ERTA in the News: Cape Cod Home, Winter 2022
Fulfilling our clients’ needs and wishes is always, unequivocally, our goal when designing a home. Seeing the looks on the faces of the families we work with as their dream house begins to take shape is an incredibly rewarding experience that reaches its crescendo when they move in. Having that home then featured in a publication adds another touch of satisfaction, for both our clients and our team.
Most recently, one of our projects was featured in Cape Cod Home. The writer, Susanna Graham-Pye, did a wonderful job of not only detailing the home, but also exploring the origins of the modern house.
From Cape Cod Home:
Early modern farmhouses found their way out of farm country into America’s subdivision landscapes thanks to the Modern Home Sears Roebuck & Co. sold through their catalog—a mail order that made the American dream come true for tens of thousands—some estimates say as many 70,000— American families. The Modern Farmhouse, available from Sears from around 1910 to 1930, featured many of the design elements associated with today’s modern farmhouse style, porches, front and back, a gabled facade.
From Cape Cod Home:
What the homeowners wanted was right up Tolley’s alley. Tolley says, “It would be fair to say my designs are very traditional. The homeowner gave me free range with the design. So, what they were after, fit perfectly with what I like to do. We have the white trim, the columns and porches, cedar shakes, stone accents. We used fieldstone in the chimney to tie in with the landscape. I think we have achieved the farmhouse look.”
From Cape Cod Home:
“Many people want something traditional on the outside, whether the house itself is simple or grand, there’s a traditional look. But the things they want on the inside are different from that traditional home that used to have small rooms, each with certain uses. Today people want wide open lives centered around kids and gatherings. I think that’s very typically my design—traditional Cape Cod vernacular on the outside, a contemporary flair inside,” [says Tolley].
