WNCGBC Hosts 3rd Annual CiderFest NC
The WNC Green Building Council will be hosting the 3rd Annual CiderFest NC in November. This premier cider tasting event will feature local food, live music and, of course, great ciders. The festival will be held at the WNC Farmers Market – 570 Brevard Rd., on Saturday, November 7th from 1 – 5 PM. This year more than twenty cider makers from throughout the region and beyond will be serving up their tasty ciders, as well as two local mead makers. To compliment the cider, a Chef’s Station will be serving small plates with apples and hard ciders as the featured ingredients. Local
Creating balance between a fireplace and television
A challenge that often occurs while designing a house is how to balance both a television and fireplace in the same space. Televisions can be an eye sore when it comes to design, and having both can create competing focus in a room. A multi-functional gathering space that fosters both entertaining and relaxation, with or without the TV or fireplace on, is important to many homeowners, so finding a harmonious arrangement requires thoughtful design. Above: Town Mountain Residence Sometimes the easiest solution is to place a television above the fireplace. The concern with this placement is that the television becomes the focus
Green Building Directory Features Samsel Project
The 2015 WNC Green Building Directory hit newsstands recently and features an article about tree preservation during construction written by Samsel’s own Margaret Chandler. The inspiration for this article was one of our recently completed renovations to an existing home from the 1920s. The biggest challenge with this project was preserving a massive white oak tree on the property. The owners wanted a kitchen expansion but the oak tree sat only 5 feet from the kitchen window. The tree’s presence is the site’s main feature, with a canopy 100 feet in diameter and a trunk 6 feet at its widest, and