Keith Gerstenmaier is the guy you want on your team if youre thinking of giving your house a major facelift. Just look at the before and after photos to see what he did to his own home -- by himself and on weekends.
Keith is a builder -- but not your run-of-the-mill builder. Hes an artist. At least, thats how he started off in college. He began as an art major, then switched to marketing. Luckily he figured out early on that sitting behind a desk was not for him. I painted my way through college and kept painting while I looked for a real job, but that was in the early 80s and there were no real jobs back then a bit like now, he says, laughing. It wasnt long before clients were asking him to do a little carpentry here and there and before he knew it he was building additions and doing renovations.
Today, Keiths business, Coger LLC, specializes in high-end additions, primarily in Westport, Weston, Wilton and the surrounding towns. I love working out the details of a design, making sure we build exactly as the architect has planned, he says. If the details arent precise, the end result wont look right.
Keith has been paying a lot of attention recently to the special details that go into green design. When I started learning the science behind green design I realized that Id been building this way for a while. One of the most important aspects of environmental design is energy conservation, he explains. When applied to a home construction that means making sure the envelope of the house is nice and tight. The new foam or cellulose insulations are far superior to traditional fiberglass batting, and low-e windows are so efficient that theyll keep out even the coldest winter wind. The exciting thing is that there are new, more efficient products coming out all the time, Keith adds.
Hes included quite a few green features into the renovation of his own house -- of course the efficient insulation, windows and a new HVAC system - but what has him really excited is the Moroccan lime plaster he used in the master bathroom. My wife and I just didnt want tiles, it was too boring, so I did some research and found that Tadelakt (Moroccan for a caress) is huge out in California, he went on. The lime plaster is coated with a black soap made with olives and after several treatments it becomes totally waterproof. It looks fabulous and is all natural, so we have an ultra-green bathroom.
Keith Gerstenmaier can be reached at [email protected]. Or take a look at his Coger website.
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