‘Green’ mountain luxury living
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"We're trying to mix traditional alpine architecture with contemporary architecture," 4240 associate architect Brian Weber says. "We want the (homes) to feel as part of a community with elements of unity, but each one is going to have to be different."
But the heart of the project is its guts: walls made of Cempo, a mix of Portland cement and recycled polystyrene that adds up to an R50 insulator; a heat recovery-ventilation system that uses an underground geothermal ground loop to enhance its HEPA filtering; a gray water system that recycles about 30 percent of the water from tubs, sinks, showers, tubs and washing machines and sends it back to the home's toilets; and lots more green stuff.
One spec home currently is under construction at Caribou Ridge with the possibility of a second. After some trouble finding comparables, an appraiser estimated the home was worth $1.4 million.
All of which brings up a practical question: Who's going to buy it? There have been exceptions, but high-end Nederland homes sell for about $400,000, real estate agents there say.
"Everyone's interested in seeing what happens. There's certainly not too many million-dollar houses on less than five or 10 acres," says Nicholas Brodsky of Nederland's Boulder Mountain Realty.
"That's a lot of money and they are going to have to want to live in a Podunk town like Nederland," says Melody Loar, Realtor with Century 21 Peak Performance Group. She laughed and said, "I've lived here 39 years so I can say that. We're not Aspen. We're never going to be an Aspen."
David Lewis is a freelance writer based in Denver.
Readers Respond
Author: Hey, lighten up about Nederland's quirkyness! Most of the good folks there delight in that, and I disagree that most want the Frozen Dead Guy fest to turn into something "less weird." There's enough normality to go around, and as a culture we all need something entertainingly strange in our lives. We certainly don't need Nederland to turn into a suburban bedroom community for Boulder.
By Paul Hill on 2010 03 30Leave a comment