Question: Can a stunning, light-filled home also be environmentally friendly and super healthy to live in? Answer: The Dahlstrom home on Long Lake. Enjoy the sneak peek of the home below, and see the rest of it on the Northern Home & Cottage 2020 Virtual Tour on October 30.

With its hip roof, overhanging eaves and stone-and-timber exterior, Rick and Kate Dahlstrom’s home looks as though it could have been built near the beginning of the last century, during the Prairie- style movement of architecture. Behind all of that gracious style, however, are some cutting-edge green building techniques.

A green, health-conscious home was the single most important item on the Dahlstroms’ wish list when they planned the home, says Kate, who credits Mapleridge Construction with getting the message: “They were very knowledgeable and open to working with what we wanted.”

Among the green products used in the home is a highly energy-efficient fully-adhered house wrap (versus the stapled-on type) that really keeps out ice and water. Layered on top of that is two inches of rigid foam insulation. All that snugness is finished off with a combination of spray foam insulation and blown cellulose insulation. “It’s likely double the energy efficiency of an average home,” says Karl Hitchcock, project manager for Mapleridge Construction.

While the home has air conditioning, the homeowners only plan to use it in exceptional humidity, relying instead on a number of ceiling fans and the cross ventilation from four sliding glass doors in the living room and one 12-foot slider that opens up to 6 feet wide in the adjacent dining room.

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Photo by Speckman Photography

Of course, all those sliding glass doors mean light pours into the great room, making it anything but the heavy, dark spaces that traditional Prairie-style homes tend to be. And whether the doors are open or not, you’ll breathe easy in this home with its sustainable and low-VOC products: carpet, hickory flooring, paint, stain and polyurethane. Rick and Kate are particularly grateful to Elite Custom Painting, who did the painting and staining, because they “bent over backward to use zero- to low-VOC products.”

While that might all read a little like broccoli, this home doesn’t lack for Hollandaise sauce—so to speak!—it includes a gorgeous sunroom, a loft with a balcony overlooking the lake, numerous live-edged shelves and walls, many made from wood felled from the property, and a to-die-for wine room.

Meet the Dahlstroms and the Mapleridge team as they tour you through this beautiful home on our Northern Home & Cottage 2020 Virtual Tour.

Thank You to Our Presenting Partner, Golden Fowler Home Furnishings

Photo(s) by Speckman Photography