Three Towers Remodel

This project is still ongoing. Deconstruction/construction started at the end of September 2011 and completion is scheduled to take place in April this year.

The original house was a two bedroom/two bath, 2000 sq. ft. house in the style of an English cottage. The intent of the project was to add a master bedroom suite on the ground floor as well as a two car garage while retaining as much of the original floorplan as possible. One of the challenges was the exsisting stairwell centered in the home and thus bisecting the ground floor living space and at the same time obstructing what would be a spectacular view out over the Willamette Valley and the vineyards in the red hills of Dundee. The solution was to move the stairwell to the northwest corner in the area of the former TV room. The knock-on effect was that the access to the new wing would be through the exsisting kitchen so the kitchen had to be relocated. As the remodeling plans developed we added a 'nook' area and a TV/study area to the exsisting envelope and a small tower to the new construction to improve the view out over the valley.

Another major objective was to change the exsisting roof line from the English cottage style with composition shingles to a flatter clay/concrete tile roof in the Mediterranean style. Our goal was to maintain the original stucco and duplicate this on the addition. When the deconstruction of the roof started it became clear that the stucco could not be saved. Although it looked pristine it had been installed without a rainscreen. The house was only ten years old but the 3/4" CDX below the windows on the south side were totally rotten from trapped water and the old house was totally stripped of the old stucco.

This week our contractor expect to finish electrical, plumbing and HVAC work and upon successfull completion insulation will start.

The following text belongs under the heading Energy efficiency, cool details, great ideas, and more:

We are attempting to get LEED certification for the project, which level we will achieve we do not know yet. Several features have been incorporated to achieve this goal: Re-use as much as possible of the existing building. Exterior wall thickness has been increased to 10" with inner and outer studs offset to avoid thermal bridges. Insulation will be 2"sprayed foam and 8" blown cellulose. All windows are low E, existing propane furnace has been replaced with electric heat pump and old propane water heater tank has been replaced with a 96% efficient tank less propane water heater. All downspouts are connected to a rain water collection tank. Currently this water will be used for irrigation but the house is also plumbed for future use of rain water for flushing of toilets when county building codes get changed to allow this. There will also be a 4.9kW solar panel array providing up to 45% of the power consumption in the house. The main flooring will consist of recycled walnut and roof rafters and beams are cut from locally grown juniper.

Additional information as construction photos can be found on our contractor's site: http://cellarridge.com/Projects_Three_Towers.php