Home of the Week: Holliston Colonial hailed as standout in green architecture
The home has geothermal heating and cooling, a tight building envelope, sustainable-forest flooring, and solar panels.
80 Mellen St., Holliston
$863,900
Style: Colonial
Year built: 2008
Square feet: 3,027
Bedrooms: 4
Baths: 3 full, 1 half
Sewer/water: Private
Taxes: $12,884 (2020)
This Colonial with its post-and-beam interior might as well be sitting next to a dock: The massive wooden beams look as if they could have been reclaimed from the USS Constitution or another ship from that era of sail.
But this Holliston property well away from the waterfront is a work of a recent vintage (it was completed in 2008) and is designed to incorporate 21-century comforts and energy-saving technology, including solar panels on the detached barn behind the house. The property — which has geothermal heating and cooling, as well as structural insulated panels for an efficient temperature seal — has been awarded an LEED certificate from the US Green Building Council.
The home is on a dead-end near town hiking trails. The driveway fish hooks, traveling past a broad lawn, the home’s covered porch, and the barn before ending in a turnaround. The covered porch, which boasts a brick fireplace, makes the 2.1-acre lot feel intimate.
Double French doors off the covered porch open into a living room entry lined with bookshelves. A windowed door with a natural finish leads to an office where the beams are exposed, including one in a corner that runs floor to ceiling between two windows.
The living room shares an open layout with the kitchen and dining area. Wide-planked pitch pine with a clear sheen covers the floor, and Douglas fir ceiling beams cross planks of the same species. The floors were harvested from Nature Conservancy property in Ossipee, N.H., as part of a sustainable forest management plan.
The family room currently holds a grand piano and a large leather couch — the space is 304 square feet, after all — and a blue door to the rear of the property. Awash in natural light from French doors, the dining area adjoins a living room with a red-brick wood-burning fireplace, built-in bookshelves, a bank of windows, and a French door to the covered porch.
The dining room is open to the kitchen, which features an island that seats three and has a sink and a limestone tile counter with a mahogany border. The appliances are stainless (including the gas stove), the raised-panel cabinets are painted white and have undermounted lighting, pots glisten from a rack that hangs in front of one of two windows in the space, and a seating area affords a place for the cook to chat with guests.
The kitchen connects to a mudroom with built-in cabinetry, two closets, and a door that opens to the rear of the property. There’s a pantry and a laundry room off the mudroom, as well as a full bath with a white claw-foot tub and a carved end table repurposed as a sink. The stylish sink bowl lends a playful pop of color to the space.
A 108-square-foot bedroom with a double-door closet completes this level.
A chandelier of lighted branches casts a glow on the stairs to the second floor, where there is the master suite, two bedrooms, the main full bath, and a study nook.
The master suite is a dramatic space with a white cathedral ceiling and exposed Douglas fir beams. A stained-glass window stands above a trio of windows, and there are two closets. The master bath sits behind two narrow glass doors, and the flooring changes to cork-based linoleum. The bath features a soaking tub with curvy wooden decking, a separate shower with a stone tile surround, a five-drawer dresser repurposed as a vanity, a colorful sink, and a water closet.
The two other bedrooms are nearly identical in size. One has four windows: a bank of three and a round one. The other has three windows. Both have single-door closets, exposed beams, and ceiling fans.
The main bath is two rooms: a half bath with a toilet and a shower-only bath. Each features dressers repurposed as vanities with colorful bowls. The half bath has pine flooring, but the full bath offers cork-based linoleum.
Back out in the hall, a metal corkscrew staircase leads to a 124-square-foot loft currently used an office.
The basement is unfinished, but the barn, which has electricity, offers garage space, a workshop, and storage.
Lynn Rossini of RE/Max Executive Realty in Holliston is the listing agent. As of press time, an offer had been accepted on this property.
Take a video tour of the home.
See more photos of the property below:
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