The great thing about a house with lot of glass, is that there are always incredible views, your interior and exterior spaces seem to blend seamlessly. The bad thing about a house with a lot of glass, everyone else has that same view, except they’re looking in. Largely this isn’t an issue for use with our blinds and the natural surroundings blocking most of the sight lines into our house. However, our front door seems to be the one exception. The clear view doors provide us little privacy from the frequent passerby and seem to attract the hands and faces of the neighborhood kids like moths to a light. Because the door way is positioned in main artery of our house there never any quick Saturday morning strolls to the kitchen, in any thing less than your full days attire and your best styled hair, without the risk of showing more than you wish to share of yourself to your neighbors—not that this is something that has even happened to me. With that said it has become clear that if wanted to give ourselves a little more privacy we need to do something with our front door.

We love the natural light that the two big panes of glass bring into the center of our house but we need a way to give ourselves a little more privacy. The solution was to apply a thin layer of frosted film over the windows of the doors, but  this would then keep up us from seeing out the front door as well. Our solution was a simple one. We cut the thin film to the proper size of the window holding it down from the top of the top so that it was 5′ from the floor. We then added a second strip to each window about two inches above the first that went up the rest of the way to the top of the window. This gave us a 2 inch swath across the center of the window that provided us a view out to the street, while preventing any potential passerby from an unobstructed view inside. Not only was this a highly functional solution but it has a really nice aesthetic appeal as well—problem solved, and it only cost about $14.

The film went on easily using soapy water and a squeegee.

Most importantly, the views inside the house at night are now blocked.

The exterior of the house fits well with the natural surroundings of the lot.
photo courtesy of Jeff Gallo.

The interior of the house has an open floor plan, giving it a greater sense of size.
photo courtesy of Jeff Gallo.

This rendering of the site shows the integration of the landscaping and structure.
Although there seems to be a growing rise of green friendly modern homes going up across the country, few can claim to be as remarkable as the the Twin Cities own 5ive house. The project is the brainchild of Jeff and Salena Gallo, who after taking a tour of one modern modular home, set themselves out on a course to building what would become Minnesota’s first LEED certified platinum home.

The Gallo’s were not your typical couple entering into the process of building their first new home. They began with the decision to build something modern and environmentally friendly well before it had become all the rage. In 2005 the LEED for home program was just in its infancy stage, but the Gallo’s signed on to be pioneers in the program. They made a conscious effort to look for an architectural partner who shared their same set of values and vision, while being mindful of their budget when designing their new home. After a long thorough process, they settled on Minneapolis Based architectural firm Shelter Architecture. The project and the partnership would prove to be a fruitful one for both parties.

Green from start to finish.
Jeff and Selena had purchased a lot on Minneapolis’ west side that was occupied by a home in disrepair. The lot was cleared of the old structure, but Jeff and Salena made sure that everything that could be saved or recycled, was (about 60% of the old structure was recycled). They then began to break ground on what would come to be known as the 5ive house. The Project would include a variety of alternative materials and building practices both inside and out, all geared toward a green friendly building. Like many green projects, the 5ive house had a focus on making sure the building envelope was as energy efficient as possible. This included pre-cast Thermomass® walls with an R-31 rating, and Energy Star windows and doors. Additionally, they made the exterior elements of he house work for them as well. This included a landscaping plan that was for prairie restoration, a 93% permeable site and rainwater harvesting and irrigation systems.

On the inside of the house the green theme continued. Highly efficiency faucets and toilets, that use a fraction of the water of most household fixtures. A 97% efficient hot water heater was put in, and Jeff and Salena were conscious to select Energy Star Appliances and lighting fixtures. Even cosmetic elements such as countertops, paint, window treatments and even plumbing were selected for their No or low-VOC (Volatile organic compound) ratings, helping to ensure that the homes indoor air quality lived up to the houses environmentally healthy image.

As Minnesota’s first LEED certified residential project and a winner of the Minnesota RAVE award 2008, the 5ive house has also become an incredible resource for other people, including home owners and architects, looking to do the same on their projects. Just another way that this house has had an impact on our future environment.

By the numbers
R-31 insulated walls
R-60 roof
75% drought tolerant landscaping
93% permeable landscape Over 40% construction waste recycled
Over 60% of of land clearing waste recycled
16 SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) cooling
9 AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) heating

I have to say that one of the coolest things in our house is our downstairs fireplace with it’s Walker Art Center exterior panels as the surround. It’s still probably my favorite thing in our house, and it’s impact upon entering is so powerful that it has drawn us to almost utter paralysis when it came to deciding on how to treat out upstairs fireplace. It’s not that we didn’t have a few ideas we had tossed around but we wanted to do something that would not only look great and rival the downstairs fireplace but wouldn’t break the bank in doing so.

Our downstairs living space has definitely taken on a more sleek look with the concrete floors and the sheen of the silver paneled fireplace. However the upstairs has a slightly earthier and a bit more mid-century modern in feel. We needed something that showcased the fireplace and complemented the space in general. So when Stacy came up with the a modular panel system that would mimic the exterior siding and utilize some inexpensive materials, but look really cool, I was all in.

The first thing we did was paint the entire wall a charcoal gray (using some paint we already had). Then we took three sheets of Walnut plywood that we purchased as a special order item at Menards (it took us about 2 days to receive the item and cost us about $380). Our next thing was to decided on the style of fasteners we would use, we wanted something discrete but refined. We settled on some 2.5″ cabinet hanging screws with a crowned head in black ($5). Then using Stacy’s design we made a series of strategic cuts to the wood to optimize the sheet size. I recommend getting a really good finish blade for both your table saw or skill saw. If you’re using a skill saw make sure to clamp a straight guide down for your saw to follow so you can get a smooth even cut. Whichever tool you decide to use, make sure to apply tape before you cut, this will keep the edges of the plywood from splintering.

After we had made our cuts we made some measurements to ensure we knew where our studs in the wall were and then we pre-attached the screws to the sheet before we put it into place. Using a 1″ spacer (we made from a scrap piece of plywood) we quickly attached the pieces to the wall. To finish the wood, Stacy went over it with a coat of a Danish oil (about $7) The Danish oil isn’t really that great smelling so make sure to open up a lot of windows and turn on some fans to keep the air quality in the house from becoming toxic.

With all the panels up we’ve decided to paint the center band of the fireplace and wall with a coat of black paint ($8) to make it visually read as one with the fireplace. We also picked up some black electrical plugs and face plates that will keep the white switches and plugs from being a visual distraction.

In total the project cost use just over $400 to cover the 11′ by 8′ wall with what I think is a really sophisticated, sort of mid-century modern design. The wall itself no longer looks like an after thought but rather has become the focal point of the space and really commands a lot presence.

The fireplace look sort a bit removed from the rest of the space and a bit underwhelming in size.

The plywood brought a sense of depth and scale into the room.

We used modest sized fasteners to attach the panels to the wall and left a 1″ space between sections.

Stacy applied a Danish Oil to the surface to bring out the color.

The almost finished project. We still touch up some paint, replace the white outlets with black and paint the center ban to more closely match the color of the firebox itself. With that said I think it looks great!

UPDATE.

The black paint unifies the middle band.