Home is where the heart is...

Well it has been a while since we posted to our blog. It is not for lack of thought or efforts to date, but through this crazy pandemic and rollercoaster ride trying to get a house gut renovation done while relocating our office simultaneously we have thankfully been very busy with work helping clients green their projects through LEED and WELL certification and green architectural renovations and additions.

I realized it’s been over a year since we posted on this blog…and the amount of work that has been accomplished is astounding. The house is actually now substantially complete and we are down to punch list items as we work to complete odds and ends for things only we would likely notice or care about.

This time almost two years ago we were digging a 450 foot trench to connect to the working well back near the barn structures and run power lines from the big barn with our 12.5kW solar panel system to the house. Now, we are running completely off-grid on those solar panels with our battery system powering our lights, appliances, electronics, well pump and charging my all electric Ford Mustang Mach E GT… when it is sunny out.

Right as we were nearing completion in February of 2021 we had a majoy setback…after just finishing installation of the cabinetry in the pantry (temporary kitchen) we had a pipe freeze in the wall feeding the second floor bathroom over said pantry and then, on one of the coldest nights of the year, had it thaw and flood the entire pantry all the way down to the basement from the second floor (our mystevious Sprite at work perhaps?). Thanks to the quick work of our carpenter, we saved the appliances, counter, and many cabinets but had to rip the entire finished room down to the studs and redo it along with all of the insulation in the basement ceiling that was waterlogged with more than 4” of water. That happened Valentine’s weekend…let’s just say we weren’t feeling the love.

The ‘flood’ was a setback but just made us push harder to finish by end of March so we could finally move in. Wood floors were refinished throughout, pantry put back together, LED lighting and electrical finished up, master suite completed and study finished. So much has happened in each room since May of last year. We have been posting regular photos in social medea so much so that I feel like I could write a post about each individual room. I may do that, but for now, I’ll describe some our favorite things and what makes the spaces healthy and environmentally responsible in each room.

The Mudroom:

The floors are a rich brown cork (sustainably harvested from the bark of the cork tree without killing the tree) ove a new insulated 4” concrete slab on grade. Cork has great ergonomic properties while being antimicrobial, antibacterial and always room temperature.

The counter is a remant piece of quartz selected from the manufacturer’s overstock. The farm utility sink is salvaged that is set under the counter. The washer and dryer are high efficiency front loader LG units but we have also created a drying closet with one of our high efficiency radiators in it and an exhaust fan to minmize the need for dryer use at all.

The powder room off the mud room is entered through double salvaged wood doors, uses a salvaged concrete trough found in our yard as a sink with a family heirloom mirror above, artsy LED lighting and a dual flush high efficiency toilet. The nature themed mural wall paper opposite the sink adds an unexpected pop of color, texture…if you look closely you can see the ‘grateful dead’/’day of the dead’ madri gras theme hidden in it.

The Dining Room:

This is one of the oldest rooms in the house (circa 1744, we think, with a 15’ long fireplace that was structurally stablized from foundation to chimney top, original wide plank punkin pine wood floors that we just cleaned up by buffing to leave the original finish and distressed look to, intact 1 1/2” plaster on 15” thick stone walls and original wood exterior windows & doors we repaired, rebuilt in some cases or created new from salvaged jobsite materials. We did replace a 2 over 2 window with a 9 over six that would have historically been there to match the other section of the house, which we oddly found installed in the crappy cottage nearby. The new dining room table opens to a full size 8’ pool table with a modern LED light fixture overhead.

The Living Room:

This part of the house is believed to have been added around 1811 and significantly modified in the early 1900’s. We were able to resuse the existing fireplace and retrofot it with a new modern EPA approved wood burning insert, existing wood floors refinished beautfully, and we added our own furniture, LED lighting and cleaned up the existing molding, trim and plaster. A mirror TV over the fireplace is the crowning feature. When it’s off it just looks like a mirror…but the HD TV is wonderful when on.

The Study:

Besides the mudroom, this room has probably undergone the largest transformation. It is also in the 1811 section. Three of the walls have been lined with “built-in” glass door bookcases sitting on what are normally kitchen upper cabinets as their base so they run floor to ceiling. Normally this wold have cost probably $20,000 minimum. For much less cost we made Ikea cabinets work here and built them in with trim at top and bottom to look like full floor to ceiling custom cabinets. Ikea as a company provides healthy and environmentally responsible products. Ordering this in the midst of the Pandemic, we ordered whatever colors were available, as long as they were the right size, knowing we were going to have a painter come through and paint the entire room. The doorway between study and pantry was closed up and between study and living was doubled in width and fitted with salvaged wood pocket doors featuring 3’ x 4’ stained glass panels made by what turned out to be a Holcombe family decendant, David Daniels. The stained glass showcases the farm logo intepreted in stained glass. The rich green paint is VOC free and existing wood floors refinished beautifully. A new LED multi-globe overhead light crowns this spacious office and study.

The Pantry:

This room has a similar rich brown waterproof cork floor as the mud room. The walls are lined with custom cabinetry finished with VOC free paint in a similar color to the study millwork. The counter is also quartz and undercounter concrete farm sink from US made, woman owned business. New energystar windows across the north bring abundant daylight into this room. Our refrigerators are DC powered and the two units we have use less energy than a single conventional energy star rated fridge. They have proven hard to find, harder to get and harder still to deal with if there’s a problem since they are from small shop, non-local providers, but their dramatic reduction in energy and fact that they run on DC current directly from the PV system outweighs these other annoyances. Historic features such as mortise & tenon joint hand hewn timbers and stone walls were exposed as part of the renovation. Walls were gutted to the studs & super insulated with VOC free spray foam before being furred out with additional insulation and finished.

Master Suite:

The feature of this room, besides the wide plank refinished wood floors and exposed heavy timber structure is the massive fireplace wall that rises through it to the vaulted ceiling we achieved by removing the attic floor. This is over the historic dining room below in the oldest section of the house. The vaulted ceiling is finished with homasote, a 100 percent recycled paper board made locally in Trenton, which is painted with VOC free paint and uses wood trim at the seams in lieu of taping and spackling joints. The homasote has wonderful acoustic properties and keeps the vaulted space from having an echo. A new ‘big ass fan’ with LED light hangs up in the vaulted space providing air circulation for the room. We realized that we have never bought a new bed so we decided to splurge on a king bed with upholstered backsplash that adds a pop of color to the room and chose an ‘Avacado’ matress made without toxic chemicals that is truly the most comfortable thing I have ever slept on.

The master bathroom accessed off a new dressing room through a salvaged pocket door is finished with penny cork tile floors stained white which are waterproof and anti bacterial naturally as well as room temperature, eliminating the need for heated floors. All fixtures are water sense certified and the rain head shower and deep soaking tub are divine. As part of the renovation, we insulated above the roof wood decking and only a little below so we could leave the tree-like pattern of wood framing exposed. This was finished with urethane free sealant from Vermont Natural Coatings to protect it from moisture. The vaulted ceiling, walk-in glass shower, added windows on the north wall, and white porcelain wall tile give this room a light, airy, spacious feel.

Guest Suite:

On the other side of the house over the living room, study and pantry are two bedrooms, a sitting room and a full bathroom. Existing wood floors were able to be refinished throughout. This is where we found our ‘tree wall’ that we have left exposed as a feature of the sitting room. It is literally slices of tree with live bark still intact that have been nailed together floor to ceiling with hand made nails to form a partition.

The bathroom features hand painted concrete floor tiles fair trade sourced from a woman owned business, salvaged porcelain tub, new water sense fixtures, salvaged vanity, quartz remnant counter, new LED lighting and wood shelving made from trees we pulled off our fencing last winter that had fallen.

We have enjoyed all of the firsts….first fire in the new fireplace, first use of the rain head shower, first brunch on the porch in the sun, first afternoon nap in the hammock on the porch, first grill night…you get the idea. Actually waking up here has been amazing. The light is spectacular and the house quiet with the thick stone walls. The light moves from our master bathroom around the house to living room and kitchen in the evening. The house is essentially a room deep and with windows on both opposite walls, natural ventilation and proper orientation for daylighting mean we don’t need to use much energy for lighting or hvac.

The crowning piece, which is recently competed, is the glass conservatory-kitchen addition on an existing stone patio on the north side of the house that connects the pantry and dining room. This is where Lia’s 8 burner gas stove lives and our eat-in kitchen space took shape. This is a pre-engineered, pre-fabricated, insulated, four-season glass and steel framed system we ordered that was designed and installed by the manufacturer, NJ Sunrooms. We prepared and insulated the raised floor where electric and water were run and now that it is built, we are enjoying the 99% recycled quartz waterfall edge counters, added cabinets, large 8 burner stove with indoor grill and will soon install a wood burning stove for auxilary heat and ambiance. The light and space of this vaulted, all glass room is magical and many plants have found a home in this space as well.

It has taken us two years of work through a pandemic, death of our GC, numerous beaurocratic delays, subcontractors getting covid, material shortages and shipping issues to get to this point…but we have arrived. Our whole hearts are in this place (and wallet) and it feels like coming home, finally. While there is still punch list work to do, at least we can now settle in to being here, enjoy the space and place, and work our way through the finishing touches as we enjoy everything this place has to offer. Our attention will also be turning to expanding the organic working-farm aspect of Gaia’s Way Farm from Sunflowers and honey to include an orchard, eggs, horse boarding, mushrooms and perhaps some local made spirits and sweet leaf! Growing sunflowers has been a delight and allowed us to restore the property to farmland assessment while we work toward these others.

Our sincere thanks cannot be expressed enough to those who have done the hard work of renovating this place over this two year effort. They are as follows:

General Contractor: Sustainable Design and Process (Bruce Shankin sadly passed away from a long term illness he battled his whole life December of 2019 and his wife bravely stepped up and took over management of the company to allow us to finish this project. Before Bruce left us, he brought us several key subcontractors, including a master carpenter, we could not have done this without and who took up the mantle in supporting our efforts to make this a sustainable home from the beginning.

Master Carpenter: Scott Andrews has been here almost every week for a year and half. His ingenuity, can-do attitude, thoughtfulness to detail and meticulous craftsmanship have really brought this place to life. Scott has done everything from rebuilding original windows to making them from scraps in our salvaged wood pile, to installing new porch decking and dismanteling the original wood columns to repair and reinstall them, to butchering our Ikea cabinet purchases to make what look like built-in book cases that were always there, to infilling stone walls, to installing new cork floors and cabinetry, to patching the endless holes from electrical and plumbing work so well you’d never know…you get this picture.

HVAC Contractor: Rely Mechanical is a local family owned HVAC and plumbing company located locally in Pennington NJ. They have installed the high efficiency propane backup hot water radiator system and will soon be installing the main biofuel wood boiler system.

Plumbing: RJC plumbing is another local small business that has done a wonderful job installing our high efficiency fixtures and appliances throughout along with all new plumbing lines.

Site Work: Hendrickson Excavating installed our new septic system and the 450 foot trench that connected our water and power systems. They also recently redid our gravel drive and installed a bioswale that handled storms like Ida without flooding. This father and son, local company are pros at what they do and reasonably priced.

Solar Energy: Advanced Solar Products out of Flemington NJ designed and oversaw the installation of our 12kW off-grid solar system. I’ve known and worked with the owner, Lyle Rawlings for nearly two decades. I call Lyle the ‘godfather of SOLar’ as he has played a large role in helping create the legislation and market for a thriving solar industry in New Jersey and the East Coast. Lyle has lived off-grid as long as I have known him so I was confident this was a project he could make happen for us.

Electrical Contractor: This was the hardest nut to crack. We started with one, had to make a change only 30% into the work and found a great local family owned business, Knott Electric out of Lambertville, to get all the wiring, lighting, switches, appliances, and connections to our PV system completed finally.

Stone Mason: One thing we needed was a mason to repoint large sections of the building, stablize the massive fireplace and repair the chimneys. Goodwin Masonry out of PA was able to quickly and effectively get this all done. His knowledge of old stone and pointing work was perfect for our project. The Father & son team are miticulous and understand old stone structures and mortar.

Insulator: Philo Insulation & Fireproofing did the work no one will see but that makes the house comfortabel for all. Philo used VOC free spray foam to insulate both wood frame additions, the entire attic, and installed additional non-toxic batt insulation in the wood frame addition furred out walls and the entire basement ceiling.

Roofing: Roof Wizards made sure we were dry a long time ago. One of the first things done was new roofs on the entire house and two of four barns. The shingles installed are energy star rated as is the standing seam metal roofs.

Well Contractor: Stover Wells, a local flemington company, helped us assess the wells on the property, design our system, and install new pumps, tank and underground lines.

As you can see, it takes an army to renovate a building. This is not something we could ever have done on our own and never without the jump start Bruce provided us before departing this world. We are eternaly grateful for everyone’s hard work on this project to date. We have more to do, but where we have gotten to vs where we were a couple years ago is amazing and wonderful to now be able to experience for the first time. Home is where the heart is!

Jason