Because if you love nature and you love views, you also probably naturally want to protect nature, too.”
Bob Taylor
Homeowner
For more about this project, including how a trip to the Marvin brand experience center helped the Taylors solidify their window and door design choices, how reclaimed stained glass was able to be included in their home, and how living embedded in such a natural setting inspires a sense of awe, take a look at this case study video.
Case Study Video
Case Study Video Transcript
Sandra Taylor, Homeowner: Once I started observing birds, it just opens up a whole new world. You realize what diversity there is, what variety there is, and you begin to learn about their behaviors and their amazing intelligence and how isolated sometimes we become when we live just in our indoor worlds, and we don't get outside.
Dave Steward, Home Designer: We're in Albany, Vermont. It's in the northeastern corner of the state. When you drive through this part of Vermont, you will see a lot of farming going on, a lot of forestry going on, a sparse population, but beautiful scenery.
Ed Madison, General Contractor, Torra LLC: What was here originally was an extremely old house that was falling in.
Steward: Ed got the old house torn down and created a blank canvas.
Sandra: I wanted something that looked Vermont and was a nod to contemporary farmhouse and just would sit nestled in the property and feel just like part of nature.
Steward: The goal was to have a formal entryway that then would come into this living room where there's kind of the wow factor of there's a lot of glass on each side of the room, capturing the view, capturing the woods behind the house. This is kind of the focal gathering point.
Sandra: We wanted a home that would give us views. We wanted windows that would bring the views in the house, but we wanted to make sure that the exterior. And also, the interior gave nods to the environment and the nature around us.
Bob Taylor, Homeowner: On this property, there's deer, there's bear, there's moose, there's bobcats, all kinds of birds, and we've really gotten into birding over the last six or seven years, and that's kind of led us to finding out about the Marvin bird-friendly glass windows.
Sandra: There's a protective film within the windows that has a UV design, and birds are very sensitive to the UV design. In regular glass, it's the transparency and the reflective quality of the glass because it will reflect the woods or the sky, that's what causes them to strike the windows. When they see that UV film, then they're able to fly away at the last minute.
Seward: The best way to describe it is it looks like a piece of crinkled up cellophane. When you sit and look in the window or out the window, it looks like a normal window.
Bob: What was great about the Marvin bird glass was that we could have big windows, which we've always loved.
What was great about the Marvin bird glass was that we could have big windows, which we've always loved.”
Bob Taylor
Homeowner
Sandra: When we started talking windows, Dave recommended going to [Marvin at] 7 Tide.
Seward: I knew it would have all the latest bells and whistles, and they could look at exterior finishes, interior finishes, hardware. That was a big factor.
Sandra: It was wonderful. I mean, it was such a different experience than I'd had in our other build projects, because you could see the windows in application, which really helps in the visualization process.
Seward: The windows and exterior doors that were used in this project were the Marvin Ultimate collection, and all of the interior doors were TruStile doors. The design flexibility with the Ultimate line is you can think up anything, and they'll try to figure out how to make it.
Madison: When we tore down all of the old, dilapidated buildings, some of those windows were stained glass, so what we did is we took those, and literally, Marvin custom built our windows to receive the recycled stained glass.
Seward: Using Marvin and TruStile, you can be creative; you can think outside the box. These products help fulfill your vision because it helps fulfill the customer's vision.
Bob: When we go hiking in the mountains or in the forest here, we love the views, but then if you just get off the trail, and you just stop, and you can see these amazing birds, it makes the hike that much more special.
Sandra: Nature is so connected. To witness it and to become a part of it really inspires a sense of awe.
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