Project Goals, Mission, Vision

We found this process to be really helpful as it helped us stay focussed on what we really want and allows us to get that across to contractors, subs and other people working for us.

Mission
To renovate our house into a place that is warm and comfortable, efficient in both design and energy usage and that represents who we are. We want to be able to show that a green and efficient home doesn’t need to cost a lot and that small spaces can be just as useful and comfortable as large ones.

Goals
Update our house to utilize energy efficient design and green building techniques including “green” insulation, efficient windows and doors and sealed home including proper air flow.
Utilize efficient space design for living spaces including built-ins
Target budget of $60,000 with a maximum budget of $80,000
Utilize recycled materials that have already been collected: beveled cedar siding, redwood trim, doors, exterior doors, interior trim and baseboard
Try to stay within existing structure with the exception of the addition of a covered porch and a window seat.

House Details: The main living space of our house was built in the 1950’s and is 16’ x 24’ with a 12/12 gabled roof and a “finished” loft upstairs. The current master bedroom (with bath) was built in the 1960’s and is 16’ x 14’ with a 9/12 gabled roof and no true access to the upstairs.

The house is 1 bed/2 bath, approximately 600 sq ft with 200 sq ft of finished space in the loft that is currently used for storage, paperwork/office and as an extra bedroom for guests.

Catalysts For This Project
1. No insulation, yes really, none!
2. Not enough electric outlets, wiring is sketchy.
3. Need more natural light in the house
4. Drafts, we really have outside light coming through the junction of the old house and back bedroom addition. The house needs to be sealed
5. Deck needs to be replaced as it’s falling off the house.
6. Siding job is terrible and incomplete (they forgot to do one side)
7. Dangerous floor heater
8. Need reasonable stairs to the upstairs
9. Need a dishwasher
10. Both bathrooms need to be redesigned and expanded.
11. Kitchen that is difficult to work in.

Necessities as part of renovation/remodel
1) Utilize newly purchased Energy Star Washing Machine and Dryer
2) The brick fireplace that the pellet stove sits on is way too large and takes up too much space in this small house. That should be torn out and something put in that is more in scale to the rest of the house.
3) Energy Star Appliances, full size appliances in the kitchen
4) Need to have a winter entrance as all the snow from the roof dumps in front of the front door. As part of that we need a mudroom or somewhere to dump coats, shoes, packs and all the other stuff that Tahoe people have in their lives.
5) Some way to work in a dining room table whether it’s fold down off the wall or under the counter or a dedicated small table with leaves.
6) Rework the Closet in the bedroom
7) Areas for cat needs, food, litter box, etc.
8) Office/Mail/Computer/paperwork area
9) Area for backpacks, yoga mats, etc.
10) Yoga/exercise space
11) Kitchen design to accommodate bulk foods.
12) Trash/Recycling in cabinet
13) Place for compost collection in kitchen
14) Spice storage
15) Dark area for root veggies
16) Hanging pots/pans
17) Better household storage
18) Well planned “away” storage upstairs
19) Plumbing will need to be redone, sewer line is very short, need a dry water line to the front property line, poor or no insulation so it is susceptible to freezing.
20) Places for plants
21) Bear Box

Really Want to Incorporate to the Project
1) Clawfoot Tub with shower (second bath) - Need a bathtub somewhere and we might as well let Pam live out her lifelong dream of a clawfoot tub.
2) Built-in Bookshelves downstairs
3) Exit out back bedroom to outside patio.
4) Window Seat
5) Hard wiring for generator
6) Planned spaces for speakers with wires pre-run and computer networking system as all our music is currently on the computer.
7) Instant or On Demand Hot Water
8) Shower for two in the master bedroom
9) Glass Block in the bathrooms or other places for more light
10) Outdoor shower
11) Solar Hot Water or Pre-Heat if our sunlight will allow us.
12) In wall vacuum system
13) Wiring for possible future solar PV system (again, if sunlight will allow)

Project Background 2 - Summer 2006 Deconstruction, Recycling and Salvage

Since our project was on hold, we took advantage of an offer to do some deconstruction and materials recycling on a large house that was getting torn down. We spent a good chunk of the summer pulling exterior siding and trim from the house and some miscellaneous interior trim and baseboard. In addition, we moved a 10’ x 12’ shed almost 15 miles from that property to ours.

The siding is beautiful 12” beveled cedar siding. As you can see, the only downfall is the color! We’d love to get it back to natural cedar, but we need to do some research to see if sandblasting (someone has suggested using corn instead of sand) is realistic. If not, we’re going to have to resort to painting it.

The shed has literally changed our life allowing us to store bikes and other gear we had been forced to share our bedroom and living room with for the last few years. The moving project was quite the experience. Thanks to our friend, Scoop, that had a truck and trailer big enough to haul it and was willing to get up early one morning to do the slow drive towing the shed.

While all this deconstruction was going on, our local school was holding a surplus sale. They were in the process of finishing construction on a new middle and high school and were selling off all the interior furnishings from the old schools. We picked up a hodge-podge of stuff from lockers (what a great way to store skis and misc gear) to glass front cabinets. Who knows how or if these will fit into our project, but we went ahead and bought them figuring we’d probably be having a surplus sale of our own after all this was over.

At this point we should say “Thanks!” to our friend, Sue, who has graciously stored all of our building materials in her garage for the last year. We definitely would have had to really pick and choose if it hadn’t been for her loaning us her extra space.

Project Background – Part 1, Background and the First Plan

These first couple posts will basically get you up to date on the history and background of our project and how it evolved. Things are going to start happening in the next week so we want to get some of this background out of the way.

We bought this house approaching 4 years ago. House prices here in Tahoe were climbing and we wanted to get “in the door” before it shut behind us. Let me be clear that this is a REAL, original Tahoe Cabin, not one of those 4000+ sq ft second home “cabins” that people are building and selling up here nowadays. Our house has a footprint of about 600 sq ft with another 200 sq ft of loft/storage above the original house. The original house was built in the 1950’s with the bedroom addition happening sometime in the 1960’s. It’s a 1 bedroom, 2 full baths (yes, really!), a small kitchen and living room and then the loft/storage area on the second floor.

So, after being in the house about 1 1/2 years, we decided that it was time to do something. Prices had climbed to the point that selling this one and buying something else was nearly out of the question. We liked our neighborhood, being a couple blocks from mountain bike trails and a few blocks from downtown Kings Beach and the Lake. After weighing all the pros and cons, we decided to stay where we are and started developing plans for an addition with a remodel of the existing structure. It was during the research for this original project and some green building seminars and tours that really sold us on the whole idea of green and smart building. We eat organic and talk all this crap about environmentalism and everything else that goes with our lifestyle, we decided that this house remodel was really a chance for us to walk our talk and hopefully convince others that this is doable, especially if you keep perspective on your needs as opposed to “keeping up with the Jones.’”

Over the course the winter of 2005-2006 we worked on plans. We took these plans all the way through the building department to the point where in the Spring 2006 we were ready to write checks to get this project permitted. At that point, we sat down and had a serious heart to heart conversation about what we wanted, not only out of the house but out of our lives, future, etc. The next day we pulled the plug on the project and decided we were going back to the drawing board to get it down to a point where we would have a minimum amount of space to maintain and clean, could still afford to travel and do all the other things we like to do as well as eventually buy property somewhere else and build our own completely off the grid green home. We live in Tahoe to be outside doing things, not to just sit around inside a great big house that we have to clean and maintain.

I don’t mean to say that the original plans were big by any scope of the imagination; we were only adding about 600 sq ft. It really came down to what we really needed. In the course of the design process I’ve purchased and read a lot of books about small space design. As a result of all my reading, I’m a huge fan of Sarah Susanka who has written many books about Small Houses. While most of the houses she writes about are much larger than our house, it’s really the principals and the philosophy that she talks about in her books that really impress me. She talks a lot about the “Quality of space over the quantity of space.” That gives you an idea and I won’t go on right now, but I definitely suggest you check out some of her books if you’re interested in learning more.

I’ll try and get a copy of the first set of plans up so you can see where we were last year and then compare to where we ended up. Many would see going from plans for an addition to no addition as going backwards, but we see it as a huge forward step toward our goals.