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Old 07-25-14, 10:03 AM   #3
AC_Hacker
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Higgy View Post
I mean, if you're trying to make your house look as dull as possible that's fine, but it just looks way too plain for my taste. I like some character in my house.
I used to live in Massachusetts, and this house actually adheres pretty closely to the old, original Cape Cod House configuration. The more modern Cape Cod houses have evolved many patterns of variation, but the old ones are very spare, very Puritan.

I'd say that the builder has, in a very apparent way, gone back to spirit of the early tradition and applied Puritan's core value of simplicity to modern thinking of highly efficient house design.

The article also stated that the builder was trying to achieve Net Zero at minimum cost, which would lead to lower-efficiency fenestration, and less window area.

If this same Cape Cod House design were to be implemented with German technology, with even lower U-values of the walls & roof & floor, and if Ultra-High performing windows & doors were included in the design, I am positive that a more liberal and architecturally-satisfying use of windows would have been the result, but the price would have been a good bit higher.

Best,

-AC
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