Let's say that you’re an elderly widower plotting to transform you Key West colored Victorian into a makeshift airship with the help of thousands of helium balloons so that you can travel to South America. It’s probably best that you install some serious windows, am I right?

 

Right. The crew at Bangerter Homes, the Utah-based custom-builder responsible for erecting a meticulous, non-floating replica of the airborne home featured in the 2009 Disney/Pixar film “Up” and subsequently generating a mini-tourism boom in the Salt Lake City suburb of Harriman, very well could have had more fanciful building details than windows on the brain during the development and construction of this 2,800-square foot fantasy house/anniversary photoshoot set.

 

But as those of you familiar with the Harriman “Up” house may already know, it’s not just a façade, prop, or Pixar publicity stunt (very interesting back story on how exactly Bangerter actually got the heads-up from Disney to build the reproduction here). It’s an actual four-bedroom home and on the market for $400,000 (I have a slight hunch that the eventual owner just might tone down those blaring sherbet colors). That said, although the home is based on a floating fantasy home (this National Geographic reproduction really did float), practical, real world building methods/materials were needed to make the home sellable. And that included energy-efficient windows.

The windows, like the home itself, are pretty special: they’re from the LEED- and EnergyStar-compliant Andersen 100 Series with frames made partially from Fibrex, a composite material composed of reclaimed sawdust that’s generated during manufacturing operations at Andersen’s factories. In total, the insulating, rot- and decay-resistant frames are made from 40 percent pre-consumer recycled material. Additionally, the glass itself is partially recycled (about 12 percent) and is of the super energy-efficient low-E variety. And although the windows also help reduce VOC emissions because they don’t require preservative treatments or painting, the Bangerter team was attracted to them because they could paint the exterior crazy colors without losing the warranty.

 

It’s unclear if, in addition to the Andersen 100 Series windows, the home boasts any other environmentally friendly specs as Bangerter focused heavily on the retro-styled interior and other cutsey 50s-era touches as to stay faithful to the "Up" vibe (I’ll update this post if I find out more). One things for sure: because of its car-dependent location, the home's future inhabitants may need to invest in a couple hundred helium balloons to get around if they plan on leaving the car in the garage.