Plains Farmhouse

Brian and his family bought thirty-five acres way out east of Colorado Springs, to be close to work. It’s open prairie out there, with Pikes Peak on the horizon.

“It’s super windy out there,” Andy says. “Always.”

On ground like that, a house has to be tight. They asked for a well-insulated home that holds its temperature whatever is blowing across the plains, and that’s what we built. The sun and the ground do most of the rest: a ground-mount solar array, and a geothermal system that heats and cools the house.

They wanted a farmhouse feel, and the outside says it — a long front porch with room for a hammock, metal roofs, and a red barn of a garage.

They’re thrilled with how it turned out.