A Sunday visit to the Green Home

I made it to the HGTV Green Home tour on Sunday.  It was a spectacular day down the Cape, and we met up with friends for the tour.  It is in the Pinehills development in Plymouth, MA, which prides itself on promoting sustainable living.  Home owners are able to bike to the market, enjoy protected open spaces, and be happy with the water conservation projects. We arrived early and stopped into Cafe Olio and enjoyed a great cup of coffee and then headed off for the 12:00 tour.

The cottage home was smaller than I expected, a mere 2100 sq ft.  The smaller footprint is green itself, and all the square footage was put to good use.  There is a beautiful wrap around porch that has inspired me to look for some rocking chairs for my porch.  The deck is made from a sustainable product (non-wood) that would weather the salty Cape winds for years to come.  The doorway opens into one large great room, where the living room, dining area and kitchen are all open.  The kitchen is my favorite room of the house so that was my first stop.  The energy efficient refridgerator caught my eye, and even my husband’s eye too.  (I’m slowly working on convincing my husband we need to replace the refridgerator with an upside-down version so we stop wasting food we can’t see inside!) The countertop is made from quartz, which is an environmentally friendly option, and more durable, than of granite.  My other favorite kitchen appliances are the induction cooktop and the very small Krups cappucino maker.

My favorite room had to be the utility room.  A room for laundry and a spot for recycling everything!  There is even space to have bins for sporting goods and winter hats and mittens.  The baskets line one wall, a large utility sink anchors the middle space, and the most gorgeous red washer and dryer is on the far wall.  While it is a lot of space to dedicate to a room very few people will see, it will probably become one of the most used rooms in the entire house. 

Upstairs there are two bedrooms and a very tiny loft.  The most creative space has to be the kids room with the built in bunk beds and vibrant colors. My daughter went right for the toy bin and really didn’t want to leave.  But we walked over to check out the master bedroom with the calming blue color scheme and she loved the cool rug in there.  Our favorite part was the master closet, complete with a Solatube that brings natural light into a space with no windows.  The master bath was beautiful, with low flow shower heads and low flow toilets.  The soaking tub was very large, and my daughter attempted to climb in!  Not sure if that is the best use of water, but it’s probably quite relaxing. 

The house is beautiful, but I left feeling a little underwhelmed.  It felt like going through an open house for a house on the market.  Without the brochure, I would not have learned about the solar panels, the Anderson Low-E4 SmartSun windows, or the Rinnai Energy Saver Intelligent Fireplace.  There is so much more information that I expected to learn, but was disappointed that it wasn’t presented.  Yes, the brochure has lots of talking points, but I really wanted to see the basement with the smart girds, the furnace set-up, the solar panel system and so on.  I will take the time to do the research and learn more about the energy saving features of the home, but I wish they were presented more overtly to all the people on the tours.  Maybe some of them are thinking about a new home or a renovation and the tour will give them pause to think there may be a greener option in their future.

If you would like more info about the tours, please visit my post HGTV Green Home Giveaway.