2002 Best Luxury Home - Cost Over $1,000,000 - Bronze Award
Working with Frank and Kirsten Rush to build their exciting new home on the north shore of Mallets Bay, was an exciting opportunity that doesn’t come along very often. The Rushes are a young couple without children who travel a lot and live life to the fullest! Their lifestyle is reflected in this wonderful 3,500 SF home, with a four-car garage that was custom designed for them by the McKernon Group of Brandon, Vermont.
Building this home gave me the opportunity to work with building materials and systems that are far from the ordinary. Frank Rush grew up on the shores of Lake Champlain and knew from experience that the wind can really howl in that area. With a main objective of building a quiet and peaceful house, the Rushes decided before they even had a plan, that the house would be constructed from insulated concrete forms (ICF’s). As a wonderful secondary benefit, an ICF house is not only quiet but also is extremely efficient. The house is oriented towards the lake, which allows for wonderful solar gain from its southwest exposure. The exterior of the house is clad with STO Corporation’s exterior insulated finish system (EIFS) and direct finish system (DFS), which gives a classic stucco appearance. The roof is clad with copper flashings and real Vermont slate. The exterior windows and sliding glass doors are Marvin’s top of the line aluminum-clad wood series. Ornamental metal railings help to accent both the front and back elevations of the house.
Kirsten Rush is a gourmet cook and designed a kitchen that a professional chef would love! Granite countertops were used in the kitchen as well as in the three and a half bathrooms. The only carpet in the house is in the master bedroom’s 15 foot by 15 foot walk-in closet and in the third floor loft. The rest of the floors in the house are clad with hard surfaces including cherry wood, ceramic tile, slate and cork. These hard surfaces still feel very cozy, however, as radiant heating was installed below all of the floors throughout the house. To keep this extremely tight house supplied with fresh air, a Venmar heat exchanging ventilation unit was installed. To keep the house cool in the summer a Unico air conditioning system was installed.
In addition to being progressive about building materials and mechanical systems, the Rushes are also leading edge when it comes to having high tech control and audio/video systems. All of the electrical and lighting loads in the house are controlled through a microprocessor driven LiteTouch system, which allows for total flexibility and convenience. The media room has theater quality picture and sound and the entire house is equipped with Bose audio system that can be controlled from throughout the house. The house is also completely prewired with a FutureSmart wiring system, that includes fiber optic conductors.
It was a pleasure working at this beautiful site and having the opportunity to work with such great clients on a very exciting house!
Office Location: 600 Blair Park Road, Suite 235, Williston, VT 05495 