The Ark
We visited the open house at the Ark houses on Martin Luther King on Sunday.
I was surprised that:
- The two houses don’t seem too close when you are inside them.
- The floor is heated with water flowing past the solar panels on the roof, quite warm to the tootsies.
- The house can very easily be off the grid for most of the year, with the solar panels, angle of the roof against the windows, and air flow.
- The bottom level could easily be free-standing and rented out to help with the mortgage payment.
- Very few trees were cut down on the lot, with the small footprint of the house and building materials.
- The walls are well-insulated, made out of something that looks like styrofoam encased in two pieces of drywall.
6 Comments to The Ark
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I was most impressed with the general design of the house. With the steel framing, the top floor was constructed, then the middle, and then the bottom floor hangs from the middle. The design website says that the houses can withstand twelve feet of floodwaters without damage. Oh, and also - because the footprint is so small, they can build on otherwise unusable lots! How cool.
so I’ve driven by those houses a number of times– I’m still trying to figure them out, though: Are these model homes available for you to contract similar homes elsewhere? Are these just a mini, 2 house, green development?
Also, is there a website? I’ve googled a couple different things, but can’t seem to find anything….
thanks
I can’t think of the direct website, but if Google the address, it should be the first or second result:
1309 Martin Luther King 27707
oops. If *you* Google… doi.
http://1309martinlutherkingparkway.com/
more later!
James, from what I can tell, Mr. Ledbetter has designed and built several homes, and there is a cluster of them in that area of Martin Luther King Pkwy. You might have also passed the one on the corner of Dixon and MLK. The two homes in The Ark are definitely for sale (see link above) but it did appear you could contract to have one built similarly… custom-built.