Page 47 - Green Builder Magazine May-June 2019 Issue

“ADUs are the

wave of the future

for our single-

family home

neighborhoods.”

—Steve Snyder

COURTESY OF STEVE SNYDERŸJACKIE ELLEN

Going to great panes. Windows throughout the home are triple-glazed, and most face south to take advantage of passive solar heating.
by the water heater and the closet under the stairs is short, with the rest of responds. “Working with them was a highlight. I felt like they were really
the space angled away. excellent allies: They were great at thinking about problems that I saw during
Holah says that his favorite small space design tricks are making the spaces the construction and figuring out how to deal with them. The designer can
as flexible as possible and adding built-ins wherever they make sense. Storage put all this stuff on paper and the contractor can try to define what they’re
is important to many of their clients, so he and [Libby] like to find opportunities going to do, but there are always holes.”
for built-ins. Their two favorite places to stash storage space are in the low Meanwhile, Snyder’s biggest surprise was that the ADU isn’t as obtrusive
areas where the roof meets the exterior wall and under a staircase. as he feared it might be. “I thought there would be this looming behemoth,” he
The latter was a hit with Snyder and Ellenz. “One cool thing we did was we put says. “I worried that we were going to have this horrendous structure looming
two drawers under the lowest part of the stairway that are accessible from the over our kitchen. But what it did was it create three spaces in our backyard.
main part of the ADU,” Snyder remarks. “It’s way cool! It’s how I’d like to work It’s helped give better shape to our yard, like a plaza.”
with the rest of the ADU if we ever get serious about improving the storage.” There’s not much to be unhappy about. Ellenz says that if she had it to
do over again, she’d do the floors differently. The concrete slab is polished
Points of view and the couple anticipated it would be bomb-proof,
Snyder’s biggest frustration was finding contractors but they’ve discovered that any stain becomes
that were as tuned into energy-efficient building permanent. They would still probably use concrete,
practices as he was. Project Stats but might seal it differently or install another
“I felt like I had a vision for the project that wasn’t material such as tile on top, she notes.
fully understood or maybe even shared by the OWNERS: Steve Snyder Snyder and Ellenz were definitely thrilled with
builder,” he notes. “We had to have the plumber redo and Jackie Ellenz the end result—in more ways than one. “It’s a great
the plumbing—they were doing pipe installation in LOCATION: Grant Park, Portland, OR space,” Snyder says. “I’m really, really happy with it and
a way that sucked up wall space and had too many TYPE: Detached new construction we did some cool stuff with it. But the highlight for me
penetrations. The window framing was overdone, USE: Guest house, art studio was getting the damn thing done!” GB
which meant that we had thermal bridging where it SQUARE FOOTAGE: 800
wasn’t necessary. So they had to tear it out and redo it. This story is an edited version of one that appears
I definitely had to stay on top of things the whole time.” YEAR BUILT: 2012 on the Accessory Dwellings website and is being
That frustration was offset by the pleasure of DESIGNER: Greg and Libby Holah reused by permission. Author Lina Menard is a small
having the Holahs as their designers. TOTAL COST: $155,000 house dweller, designer, blogger, builder and owner
“[Greg and Libby] were great, really helpful,” Snyder of Niche Consulting LLC, in Portland, Ore.

www.greenbuildermedia.com May/June 2019 GREEN BUILDER 45

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