Fall Colors is about a special place in the USA where the leaves of trees make a spectacular display every fall in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.
As the above image shot about 10 minutes ago (10-24-2019) illustrates, the leaves are about 25% turned to vibrant reds, yellows, golds and oranges, from their green typical color.
This particular view is from the HOME ARCHITECTS Senior Staff Architect’s own family home in Sapphire, NC, out beyond the meadow, facing south. Rand Soellner, ArCH/NCARB, believes the big color push is going to appear the last week in October through the first week in November.
“This is why my clients want my company to design mountain houses for them,” said Soellner, “this is what living in the mountains is all about.” The incredible views. Especially now, during the “Leaf Season”, when the trees turn their kaleidoscopic range of of colors.
BIG GLASS AREAS FOCUSED ON THE GREAT MOUNTAIN VIEWS
This Architect designs houses with HUGE glass walls, larger than billboards, using economical methods, materials and systems to retain structural wind safety while affording giant views of the mountains. About 90% of this view wall is glass. And this house’s average monthly power bill is only around $125 to $150. That’s having your cake and eating it too. This Architect knows how to specify insulating glass that’s a higher value than most, and how to insulate the walls, floors and ceiling/roof to result in a tighter structure with higher insulation values.
And just to be clear: achieving this much glass for your views in a house (or any kind of structure) is a significant achievement. The wind load here is 110MPH, however, this solution has been used by this Architect in other locations up to 140MPH. Not many people designing houses these days know how to do this. They might say you have to have more wall. The difference is in know-how, as a result of experience over 52 years of practice. The point being: not everyone who designs a house knows how to achieve this large of a glass area. Which, unfortunately, is why so many mountain houses are a disappointment: they don’t have any where near this much glass. To this Architect, that borders on criminal. “God gave us these great views: let’s do everything we can to open up the house to see them.” And isn’t it interesting that even with all this glass, this house still has award-winning energy efficiency. Know-how.
Contact the Architect to have a special mountain house designed for you, too. Press this word: CONTACT