Home + Garden

"High-Density Design"

By Lucy Burningham

Originally published in Green Living, 2007

Tucked into a third-floor attic in South East Portland sits a design masterpiece that would make any New York City apartment renter swoon. The space, a compact 900 square feet complete with vaulted ceilings, became an eco-design laboratory for inspired homeowners Elisabeth Reese Cadigan and Michael Cadigan as part of a daring whole-house remodel. And while the couple poured countless hours into making the attic perfectówith reclaimed wood, an efficient ventilation system (no air-conditioning needed) and low-VOC finishes they did it all for other people: renters.

Why go to such great lengths for a rental? Pure inspiration. When Cadigan and Reese Cadigan started shopping for a home in the neighborhood where theyíd been renting for years, they knew they wanted to buy a property that could accommodate multiple dwellings. After all, they were close-in to downtown. It seemed right to live close to other people.

High-density living maintains the fabric of any city, but especially Portland, says Cadigan. We were more than willing to share the house with others. Besides, attics are often underused and rarely treated as a discrete living space, especially in neighborhoods like this.

The neighborhood, a pocket of residential buildings just a few blocks off Hawthorne Boulevard to the south and a warehouse district to the west, features large homes from the turn of the century that were originally built for blue-collar workers who rode the streetcar to work. Back then, families shared homes to save money and live close to downtown.

So when Cadigan and Reese Cadigan came across a dilapidated, three-story 1906 craftsman-style home that squatters occupied (Reese Cadigan says the bathrooms were in such bad condition that even the squatters avoided using them), they envisioned a return to the past. Each floor would be separate living unit, and they'd occupy the ground level.

Our Realtor thought we were crazy, but the inspector said this place was a tank, says Reese Cadigan. The structure was amazing. Even though it was in horrible shape, it still had good energy.

Beyond a commitment to keeping the home's layout intact, the couple had already decided to employ to sustainable design practices their first chance to apply their lifestyle philosophies to an actual place.

Cadigan grew up with a passion for the outdoors and environmental issues, so when he encountered a book on green design as a senior in college, he felt something click. When he and Reese Cadigan bought the house, he was working at Environmental Building Supplies, where he'd learned even more about eco-friendly materials and principles, and he'd already had experience working construction.

Reese Cadigan, who now does storm water planning for Portland, studied environmental science in Portland as an undergraduate and quickly developed an interest in nature-scaping and water conservation. She, too, believes in minimizing human impact on the environment and sees remodeling a home as a way to put that philosophy into practice. In fact, two years after buying the house, Reese Cadigan earned a graduate degree in environmental planning and landscape design.

The couple's green remodeling adventure started in 1999, when, after deciding to buy the house that made their real estate agent cringe, they sought a trustworthy green contractor, and chose David Heslam of Coho Construction Services, whom Cadigan knew professionally.

I view green building as common sense, says Heslam. The current model for housing requires large amounts of virgin raw materials to be converted into extra large, relatively toxic, short-lived homes. Green building is about crafting smaller, durable, efficient, healthy homes.

Using that philosophy as a backbone for the remodel, Heslam handled most of the home's major work in the beginning of the project, including foundation upgrades, plumbing, wiring and framing. The major challenge was figuring out where to start, he says. The place had been a dump for years.

Old photos of the attic reveal the scope of the project almost everything had to be demolished, including Sheetrock, insulation and most of the original framing. Cadigan decided he would personally take over the finish work and do the design work himself. Michael was definitely the most involved homeowner I have ever encountered, Heslam says.

The attic, which in the timeline of the whole-house remodel came following plenty of work on the first two floors, became a place for experimentation. I saw the attic as a laboratory for learning how to use materials in new ways, says Cadigan. I got excited to take it on.

As he'd done with the rest of the house, Cadigan vowed to save all possible original materials in the attic. He went to great pains to save the existing thick, tongue-and-groove flooring, labeling each piece of wood as he removed it during the insulation process. Those pieces became a subfloor that helped stabilize and level out the layer of new, remilled wood.

But the wood didn't stop there. Cadigan decided to add horizontal remilled Douglas Fir paneling backed by wheatboard on all vertical walls. People thought Michael was crazy for installing the wood paneling, Reese Cadigan says. They thought it would look like some bad, '70s den. But the paneling accomplished what Cadigan had intended: It unifies the small nooks with larger spaces.

I decided to use a simple palate, says Cadigan. Reducing the number of materials I could use helped set parameters so I didn't go off on tangents. The design stayed cohesive.

To avoid installing air-conditioning, the team reframed dormer windows and added skylights in strategic places, which created an ultra-efficient ventilation system. In addition, the upstairs tenant can adjust a series of ridge and soffit vents that combine to pull hot air up and out, transforming what would have otherwise been a sweltering summer space into a cool hideaway, even during the hot days of August.

Cadigan also installed a radiant-heating system, an efficient gas boiler and a tankless hot water heater. For insulation, they used a combination of rigid foam, recycled cotton batts, and the same blown-in cellulose they'd used on the other two floors of the house.

While features like insulation and venting systems may not be immediately apparent, other details captivate the eye. A cushioned window bench, neatly ensconced between unique recessed lighting features, offers a perch for overlooking downtown Portland. Inconspicuous hardware reveals cleverly camouflaged storage areas. Sandblasted glass panels create the translucent corners of the slate-tiled bathroom and most of an Asian-inspired sliding door. That same glass repeats in an eye-catching wall between the kitchen and stairwell.

Before Reese Cadigan and Cadigan started working on the attic, they had already tackled the first and second floor remodels. For a while, they lived on the second floor as they remodeled it. Then, they went to work on the first floor, the space they would ultimately inhabit. ìI love old buildings and have a real respect for them, but aesthetically, I prefer the modern, says Cadigan. I wanted to have a modern interpretation of an old house. Without a distinct hallway, and sightlines from the bedroom in the back of the house to the front porch, the first floor already felt fairly cohesive and modern.

Cadigan also removed a wall between the home's original butler's pantry and the dining room, allowing him to create a pass-through from the kitchen to the dining room, which looks original to the house. To visually connect the two rooms, he used the home's original windows to create both sides of the new built-in, a testament to the couple's dedication to saving all possible materials. (Reese Cadigan and Cadigan still lament that they couldn't keep the windows in their original locations, but there was no practical method for making the old panes energy efficient.)

Of all the rooms in the house, Reese Cadigan and Cadigan are most proud of the kitchen. We put so much work into making this room just right, from the Slatescape countertops to the cabinetry, that when it all came together, we were thrilled, says Reese Cadigan.

In the kitchen, as with the rest of the house, the couple used nontoxic finishes, in particular, a floor finish made of non-synthetic wax and plant-based oils, as well as zero-VOC paint. Heslam says using low-VOC paints and natural finishes is one of the easiest ways for any homeowner to start going green.

Other green features on the first floor include a fully modulating high-efficiency furnace (it constantly adjusts the gas flow and fan speed to maintain a consistent interior temperature, a steady form of heat that also diminishes the flow of dust and allergens), as well as a double-drawer dishwasher for running smaller, individual loads, and an energy-efficient refrigerator made from recycled steel.

Five years ago, the couple moved from the second floor to the first, into the home they'd worked so hard to create. A month later, they got married in their new living space, but not before spending the morning before the wedding hanging the bathroom, laundry room and linen closet doors, and replacing the living room windows. The event was a huge success, and friends gave the house rave reviews, too.

Today, Reese Cadigan and Cadigan translate what they learned during the remodel into projects for clients. And the couple has already started planning their next endeavor, a 1980s apartment building across the street that's begging for a rainwater harvesting system and eco-roof. Sustainable building feels like the calling I've been seeking for many years, says Cadigan. The entire project felt really instinctive.

SIDEBAR

A Window's New Life

Unfortunately, old, wavy-glass windows rarely work well as insulators. As panes and frames get older, windows become draftier, pushing heating bills through the roof. But for the eco-minded homeowner, trashing any original house part, even a drafty window, can feel wasteful. To Elisabeth Reese Cadigan and Michael Cadigan, reusing their homeís vintage windows was an opportunity to create something new out of something old.

Reese Cadigan and Cadigan invented two clever solutions to their window woes on the first floor. Reusing materials was so important to us, so it seemed a shame not to use the original wood window frames since they were still in really good shape, says Cadigan.

Second, they decided to install the Tilt Pac Double Hung Sash Replacement System by Marvin Windows from Versatile Sash, which allowed Michael to replace just the sash, leaving the old wooden frames entirely intact. He carefully removed the old window panes and cut the glass into small doors for a new built-in that hangs between the kitchen and dining room as well as for a custom kitchen hutch that serves as a dry goods pantry.