No. 26 - The Cottonwood Cottage

The Cottonwood Cottage was designed by Curt Lyons, a designer-builder currently living in a beautiful tiny house on wheels that he built on his property in Fort Collins, Colorado (watch video). Curt has generously offered to share his house, which was drafted by THE small HOUSE CATALOG in 2014. 

He's also taken the time to introduce the house and talk about some of the philosophy behind the design.

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Designed by Curt Lyons, designer-builder, Fort Collins, CO. & drafted by THE small HOUSE CATALOG.

Curt Lyons talks about Cottonwood Cottage:

I am happy to offer the plans for the Cottonwood Cottage after working to create them in collaboration with Shawn.  At first glance it might just appear to be a typical two bedroom Craftsman style bungalow, but there is a little more to it that needs explaining. My overall goal was a simple, smaller house, that maximized its footprint while trying to keep the overall massing down for efficiency as well as aesthetics. I wanted an open floor plan, where the living room and kitchen flowed together, since meal preparation, before and after work is the majority of time people get to spend awake in their house. The design was kept simple with the intent of keeping costs down, and making it easier to build. This simplicity is revealed in the exposed structure of posts and beam, exposed joists and tongue and groove flooring for the second floor, which is the visible ceiling below. 

I have since had to postpone building the house for myself for now, so I contacted Shawn to make my plans available to you, for free. A lot of thought went into the design and I would love to see it get built. 

My overall goals included:

Curt is an interesting guy and you can read more about him in The Coloradoan.

• Envelope: A well insulated tight building envelope
• Passive solar: Ability to use passive techniques to help heat and cool the house. 
• Practical: A house that was about practicality versus pretentiousness. 
• Size: With a footprint of 640 s/f downstairs, it is less than half the 2600 s/f average American house today. 
• Open: Removing halls maximized the floor plan  
• Heating: When I learned about air source heat pumps (mini splits) I decided I wanted to use one, as well as a wood stove 
• PV: The roof is oriented with lots of south exposure to try to go for a net-zero energy house
• Porches: I have always enjoyed porches, but never lived with one and they allow space and function to flow from inside to outside. 
• Massing: I really wanted the house to be appear modest and fit in an existing neighborhood
• Green: Sustainability went into every decision from size to materials. 
• Cost: Could it be built without a 30 year mortgage. 

For those interested in more detail, read on for more of the reasoning and thought process involved in the design. My background includes construction and I am also a bit of a designer. 

Envelope:

I designed this house to be built on a site in Fort Collins, CO which is in climate zone 4. Being aware of third party certifications such as LEED, and Passivhaus, I decided pretty early that I could build to a better house and put the money that would go into that plaque on the wall into the house itself. Those certifications can make sense to academics and engineers who sometimes seem more motivated by bragging rights as opposed to the bigger picture of sustainability. The bottom line, insulation is relatively cheap, and building smaller is a low hanging fruit when it comes to making a house with less impact on the environment. I prefer cellulose to petroleum based foams, and with everything in life, there is a diminishing return on more of something. We ended up with an 8” double stud walls which would have an R-value of around 30, and if it was only R-28 that's still above code and pretty darn good. 

Passive Solar:

Colorado is a natural place for this decision. In the winter we still have lots of sunny days even when it's cold, while during the summer night time temperatures cool down allowing for a cooling stack effect.  The house is designed to be oriented with the long access east to west, with windows on the south that can get solar gain in winter and be shaded in the summer. Windows on the north were minimized to keep down heat loss, which was also the reason for no skylights. 

Size:

The overall square footage is around 1000 square feet, I say around because measuring square footage upstairs with sloped ceilings gets tricky. The plans show a 4' knee wall but I think I would drop those to one or two feet since there is a shed dormer and other than changing clothes, most of what I do in a bedroom is horizontal. There is no bedroom downstairs simply because I didn't want to the lengthen the footprint and close off the windows on the west end of the house. As for aging in place, I am going to take the approach of the world's healthiest elderly as in Dan Buettner's TED talk on Blue Zones. 

Heating:

Wood stoves have a controversial reputation that I don't think they deserve. They may not make sense everywhere, but where I live in CO, we have thousands of acres of standing dead beetle kill pine. These trees will either burn in a forest fire, or burn in a stove to heat a house, or fall over and eventually rot. All three options will release the carbon they have absorbed in their lifetime. The other heat source is planned to be an air source heat pump/ductless mini split. These little units are cost effective, also work as air conditioners, and are designed for open floor plans with positive reports are coming back from as far north as Maine. The house may need two units one up and one downstairs. To learn more about them I recommend reading articles in the Green Building Adviser.  

Lastly:

While it is all to often defined as being less bad than previous examples, I define sustainable as being infinitely repeatable with no accumulating deterioration, such as a healthy ecosystem. By that definition, it's pretty hard to build a sustainable house in the modern world, but we can build a lot more sustainably then we have been. Build it smaller, make it to last, make it beautiful so people will want to keep it around, use renewable materials when possible, make it so it doesn't need much to function, work with your environment and remember to enjoy the process. 

Please share your thoughts, questions and gratitude below. I'll be sure Curt is able to reply to questions about the plan and his ideas.

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The Cottonwood Cottage floor plan

House plan details

• Bedrooms: 2
• Bathrooms: 1-1/2
• Floors: 2
• Conditioned space: 1,096 sq ft > 5'
• Main floor: 588 sq ft
• Upper floor: 508 sq ft (stairs counted once)
• Overall dimensions including porch:  20' x 32' + 3' x 8'-4' bump-out
• Foundation type: High crawl space (6'-2")
• Print size: 24" x 36" (black & white recommended)
• Immediate PDF download with license to build
• Design criteria: International Residential Code (IRC)

Download

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10 simple ways to make a good little house even better

Small houses are great. They can be comfortable, cost effective, energy efficient, highly valued, and attractive. However, many could be built much better simply by considering a few things before starting.

Here are 10 things to consider:

 

1. Build with Wood

Despite what many advertisers would have us think, wood is a sensible, natural, renewable resource. I've even had people email me criticizing the use of wood at all. A contrario! Wood is strong, manages high wind and earthquakes very well, is inexpensive, widely available, often locally harvested and milled, and has been successfully utilized by homeowners and professionals alike for building long-lasting, highly-efficient, attractive housing for centuries. 

Wood has less embodied energy than concrete, bricks, aerated blocks, steel, plastics (vinyl, e.g.) and most other construction materials. Wood can even be easily modified and recycled.

• Wood is sustainable.
• Wood is green.
• Wood is strong.

So there.

2. Put your house on a slab. 

If possible we should consider building on a super-insulated slab. I know, I know, slabs have been seen as a crummy, poor man's foundation for years. No more! I'm not a Passive House certified designer but I can confidently tell you that some of the most energy-efficient houses in the world are being built on insulated slab foundations. Do some investigation.

3. Invest in good windows

People often tell me - with notable pride - about the repurposed windows they intend to put in their house. My advice is almost always: don't do it!

But whhhhhhhhhy not? It's reusable. Aren't you concerned about the environment? Yes, I am, and so are you - so take my advice.

For starters, ask yourself why those free windows were given away (i.e. thrown away) in the first place. I can answer that for you: they probably don't perform well and leak air like the devil. They're junk because they're old, not built well in the first place, or even worse, both.

Remember used windows will almost assuredly underperform even new, inexpensive, low end windows. Sure, using recycled materials is a great idea, don't let my sarcasm discourage you from creative recycling. Just do it appropriately because using badly performing materials, even recycled ones, is a terrible idea.

If you need a third reason, those used windows - no matter how cool they look - are unlikely to meet code. 

4. Annie, get your caulk gun

Buy a case of quality, non-toxic, zero-VOC caulk and lay a bead along every seam in your house before you close up the walls. Caulk:

1. the plates at the subfloor
2. sister joists
3. built-up posts
4. adjacent studs
5. around windows and doors. 

Caulk every narrow path to the exterior that I missed in that list.

5. Go tankless

A tankless water heater is one of the best ways to obtain hot water in a small house. Don't believe me? It's what they use in Europe, Japan, and other places where space is at a premium, and so should you. 

If you've got space - or live in a desert - also consider a solar powered heat-pump hot water heater. But an on-demand electric, propane or natural gas water heater is a wise choice.

6. Reduce thermal bridging in walls, floors & ceilings; or, Oh my God, what does that mean?!

An insulating material's resistance to conductive heat flow is measured and rated in terms of its thermal resistance or R-value -- the higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness. Here is an example of a code mandated R-value for a house:

• Floors: R-30
• Walls: R-21
• Ceilings: R-49

Those minimums must be met in the cavities between the joists, studs and rafters of a house. Now consider that wood has an R-value of about 1.25 per inch, which means every stud, joist and rafter in your house has a VERY low r-value. That wood is essentially a bridge for heat loss (or heat gain depending on the season). And there are a lot of studs, headers, trimmers, rafters and joists in even a small house.

So what can we do?

I've written a little about the Scandinavian-style walls I build up here in the mild Pacific Northwest but you can also read more extensive experiences and wall design ideas from Lami Designs. 

Air-sealing is a great idea but we can do better - it's easy! In North America we're not doing nearly enough. Make your house better by reducing conductive heat loss.

7. Super-insulate

This goes with point number six. Because insulating itself is such a widely advertised good thing to do it baffles me to see people - including builders - so often cutting costs in this department. Crappy insulation: it's ridiculous; it's dumb; don't buy it. Insulation is not a place to cut costs. Good grief, in the scope of construction it's actually inexpensive! It even pays us back by reducing heating and cooling loads and adding comfort to out houses. Why wouldn't we insulate properly? Ignore code too. Well, don't ignore it - improve upon it.

8. Avoid formaldehyde

The construction industry has a rotten history of approving allegedly safe building materials only to outlaw them down the road after they've been shown to be hazardous. As a practice, not a hard and fast rule, be suspect of engineered building materials, especially ones using urea-formaldehyde glues and binders. Here's an example: don't build cabinets from interior grade plywoods that use this type of glue and reject engineered flooring that uses it as a binder (note: most interior sheet goods and bamboo floorings use urea-formaldehyde binders).

9. Install an HRV

An HRV removes stale moist air from inside a house via a simple inexpensive mechanical fan and vent system. An HRV goes one step further than a standard ventilation fan though; it brings in fresh air in an exchange. Air comes in to replace the air going out. And it gets even better: the warm outgoing air is used to warm up the colder incoming air thus reducing heat loss!

Surely, this sort of thing costs a fortune, right? Well, sure it does. But it doesn't have to.

After I got a $5,000 bid for materials from an admittedly good HRV manufacturer I decided it wasn't worth the cost and put together my own fantastic system using a Broan HRV and aluminum ducting sealed with UL 181B-FX foil tape. The system cost me around $800, took only two days to install, and works great.

Removing moisture and VOCs is an important leap forward in modern housing so I recommend some sort of air-exchange system. 

10. Build what makes sense

Build what makes sense and build it well. That's the smart thing to do. Let the alleged know it alls - who typically don't design or build anyway - calculate the virtues of their own square footage. Definitely don't build small for the sake of some arbitrary, made up notion of what small is. There's so much noise and baloney about what a small or tiny house should be that it's best to simply ignore the debate. Be modest and build a good house.

Afterword: There are so many ways for all of us to improve what we do and we can learn a great a deal from each other. However, I also recommend taking ideas like the tiny house movement or the small house movement - or any movement at all in fact - with a serious grain of salt. Movements have a terrible tendency to lose their way. Give up the idea of any one size fits all, perfect house design or building material. Be a part of the conversation and be open to new ideas. If we're successful we'll continue to innovate and make ourselves and our houses better still.

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10 simple things to make a good little house even better

Small houses are great. They can be comfortable, cost effective, energy efficient, highly valued and uber-cute. However, many could be built much better simply by considering a few things before starting.

Here are 10 things to consider:

Put it on a slab. 

If possible, build your house on a super-insulated slab. I know, I know, slabs have been seen as a crummy, poor man's foundation for years. No more! I'm not a Passive House certified designer but I can confidently tell you that some of the most energy-efficient houses in the world are being built on insulated slab foundations. 

Reduce thermal bridging in walls, floors & ceilings.

While North Americans have focused for years on reducing air-infiltration with insulations like spray-foam over in Sweden they've been building assemblies that not only reduce airflow but reduce thermal bridging - through floors. walls, and roofs -  as well.

Wood has an R-value of about 1.25 per inch, which means every stud, joist and rafter in your house is a bridge for heat loss (or heat gain depending on the season). I've written a little about the Scandinavian-style walls I build up here in the mild Pacific Northwest but you can also read more extensive experiences and designs from Lami Designs. 

Air-sealing is great but we can do better - it's easy!

Install a heat-recovery ventilation system.

An HRV removes stale moist air from inside a house via a simple inexpensive mechanical fan and vent system. An HRV goes one step further than a standard ventilation fan though; it brings in fresh air in an exchange. Air comes in to replace the air going out. And it gets even better: the warm outgoing air is used to warm up the colder incoming air thus reducing heat loss!

Surely, this sort of thing costs a fortune, right? Well, sure it does. But it doesn't have to.

After I got a $5,000 bid for materials from an admittedly good HRV manufacturer I decided to put together my own good system using a Broan HRV and some aluminum ducting sealed with UL 181B-FX foil tape. The system cost me around $800 and took only two days to install. It works too!

Removing moisture and VOCs from your house is an important leap forward in modern housing and I recommend some sort of air-exchange system. 

Invest in good windows

People occasionally tell me - with notable pride - about the repurposed windows they intend to put in their new house. My advice is almost always: don't do it!

But whhhhhhhhhy not? It's reusable. Aren't you concerned about the environment? Yes, I am, and so are you - so take my advice.

For starters, ask yourself why those free windows were given away (i.e. thrown away) in the first place. I can answer that for you: they probably don't perform well and leak air like the devil. They're junk because they're old, not built well in the first place, or even worse, both.

Remember used windows will almost assuredly underperform even new, inexpensive, low end windows. Sure, using recycled materials is a great idea, don't let my sarcasm discourage you from creative recycling. Just do it appropriately because using badly performing materials, even recycled ones, is a terrible idea.

If you need a third reason, those used windows - no matter how cool they look - are unlikely to meet code. 

Annie, Get Your Caulk Gun

Buy a case of quality, non-toxic, zero-VOC caulk and lay a bead along every seam in your house before you close up the walls. Caulk:

1. the plates at the subfloor
2. sister joists
3. built-up posts
4. adjacent studs
5. around windows and doors. 

Caulk every narrow path to the exterior that I missed in that list.

Go Tankless

A tankless water heater is one of the best ways to obtain hot water in a small house. Don't believe me? It's what they use in Europe, Japan, and other places where space is at a premium, and so should you. 

If you've got space - or live in a desert - also consider a solar powered heat-pump hot water heater. But on on-demand electric or gas water heater is a wise choice.

Super-insulate

Insulating is such a widely known, easy to achieve concept in modern construction it baffles me to see people cheaping out on it. Insulation is not a place to cut costs. It's inexpensive anyway, pays you back by reducing heating and cooling loads and adds comfort to a house. Why wouldn't you insulate properly?

Avoid Formaldehyde

Especially urea-formaldehydes. Don't build cabinets from plywood that uses this type of glue and avoid engineered flooring, e.g. commonly bamboo, that's uses it as a binder.

Build with Wood

Sorry to burst a few bubbles but wood is a natural, renewable resource. It's strong, especially suitable for high wind and earthquake zones, is inexpensive, widely available, and can be successfully utilized by homeowners and professionals alike for building long-lasting, highly-efficient, attractive housing. Wood demands less embodied energy than concrete, steel, and other common construction materials, and can be easily modified and recycled.

• Wood is sustainable.
• Wood is green.
• Wood is strong.

Build What Makes Sense

Build what makes sense and build it well. That's the smart thing to do. Let the alleged know it alls - who typically don't design or build anyway - calculate the virtues of their own square footage. Definitely don't build small for the sake of some alleged virtuous, arbitrary idea of what small is. There's so much noise and baloney about what a small or tiny house should be that it's best to simply ignore the debate.

I recommend staying away from movements because they generally lose their way. Rather, I prefer to stay busy following my dreams, learning new things, and doing good work.

 

 

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No. 25 - Seas & Trees Garage

This quiet little client designed two car garage is now available as a free download. The plan calls for a metal roof, shingle siding, and attic trusses for storage. The garage is a perfect size for storing all of your snow toys right beside your Rolls Royce.

The building can also converted into a work space with insulated doors, insulation and heating.

Download

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Ladybug House Photo Update!

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The Iris (free house plan)

Cathedral ceilings, full size wheelchair accessible kitchen and upper floor bathroom, covered entry porch, 2x6 wall construction, finished basement.

The IRIS is a client-developed small house plan for a cold climate over a finished basement. Plan can easily accept other foundation styles and be modified for a warmer climate. 

This plan is intended to build a simple, cost-effective house to be used as a rental, It's also well suited for a larger family looking for a smaller house.

Plan is available for free. Additional engineering, local and regional code modifications may be required. Check with your local building department or code enforcement agency.

Renderings are approximate and are not literal representations of the designs. Designs are subject to change without notice.

For accurate cost estimating try BUILDING-COST.NET, a *FREE* online tool. Material costs can be obtained by visiting a local building supply center with your plans and requesting a free "take off" for your project.

A SketchUp model is now available for this plan. Visit the new MODELS page for more information.

The Iris is a client-based plan designed to build an ADA approved single floor house with a furnished basement. Plan is offered as a free download.

 

House plan details

• Bedrooms: 3
• Bathrooms: 2
• Floors: 1 + finished basement
• Conditioned space: 662 sq ft above grade; 730 sq. ft. finished basement
• Main floor: 662 sq. ft.
• Overall dimensions excluding porch:  28' x 28' 
• Foundation type: Finished basement
• Print size: 24" x 36" (black & white recommended)
• Immediate PDF download with license to build
• Design criteria: International Residential Code (IRC)
• ADA compliant bath & kitchen
• Wheelchair accessible small house plan

Download

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