There’s a right & a wrong way to design windows on the southside of a house.
The Murphy windows are done the right way, are a bit high, tucked up towards the eaves to admit the low winter sunshine yet shade-out the unwanted high summer sun so it can’t enter the building & warm up the interior.
This means your windows are a bit high and look to the sky.
I battled Ted for years about these windows because I want houses to look at the ground, and, the sky. However after twelve months looking at the ever-changing sky of the Pacific Northwest I am a convert, and a disciple. It’s just fabulous walking into a cool house in hot high summer, knowing that absolutely no sunshine is entering.
In the summer I want to live in a cool, dark cave. In the howling winter I want to live in a bright, warm sanctuary.
The Murphy house brings this contradiction to life, and then adds space to time:
There is 750 square feet of space inside the Murphy house, and there is 600sf of deck-space outside. The two spaces flow easily into each other. How, why, what?
You walk out onto a very modern pale-colored interior-style floor. It feels clean, like a room that’s outside, rather than a deck. Indeed I used to vacuum that floor with the shop vac, and it came up trim with the clean-house feeling. Add good exterior furniture and a partial roof, lights and pots growing peppers in the sunshine & you have a place to go, even it’s just to water the peppers. Now I’m drifting in and out, and out and in. Stimulation outside, sanctuary inside. I move between the two feeding my appetites and resting.
As my life progressed from summer into winter I was left inside again, with those three sky-windows pointing up, but now I was looking at dark sky, stars, tungsten-lit clouds and tungsten-lit storms. The Murphy house was flooded with ambient night-light. Planet earth travelling around the sun is tilted, and the Pacific Northwest was at its distance-extreme from the sun; dark & cold, & I knew it.
Here’s the secret: if you put the windows above chest height you don’t need shades for privacy because there’s nothing to see except a head. So now there can always be a view out, so you can see it all.
I’m not sure it’s reasonable to write a whole post about 3 windows and a deck, but that’s really where it’s at.
The kitchen is worthy of mention because it formed an epic super-social axis around which I could meet new people; I would cook, and all these new dudes would sit at the bar. I think the concept of ‘defensible space’ bluntly describes how the kitchen/ counter combo lent me ease and accommodated new minds.
The very dark bathroom was the deepest and most welcome part of the summer-cave, a heavy earth-tile retreat, darkly contrasting with the bright, bright apartment (delete repeated word).
I never lived in the Murphy house with anyone, and there remain questions in my mind about privacy & the closeness of the bedrooms to the common areas. To my mind Ted’s Leong house addresses most of these concerns.
The western light poured through the double doors in the summer; orange and yellow and picked up the yellow fir floors. It was a golden place.
Plans-for-Sale Powerhouse Designs Website is Now LIVE
Written by: Senna Scott
You asked and we listened!
We are so excited to announce that our Plans for Sale website in now officially LIVE!
Our Design team, Powerhouse Designs, have been working tirelessly at rendering our old & new plans, and working out the bugs back end to make a smooth purchasing experience!
Know of anyone looking to build a net-zero energy home? They can now skip the design phase by purchasing one of our plan-sets and get to building! Saving them thousands on design and getting to shovel-ready even quicker! If local to Bellingham, TC Legend Homes has availability for 2024 – 2025 home builds!
Powerhouse Designs now offers consultation and design services on purchased plans, helping you to customize the plans for your needs! Consultation slots are purchasable on the website.
In addition, Powerhouse Designs now offers NEW SERVICES!
Embodied Carbon Calculations
Built Green Certification Consultation
Net-Zero Design Consultation
Are you looking to calculate your carbon footprint or apply for a certification? Are you a contractor that needs to outsource this work for your clients or need support on making your plans more green? Our staff at Powerhouse Designs now offers Embodied Carbon Calculation Consultations, Built Green Certification and Net-Zero Design Consultation services!
Obtaining Built Green certifications and implementing Embodied Carbon calculations have become a rapidly changing part of the industry. Our team has been up-to-speed and pioneering this process! They will walk you step by step through the process for a stress-free experience!
The U.S. Department of Energy is pleased to announce that the submission for the Samish Solar Home from Powerhouse Designs and TC Legend Homes has been selected as a 2023 Housing Innovation Award Winner!
This national award represents a significant achievement, recognizing the most impressive and advanced homes among leading DOE Zero Energy Ready Home builders. Our standard-setting leadership serves as an example of what every homebuyer in the nation should come to expect and demand from their home.
This Housing Innovation Award helps us celebrate our success in providing our customers with the best in energy efficiency, indoor air quality, comfort, and construction quality. Awardees this year are being recognized for innovative use of off-the-shelf technologies and strategies to achieve advanced performance; innovative use of leading-edge technologies and strategies to achieve advanced performance; market transformation through education efforts; and innovative implementation of decarbonization strategies.
We will find out more details come Awards Summit in October about which category we won!
Here are some quick stats on the house: o Insulation: R-29 walls & R-59 ceiling o PV: 10.8kW solar array with Enphase microinverters and battery ready o Air Sealing: 0.27ACH o HERS Index: -20 o Est. Annual Energy Cost Savings: $2432 o Certifications: DOE Zero Energy Ready Home certified, ENERGY STAR certified, EPA Indoor airPLUS certified, anticipated Built Green 5-star certified
Congratulations TC team for completing another epic Ski to Sea race!!!
With Isaac on the x-country ski, Ted on the downhill ski, Talia doing the running portion, Miles on the road bike, Dan & Travis in the canoe this year, and Norm finishing us to the end in the kayak, we ranked **65th** out of 478 teams!
This ranks us in the 13th percentile and 6th in the corporate division! Hawt dawg!
That is phenomenal!! Last year our 58th ranking was out of 293 teams (19th percentile).
Big thanks to Isaac, Ted & Talia for getting up so early to race!!
Show out to Miles for being in 50th place during the road biking portion!
And great work Norm for getting through the Kayak run right before the shut down the leg due to high winds, choppy conditions and capsizes!!
The TC crew gathered at Ted’s house after for a BBQ feast made by ‘Racer Mom’ Senna.
Special shout out to Team Captain, Nicole (aka Racer Auntie), for all the behind-the-scenes work of rounding us up and making our racer packets!
We are all so grateful to be a part of a fun and festive community! So glad we have accomplished another safe and fun race – nice work everyone!
Currently both Washington State and the City of Bellingham are proposing changes to the current ADU regulations and process. From the outside it may seem complicated and long winded, but we’ve been keeping up to date with it, so you don’t have to!
But first let’s back up. Why is this such an important topic? All over the state, including Bellingham, we are seeing both a housing shortage and unaffordable costs for both renters and home buyers. Accessory Dwelling Units, aka ADUs, are seen as a tool to help fight both of these issues. While ADUs are certainly not the only answer to the affordability crisis, they are a start to addressing the issue. ADUs are, however, thought to have a much bigger effect on addressing the housing shortage. According to 2020 Census data, 71% of Bellingham households are made up of only 1-2 people. This means that medium and large sized single-family residences are not what Bellingham needs in order to solve the housing crisis. It needs ADUs and other forms of middle housing. As it stands right now, State and City regulations make it more difficult than it needs to be in order to permit and build ADUs (and middle housing). So, at both levels reform to the current ordinances are being proposed in order to ease these restrictions, allowing for more ADUs to be built and with less needless regulations.
Summary
-At the State level: There were two bills currently addressing changes to ADU regulations for the entire state. These are bills HB 1276 and HB 1337. Bill HB 1276 is essentially the watered-down version of HB 1337. However, bill HB 1337 recently passed out of the House Housing Committee with no amendments. Next steps for HB 1337 are to pass through the Rules committee and then through the Floor. Organizations who support HB 1337 vocally as of the first hearing include Homes4WA, Sightline Institute, FutureWise, League of Women Voters, Habitat For Humanity, American Farmland Trust, Kirkland Planning Commission and a handful of architects and builders. TC Legend also supported HB 1337 over HB 1276.
-At the City level: There is one ordinance being proposed to amend Bellingham Municipal Code Titles 20 and 21 regarding ADU regulations and processes. This ordinance is essentially bill HB 1337 specifically for Bellingham. Whatcom Housing Alliance’s recommendations to the changes being put forth have been the main reference point for many community members and organizations. You can find their recommendations HERE. After the first hearing, City Council has sent the ordinance back to the Planning Commission for revisions for further clarification, data and feedback. Once the Planning Commission has finished this review, it will be presented to City Council again. They may need to revise again, or they will vote at that time. Once the ordinance passes through City Council it will take a bit of time for the Planning Commission to update their current ADU ordinance and implement the changes. However, assuming all goes smoothly, we should see the changes being implement most likely by the end of the year.
Key Components
-Remove Owner Occupancy Requirements: This is arguably the most contested topic in the City level ADU reform. The amendment states that the owner of the ADU is no longer required to live in either the main SFR or the ADU while renting and can therefore rent both out at the same time. On one hand, this would allow flexibility for homeowners who need to go out of town for extended period of time, or are elderly, and would increase housing availability. On the other hand, if there are not restrictions added to this amendment, it could open up Bellingham to more large-scale investors, taking control of our rental market and potentially further pricing out locals.
-Remove Off-Street Parking Requirements: The requirement of off-street parking, while may seem necessary to some, is typically not necessary or feasible on infill lots which are already near shopping centers and bus stops. Cities are using this as a technique to incentivize alternative modes of transportation, while also recognizing the limitations that come with infill lots.
-Condo-ization of ADU’s: Opening ADU’s to purchase is thought to help homeownership among the many small households that are currently struggling to afford the houses currently on the market and are therefore forced to remain renting. It is debatable as to whether this would create an affordable option or not. But the best way to create an equitable housing market is for more homeownership among the lower and middle class.
-Removing Appearance Requirements: Currently there are height restrictions and appearance requirements on DADU’s stating that they must match the aesthetic of the neighborhood, however current SFR’s are not even held to that same standard. The amendment would also allow the height of the ADU to increase to 25’ from 20’. There are some arguments to increase this limit even more or get rid of the restriction altogether to be able to accommodate a second floor and higher ceilings.
Other Bills To Watch
Washington State has at least 50 proposed housing bills. So if you want to take action and help sculpt the trajectory of housing in our state, look out for these bills and submit your commentary to the Housing Committee.
Among those proposed housing bills, HB 1110 / SB 5190 should be highlighted as they are important in legalizing middle housing.
If you are a renter, then you’ll want to watch out for HB 1124 which increases the timeframe that landlords must notify tenants of any increases to rent. There are also HB 1389 / SB 5435 which puts a cap on rent increase to either the rate of inflation or 3% (whichever is greater).
For more information on the State and City level ADU reform, see the following related articles.
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