Breathing Room

Gracefully keeping watch over the town below, this grand home is built high on a hill with sweeping views that remind one of being in the country. Livestock graze, wild grasses blow in the wind, and the river ebbs and flows. It’s easy to forget you’re only 45 miles southwest of St. Louis City.

The serene master bedroom is a relaxed retreat and takes in breathtaking views that reach for miles.

For Eureka homeowners, Scott and Martha, the “livin’ is easy.” And as it turns out, it’s easy “livin’ green.” The dream home that the couple built upon an impressive Missouri hilltop is truly a sanctuary of the most sustainable kind. “Being eco-friendly is very important to us,” they say. “We looked for a new home for several years, but nothing really spoke to our love and respect for the environment. When we walked onto this property, however, we knew this was where we needed to be. It’s like living on top of the world; your own little piece of heaven. It’s perfect for us, and we’ve done our best to make the inside as great a testament to nature as the outside is.”

The house, which was partially built but had languished for many months, needed a family to finish it and make it into a home. “It really was quite a reclamation project,” says Scott. “The house was in terrible shape, with no roof and walls only up one story. There was even a flock of pigeons living in the basement.”

With the expertise of architect Jeannie Brendel of Brendel Architects, located in Albers, Illinois, and custom green builder William Burkey of Automated Land Development, the magic began that would transform a shell of a house into the magnificent eco-manor that it is today.

The air inside the home is exchanged with fresh outdoor air every 24 hours.

Gracefully keeping watch over the town below, this grand home is built high on a hill with sweeping views that remind one of being in the country. Livestock graze, wild grasses blow in the wind, and the river ebbs and flows. It's easy to forget you're only 45 miles southwest of St. Louis City.

That peaceful feeling is what Scott and Martha have successfully translated into an environmentally conscious way of life. “We use every room in this house,” say the homeowners, “so these rooms have to work efficiently for us all the time.” To this end, they installed Andersen Series 400 Low-E4 sun-tempered windows and glass doors throughout and chose only ENERGY STAR® appliances. They also installed two Aprilaire® Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) that exchange the air inside their home with fresh outdoor air every 24 hours. “The air can get stale in a well-insulated home,” says Scott.

“These ventilators are great for allergy sufferers. By replacing the air every day, you always have clean air to breathe.” An ERV is also extremely energy efficient. In the winter months, the exclusive EnergyMax® Transfer Core uses the heat of the indoor air to warm the incoming cold fresh air, recovering approximately 77 percent of the energy.

The home's Carrier Infinity® heating and cooling system automatically adjusts for peak efficiency and performance, simultaneously removing and killing airborne germs and allergens. Six programmable thermostats make temperature control easy and efficient. These state-of-the-art control interfaces are the only controls on the market that allow homeowners to regulate not only temperature, but humidity, air quality, fan speed and ventilation, as well.  High-efficiency GreenFiber insulation was also incorporated.

“We also use two Laing Autocirc Under-Sink Instant Hot Water Pumps,” says Scott.  These revolutionary pumps work with standard and tankless heaters, delivering instant hot water to every faucet in the house. According to the company, a family of four can save up to 46 gallons of water a day. Programmable timers built into the pumps allow them to run only when needed.

The actual construction of the house is an eco-conscious venture in itself. Built using LOGIX® Insulated Concrete Forms, Scott and Martha's dream home is the picture of efficiency. Based on the simple concept of stackable interlocking blocks made from expanded polystyrene (a substance similar to Styrofoam™),  each block is vertically reinforced with steel and filled with concrete providing a highly insulated wall system. Built to last for centuries, LOGIX® walls, which incorporate recycled materials, are reported to be more than eight times stronger than conventional wood-framed walls and are airtight and mold resistant.

One of the most uniquely green parts of the home is a pneumatic vacuum elevator from Elevated Technologies, Inc. designed to operate using air and gravity. Vacuum pumps or turbines use air to pull the elevator car up to the desired floor, where an anchoring system locks the car into place. Then, the slow release of air pressure floats the car down again.

It seems Scott and Martha thought of just about everything when designing and finishing their house on the hill. “It's so important not to waste,” they say. “We didn't even scrap the leftover granite from our kitchen countertops. We repurposed them for our window sills.”

Surely this home and its lucky owners are perfectly in tune with the nature that surrounds them. Scott and Martha have found their little piece of heaven right there on top of the hill, where “giving back” is a way of life.