Nest — Spring 2020

home design real estate

SPRING 2020

6

10

14

16

18

Gardener Jen Kennedy nurtures soil and soul

Grunts Move Junk gives vets a new mission

Midd kids build Habitat homes and architecture skills

An early read on the 2020 housing market

Design star Billy Cotton on his Vermont values

Relax

let us handle the details

“Homesharing helps me save money on my energy bills and live a greener life.”

HOME SHARE Bringing Vermonters together to share homes

Untitled-27 1

2

NEST SPRING 2020

Untitled-64 1

Expert Design Consultation

863-5625 HomeShareVermont.org

B AT H S H O W

PLACE

100 Ave D Williston • 802-864-9831

Knowledgeable, Friendly and Attentive Service Highest Quality Products

blodgettsupply.com • m-f 830-430 • sat 9-noon For individual attention, appointments are recommended 3/12/20 10:39 AM

N4t-blodgettsupply031820.indd 1

3/3/20 1:51 PM

2/27/20 12:07 PM

Low Rates. Local Servicing.

Experience.

Start your application online with any of these electronic devices.

No down payment option Zero origination fees Low closing costs

Apply online at nefcu.com or call 866.80.LOANS.

NMLS#446767 Federally Insured by NCUA Untitled-2 1

NEST SPRING 2020

3

3/10/20 11:37 PM

Spring for Solar!

SHOP

A Nonprofit Community Enterprise

SPRING CLEANING WITH MEANING Your store purchases and donations support

Solar ✓ Weatherization ✓ Construction ✓ Heat Pumps ✓ A Vermont owned and Operated Business

Check out the new household goods department at 339 Pine Street, Burlington, above

GREAT PRICES EVERY DAY!

Serving the Green Mountain State Since ‘88

329 Harvest Lane at Taft Corners (Now open Sundays!)

30 Granite Street

BuildingEnergyVT.com N4t-buildingenergy031820 1

4

NEST SPRING 2020

N2h-homeport031820 1

3/12/20 11:00 AM

Barre

Untitled-11 1 Untitled-51

590 E Main Street

Hyde Park

2/27/19 12:02 6/5/19 3:09 PM

3/11/20 4:48 PM

S P R ING 2 02 0

Window & Door Installation Savings!

xxxx xxxx

6

The Artful Garden .................... 6 Jen Kennedy plants with both palette and purpose in mind

SAVE $1,000

*

UP TO

THE WORD SPRING IS SO HOPEFUL — as a season and a verb, it connotes bounding back. As Nest goes to press, the world is facing a pandemic. It’s moved so fast, our features for this issue were written before the word coronavirus was on everyone’s mind. But spring will still arrive, and we will rebound.

In a spirit of optimism, may you find welcome distraction in our lineup of stories: visiting a MASTER GARDENER and her gloriously floral property in Underhill; chatting up a veteran dispatcher of stuff at GRUNTS MOVE JUNK; the official 2020 Vermont REAL ESTATE PROGNOSIS (spoiler: it’s still a seller’s market!); an impactful collaboration of Middlebury College architecture students and HABITAT FOR HUMANITY; and a Q&A with BILLY COTTON, recently named creative director of Ralph Lauren Home, who gives props to his Vermont roots.

Now, go wash your hands and think about digging in the dirt real soon.

off the installation of your Marvin replacement window or door project installed by Windows & Doors By Brownell PLUS RECEIVE A GIFT CARD TO:

10

B Y M E G AN FU LWIL E R

Mission Ready .........................10

Offer Expires March 22, 2020

Grunts Move Junk offers military vets a moving occupation in the civilian sector

Schedule Your Free Window Installation Consultation Today!

B Y K E N P IC AR D

Building Skills..........................14 14 For Middlebury College students, an innovative architecture class i sn’t just theoretical

(877) 433-1228 wdbrownell.com/installation

B Y A M Y L IL LY

Full House ................................16 16 Real estate report projects continued seller’s market for northwest Vermont in 2020

16

B Y DA N B O L L E S

Home Good ..............................18 18

Billy Cotton brings Vermont values to an international brand B Y PA M EL A P O L S TO N home design real estate

SPRING 2020

Williston, VT | West Lebanon, NH | Plattsburgh, NY (802) 862-4800 | Locally Owned & Operated ON THE COVER Jen Kennedy in her garden at home in Underhill 6 Gardener Jen Kennedy nurtures soil and soul

10 Grunts Move Junk gives vets a new mission

14 Midd kids build Habitat homes and architecture skills

16 An early read on the 2020 housing market

* Save up to $1,000 off your residential Marvin Window or Door project installed by Windows & Doors By Brownell. Discount is calculated as $100 off each Marvin Window or Door in your project up to a maximum discount of $1,000. Offer does not apply to previous quotes and cannot be combined with financing, any other promotion or discount. Deposit must be placed by 03.22.20 to qualify. See dealer for complete details.

18 Design star Billy Cotton on his Vermont values

PHOTO BY GLENN RUSSELL

wdbrownell.com Untitled-6 1

NEST SPRING 2020

5

3/11/20 10:21 AM

The Artful

Garden

Gardening has been described as an act of faith. In Vermont — with its short growing season, uncertain weather and rocky soil — the activity requires a special kind of fortitude, as well. And it helps to have the guidance of someone who’s as hardy as the native plants.

Someone like Jen Kennedy.

Jen Kennedy plants with both palette and purpose in mind

BY ME GAN F ULW I L ER

PHOTOS: GLENN RUSSELL

THIS IS NOT A GARDEN OF STRAIGHT LINES BUT RATHER

A CHEERFUL JUMBLE OF FLOWERS, HERBS AND VEGETABLES. Top: Gardener Jen Kennedy with her dog, Tobias, at home in Underhill Right: Stokes aster

6

NEST SPRING 2020

The Underhill resident, 37, has worked as a professional gardener in Chittenden County for almost 20 years.

From designing new perennial beds to helping maintain established gardens, Kennedy does it all.

“There are definitely unique challenges when it comes to locations, what people like and what’s going to look good in their garden,” she said, “but I really enjoy that.”

When she’s not working on other people’s gardens in season, Kennedy is busy tending her own. And although her white clapboard home and perennialfilled grounds may seem like a quintessential Vermont idyll, it wasn’t always this way.

Twelve years ago, when Kennedy inherited her grandparents’ homestead — built in 1852 as a local school — the property was in a state of disrepair. Her grandmother’s flower beds were overgrown and neglected, while the backyard was littered with old cars, rusted fences, dismantled sheds and even an old forge.

(Her grandfather, Roy Kennedy, was an artist and sculptor who had a thing for scrap metal.)

Kennedy has spent the last decade transforming her grandparents’ eclectic artists’ den into her own private paradise.

“It took a long time, but I had a vision and I just kept with it,” she said.

Kennedy’s work, in both her clients’ gardens and her own, is equal parts restoration and creation. Consider the terraced perennial beds in front of her house, originally planted by her grandmother. Kennedy has diligently saved many of the plants, including the Dictamnus albus (gas plant), Pulmonaria (lungwort) and Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebells). But she’s also added new varieties such as Nepeta sibirica (catmint) and Astilboides tabularis (shield leaf ) to give the beds her personal touch.

Kennedy grew up just down the road and credits her grandmother with teaching her about plants. “I learned a lot from my grandmother, but mostly I learned to love gardening,” she said.

Her grandparents didn’t own a TV or

GARDEN IN G a phone, so when Kennedy visited, they spent their time outside. “There was an emphasis on edible landscaping and foraging for wild foods,” she remembered. “It was just part of life back then, but we’ve gotten away from it.”

Tucked behind the house is a private pastoral landscape fringed with old-growth apple trees. The vegetable garden, a large circle in the center of the backyard, is looped with a thin electric fence to keep out the deer (who love Kennedy’s hydrangeas and daylilies but leave the hyssop and thyme alone). A wooden pergola frames the entrance, and pea-stone paths separate the raised beds, which are hip-high to make planting and weeding easier.

This is not a garden of straight lines but rather a cheerful jumble of flowers,

outdoor spaces, Kennedy rarely slows down; she’s a woman with a vision and a strong work ethic.

Kennedy first worked as a gardener during summers while she studied art at what was then called Johnson College, and it’s been her main job ever since.

It’s clear that the principles of art, such as complementary colors, textures and contrast, inform her botanical philosophy. In particular, she thinks about the interplay of light and shade.

For example, Kennedy often plants the bright chartreuse foliage of Hakone (Japanese forest grass) to contrast with the deep purple foliage of Cimicifuga (snakeroot).

“It’s art with plants. It’s my sculpture,” she explained.

Making art from growing things can

n4t-erindupuis0320 1

3/12/20 10:43 AM

Daylilies at Jen Kennedy’s home in Underhill

herbs and vegetables — sweet peas, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, rhubarb and garlic — growing together in verdant harmony.

“It’s not intentional,” said Kennedy with a laugh. “I plant mostly by height and shading. I like to grow small amounts of several different things.

There is a science to plant companions, but I haven’t used it.”

Kennedy is a proponent of creating outside “rooms” to extend indoor living space, and a walk around her property reveals delightful hidden nooks. A wooden arbor laden with leafy vines shades a large table and chairs on her backyard patio. Alongside a babbling brook, two Adirondack chairs and a small fire pit offer a perfect setting for making s’mores. Just beyond the vegetable garden, a hammock sways between two old maple trees.

Although a visitor might imagine whiling away summer afternoons reading a book and sipping iced tea in such

take a long time, though. “I once heard that gardening is the slowest form of performance art, and I totally agree with that!” Kennedy said.

Every year, she becomes enamored of a different plant. Last summer, it was Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master), a tall, white wildflower with blossoms the size of golf balls. The year before, it was hostas. “They can do dry shade and look amazing. There aren’t many plants that can do that,” she said.

Using her deep knowledge of native plants, as well as her yearly plant passions, Kennedy approaches her clients’ gardens like a sculptor approaches a slab of marble: with a keen eye for what needs to be moved, removed or added.

Many of her clients work side by side with her, and she often gives them “homework” to do between her visits.

Kennedy said she especially enjoys working in “gardeners’ gardens,” THE ARTFUL GARDEN

BEAUTIFUL. Also known as

Lovely, Elegant, Gorgeous, Stunning

Visit our Showroom

17 Echo Place | Williston 802-658-0000

InspiredClosetsVT.com

» P.8 Untitled-67 1

NEST SPRING 2020

7

2/27/20 12:13 PM

Unlock the possibilities of your home.

G A R DENI NG

Much more than moving. >> Interior decorating >> Styling and organizing >> Staging

Claire Mahoney & Marlene Simson (802) 503-2365 info@moovconsultants.com

THe A tful Garden « P.7

LEA R N M O RE www.moovconsultants.com

Untitled-33 1

WE BUILD DREAMS!

3/12/20 3:51 PM

D

GLENN RUSSELL

reaming of a new deck?

We can build your dream into a reality! Call us today for a FREE estimate on a deck, porch or small addition.

Jen Kennedy’s pergola

davidcone23@comcast.net • www.builtbydc.com Untitled-28 1

3/5/18 4:13 PM

because “they know it’s hard work, so Thanks to Kennedy’s counsel, they really appreciate what I do.”

Dickerson now has “a riot of nasturCharlotte Wheater and Mary Jane tiums and all kinds of mint” for summer Dickerson, both from Jericho, are two cooking, she said. such gardeners who have weeded, Full-time gardening doesn’t leave shoveled and planted with Kennedy for a lot of time for other projects, such almost two decades. as home restoration. So, in the winter, “I only have one other person who Kennedy turns her attention to the works as hard as I do, and that’s Jen,” interior of her unique home. Here, too, said Wheater. “I think of her as Mother she continues to patiently clear out Earth. She has a love for the land and and clean up. Where there once was for what it provides. a warren of small, dark She’s a marvel.” rooms piled high with Dickerson credits her grandfather’s art, Kennedy with helping there’s now a bright and her see her garden open space. Her grandin a whole new way. father’s sculptures hang “She sees the conabove the hearth of the tours of the land and massive stone fireplace, knows how to make and his large paintings the most of them,” are stacked neatly on Dickerson said. wooden shelves in the “Gardening with Jen corner.

M A RY JA N E D I C K ER S O N is nurturing for the Next, Kennedy plans body and the soul.” to paint the walls and Ask this veteran artist gardener for whitewash the tongue-and-groove pine advice, and she’ll tell you to resist the ceiling. For now, she’s happy to sit on temptation to buy all your plants at the floor and sort through paint samples once. Instead, Kennedy suggests visiting in palettes that echo her lush gardens multiple nurseries throughout the outside. Making a custom home, like growing season to collect a variety of creating a beautiful garden, takes time. plants that will bloom at different times.

“This is the fun part,” Kennedy said.

“A lot of the creativity happens at the “I’m not there yet — not on the inside — nursery, because you get to see what’s but I can’t wait!” m available and what looks good together,” she said. She also advises growing INFO something edible. “That’s very rewardJen Kennedy can be reached via email at ing, because anything you grow yourself jenpearlkennedy@yahoo.com and is on just tastes better!”

Instagram at @jenpearlkennedy.

GARDENING WITH JEN IS

Fire Design • Sales & Service • 802-316-3081 446 Shunpike Road, Williston • www.blazing-design.com

Gas Fireplaces • Inserts • Stoves • Fire Pits • Pizza Ovens n8h-blazingdesigns0617.indd 1

6/1/17 3:17 PM

Buying or selling?

I work for you!

Robbi Handy Holmes • 802-951-2128 • robbihandyholmes@c21jack.com Making it happen for you!

8

NEST SPRING 2020

N8H-robbihandyholmes0319.indd 1

3/8/19 4:05 PM

NURTURING FOR THE BODY AND THE SOUL.

Buying a home? Fetch your phone.

Tap “More� in our mobile app.

Applying for a mortgage has never been easier! The NorthCountry app has our most user-friendly application right at your fingertips. If you start but then need to stop and come back to it later, you can.

n Free pre-qualifications

n Local service

n Competitive rates

n As little as 3% down

(fixed and adjustable)

NMLS# 415758 Insured by NCUA

www.northcountry.org Untitled-29 1

(802) 657-6847 (800) 660-3258 NEST SPRING 2020

9

3/12/20 10:52 AM

Mission Ready

LUKE AWTRY

Kyler Leduc loading a truck for Grunts Move Junk in Burlington

Grunts Move Junk offers military vets a moving occupation in the civilian sector B Y K E N PI CA RD

For more than three years, Florida native Joshua Hayes was a member of the Old Guard, the U.S. Army’s ceremonial unit.

Hayes was assigned to the presidential escort platoon, which, as he explained, serves as the president’s military face and “show of force” whenever foreign dignitaries visit the White House.

10

NEST SPRING 2020

After leaving the Army in 2018, Hayes briefly worked on drilling rigs in Pennsylvania oil fields until he got laid off, and he and his fiancée returned to Vermont, where she grew up. That’s when the six-foot-four-inch vet became a different show of force: a mover for Grunts Move Junk.

The St. Albans-based company tackles in-state residential and commercial moving jobs, as well as junk-removal projects. Its crews clean out sheds, basements, garages, storage units and rental

properties, then haul away old refrigerators, sofas and other unwanted clutter.

Some items get landfilled, but others are recycled or sold.

“Grunts Move Junk was the perfect place for a guy like me to start working,” said Hayes, 23, who’s been with the company since March 2019. “You never have a dull day. You’re always doing something new, you’re always meeting new people and you’re always getting challenged, mentally and physically.”

Grunts Move Junk was cofounded

SERVIC E

in 2014 by Champlain College graduplans to open another in southern New ate Mitchel Durfee, himself an Army Hampshire later this spring. In fact, last veteran who served in Iraq and year, after Hayes notified his boss that Afghanistan. Durfee launched Grunts he was planning to move back to Florida Move Junk as a way to offer fellow vetto help out on his family’s cattle ranch, erans a “landing zone” as they transition Newhouse opened a Grunts Move Junk back to the civilian workforce. Because branch in Jacksonville and asked Hayes newly discharged service members to manage it. tend to be young, fit, hardworking and Since that branch opened on October accustomed to heavy lifting, they’re 1, Hayes has expanded it to a staff of ideally suited to the job. five. And he’s continued the company And, as the company’s current owner mission of serving as an employment pointed out, there’s no shortage of “stepping stone” for military personnel civilians who could use a little military coming off active duty. As Hayes put it, muscle to get their houses in order.

“Every person I hire on, I want them to “Everyone has too learn something good that much crap in their lives,” they can take somewhere said Bart Newhouse, who else if they decide to leave.” bought Grunts Move Meanwhile, Newhouse Junk from Durfee in June continues to expand his 2018. Because moving services in northern New and clutter often cause England. When he bought people a lot of anxiety, he the company two years ago, added, “both of the major he had just three pickup categories of our work trucks, three trailers and alleviate stress.” a box truck. He has more Newhouse, a 43-yearthan doubled his fleet since old Stowe native, worked then and plans to add even for years in his fammore trucks and crews in ily’s business, Hooker’s New Hampshire. Newhouse Furniture, which opened has also acquired additional in 1956 but finally closed storage space in Williston its Barre store in 2014 and is looking for more in and Waterbury store in the Barre-Montpelier area, 2016. Two years later, in order to reduce employNewhouse bought Grunts ees’ drive times and make Move Junk and, while the company even more ARMY VE TE RAN not a veteran himself, efficient.

J OSHUA HAY E S he agreed to maintain His company’s biggest Durfee’s mission of hiring challenge? Newhouse conrecently discharged vets. cedes that it’s difficult to find employees “To be honest, the transitioning in the current tight labor market. element works perfectly for us,” he said. (Grunts Move Junk hires non-vets, as Newhouse had one veteran work for well, he noted.) The shortage is parGrunts Move Junk while he was trainticularly acute among veterans, whose ing for a career as a diesel mechanic. unemployment rate tends to be even He hired another right out of the Army lower than that of non-veterans — 2.9 and, six months later, the guy landed a percent in December 2019 for veterans, job as a Middlebury police officer. Other compared to 3.4 percent for non-vets, employees attend college and only work according to the U.S. Department of for Grunts Move Junk during their Labor. summer breaks.

As his business expands, Newhouse Though most companies want to hopes to attract new employees with avoid turnover, it hasn’t been as much additional workplace benefits, such as of a concern for Grunts Move Junk. The free breakfasts, gym memberships and workload tends to expand and contract paid time off. seasonally. Over the winter Newhouse “I think maintaining the mission is as had 10 employees. But he expects to important as anything else,” he said. “As ramp up to as many as 35 in the spring long as I treat people fairly and customand summer, when more people are ers are happy, that’s the most important moving and decluttering their homes, thing.” m offices and storage spaces.

Contact: ken@sevendaysvt.com Currently, Grunts Move Junk doesn’t have the federal permits needed to accept interstate moving jobs. That said, the company opened an office in northINFO ern New Hampshire a year ago and Learn more at gruntsmovejunk.com.

GRUNTS MOVE JUNK WAS THE PERFECT PLACE FOR A GUY LIKE ME TO START WORKING.

Burlington’s Own

Over 3,000 square feet

VINTAGE • GIFTS • ANTIQUES 180 Flynn Avenue, Burlington

VINTAGEINSPIRED.NET

MON-SAT 10AM-5PM • SUN 12PM-4PM N8h-vintageinspired031820.indd 1

3/10/20 5:06 PM

Ceiling

“Flex “ Lamp

M

SPRING ARRIVALS at SLATE

Main location | 89 Church St. Burlington \\ Satellite Store | 3 Mill St. Middlebury \\ www.slatehome.co

N4t-slate031820 1

NEST SPRING 2020

11

3/12/20 11:02 AM

Letting in Some

Light SMALL WINDOW RENOVATIONS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

BY GILLIAN ENGLISH FOR 7D BRAND STUDIO

W

inter in Vermont seems to last about two years, and it can feel even longer when you don’t love your living space. It was a cold and dark day in December when Ashley and her husband decided they needed an upgrade in theirs.

Spending more time indoors reminded them daily that the windows in their dining room were outdated and small, making that part of their Shelburne home a poorly lit place in which to eat or crack open a book. Ashley was worried about making any changes for fear of ruining the silk wallpaper.

“But,” she recalled, “my husband and I kept saying, ‘I wish we had more light.’” So that day in December, they made plans to replace the windows.

Ashley called Windows & Doors

By Brownell; the family-owned company has been a consistent,

reliable source for residential window renovations since 1991.

She says their team came in with a can-do attitude. “They were just so confident. They showed us what the windows would look like digitally, and we thought it looked great — so we went through with it.”

From start to finish, the project took about three days. Initially, Ashley was worried about removing the windows in the cold weather; the temperature was below 20 degrees.

“It was really, really cold out!” she said

with a laugh. “I wondered how the heck it was going work.”

But the crew put up a tarp when they finished for the day and never left a hole in the wall. “I never even felt a draft,” she said.

And during the process, Ashley said, the Brownell staff was extremely attentive. They were clean and never tracked salt or dirt into the house. “The owner even called my husband to see how things were going,” Ashley noted.

“You could really tell this was not just a job. You could see the pride

in workmanship, and you could tell they really just wanted us to be happy with it, no matter what.”

Now that the project is complete, her windows let in a lot of natural light and keep the heat in with good insulation. Ashley said it’s had a surprisingly dramatic effect on the house. There’s a fresh, crisp cleanness to the rooms. “It sounds silly because it’s just two windows, but it really made everything so much bigger and better,” she said.

And the contractors at Brownell were able to preserve not only the

Interested in replacing your windows?

The team from Windows & Doors By Brownell makes it easy to upgrade your windows by providing good customer service and valuable experience.

Schedule a free in-home consultation today: 800-773-4803.

P R O D U C E D BY 7 D B R A N D S T U D I O — PA I D F O R BY WI N D OW S & D O O R S BY B R OWN E L L

Owner Les Brownell

silk wallpaper, but the trim work on the windows. “It looked just like the picture,” she said.

A CHANGE OF SCENERY Thirty years ago, Windows & Doors By Brownell founder Les Brownell was working for a lumberyard. He realized that there weren’t many salespeople out there who could both sell a window and put it in. Replacing windows could be a lot of work and involve many moving parts.

share a common goal: getting the consumer the best quality window possible.

Thirty years ago, Les was the person who went to people’s houses and sold them windows, but as the business has grown, so has the Installation Department. It’s now made up of a team of passionate people. Les now splits his time between in-home visits and managing the business, but going out and talking to people is still his favorite part of the job.

By Brownell. He said the most common reason people call him is that their windows no longer function correctly. They’re rotting, they don’t open and shut properly, or they’re drafty.

If you feel cold drafts coming from your windows or if you notice that your windows are getting foggy and difficult to see through, that’s the easiest way to tell that you need to replace them.

Most people don’t dedicate their life to windows, so it can be a bit

THIS ARTICLE WAS COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR BY:

Erik explained, “A badly installed window can wind up costing you much more in the long run. It’s so important to find people who are capable of doing the project.”

BEFORE

AFTER

Is it time to replace your windows?

He saw an opening for a one-stop shop, so he started one.

The company has changed a bit over the years and now includes a parts and service department, a paint shop, and Marvin window design services, he said: “We just kept adding services. We’re part of everything. We can do it all.”

Early on, Les chose a single window supplier — Marvin — because of the quality of the product and the company behind the window. “I love the custom flexibility; they don’t come in a box,” he said. “Getting a Marvin window is like a trip to a salad bar with thousands of options available.”

Like his company, Marvin is also family owned, he said. Marvin is currently being led by Paul Marvin, CEO and fourth-generation member of the company. Frank Marvin (third generation) had helped Les get started and build the business from the ground up.

They both support each other and

Above: Windows & Doors By Brownell doubled the windows in Ashley’s Shelburne home while preserving the trim and silk wallpaper.

Right: A window replacement project in Woodstock, Vt.

“It’s why I started doing all of this,” he said. “I love getting out in the field and helping people find the right product. I’m not a designer, but I’ve seen so much, and I think that helps people.” Les sells windows with the idea in mind that it’s a piece of art. When people buy a window, they shouldn’t try to hide it — it should be part of the décor.

“I love looking at a window and realizing, ‘Hey, we should open this place up a bit more so you can actually enjoy where you live,’” he said. “At the end of the day, that gives me great satisfaction, and it’s the same satisfaction I had in 1991.”

SEALING UP THE PROBLEM Erik Heikel is the installation manager at Windows & Doors

Take our online quiz!

You could win a $250 GIFT CARD for Marvin windows at any of their three locations. sevendaysvt.com/ windowquiz

overwhelming when it’s time for a replacement. Erik emphasizes that it’s important to know what your home needs, the quality of the product used, and that the person installing the window is using the proper installation techniques to protect your home from the elements outside.

At Brownell, the installation technicians are all Marvin-trained and full-time, year-round employees.

The last thing a homeowner wants to do is to replace their replacement windows in five, 10 or even 20 years.

ENJOYING THE VIEW Erik’s most memorable project was in his own home. His basement had windows that offered a view of the backyard. Though the windows weren’t large, they were one of the features he liked most about his house. However, the windows had worn out and were letting in a ton of cold air, which made being in the basement unbearable. The glass was totally shot. And the space felt small and dark.

When he decided on the renovation, he modified the existing double-hung windows into a huge Marvin picture window that let in much more light. Now, he and his family use the basement as a family room and hang out there all the time. They make great use of a space they had previously ignored — all because they changed the windows.

Ashley can relate. “What’s the point of living in beautiful Vermont if you don’t enjoy it?” she pointed out. “There’s so much great scenery right outside your window. It’s an investment in loving your home, and for me, it really made a difference in my well-being.” ■

P R O D U C E D BY 7 D B R A N D S T U D I O — PA I D F O R BY WI N D OW S & D O O R S BY B R OWN E L L

PHOTOS: JON OLENDER

Building Skills For Middlebury College students, an innovative architecture class isn’t just theoretical B Y A M Y L I L LY

Doraleeann and Frankie Rivera and their three young daughters —Lillianna, 8; EmMarie, 6; and Tatianna, 2 — were barely getting by while living in a deteriorating trailer in Bristol. The couple works at the Charter House Coalition, a nonprofit based in Middlebury that serves the homeless of Addison County.

During their eight years in the trailer, the Riveras realized they were spending all their money on repairs.

“It was a nightmare,” said Doraleeann, who goes by Dora. “The furnace caught fire twice. The pipes were constantly freezing because there was no insulation, so [often] there was no water through half the house. We slept in one room in case the heat went out during the night.”

Fortunately, that nightmare is over.

Dora recalled it while speaking by phone from her current home: a newly built Habitat for Humanity house on Seymour Street in Middlebury. The family of five, plus their two dogs and three

cats, moved in on December 22. The ultra-modern house is not only highly energy efficient, it’s also architecturally eye-catching, with a streamlined gable form and standing-seam metal cladding that place it squarely at the leading edge of design.

Habitat for Humanity of Addison County has built houses before, including four in Cornwall designed pro bono by architect Jean Terwilliger, whose practice is located there. But the Seymour Street house is the first to be designed through a

partnership with Middlebury College and Middlebury architect John McLeod. Five more houses are due to emerge from this three-way collaboration: a smaller house behind the Riveras’, to be constructed beginning this spring, and four houses on adjacent lots on Green Street in Vergennes.

Amazingly, undergraduates are designing these abodes. Over a yearlong series of courses taught by McLeod and his former partner, Steve Kredell (who now works for gbA Architecture in Montpelier), students in the college’s architectural studies program research a site, draw up preliminary designs, create construction documents, secure permitting, stick to a budget and help build each house. (Some students take all three classes through the spring, fall and January terms; others stay for one or two.)

McLeod provides “invisible guardrails,” as he puts it; after all, the students’ prior exposure to architecture when they begin the class typically consists of a one-semester introductory class.

Addison County Habitat president Steve Ingram and building committee leader Ashley Cadwell attend every class to

Steve Ingram (center left) and Middlebury College professor John McLeod (center right) with homeowner Dora Rivera (center), her children and McLeod's class

14

NEST SPRING 2020

weigh in on the organization’s needs and requirements.

Real-world professionals who regularly collaborate with McLeod Architects — including builders, energy-efficiency experts, and civil and environmental engineers — provide input during class and on-site.

McLeod has taught at Middlebury since 2005. And each summer since 2012, he and Kredell have run Island Design Assembly, a weeklong designbuild seminar in Penobscot Bay, Maine.

Those students complete small service projects such as a composting station or a picnic pavilion. McLeod pointed out the rarity of the experience his Habitat students are getting — especially at a place like Middlebury, which does not have a professional architecture program.

“Everything else I teach is hypothetical. Even in accredited architecture schools, most of the assignments aren’t intended to be built,” he said. “This is a real project, real client, real budget, real schedule, real permitting — everything we deal with in our professional practice.

It’s kind of crazy. But [the students] do rise to the occasion.”

Learning From the Ground Up

Nest sat in on the second class of a new cycle that will result in a house on Lot 18 in Vergennes. (A model for the Lot 19 house, created by last year’s class, rested on a drafting table; building commences in summer 2020.) Most of the 15 students in the seminar are sophomores. Also in attendance were Ingram, Cadwell and Jason Larocque — founding partner and president of Otter Creek Engineering — with his colleague Brent Rakowski, senior project engineer.

During the first class, the students had walked the site — a sloped and wooded lot, by everyone’s account — and the experts were there to explain what they needed to think about. Rakowski gave an overview of Act 250, Vermont’s environmental land use permitting system, and Larocque advised on tree removal, how winds would affect snowdrifts and how to spot drainage problems despite the frozen landscape.

The students’ questions were mostly big picture. “Will we meet the family soon?” asked one. Another wondered, “Should we read Act 250 ourselves?” (No to both: Ingram said Habitat was still in the process of identifying a family for the house, and the Otter Creek engineers had already obtained an Act 250 variance permit for the sites.)

“I just don’t know how much we are responsible for,” said one of the three female students.

HO US I NG “Ultimately, everything,” answered McLeod.

Cheryl Engmann, a sophomore architecture major from Farmington, Conn., said later by phone that she had signed up for the class because of a longstanding interest in Habitat. She belongs to the Habitat for Humanity club at the college, which gathers volunteers to help build projects.

“I was definitely scared going into [the class],” Engmann said, “because there is so much responsibility on the students.

But John has a good way of delegating tasks and having us come together and use everyone’s ideas to create something else. Which is pretty cool.”

“I was so shocked that this program

this early stage. He concluded the class with a slide show meant to counteract any preconceptions about houses — the most “personal” of buildings.

Among the examples he showed were structures in Alabama designed and built from found materials by Auburn University students of architecture professor Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio.

“My big thing is, let’s not default to anything. It should be an investigation,” McLeod said.

The lone senior in the class, Jack Allnut from Seattle, another joint architectural and environmental studies major, is the only student to have worked on the Seymour Street house. The

— she pointed out the place where solar panels are due to be installed this spring.

Habitat houses in the county are built to Efficiency Vermont’s highperformance efficiency standard — its top tier — but the Riveras’ home is the first to have rooftop solar. The entire house runs on electricity, including two heat pumps that provide heat and AC and an on-demand, tankless hot-water system.

So the family is likely to have a low to nonexistent energy bill.

Inside, three bedrooms are situated in a line off a brightly sunlit hall with a half-vaulted ceiling accented by wood beams. Above the bedrooms is a spacious second-floor storage area. The building ends in a combined family room and

IT’S GREAT TO HAVE SOME OF THE ENERGY WE EXPEND IN STUDIOS

HAVE A REAL IMPACT ON SOMEONE’S LIFE. JAC K AL L N U T

Middlebury College students from professor John McLeod's class visiting Dora Rivera’s energy-efficient Habitat house

is even offered to sophomores,” said second-year Isabelle Gorrivan, a New York City native who is working on a joint major in architecture and environmental studies. “I think it’s really interesting that we get to think about all this, but it’s also reassuring to have experts working with us. We don’t have to know everything about building a house.”

After the engineers’ chat, the students presented initial ideas for the house with the help of images gleaned from the internet. Engmann suggested “different ways to cut into the land, or create something on stilts” while still considering accessibility. The lot’s incline inspired Gorrivan to imagine something “almost like a hobbit house, half in, half out … with a living roof” that would be either embedded in the slope or imitative of its angle.

McLeod noted by phone that the process was deliberately open-ended at

seasoned Habitat helper is charged with teaching the newbies AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator and other software programs the students will use to create documents and renderings.

“Middlebury tends to be a place where a lot of classes are theoretical and abstracted from the real world,” Allnut commented. “I found the Habitat class really refreshing. It was a very applied process of figuring out the constraints — what Habitat could build, the cost, historic preservation rules, sustainability with all the newest systems and technologies. We did a lot of research.”

‘Waking Up in Heaven’

Dora Rivera recently gave Nest a tour of her house. The structure forms a metal-skinned tunnel from the street to the backyard. At the front entry — a kind of porch created by the extruding gable form and clad in eastern white cedar

kitchen with full vaulted ceiling. Wide glass doors capture the sun’s heat and light.

McLeod recently took his current students to see the Seymour Street house and meet the Riveras. The house’s exterior seems uniquely suited to its surroundings, with a gabled front that echoes the 19th-century houses around it. The architect insisted that the students began with no assumptions.

“We explored all different roof forms: butterfly roofs, shed roofs, different gable pitches,” he said. “Ours is a 12-on-12 gable, [meaning its pitch is] a 45-degree angle. It’s a classic. It’s really pure geometry.”

A smaller version of the house will soon rise off the back left corner of the Riveras’ plot. McLeod originally imagined that the two houses would be aligned on an axis extending from the

street. “I have a tendency to be a little overly pure about form and geometry,” he explained. But a few of the students “made an ultimately compelling argument about preserving sight lines to the street.”

In other matters, he steered them away from passionate ideas. Some wanted to put the entrance on the side — which would have required an overhang for water runoff, thereby interrupting the conceptual intent of the tunnel form, which leads from public to private areas.

As Allnut recalls, “It was definitely great to figure out how to organize work as a team but also not get too attached to personal ideas.”

As for the results, the senior added, “To see someone living in it — that was a pretty powerful moment for me. The kids and the grandma were there, and the two dogs, and it was amazing to see the space being used to the maximum potential.

It’s great to have some of the energy we expend in studios have a real impact on someone’s life.”

For Dora, that impact is immeasurable. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” she said by phone.

“Even on a crappy day like today, I’m not worried about my children being warm. Nothing’s going to break on us.

Everything’s functioning.”

After talking to several Cornwall Habitat house recipients, she discovered that they had escaped similar hardships.

“They were struggling, their houses were falling apart, and they needed a safe place to raise their children,” Dora said.

Habitat houses go to families with children who must be able to afford a combined monthly mortgage (which includes property tax and homeowners’ insurance) of $750 to $850. In addition to navigating substantial paperwork, they are required to pay off all debts before moving in — a process Dora said took her nearly four months. Then each adult has to spend a minimum of 200 hours volunteer-building the house. Dora said she worked many more: “I was here from breaking of dirt to very last nail in the wall.”

But it was well worth the effort. “The day before Christmas, my oldest daughter woke up and said, ‘It’s like waking up in heaven every morning,’” Dora recalled.

“I absolutely think what [Habitat, the college and McLeod] did for my family was completely magical.” m Contact: lilly@sevendaysvt.com

INFO

Learn more at addisonhabitat.org and mcleodkredell.com.

NEST SPRING 2020

15

Full House Real estate report projects continued seller’s market for northwest Vermont in 2020

BY D AN BO L L E S

LUKE EASTMAN

This just in: Buying a house in Chittenden County is tough. OK, so that’s probably not breaking news to anyone currently on the hunt for a three-bedroom Arts and Crafts in Burlington’s Five Sisters neighborhood, a fixer-upper farmhouse in East Charlotte or a tidy ranch on a corner lot in Essex Junction. Crowded open houses, properties that garner multiple offers above asking price and listings that disappear faster than you can say “Zillow” are par for the course these days. And the market is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

EARLY 2020 NORTHWEST VERMONT MARKET REPORT SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES MEDIAN SALE PRICE: AVERAGE SALE PRICE: UNITS SOLD: $303,500 +3.6% $345,361 +6.1% 2,530 +11.3%

NEWLY LISTED: 3248 +4.9%

DAYS ON MARKET: 73 -16.1%

NEWLY LISTED: 835 -6.9%

DAYS ON MARKET: 65 -7.1

CONDO MEDIAN SALE PRICE: AVERAGE SALE PRICE: UNITS SOLD: $245,000 +6.5% $276,300 +6.4% 756 -0.1% SOURCE: COLDWELL BANKER HICKOK & BOARDMAN

16

NEST SPRING 2020

That’s the verdict of the Early 2020 Northwest Vermont Market Report, released in February by Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman. Every year, the real estate company compiles statistics on home sales in the northwest corner of the state — specifically, in Chittenden, Addison, Franklin and Grand Isle counties. The idea is to project the state of the real estate market in the coming year.

Much like 2019, 2020 is shaping up to be a good time for sellers, less so for buyers, thanks to high demand bolstered by low interest rates and inventory that is unlikely to keep pace.

“It’s a seller’s market, for sure,” Coldwell Banker real estate agent Stacey Lax said.

That’s especially true in Chittenden County, where the median sale price of single-family homes rose to $355,000 — up from $322,00 in 2017 and $339,950 in 2018. The ballooning numbers bear out that real estate chestnut: location, location, location.

In other words, people want to live in or around Burlington. But, as anyone who’s watched an episode or 40 of “House Hunters” on HGTV could tell you, buyers open to compromise can find more palatable prices and a wider array of homes by looking beyond their target area.

I GOT YOU!

REAL ESTAT E

LOOKING FOR REAL ESTATE EXPERTISE? “If you’re willing to look outside the Burlington area, you start to see more affordable options,” Lax said. “And that’s becoming attractive to a lot of buyers.”

The market report confirms that assessment. In Chittenden County, sales of single-family homes in Hinesburg and Jericho grew more than 30 percent over 2018.

That trend also held in Addison County, where Vergennes, Middlebury and Bristol were hot locales.

Buyers were increasingly drawn to Franklin County last year, too. The most affordable county in northwest Vermont boasted a median single-family home sale price of $233,000 in STACE Y 2019, up from $208,950 in 2018. Half of those sales were in the up-and-coming markets of Swanton and St. Albans.

Millennials made up the single largest home-buying demographic in 2019, at 45 percent. Citing projections from realtor.com, the market report expects that group again to dominate the market as young people flock to rural and suburban areas.

But when they move in, they might find that their neighbors are folks their parents’ age. “What we’re seeing is that millennials and baby boomers are competing for the same houses,” Lax said.

She explained that boomers are staying in their houses longer than they used to. When they do move, they’re looking for smaller homes that don’t require a lot of work. Traditionally, younger people have sought out lessexpensive fixer-uppers. But, according to Lax, more members of that group are looking for small, move-in-ready homes, too, creating a greater strain on an already skimpy inventory.

With heightened competition, it’s even more important for buyers to

Let’s buy a house! Seems easy, right?

Well, it is likely the most money you have spent in your life. So why not take your time and be educated? Automation is wonderful in so many ways. So is customer service. You deserve our time and attention. I could not walk in and do your job, so you should not be expected to do mine. A one-on-one, face-to-face meeting is so very important! We will talk about what to expect, the programs that are out there and how you can make this happen, when YOU are ready!

KELLY A. DEFORGE

Work with an agent who knows your market.

Cady is a native Vermonter who understands the value Vermont offers as a place to call home.

Senior Mortgage develop a strong plan of attack with Loan Originator their real estate agents, so they can NMLS: 103643 move quickly when opportunities arrive.

Top VHFA “You never want to be caught flatLender! footed,” Lax said.

In addition to finding Reach out today! a trustworthy agent, she 802.238.5879 recommended seeking out cady@rrvermont.com one of the local lenders, since they’re often able to work more quickly, and at 30 Kimball Avenue, Suite 200, less conventional hours, South Burlington, VT than national lenders. ublocal.com • 802-318-7395 “The saying is that real kdeforge@unionbankvt.com M estate happens before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m.,” Lax noted.

Coldwell Banker’s 2019 projection came on the N8h-rossi&riina-cady0619.indd 1 5/30/19N8v-unionbankkellyd121119.indd 2:29 PM 1 12/6/19 11:06 AM heels of a volatile stock market, rising interest rates and a government shutdown in 2018. Despite • Hardwood Flooring Sales, those concerns, Vermont’s L AX Installation and Refinishing housing market proved • Low VOC, Local, resilient in 2019. But could coronavirus-fueled fears of an economic Eco Finish slowdown — and the uncertainty of an • Dustless Sanding election year — dim the 2020 forecast?

CALL FOR A full-blown pandemic would affect SEASONAL • Local Wood SPECIAL any sort of financial market, including housing. But Lax said Vermont real estate has historically been relatively Oliver Welters GreenMountainEcoFloors@gmail.com insulated from dramatic fluctuations. www.KeepVermontGreener.com 802.595.5049 “Our highs are usually not too high, and our lows are usually not too low,” she explained.

She would know. A licensed agent for six years, Lax entered the real estate business as a marketer in 2008, at the peak — or rather, nadir — of the housing market crash.

“That was an interesting time to get into real estate,” she said with a chuckle.

Residential, Commercial, Remodel and Design Build If this year’s market report proves prophetic, 2020 might just be a pretty interesting time, too. m

IT’S A SELLER’S MARKET, FOR SURE.

Vermont’s Choice for Eco-Friendly Flooring and Finishing

Creating a Sustainable Future Through Building and Design free estimates

Contact: dan@sevendaysvt.com

802-595-5802 greenlegacyLLC@gmail.com greenlegacybuilders.com

INFO

Find the Early 2020 Northwest Vermont Market Report at hickokandboardman.com.

N8H-Greenlegacy061219.indd 1

NEST SPRING 2020

17

6/6/19 1:46 PM

DES I G N

A feature in Domino particularly caught my notice, because it included photos of stylish rooms in the South Willard Street home where Cotton grew up — and where his parents, Nancy and Paul Cotton, still reside. Billy had a hand in designing those rooms, though he credited his mother as a collaborator. “He has really extended my taste,” Nancy said at the time, “but he’s usually right.”

Billy subsequently opened a chic showroom in Brooklyn, and his reputation continued to grow. He was named an AD100 designer for 2016-17 — an attribution from Architectural Digest based on an annual survey of the top names in interior design, architecture and landscape design.

Still, no one — perhaps least of all Cotton himself — imagined then that in a few years he would be heading one of the world’s most influential companies in home goods. Last November, Cotton, 38, was named creative director of Ralph Lauren Home.

In a phone call to his office in New York, I asked him how he thought he got there. It was “really the stew of all these things,” Cotton said, referring to his successive accomplishments. “It’s how you bring an object to life; it’s my ability to create environments, making houses and portraits work. It’s how Ralph Lauren does things — it’s about stories.”

Cotton was still marveling at the opportunity — “It’s sort of unbelievable,” he said. “I didn’t seek this out.” In his new role, he’ll be in familiar company: His former business partner, Day Kornbluth, was hired as the global president of Ralph Lauren Home.

Though he’s “beyond busy,” Cotton took the time to answer some questions for Nest about his new life and the aspects of his old life in Vermont that he carries with him.

NEST: I find a lot of Ralph Lauren Home a little more, I guess, classical than your design. Is he looking for a shift in direction?

18

NEST SPRING 2020

EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN RELATIONSHIP TO BEAUTY. BIL LY C O T TO N

HOME

GOOD Billy Cotton brings Vermont values to an international brand

BY PAME L A P O L S TO N

BILLY COTTON: They wouldn’t have hired me if they didn’t want a shift from the past. But I like that it’s rooted in tradition, like the work that I did under my own name … It’s still Ralph. It’s about channeling his vision.

NEST: It must have been bittersweet to wind down your own brand with your name on it.

BC: Yes, it was really one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I had a wonderful team of people who really nurtured me. I loved my clients. It’s been very complicated. I’m still winding down.

NEST: I noted in my previous story that you made no distinctions between old and new, expensive or not.

Still true?

COURTESY OF NOE DEWITT

Seven years ago, I wrote an article for Seven Days about Billy Cotton, the Burlington High School and Pratt Institute grad who had become a rising star in the design world.

Retailers on three continents were carrying his classicmeets-edgy lines of lacquered furniture and dinnerware.

Publications such as Elle Décor and Architectural Digest wrote gushing articles about him.

BC: Yes, that’s really super important — and so in line with the values of Ralph Lauren.

NEST: Did growing up in Vermont in any way help shape your design sensibility, or the way you approach interior spaces or objects — or anything else about your psyche?

BC: Totally! It’s a huge part. I will always say, a colonial tradition will always be part of my DNA — how austerity and ornament interact. There are so many touchstones for me.

Vermonters’ eschewing of the traditional notion of luxury and what that means — I’m always interested in that.

There’s an interesting relation to design up there: that it’s overindulgent to indulge in luxury and beauty. But there’s so much design, so much creativity! [Vermont is] marching to its own drummer.

NEST: When it comes to designing their homes, do Vermonters have any advantages over an urban dweller?

BC: They don’t care! It doesn’t keep them up at night. A kinder way of saying that is, there’s less pressure. Everyone has their own relationship to beauty. Vermont is a place of individuals; there are no social norms or pressures around [presentation].

The landscape is so beautiful — maybe that suffices. But people love their home; there’s just no pressure to conform.

NEST: I noticed you no longer have an 802 area code.

BC: I finally gave it up and got a New York license and 917 phone number. I’ve been here 20 years! Vermont bore me; New York has nurtured me — in a way that’s been extremely fruitful.

NEST: At the end of our previous conversation, you said something that proved to be prescient, given the surge of concern about climate change. I asked you then, “What comes next?” You said, “Ł e earth — the landscape and how we talk about and work with it, how we live with the land.” How has that interest manifested in your professional and perhaps personal life?

BC: It has, and has to. I have worked more with land in house projects. Ralph Lauren has a deep commitment to the environment, trying to get to a carbonneutral place. That’s one of the reasons I made the move. I acknowledge the conflict, but I do believe we can make things, and objects do bring us joy. I think there’s a way to do this without destroying the planet. I hope to bring those values to my new job.

Contact: pamela@sevendaysvt.com

Cheers!

Untitled-5 1

Pop open a cold one with your friends at Seven Days.

3/11/20 10:19 AM

— Designed by local artist Steve Hadeka, this hand-cut, lacquered and wall-mounted bottle opener features a laser-etched design and hidden magnets to catch the falling caps. Size: 4”x7”x1”, includes mounting hardware. $25.

157 Barber Road, St George | 802-482-4404 planethardwood.com | M-F 9-6, Sat & Sun 10-3

buy it now: sevendaysvt.com/store

2V-Merch030817.indd 1

NEST SPRING 2020

19

3/7/17 4:20 PM

BUYING A HOME IS A BIG DEAL. WE SHOULD KNOW. WE’RE YOUR NEIGHBORS. Whether you’re buying, building, or refinancing, Vermont Federal is your trusted partner in accomplishing your home ownership goals. Our experienced Mortgage Originators are here to help you every step of the way.

Fixed Rate Mortgages

Adjustable Rate Mortgages

VHFA Mortgages

VA Mortgages

INSURED BY NCUA NMLS Institutional ID #466013

Untitled-65 1

vermontfederal.org | 888.252.02020

2/27/20 12:11 PM