an empty nester, entertainment and 3 sons when home for a visit. Contemporary and colorful but dog-durable.
Inspiration: The house itself and architect, Nate Kipnis. While I peruse many shelter magazines, I have difficulty translating their concepts and images into my own personal space.
Favorite Element: Modular Arts ceiling panels.
Favorite Green Element: Solar thermal panels.
Biggest Challenge: Miserable weather. Due to early cold and snow last November, masonry work and siding installation was stalled for months.
What Friends Say: 180-degree spin from my prior home, a 1920’s French Norman a mile away.
Biggest Embarrassment: Completely underestimated the cost of landscaping. While the landscape designer/contractor I had selected preferred to submit their plans after most of the remodeling was completed, I was unprepared for their price tag and cut back their plans due to insufficient budgeting. It would have been advantageous for both of us to plan earlier.
Proudest DIY: Aware of my limitations, I did no work myself. I did re-cover a few chairs and sewed some pillows.
Biggest Indulgence: Digging out a basement under the rebuilt garage (with the new bedroom suite up above). When my sons are home they have a man-cave to keep whatever hours they want with a 52” TV and various gaming consoles. It will also add resale appeal when that time comes.
Best Advice Received: Do whatever you want to do NOW as you won’t want to go back and do it later.
Best Advice You'd Give To Anyone Trying To Green Their Home: Find a design professional and experienced sub-contractors you trust whole-heatedly. All the research doesn’t mount up to much compared to real life experience with installation and results.
Future Goals: Add additional landscaping for sunlight control and traffic sound absorption.
Resources:
Landscaping: Klaus Schmechtig Landscape
Appliances: GE Monogram, Fisher and Paykel dishwasher.
Hardware: Cifial and Baldwin door knobs.
Furniture: Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams living room sofa and side tables; Room & Board family room sofa, master bedroom furniture, and living room chairs; DWR dining room chairs, Ero/s chairs and Louis Ghost chair; West Elm and Crate and Barrel bookshelves; Antique Hindu chairs from ABC Carpet and Home; kitchen table and chairs CB2
Accessories: CB2, West Elm
Lighting: Lightology, West Elm
Rugs: Crate and Barrel area rugs
Tiles and Stone: Susan Jablon Mosaics glass tiles
Beds: Room & Board, Ethan Allen and Pottery Barn
Paint: Pittsburgh Paint Pure Performance
Flooring: RetroPlate finished concrete floor, ECOmax recycled tire tile on balcony.
Other: Stainless metal by V. A. Robinson, spiral stairs and railings by MILKdesign.
(Thanks, Nancy!)
Top images: 2009 Wayne Cable/selfmadephoto.com. All others by Rachel Wray. Architectural drawings by Nathan Kipnis Architects, Inc.
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Love this house!!! Inside and out.
How is a 4000 square foot home for a self-proclaimed "empty nester" *GREEN* ?
While I can appreciate the thought and planning that goes into a project such as this -- I'm just not feeling it. I have to agree with the mirandabee on the 4000 square foot home for an empty nester being touted as green. Oy.
Lots of nice work, and touches (love the rain spouts, the Sullivan panel, and tons of great furniture) -- but overall I find the color palate too white/gray. I would have preferred to see more mid-c colors and natural wood tones.
"How is a 4000 square foot home for a self-proclaimed "empty nester" *GREEN* ?"
Depends on how modular the place is, perhaps. Sounds like the extra living space to fit the three kids is connected on the side, so at the very least, you could easily close it off from the more lived-in part of the house and not worry about heating or cooling it (besides keeping it above nicely freezing to prevent water damage, of course).
Beautiful, sure, but I agree with the above "4000 sf isn't green" comments.
The term "green" has been modified to mean whatever the consumer society wants it to be. It is not only about energy! It is about the judicious use of resources (water, energy, air, land, etc.).
I prefer the term "sustainability" which broadly is how to avoid negative impact on the livability of the planet for our peers and future generations.
Having said that, it looks like 4000 sq.ft. requires too many resources for a couple of empty-nesters. But they know better than me what their needs are.
What's that interesting treatment on the living room ceiling?
I caught a whiff of early 90's decor from that stair tower.
My partner and I just *lucked* our way into a 3800 sq ft home built in 2002. Our daughters are grown and gone, and we now have 3 cats, two 100lb dogs (really like having two extra people around), and a home-run consulting business. My message to all of you preachy primadonnas who think you know green from adam is this:
*We had two houses to heat and sustain, now we have one.
*We drove two cars, and now we share one.
*One of us works at home (because we have the space to do so) so we have one less commuter on the road.
*The house is newer and extremely well insulated. We've had nights in the 30s F, yet the the heat from the sun has kept the house around 60F even when it's freezing outside. Although someone else will be heating our previous homes, it's great to live in a home that doesn't need the furnace running constantly. Double-pane insulating windows are amazing.
*We have a gas fireplace downstairs and upstairs -- when it does feel chilly, we flip them on for surprisingly efficient heat. Even more amazing is that we can heat the space we're using, and not heat the spaces we're not.
*We moved to a neighborhood that has weekly recycling pick-up from a neighborhood that doesn't.
*We moved to a mountain area where we can hike and snowshoe right from our backdoor -- no need to drive to recreation areas. And we get more exercise without even trying.
*Ample guest space means that we can provide affordable accommodations (free!) to friends and family, which means we can share what we have by way of an invitation rather than a credit card.
I say get your snooty noses out of the air (or your nether regions). There are a lot of ways to live that may or may not be in keeping with your notion of "green." We recognize that our home would provide housing for 10 families in India, or 4 here in the US (considering 'norms' of living). We're extremely fortunate. We're also living more efficiently and more greenly than we did in smaller spaces.
It's a lovely house, but "green"? I'm not really impressed by people who live "green" in 2,000 high-ceilinged square feet per person, in new construction, in a location where you have to drive to get to anything.
I'm glad king924 was able to ditch the second house and the second car, but I can't imagine living in that much square footage in a place where I had to have a car. I guess there are a lot of different shades of green.
kimg924 just wants everyone to know she lives in a 3800 sq foot house...
I am the house owner. I have 3 sons who are home often, usually with girlfriends and guests, thus the need for 4 bedrooms, as well as other guests. The guest room addition is practical as when not in use, it's on a separate HVAC system. The house was built in 1954, with the hight ceiling, a 5 minute walk to the Chicago commuter rail line and bike path, 7 minute walk to a business district.
I chose to not tear down an older home that was well-designed with deep eaves and add insulation, solar panels, new windows and updates without throwing out the baby with the bath water. My goal was not to make a shrine to mid-century design but to remodel a 1950's house to function into the next century while maintaining the integrity of the original design. I kept the original teak wall in the dining room, floors including the living room oak parquet floor with slate and oak elsewhere, interior brick walls and emphasized the indoor/outdoor component which is what originally attracted me to the house.
My utility bills are very low and we sent as little as possible to the landfill. The stairwell and patio bench are built with brick saved when the original garage, in poor condition, was torn down. Other building materials contained recycled material. The fiber cement siding will need much less maintenance and repainting than the wood siding it replaced, which had been perforated by woodpeckers looking for insects within. I reduced the size of the outside hardscape increasing rainwater permeability in an area where McMansions have made that a problem.
The living room ceiling panels are by Modular Arts and come in a variety of textures and designs. They're much easier to install on walls. We replaced an old deeply slatted wood that was cracking due to 50 years of Chicago's climate extremes, and removed can lights that allowed in cold drafts. The block pattern changes throughout the day as the sun travels from east to west, then again as lights in new soffits are turned on. New insulation under the panels greatly reduced heat loss.
Kind of reminds me when I recently went to the market and the guy in front of me brought his own canvas bags, but filled 1/2 of them with bottled water. We were both looking at each other with contempt, because neither one of us fit the other's definition of "Green".
D_Corbu, that's funny! I am with you on the bottled water thing - I just don't get what is so hard about filling a reusable water bottle with filtered water before you go out, but I am also guilty of not always bringing cloth bags to the farmer's market (tho I do reuse plastic bags for doggy bag's and paper ones for my recycling). And my first thought about this post was "Really? 4000 square feet? How is that green?" but after reconsidering, let's look at it from a different perspective: How great is it that people are trying to do things in a way that is environmentally friendly and that this is in the consciousness when we remodel our homes in any way! A couple years ago, I feel like it was a much smaller group of people who would even have considered that. And, we constantly are saying that every little thing that you do to "green" your life is an improvement and does make a difference. So these people don't want to live in a small space. Why should they? They are entitled to build the dream home they want. Let's take a minute to appreciate that even when making a dream home, they took the time and energy to consider what they could do to get it done in a way which was least harmful to the environment. My biggest qualm with this is that it is not a realistic example for most people. But that doesn't mean that you can't get good ideas for your own home if you are looking to remodel. So kudos, and I'm glad you guys are living in a home you love!
Yes, I'm tired of so much "holier than thou" attitude, both on behalf of builders of green stuff and those who say they aren't green enough. The bottom line is there are too many people on this planet, period. Until that gets addressed, everything else is just moot. O.k., I'm off my soapbox, now. By the way, great house.
Eew!!!