A Woods Hole home, guided by green
WOODS HOLE - When Nicole Goldman first encountered her current home here, the yard was so overgrown she could hardly see it from the street. The interior of the 1970s "deck house" - a prefab design known for its large decks and expansive windows - had never been updated, and was portioned off into small rooms. An addition had been haphazardly attached to the back of the house.
But Goldman, an interior designer, could see the home's potential. The house had distant views of Vineyard Sound, lots of southern exposure, and a solar thermal water heating system, which appealed to her and her husband, Jonathan, a multimedia artist. After living for years in a 19th-century Victorian in Concord, they were ready for a change and looking to incorporate green design elements into their next home.
When they began renovating in early 2006, "green materials were tough to find," Goldman said. "I spent a ton of time trying to locate products, and there were some items that were completely inaccessible." The experience convinced her to create a retail center where homeowners and contractors could find eco-friendly building products, and in 2007, she opened G Green Design Center in Mashpee.
Throughout the home renovation - which focused on making the interior more livable, Goldman was guided by green principles. Rooflines were adjusted to make the mismatched addition flow with the rest of the house, but the original structure was kept intact. They realigned and refurbished the roof solar panels to update the hot water system. They connected the garage to the house and converted it into a 600-square-foot art studio for Jonathan heated entirely by the sun: a radiant system uses sun-warmed water from the roof to heat tubes embedded in the studio's concrete floor.
Goldman also harnessed the ample southern exposure to create passive solar heating, a system integrated into building's elements; the windows, walls, floors, and roof are used as the heat collecting and releasing system.
"It's really amazing how much light and heat comes into the house naturally. On winter days the temperature reaches 70 degrees," said Goldman. During the summer, hinged awning windows that swing outward take advantage of airflow, and energy efficient ceiling fans help ventilate and cool the house.
Walls were taken down on the main level to create an open floor plan. The great room, where the Goldmans and their children Isaac, 16, and Sasha, 21, usually congregate, encompasses the kitchen, living, and dining areas. Floors are eco-friendly bamboo. Cabinets consist of Makore (a reddish African hardwood harvested from managed forests) veneers on birch plywood.
"Using veneers is a very green way to make cabinets," said Goldman. "You use much less wood than is utilized in solid cabinet facing." The central island and dining table were designed by Jonathan and made of Purpleheart, a durable South American wood. Low flow toilets and showerheads are used throughout the house, along with low voltage lighting fixtures and bulbs.
Goldman calls her decorating style "relatively contemporary with heavy ethnic folk elements. We're a bit out there, we're not run-of-the-mill individuals." The decor is infused with creativity and bold colors: the great room sofa is upholstered in purple micro suede, an armchair and ottoman are orange, and the carved wood coffee table is red, a treasure from the Far East discovered at Mohr & McPherson in Cambridge. Shelves above the windows display masks and statuary the family has collected from Bali, Lithuania, the Philippines, and elsewhere.
In the adjacent music room, a pre-war Steinway piano that belonged to Jonathan's grandmother presides. A clarinet Nicole used to play has been fashioned into a lamp on an end table, and an old gumball machine filled with seashells is next to an antique Chinese robe in a glass case. "We have a lot of stuff," said Goldman. "But it all has personal meaning to us."
In the second-level master bedroom, Goldman designed skylights in the soaring ceilings for ventilation and to offer a view of the stars while lying in bed. A deck off the room provides terrain for her latest eco-friendly project, a green roof garden planted with succulents sedum, dianthus, and creeping thyme that's virtually maintenance free. Plants and soil on the roof absorb rainwater, which reduces the volume entering the town's drain system.
"The plants and soil also have insulating qualities for the rooms underneath," said Goldman. "It's a garden where I don't have to do anything but watch it grow. It's lovely."
