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been in business for 12 years and raises 30-40 post-and-beam homes annually, agrees that his company was in sync with Joshua from the beginning. “Our package is pretty green to begin with, since timber is a natural product,” he says.
On Joshua’s house, “the timbers were planed and edge-chamfered, and then raised in the standard style by hand,” says Larry. He adds that while the stress-skin panels contained an expanded polystyrene EPS core, the material is ultimately easy on the Earth.
“Although it’s a petrochemical product,” explains Larry, “the panels make the home so energy efficient for decades that there’s huge payoff in terms of environmental friendliness.”
For Joshua, and his family, the payoff is the home itself.
Family Matters
As Joshua considered the look of his home, he also considered its surroundings. Namely, 31 lush, wooded acres on the Connecticut River. Rather than compete with such inherent beauty, he outfitted his home to mirror it.
“The post-and-beam frame and all the trim work is Douglas fir; the ceiling is white pine plank and the flooring is quarter-sawn white oak,” he says, adding that the heavier price tag for Douglas fir was worth it because the spectacular timbers speak for themselves.
Spectacular, too, are some of its design elements, including an ingeniously offset fireplace—made from stone indigenous to Vermont—that eliminates the typical should-we-watch-the-tube-or-the-roaring-blaze dilemma.
“Normally, the fireplace goes on one wall and your entertainment is on the perpendicular wall,” says Joshua, illustrating the rationale behind the placement of his hearth. “By offsetting the fireplace, we are able to look at both simultaneously.”
That way, when children Leah, 10, and Sam, 9, want to watch TV, Joshua and fiancée Lorraine can still hang out with them and enjoy the blazing embers.
Of course, families also need time apart, which Joshua kept in mind when designing the basement. Mostly play space for his “two rambunctious children,” the lower level is as quiet as it is functional.
“I wanted to hear from them as little as possible,” he jokes, “so the downstairs actually |
