Many have wished for a two-way fireplace, but how about one lined with brick in a herringbone pattern, viewable, along with the flames, from the family room and an expansive parlor on the opposite side?
And how about a screened porch that doubles as dining area and sleeping room to offer bug-free enjoyment of summer breezes?
These are just two of the dreamy features of gorgeous homes that are also environmentally friendly. Such houses will be open to the public during the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s inaugural house and garden tour. The May 28 event will showcase seven homes and a garden, highlighting the beauty in “green” features.
The previously mentioned fireplace is set in the center of the house, for example, to reduce the heat loss that is more common in those traditionally set within an exterior wall. And sleeping outdoors in summer would not only be fun, it could reduce the need for air conditioning.
A two-way fireplace in a Basking Ridge home on the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s house and garden tour has the luxury of brick laid in a herringbone pattern, but its central placement within the home makes it more energy efficient than a traditional fireplace that can lose heat through placement near an outside wall.
Any house tour fan knows house tour fundraisers present opportunities to view some of the state’s loveliest residences, often of historical or architectural significance. This season’s roster of tours will satisfy an appetite for opulence and grandeur, with the storied 34-acre Blairsden estate and its 62,000-square foot mansion among properties open for touring. The estate, built between 1898 and 1903, will be open to the public for the first time ever.
But gracious living also can involve eco-friendly solutions that enhance a property. Take the home of Chatham Township Committee member Kathy Abbott, whose landscape includes a certified wildlife habitat, native plants and a front-yard stream that helps keep the basement dry.
“We’re near the Great Swamp, so there is a high water table,” says Abbott, whose garden will be on the tour. “It was a way to turn a liability into an asset.” The system diverts water expelled from a sump pump into a rock-lined stream that attracts birds, frogs and other wildlife.
It is a feature that goes hand-in-hand with the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s mission to preserve and protect the watershed region’s 36,000 acres. The tour as a whole supports its work with municipalities in Morris and Somerset counties to educate the public about regional environmental issues while maintaining open spaces and monitoring headwater streams that feed the Great Swamp.
The art and book filled living room of the Madison home of architect Chris Kellogg and artist Helen Kaar was designed to maximize use of solar power, enhancing natural light while also reducing sun-related heat gain. The house has numerous environmentally friendly features.
The association’s Executive Director Sally Rubin spearheaded the tour. She says it will introduce tour-goers to the organization while showcasing design and landscaping ideas of Great Swamp-area homes. The homes are in Bernards (Basking Ridge), Chatham, Harding, Long Hill, Madison, Morristown and Morris Township.
“It’s not impossible to do some of these things in your own home,” Rubin says. “You don’t have to be uber wealthy or to start from scratch.”
While she described the tour homes as “lovely, large and gracious,” she notes that at least three are working on LEED certification, an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which requires adherence to certain environmentally friendly building standards.
The home of Chris Kellogg and Helen Kaar is among them. “Part of our LEED charge is sharing the sustainable construction with others.” Kaar explained. Doing so is important, she says, because it helps make the public aware “that you can have a green house that you want to live in just because of the way it looks. We don’t think green building will become the standard unless people want it.”
Helen Kaar in the home’s bathroom with lattice detailing that she designed and a living curtain of pothos and philodendron outside the shower.
Kaar says the two-story house Kellogg designed for them with her input is the dream home of an artist and an architect who respect the environment and their surroundings. Their studios and office spaces are in the basement. The living area has three bedrooms with two and a half baths. There is a summer sleeping porch and a one-car garage. “We built it for us, and we both work here, so how many cars do we both need?”
The house also was situated for easy access to public transportation and shopping. Its roof was designed to shade the home from the sun’s heat while also drawing its power. Kellogg oriented the house on the lot to get maximum sun exposure for rooftop solar collection panels.
“Passive solar is the best,” Kaar says. “It’s free energy, all you have to do is turn to face it.”
A screened porch not only provides a place to enjoy bug-free summer breezes, it doubles as a sleeping area when cooler summer nights can reduce the need for air conditioning.
Sari Jepsen, who with her husband, Mads, owns Scandic Builders agrees. Their Chatham home, built in traditional shingle style, was also placed to maximize solar energy collection. Their home and another home they built are on the tour. Like the Kellogg-Kaar home, the Jepsen houses have numerous green features.
“A house tour makes sense because it can show how everything we do affects the environment,” Jepsen says. “This shows how you can build intelligently and environmentally friendly and it still can be a beautiful home.”
The house tour also dovetails with historic activism that prevented the swamp from becoming an airport more than 50 years ago. The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge now has federal protection against development.
The historic Long Hill home of Alan and Kathy Pfeil will be on the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s May 28 house tour.
Kathy Pfeil, whose historic 19th century Long Hill home is on the tour, notes that the association also works to preserve land in the surrounding area where she believes the threat of over development is much more pressing. Pfeil’s home is above Millington Gorge where the Great Swamp empties into the main branch of the Passaic River.
“We have bird habitats, wildlife, ponds, vegetation, deciduous and coniferous trees and countless boardwalks and trails meandering throughout what is one of the few untouched areas dating to prehistoric times,” she says. “We have to thank the people with the vision to preserve the Great Swamp, as well as all those who continue to protect its legacy.”
Related: Upcoming 2014 New Jersey house and garden tours
Kimberly L. Jackson: kim_jackson @ starledger.com
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