We started out with the goal of living in Rockridge,
a beautiful walkable neighborhood in Oakland, one block from the border with Berkeley. Sara and I had lived there before getting
married and having a child. We loved the convenience of walking to the local coffee shop, the Bart (metro), parks, restaurants,
shops and the weekend Farmer's Market. The area is also flat, and much easier to push a stroller.
We lucked out when an old 1915 Craftsman bungalow on one of our favorite
streets was placed on the market in 2007. It was for sale via a public auction in the county courthouse; fortunately, we were
the last ones standing. The old home hadn't been touched in sixty years. While that required a full renovation of its
systems, kitchen, bathroom and just about everything else, it still had much of its original craftsman wood details. The size
of the house was small for us, about sixty percent of the size of our prior home in the Berkeley Hills - a total of around
1,460 square feet for a family of four. Upon
reflection, we thought, what could be greener? The home also had a large flat lot and backyard, which would give us plenty
of room to garden and for the kids to play.
The
next step was to assemble a great green team to help us figure out our green remodeling plans and carryout the work. The mix
of Canyon Construction, working closely with Dan Smith Associates worked perfectly. The team grew as we evaluated other aspects
of the project. Please see our full team listing.
Given the
smallness of the house, we came up with a super efficient open space layout by removing all unnecessary walls: between the dining room and kitchen and all internal hallways. We also moved one
of the bedroom walls to make room for expanding the kitchen (the focal point for our house) and adding a half bathroom.
We enhanced the rear master bedroom by replacing the window overlooking
the yard with French Doors, opening out to a new deck. We also enlargened the closet by taking out the shower from the bathroom
and combining the space into the closet. The attic was opened up with a pull down stair and added plywood reenforcement for
the weight.
In order to
meet our space needs, we retrofit the entry enclosed old porch into a mudroom, and also greatly cleaned-up the lower-level
utility room into a family room. A new, free-standing 10'x12' steel structure (a "LifePod") was erected
in the rear yard to provide space for a home office.
