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Don Peterson
Going Green & Multi-gen at the Lake
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Don Peterson
Going Green & Multi-gen at the Lake
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Going Green & Multi-gen at the Lake
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Wayne and Joan Peppers wanted a home to accommodate their 17-member family; they got that and then some, with a LEED-certified home built even sooner than they’d planned.
In the recreation room, a couple of youngsters are seated in front of a TV screen playing a Wii game, while a short space away the really young set has pulled dress-up clothes from a cabinet and are well into imaginary characters. Parents shoot pool at the table in the center of the room, or enjoy a game of cards at the game table nearby. All the while, the commercial popcorn popper pumps out its tasty treat.
The Peppers are in residence at their family gathering spot in the golf community of The Water’s Edge at Smith Mountain Lake.
Wayne and Joan Peppers set out to create a retirement home, but instead came up with an ultra “green” house (LEED-certified) that thrives on old-fashioned family gatherings.
The couple, who are retired from the federal government, still work as government contractors and live in northern Virginia. Most weekends, though, they can be found at the lake home entertaining family or friends.
Using the formal dining room, the kitchen bar and a breakfast table in the great room, 20 people can be seated for dining. That’s how it was planned. Counting adult children, spouses and grandchildren, Wayne and Joan have an immediate family of 17, all living nearby in the Baltimore-Washington area “so they can come down all the time.”
With three bedrooms and an array of Murphy beds, bunks and trundles, the family group can comfortably nap after a day on the water or the golf course.
“We built the house around that,” says Joan, an engineer who designed the house. “Initially, we weren’t thinking LEED … we didn’t know what it was. We wanted a very energy-efficient home with geothermal heat. We also wanted it to be handicapped-accessible, and we wanted to pay attention to indoor air quality.”
While Joan was fine-tuning her house plans, she had gotten to know Scott Stalker of Stonefield Homes in Greensboro, N.C., a former neighbor at The Water’s Edge where Wayne and Joan initially had a condominium. He persuaded the Peppers that what they really wanted was a LEED house. Once Wayne and Joan learned about the LEED certification, they agreed.
LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a green building certification system developed in 2000 by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The program has established standards for measuring sustainability of a project, water and energy efficiency and strategies for use of natural light, encouraging the best possible indoor air quality and even viewscapes. Part of the LEED certification program also encourages businesses or homeowners who receive certification to promote the green building system.
Joan did that with the creation of a website about the project. In addition, builder Stalker is NAHB Certified Green Professional-CGP and an Energy Star Certified builder, and Melinda Bell Dickey, the Greensboro designer and former Roanoker, who shepherded the project from beginning to completion, is a LEED Accredited Professional.
“LEED does the things we are morally happy with doing,” Joan says. It also was compatible with the couple’s desire for a casual home.
Bamboo and tiles of recycled materials cover the floors. Plantation shutters have been used instead of window treatments. Built-ins were used for storage instead of open shelves.
Wayne and Joan had purchased their lake lot in 2004, planning to build years later when they were closer to a final retirement. The home rose sooner because they wanted to take advantage of a construction market in which building costs had dropped $50 to $75 a square foot.
When the builder said it was a good time to go ahead, they agreed. They moved into the completed house in late 2009, happy that they moved the project up a few years. They can be at the lake in four hours and have discovered that the excellent insulation throughout the house and the radiant heat in the lower level floor make it extremely comfortable year-round. The temperature variation in the attic is only a couple of degrees higher than the rest of the house, which Wayne credits to the blown-foam insulation used. The heating system has three zones, one for each floor.
They paid attention to the tiniest detail when building. Some 50 artworks from Joan’s mother, in various media and styles, were reframed and used throughout the house. Her mother’s 1951 Hotpoint refrigerator has a special place in the room-size wine cellar, and photographs and other mementoes of the couple’s work travel are on display in their spacious two-desk office.
In Wayne’s grill room, sliding windows open to the porch so guests can sit and chat while he grills. He is the family chef; the couple joke that when they merged their families 18 years ago, everyone agreed Joan should not cook. Wayne grew up in a family-owned Peppers Café in Iowa and proudly displays the sign from it in his grill room.
The grill room is connected to the great room kitchen area by an energy-efficient door.
Wayne’s kitchen has the expected conveniences of a detailed cook: commercial refrigerator and freezer, stove with double ovens that have steam assist – great for baking artisan breads – and a whole prep area for the sous chefs. Visitors are encouraged to help with meals although specialties such as white chocolate waffles are left to Wayne.
Wayne is also the director in the room over the garage, a 40-foot wide space devoted to his model trains. When it is all set up, he expects he can run three trains at once.
That room was the only point of contention during the house planning process. “She wanted to take six inches out of it,” Wayne says.
He said no.
Who Built It?
Builder:
Scott Stalker
Stonefield Homes
Greensboro, NC
Draftsperson:
Patricia McLemore
On Eagles’ Wings Design
pmclemore7@msn.com
Interior Design:
Melinda (Mel) Dickey, ASID, IIDA, LEED AP
SSI Design Group Inc.
Greensboro, NC
Landscape Design:
Melissa Hodgkinson, CLA
Fiddlehead Landscape and
Garden Design, Roanoke
Landscape Installation:
Galen Layman
Seven Oaks Landscaping
and Hardscape
Glade Hill sales@7oakslandscape.com
U.S. Green Building Council
Joan Peppers’ website:
Appliances, Lighting and Plumbing:
Ferguson Enterprises
Greensboro, NC