A compact, eco-friendly house and three (not so small) pigs

This is the story of two athletes who formed an emotional bond as they cycled and trained a house near the coast of Maine. They built a small, energy-efficient house northwest of Camden that’s comfortable all year round: in the cold, rainy or buggy seasons. It has everything.

It is also the story of three not so little pigs who dedicate themselves to grazing in their field. We will reach them.

Didier Bonner-Ganter and Nathalie Nopakun They met seven years ago while participating in the Cadillac Challenge, an annual bike ride through Acadia National Park. Nopakun lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked as a compliance officer for a Medicaid/Medicare plan, while Bonner-Ganter was a forester and arborist in Maine’s Midcoast region.

“It was one of those things,” Nopakun says, as if he were a feminine, athletic Cole Porter. “We were totally attracted to each other. We exchanged a lot of ideas about where to move, because we’re big.” (She is now 47 and he is 53.)

He added: “It’s not like we were going to start a family or anything like that.”

But Bonner-Ganter had a long-standing business in Maine, which Nopakun joined during the pandemic after an unhappy period of remote work in her position.

“I was exhausted, so I begged and pleaded and finally he accepted me,” she explained.

Although the standard property in coastal Maine is an old farmhouse, the couple didn’t want something large and drafty that needed constant maintenance. Instead, They bought a piece of wooded land From

10 hectares near a pond and a series of hills, and They deforested less than one hectare to build a house and a barn, with the idea of ​​converting the area into pasture.

Build his house of 110 m2 and two bedrooms, They hired GOLogic, from the nearby city of Belfast (Maine). This company is a pioneer in the construction of passive houses, in which buildings They are positioned and sealed to take advantage of the sun’s heat (or lack thereof), making them less dependent on mechanical heating and cooling.

GO Logic achieves energy efficiency with prefabricated insulation panels that come together to create an airtight envelope. The panels incorporate high-performance doors and large triple-glazed windows from Germany that let in plenty of sunlight. The houses are equipped with a ventilation system that recovers 90% of the heat and 50% of the humidity in the air which is expelled outside.

As a result, the couple’s home, completed in June 2023, uses around 20% of the energy consumed for heating a conventional home, and this without solar collectorssomething they plan to add later.

“It makes much more sense to upgrade the envelope before using any kind of renewable energy,” explained Alan Gibson, co-founder of GO Logic and a board member of Phius, a nonprofit that certifies passive houses. “If you have a super insulated house and the power goes out in the winter – which happens quite frequently here – you’ll be fine.”

The construction contract amount for Bonner-Ganter and Nopakun’s home was just over $600,000, including $40,000 in land work. Upgrades, such as a wood stove, kitchen cabinets, high-end countertops and bathroom tile, and some built-ins, totaled about $35,000.

“We are evaluating the project in fall 2021,” Gibson explained. “If we were to do it again today, I think the cost would be closer to $675,000.”

Nopakun said: “We wanted to be very careful about the materials in the house and choose things that were as sustainable as possible. As we are arborists, We didn’t want anything laminated. “We wanted real wood.”

The exterior cladding is made of pine, while the internal window frames, kitchen cabinets and floating shelves are made of maple.

Black pine tar on the outside creates the charred wood effect of Japanese ban shou sugi at a reduced price. Furthermore, it offers natural and simple maintenance, with protection from ultraviolet rays and humidity.

“If we had painted, we would have to repaint at some point,” Bonner-Ganter explained. “Now all we have to do is touch up if necessary.”

Likewise, standing seam metal roofing was seen as justifying the luxury of installing it and then forgetting about it for many, many years.

Three little pigs

Now: the pigs.

Called Wilson, Wanda and Da Vinci, and come from a New Zealand breed called Kunekune. They weigh about 90 pounds each and are largely vegetarian, which means that They graze in the field surrounding the house but they are thoughtful enough not to disturb the land.

In addition to grass, pet pigs they eat fruits and vegetables which a local rural company exchanges for wood waste from the couple’s farm and uses to heat the greenhouses in winter.

“These guys are super down to earth,” Bonner-Ganter says. “No need to worry about taking them for a walk. There is no need to let them out. “It’s a low-carbon way to maintain an open countryside and our vision.”