Planning + Design

Building the Team

We found our architects, Scott & Scott, the same time we found our house (February 2018). They had designed a handsome frankly modern place less than half mile away. They gave us a beautiful design within months - but because we ultimately opted for an extremely deep energy retrofit renovation (aka net zero) - we delayed the start of work til autumn 2019. There was so much for us to learn. A great deal that makes the house highly energy efficient is in the walls, basement or on the roof - so the “look” did not change an awful lot from the original design. Seismic upgrades were required the architects recommended engineers.

A few months into the exploratory of green energy systems we were overwhelmed by the choices. Our daughter, Claire, (MA in industrial design) gifted us a teleconference with a green build consultant based in Ann Arbor. Matt Grocoff gave us the courage to commit to net zero, and a checklist of materials to use (and avoid). The far-flung community of specialists in this field is pretty tightly networked. Thanks to Matt we joined that circle. He identified a local energy modeler (Niels Anthonson), and a contractor/builder experienced in green design (Mark Bernhardt). Bernhardt turned us down but referred us to a protege (Taylor McCarthy of Frontera Homes ) who’d studied historic renovation and worked on Passivehouse builds. Taylor had recently struck out on his own. Grocoff subscribes to the general environmental ethic of Pacific Northwest nonprofit the International Living Futures Institute. We were inclined to follow suit. We attended the 2019 International Living Future Institute annual symposium in Seattle. There we made additional connections who would provide tremendous value through the build. (Talking about you 475 High Performance Building Supply). Right after the Seattle conference the core team (architect, contractor, energy modeler, 475 rep, green build consultant and client) assembled at our house to agree to project goals and guidelines. Together we pledged “It’s not sustainable if it’s not affordable.”. We knew we would be trying to set an example others could follow. I committed to document the process.

• we would not use fossil fuels,

• we would try to minimize waste sent to the dump,

• we would recycle or repurpose as many building materials as possible,

• we would employ materials from other demo sites when we could

• we we would power the house off solar energy

• we would reduce water use and capture rain water

• we would source new material locally to the greatest extent possible and

• plant materials would be native and/or edible and drought tolerant

• we would extend the life of the house by another 100 years

• the house would be beautiful to live in and look at

This was all to be accomplished at a price that would be less than what it had cost to buy the house in the first place. We purchased the 1,800 sq foot house on 6,000 square foot lot for $799,000 ($622,000 USD). Circa 2019, renovation costs typically ran $300-400 per square foot. We budgeted between $540,000 and $720,000. The average sale price in Victoria for a single family home as of May 2022 is $1,400,000. Our house in its current state would sell for more. We were prepared/resigned to spend extra when we were experimenting with new methods. (An example is insulating over the existing exterior wall).

The team roster would not be complete without mentioning the fine folks at the City of Victoria, and most especially John Ho - the sustainability officer for the city. We are lucky to live in a place utterly committed to ambitious climate actions goals. City Green Solutions has a wide array of services to help homeowners and renters reduce their carbon footprints and receive rebates for doing so.

This project is a combination of luck and persistence. A lot of people gave advice and encouragement to guide us on our way. So many have become friends. Victoria is a tremendously giving and evolved community. We feel lucky to have found it.

Defining the Scope

We gave little direction to the architects. We just asked that they add a bathroom, include sleeping arrangements for eight people, imagine how best to bring a 1910 house up to date for living in the 2020s. We waited to see what they devised. It seemed just right. Their plan was beautiful. Their engineers made sure it was sound and we sailed through the permitting process including getting a variance for raising the dormers. (This took place from February to August 2018.) Scott & Scott is Vancouver based and has distinguished body of work. Their aesthetic honors materials and craft

We made the project more challenging by asking that the energy we could generate power the whole place. And to pull that off we brought in a number of specialists: Vintage Roofing to do test pits on the siding to see the condition of the underlying shingles to determine if they could be saved as part of the building envelope, Gord Baird for rainwater capture and storage, Enerlytics (and engineer Adam Campkin) for energy modeling including a blower test, 475 to help with green insulation tactics, HVAC specialists to develop our heating and cooling system, Viridian to design our solar array and on and on. (This carried on from summer 2018 till autumn 2019 in fits and starts.)

Putting Our Ducks in a Row - Homework

This was the crawling and clumping phase where we read about our environs, enlisted help from neighbors about local talent, conducted the necessary surveys, trimmed trees and cut out dead wood, got initial bids, identified a talented millworker, located salvage sources for old house parts, and literally bumped into city officials. They expressed interest in our project which aligned with climate goals. Learning of our intentions they anointed us “Climate Champions” and provided a lot of assistance. Victoria Mayor, Lisa Helps, and city sustainability specialist, John Ho, gave us a major morale boost and a serious case of guilt. We doubled down on our commitment to making our house a demonstration that would be useful to others. Victoria intends to achieve net zero by 2050. They won’t fail because of us!

Then, when we were about ready to get going (Labor Day 2019) we got bad news. Our contractor presented us with a budget that was 50% more than we were prepared to spend. So much for the mutual commitments we all made at the crit - to build an example others could adapt. “It’s not sustainable if it’s not affordable.” We had to scramble to rework the assignment. Everybody got involved to reimagine a simpler plan that would be faster to build. A bathroom bit the dust. The old stair would have to do. Most of the millwork went away. The green roof would wait. Bye bye landscaping. Our kitchen equipment would be used - not brand new. By late September enough sail trimming had happened that we could move forward. This paragraph is important. We could well all have walked away at this point, but we did not. We pulled together and figured our how to forge on.

We have more planning work under foundations. So check that out too.

The Best Laid Site Plans

Homework: A Reading List

A sampling of reading material for the Fernwood Project - of the non technical sort. Find more reading lists on our resources page.