Early Planning

We’re going to follow my garage-studio apartment project week-by-week so you can see the choices my architects, builders and I made to reach our BuiltGreen certification. In the planning stages, I worked with Lydia Marshall and Robert Drucker of Robert Drucker Architects to design a small, innovative space that would function in a variety of ways. The 560 s.f. studio apartment above the garage comfortably combines living, working, sleeping and cooking areas.

We took advantage of existing infrastructure and reduced development of undisturbed woodland by incorporating the new building into my home’s septic system, well, water filtration system and utility lines.

Ted Clifton, the Skagit-Island County Builders’ Association (www.sicba.org) Built Green certifier, met with us to review our plans and clarify what our options for reaching 4 or 5-star certification would be.

Though I live in an area of second and third-growth forest, we oriented the building to face south so that it could capture solar energy and installed infrastructure for future photovoltaic installation.

Jade Craftsman Builders (www.jadecraftsmanbuilders.com) agreed to limit heavy equipment use to avoid compacting soils, and we preserved a 30’ hemlock adjacent to the building site. Tarp fencing downhill from the building site was erected to prevent silt runoff from disturbed soils, and we saved topsoil from the foundation excavation to be reused in post-construction landscaping.

In the foundation, we specified concrete combined with flyash – a by-product of coal-fired electric generating plants. It offers environmental advantages by diverting the material from the waste stream. Flyash also improves the performance and quality of concrete by increasing strength, reducing permeability and reducing the corrosion of reinforcing steel.

Our failures: We weren’t able to save and transplant my favorite mature huckleberry bush, which broke into dozens of pieces as it was being dug up, and some small critter took a liking to a section of the exposed propane line connecting the tank to my house. He chewed so many holes in it that I lost most of the tank’s contents before we discovered the problem.