I’ve begun my dream to build
a house, a very “green” house. Because
of the interest I’ve encountered in my project, I’ve decided to try to document
the process with a blog. For those of
you who like to read the ending of a book first, here is a hint at what my
house will look like. It will be built from 7 shipping containers. In the front is the garage with a studio apartment above. In the rear is the main house.
Street view
Aerial view
My desire to build a house
goes all the way back to my childhood. I guess you can say it is in my blood. I was born near the end of WW II. After my father got out of the army, he knew
he did not want to go back to doing office work so he went to work as a
carpenter for a friend he met in the army.
It wasn’t long after that that he purchased a building lot and a kit
house from Sears. Several nights a
week, after he got off work, he would work on building our house, then sleep on
a cot in the yard before going back to work the next day. We (my mother, father, baby sister and I) lived in that cute little house for several years. Then my parents bought another lot and built
a bigger house, this one from scratch. I
can even remember my mother helping to nail down the subfloor. Sometime after we settled into that house, my
brother was born and my father got his contractor’s license. After that, he built us one more house, but
mostly built homes for other people. The
last house he built was his dream house in the mountains where my parents
retired.
So I grew up with the
assumption that everyone built their own house.
Well, not necessarily pounded the nails, but at least helped to design a
house and contract with someone to build it.
It was something I just expected I would do some day. Then one day, when I was about 65, I thought to
myself, “I have never built a house.
Time to get to it!!”
The first step was to find a building lot. I have always been interested
in real estate. I used to drag my
husband all over the state looking at properties. Actually, I didn’t have to drag him because
he was happy for any excuse to travel and explore new places. Unfortunately, he had no interest in actually
purchasing a property or building a house.
He said we were too old to do that.
So we eventually parted company.
No sooner was the divorce final
when a house came on the market that had an adjoining, buildable, vacant lot, in
a great neighborhood in Half Moon Bay, blocks from the beach and town and close
to my grandkids. It was just what I
wanted!
Once the purchase was
finalized, I started thinking about what kind of house I wanted to build. As an avid environmentalist (something else I
inherited from my parents), it had to be “green”. It is sad to have to say that, because I
think all houses should be “green.“ There is no reason why any new house these
days should be built without taking sustainability, energy efficiency and other
green principles into consideration.
Fortunately building codes are moving in that direction.
I didn’t want to start from
scratch and design it from the ground up….maybe another time. For this house I wanted to experience the
process and make it as simple as possible—kind of like our first kit house from
Sears. When I started looking at house
designs, I immediately thought of prefab houses. They are supposed to have reduced construction
time and cost, have less construction material waste, and can actually be
better built that houses built on site, after all they have to be able to be
hauled many miles on the back of a truck without coming apart.
The next step was to find a
company that made green prefabs. I started searching online. There
are actually quite a few companies claiming to do this.
I eliminated the ones that were not on the west coast, trying to find
something as close as possible. Then I
looked at their plans to find ones I liked and would work on my lot. My lot is what is known as an infill lot, a
vacant lot surrounded my existing structures.
It is 45’ wide and 150’ deep, pretty standard for my neighborhood. I went to the city and talked with the
planners about the building restrictions.
The setbacks are 5’ on the sides so the house could be a maximum of 35’
wide. The front and rear setbacks were
less of a concern because the lot is quite deep. I really wanted a 2 story
house, thinking that it is more efficient to build (less roof, etc) and would leave
more land for a nice yard and garden. Unfortunately, in addition to setbacks and
height restrictions, there is something called the “building envelope” to
account for the “daylight plane.” It is
basically to keep you from building too high near the property line and shading
your neighbor’s property.
I looked at numerous websites
and numerous plans and kept coming back to the Kara1512 design at
Logicalhomes.com. I loved all the windows and that they would be facing south since my lot is on the north side of the street. The house has a wonderful open floor plan with living, dining and kitchen downstairs and bedrooms upstairs, which I was looking for. I find myself drawn to modern designs for their simplicity. And did I happen to mention that it is built from shipping containers? One of the greenest principles is to reuse materials. Shipping containers are piling up in storage yards because of our trade deficit (more containers are coming into our country than going out) so people are starting to think of other ways to use them. This house is made from 4 shipping containers.
Of course, nothing is ever perfect. My main concern with this design was would it fit inside my building envelope? To find out I had to talk with the architect, Peter DeMaria, because the height of the building was not specified on the website plans. He was charming and very helpful. The house as seen here, would not fit, but by lowering the house and removing the overhangs, he determined that he could make it work. So I was hooked--on Peter and on the design, concept and building material.
