One feature Mr. Konkol couldn't have: an open fireplace, because the chimney would require a hole in the thermally sealed house.

WSJ: Green Goes Mainstream for New Homes��WSJ Mansion

In the living room, walls constructed from a modern version of tabby a 17th-century concrete studded with oyster shells surround a fireplace, while upstairs, glass walkways open up onto what would otherwise be cloistered hallways.

WSJ: The House That Gucci Built

Deep into the autumn, every package or can I open takes me back to conversations around the cookhouse's huge stone fireplace, to wind rustling through alders, and sun-spangled blue-green water, to the promise of adventure every morning.

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