Specifications

New Construction to be completed August 2013     $307,000.  Vergennes, VT

For an appointment to view the house, please call Ken at Fiddlehead Construction 802-233-8642 or 802-425-7019








Thoughtfully designed home with walkable, in-town convenience, 3 Bedrooms, 2 full baths, 1900 sq.ft.
Traditional well-detailed exterior with a modern, bright, open interior.
High Performance Home modeled on Passive House energy standards
Energy Star 5+ star home

Estimated annual heating cost:  $271/Year
HERS rating 30

Home features:

• Cherry kitchen cabinets with quartz countertops and hardwood bartop
• open floor plan 
• Solid maple hardwood flooring on main floor/ 2nd floor and tile in lower level/ baths
• Energy Star appliances in Kitchen
• Custom maple open-riser stairs
• European tilt-turn triple glazed windows with wide clear maple sills
• Super-insulated/airtight energy package (R-59 walls,R-80 ceilings)with Advanced Energy Framing
• Large mudroom entrance
• Separate laundry room with sink, cabinetry, and laundry chute from 2nd floor
• Separate over sized shower and large Duravit soaking tub in main bath

The details:

This home was designed to have exceptional energy performance and indoor comfort. The building is 3rd party certified (Efficiency Vermont) to achieve the High Performance Home Energy Tier pilot program and is near-Passive.
Buildings that achieve these standards use between 60-90% less energy than new construction built to the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.

To achieve this, the house must have high levels of insulation, exceptional windows, low air infiltration, and high efficiency appliances, HVAC, and lighting. This home uses a min. of 66% less energy compared with a new home built to the 2006 IECC, a substantial monthly savings and a great added value.

• R-59 walls built with an 11" thermally-broken stud and insulated with Roxul mineral batts, plus a 3-1/2" service cavity insulated with fiberglass batts
• 12" subslab EPS insulation
• R-80 loose-fill cellulose insulation in attic
• Intus windows: High R-value, High solar heat gain index- these windows gain more heat than they lose. Triple pane, triple air seal, 8 point interlock U-pvc windows
• Airtight construction: 0.2 Air Changes/Hour@ 50 pascals. The lowest air infiltration rate ever measured in a Vermont building. Passive house standard: must be at or below 0.6 ACH@50. A good indication of the level of craftsmanship and detail that went into building this house.
• Zehnder Comfoair 350 Heat Recovery Ventilator. Recovers 84% of the heat exhausted from baths and kitchen. Continuous filtered, fresh air delivered to living areas and bedrooms.
• Mitsubishi Hyperheat mini-split air-source heat pump SEER 23, 12,000 Btu's delivers quiet heating and air conditioning.
• GE Geospring hybrid heat pump water heater. The lowest life-cycle cost option for heating water.
• Tier 3 Samsung stainless steel side-by-side refrigerator (over 30% more efficient than the federal minimum) and Samsung electric range
• Bosch Tier 2 dishwasher
• LED lighting in all recessed lighting and CFL's in balance of light fixtures.

 A walk-through

Two off-street parking spaces lead to a lower covered entry with native Vermont slate and Panton stonework. The mudroom has a closet for coats immediately inside the door, room for a bench, and is the access point for a large bedroom with full bath. The bath has a 6' oversize combination tub/shower with Danze controls, a separate nook with cherry cabinetry and counter for linens and storage, and a custom wood vanity and ceramic sink with a single-lever Hansgrohe faucet. This bath is also accessible from the mudroom. Next to the bath from the mudroom is a large laundry/storage room that contains the water heater, laundry counter, and sink with storage underneath and the laundry chute above, and hookups for a stackable washer and condensing dryer.

Stairs lead past the main entry at a landing, and you arrive in the open living/dining/kitchen area. This main living area is brightly day lit from windows on all sides.  The kitchen itself is visually separated by a peninsula with a solid birch slab bartop. The main floor also has a room at the front of the house that can function as part of the main living area, or be closed off with a large sliding frosted glass door for privacy. 

There is a small balcony/sitting area off the hall to the bedrooms/bath at the top of the stairs to the second floor. The front bedroom is at the top of the stairs and is large enough for two beds. The master bedroom to the south has a generous closet, 9' ceilings and views of the Green Mountains, Buck, and Snake mountains.  The bath has an oversize shower with frameless glass door, large-format tile floor, a dual-flush high-efficiency toilet, a Duravit deep soaking tub with a Danze faucet and handheld showerhead with glass-tile backsplash. The vanity is a large single sink top with a custom cherry cabinet and single-handle Hansgrohe faucet.

 Exterior 

The siding is Hardiplank cement board siding in a custom color over a vented rainscreen (the siding is spaced from the wall, and the ventilation channel allows air to circulate and dry any moisture that finds itself behind the siding from driving rain, capillary action, etc. Moisture behind siding is the leading cause of paint failure). The Zipwall sheathing also acts as a secondary drainage plane to protect the structure from water damage. The window and door trim, cornerboards, and water table are cellular core PVC which is impervious to rot. The windows and doors have had special attention paid to the details to ensure a long, dry, maintenance-free life. A liquid-applied waterproofing membrane (used to waterproof shower pans) is used to protect the entire window frame and subsill as a backup, and then a custom fabricated 1/16" aluminum sill pan with an auto-body finish directs any water back to the outside face of the building. The insulation over the foundation is protected by a durable cement board finished with stucco. The foundation is waterproofed with Tremco's warrantied Tuff-n-dri system.
 

Misc.

• Combination CO/smoke detectors outside of bedrooms, smoke detectors in each bedroom
• Home comes with an E-moniter which allows online monitoring of energy use and analysis of equipment performance
• Windows come with screens and a valance for window treatments.
• Public water and sewer
• Arc-fault or Ground fault circuits on all general use outlets
• Craftsman-style interior doors with flat casing and wide baseboard molding 
• Custom woodwork on entryway roofs with standing seam metal roofing
• Seamless gutters direct water off the roof to the rear of the property.
• Lot size approx. 49'x59'
• One block from the services and restaurants of Main St, and a block or so from the schools and recreational facilities.