December 16th, 2008

New FreeGreen House Model: The Comfortable Cape

Posted by Jessica Jensen

One of the biggest complaints I hear from folks who visit Low Impact Living is, “I want a green house but I don’t want an ultra-modern, Jetson’s house.”  (Okay maybe I editorialized the Jetson’s part….but the rest is true.)  Not all fans of green building are into steel bars and sheets of glass and industrial aesthetics.

So I’m very happy to have found out about the new Comfortable Cape model from FreeGreen.  This house is sure to please even the most traditional among us.  Can you smell the salt air? Have a sudden craving for clam chowder? Now you can have a cutting-edge green home that is warm and cozy, too.

The Comfortable Cape is the second home FreeGreen is releasing based on SIPS.  What is a SIP you ask? A SIP is a Structural Insulated Panel, and it is a leading green building material and technique.  SIPs are generally made with some kind of foam interior and hard siding, creating a sandwich material. These panels give excellent durability and insulating properties to a building. Thus they are very energy-efficient, and also cut down on the use of wood for framing. 

If this Cape model is too traditional for your tastes, FreeGreen has many other models on the more modern side of life — like a suburban loft and a Smart Box model (pictured at right).  You can see the other FreeGreen home plans here.

I’ve written about FreeGreen before – this is a new, innovative company that is giving away green home plans.  You don’t need an expensive architect; you just join FreeGreen and download the house plans.  You can customize them to your desired number of bedrooms, baths, and pick the green features you want, including geothermal, a green roof, radiant heat and much more. It’s a really slick service that brings green homes to us folks who can’t afford a custom green dream home.

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