Manhattan River Property
“Working with Penny has been great! This was NOT an easy project! We had an old pole-barn on the property that we thought was going to be a teardown, but she managed to shore it up structurally and it became a great guesthouse and workshop. It also gave us an opportunity to ‘try out’ materials we were considering for the main house, plus learn more about Penny’s working style and her tradesmen. Then we tackled building the main house. She sorted out County building regulations, floodplain regulations, how to get around old rickety bridges with heavy construction equipment….. just to name a few real obstacles! She figured out the best site placement and the house is flooded with natural light, but never gets overheated by the sun. Her passive solar knowledge is excellent!
We had a limited budget as the area around is very much mixed-use and we certainly didn’t want to ‘overbuild’ and between her, her vendors, searching on-line for some items, and a great combination of splurge and thrift, we pretty much came in on budget! The whole house is built from SIPs which is comparable to traditional framing and makes it incredibly energy-efficient. We were able to use a line of cabinets that were very affordable and still looked like a million bucks, in order to make a great Chef’s Kitchen. By keeping the countertops the same throughout the house, we were able to get a much better deal on the Quartz slabs, plus it creates a nice consistency and simple and elegant design throughout the home. We ended up with these fantastic Beetle Kill floors from a Montana company that look great, plus we had enough floorboards left over for her carpenter to create fantastic barn doors! He also built the (secret!) bookcase doors that enable us to access the storage spaces under the barn-roof eaves. Genius! We used reclaimed beams where we could which really added to the atmosphere of the house. Overall, we are so happy in our little piece of paradise and can’t believe we managed to get so lucky! If I were to build another house, I’d hire her again in a heartbeat!”
Eric & Jannet Borrmann
