Living on the Edge

Written by Trish Donnally Photography by Morgan Howarth

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When Jen and Dave Pugh were house hunting last spring, they found a serene new Arts and Crafts residence with mature beech and tulip poplar trees on a hill overlooking Sligo Creek and the trail beside it. As they walked through the house, the couple felt at home knowing their Mission-style furniture would complement it beautifully.

What they didn’t know was that Alan Abrams, a certified professional building designer and owner of Abrams Design Build LLC, had carefully constructed this house with sustainable principles in mind. The Pughs moved here from Detroit, MI when Dave, 46, became president market manager of Washington and Baltimore for Clear Channel Communications Inc. Eco-friendly houses aren’t particularly prevalent in Detroit, so to find a home with three bedrooms, quarter sawn red oak floors, a two-car garage, and a screened-in porch within minutes from downtown Silver Spring plus low VOC paints, passive solar heating, cork flooring, and windows with rain sensors came as a big bonus.

Rain Gardens

As he designed the house, Abrams, 57, tried to minimize the impact on the wooded site and manage the runoff so it wouldn’t contribute to the erosion of the watershed. “I wanted the house to sit gently but firmly on the site,” he says. “There’s a radical slope in the back. We were sensitive to the ecosystem, we wanted to protect it. None of our runoff leaves the site.”

For example, Abrams, who was also the general contractor on this project, used porous material in the driveway. He laid common brick pavers in a basket weave pattern over 10” of crushed stone, which absorbs rainwater rather than sending it down the hill to Sligo Creek.

“Every downspout leads to an interceptor and rain gardens,” Abrams explains. Paul Crumrine, owner of Watershed Landscapes Inc., designed rock cavities filled with crushed concrete rubble the size of softballs to intercept water as it’s discharged from downspouts. Water sits in the gaps between the chunks of concrete, then percolates into the ground. Rain gardens, which include native plants, are designed to work like sponges to hold moisture. They often consist of sand, compost, and a little soil with shallow depressions in the center to collect rain, snowmelt, and runoff from roofs. Crumrine thoughtfully integrated several rain gardens into this property.

Fresh Air

Abrams also designed with passive solar heating and cooling in mind. For instance, he integrated large windows that provide natural lighting. Protective overhangs minimize the heat gain these windows produce in the summer.

He also designed a wonderful screened-in porch across the wooded back of the house that provides a pleasant view of Sligo Creek and helps with passive cooling. The stairwell that leads down to the porch also leads up to the second floor of the house with a 17’ high Velux skylight at the top.

“We operate the windows on the skylight by remote control. We can leave the windows open for fresh air and if it starts to rain, they automatically close,” Jen Pugh, 38, says.

Since heat tends to accumulate at the highest point in a house, the stairwell forms a shaft with the mechanized skylight at the top. “There’s a chimney effect,” Abrams says, “the skylight draws cool air from the porch or from any window you open from any direction and creates a thermosiphon, which is a natural cooling process.”

The house is also insulated with Gaco Western green sprayed-in-place polyurethane foam insulation, which seals up the framing cavities and prevents infiltration of cold air in winter and warm air in summer. “In each case, it prevents water vapor from condensing in the wall cavity, thus preventing mold growth,” Abrams says. He prefers sprayed-in-place foam insulation to fiberglass insulation, which he says may be hazardous and doesn’t fill in around pipes and wires as well.

Low Energy Bills

The Heat/Energy Recovery Ventilator (HERV) by Lifebreath is among the energy efficient features in the Pugh house. “The HERV system is the mechanical equivalent of having an open window. This takes in fresh air in the winter and warms it up before it enters the house,” Abrams says. “It takes the heat out of stale air before it returns it to the outside, it manages humidity, and it allows you the fresh air you’d get in winter without opening a window.” Plus, it keeps the heating bill to $120 a month maximum, he adds.

Dave, appreciating the many green aspects of his home, says, “Everything’s so functional and usable here.”

Warmth Underfoot

The kitchen, an open and inviting space, features maple cabinets, black soapstone countertops, and cork flooring. “We used a floating cork floor because cork is a rapidly renewable resource, it’s very comfortable, warm underfoot, and resilient,” Abrams says. The kitchen flows into the dining room, which flows into the living room.

Sitting in the living room is almost like being in a tree house. Tall and majestic beech and tulip poplars behind the residence are framed by a large bay window in the living room that has five windows across and two on the sides. “We feel like we’re in the woods, and we’re only nine miles from the White House,” Dave says in amazement.

Favorite Spaces

“I love this room because the sun just comes pouring in,” Jen, a mixed media artist, says of her studio. She embellishes guitars with mosaics using a combination of smalti glass, stained glass, millefiori beads, and semi-precious stones.

Dave’s favorite space in the house is the screened-in porch below the living room.

“It’s like a little cabin down there,” he says. “It’s the ultimate place to spend a summer Sunday morning, drinking coffee, reading the paper, and listening to music. It’s so relaxing.”