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The house and what the owner wanted

The house on this lot burned in the Almeda Fire in September 2020. The fire debris was cleared that November, and design of the new house started that fall.

The owner came with a written list. It asked for pull-out shelves in the lower kitchen cabinets, cupboards above the washer and dryer, a fold-out drying rack over the laundry sink, shelves under the stairs, two bicycle hooks in the garage, an office with a ceiling fan and room in the closet for a short filing cabinet, and screens on the front door and the back French doors. The owner even worked out how one 30-inch kitchen drawer should be divided.

The house has a visitable layout, meaning a guest who uses a wheelchair can get in the front door: the entry has no step. The ceilings are nine feet.

What was built

Kitchen

The kitchen has custom knotty hickory Shaker cabinets under Black Vermont granite. Inside are a spice pullout, a garbage pullout, a microwave nook, drawer dividers, and dividers for trays and baking sheets over the refrigerator. There is also a deep breakfast bar.

Living and dining

The dining room opens to the back yard through French doors with blinds between the glass and a screen that pulls out from the side. The closet under the stairs is lined with shelves, and the coat closet has a shoe shelf near the floor.

Laundry and half bath

The laundry and the half bath share one room, closed off with a pocket door. The washer and dryer are stacked, and a 40-inch fold-out drying rack hangs over the laundry sink.

Upstairs

Both bedrooms upstairs have vaulted ceilings. The primary bedroom has a walk-in closet with drawers, shelves and rods, and its bathroom has a handheld shower behind a glass door. The second bathroom has a bathtub. Both bathrooms have Marmoleum floors, a natural linoleum.

Outside

There is a porch at the front and the back. The patio concrete is colored and sand-finished, and the patio has privacy screens.

What made it interesting

The original house was built under the 2005 Oregon residential code. The new one had to meet the 2017 code. That meant an engineered foundation with more concrete and steel reinforcing, more efficient windows and doors, more insulation under the floors, and added energy measures. Here those were extra insulation and a tankless water heater.

Energy Trust of Oregon certified the house on May 12, 2022. Its EPS (Energy Performance Score) is 44. The same house built only to code would score 61, and a similar-size Oregon home scores 93. Lower is better. The blower door test, which measures air leaks, came in at 2.75 air changes per hour at 50 pascals. The energy rater’s report from March 2022 shows a yearly energy cost 15.4 percent lower than the same house built to code.

Cost context

New custom homes in our area start around $375 per square foot of living space today. See our cost guide.