- We live in Shoreline,
which is the next town north of Seattle.
We just love the sort of outdoorsy lifestyle,
fishing for salmon, and crabbing.
- Puget Sound, there's so much to do out here.
- The thing about Shoreline
is the lots are much, much larger
than in the higher-density areas of Seattle.
And so, it started from this inkling of an idea,
of just a simple studio square we can rent out,
you know, make some side-hustle cash on.
- We originally talked about a smaller structure.
It's not gonna be that much more expensive
to have it a little more livable,
and have a little bit higher square footage.
- And Sean told us, "I'm starting this new company
"to build backyard cottages with green building,
"and sustainable homes."
- It made us start to think, we can actually live in this,
versus, we're just gonna use this
as a rental for somebody else.
- We were only living upstairs
in the 900 square foot part of the home.
To lower our cost of living while renting out our home,
we were able to save up more money
now that we live in this space.
We're really changing the way we live
in a really positive way.
- The carbon impact of this home is very low.
We don't have any concrete foundation here.
I use something called Diamond Piers,
so there's 23 of those underneath this house.
That is the foundation of the house.
There was no excavators, no dust, no diesel.
- We were very impressed,
it was not a massive construction crew.
It was just Sean, and he was out here
hanging off the rafters of the roof,
single-handedly nailing the boards in.
- I framed this house out of almost all reclaimed lumber.
100 plus year old, mostly fir, from the region.
- Not only does it feel good to bring it back to life again,
but also feature it,
whether it's the front wall of the house,
or the inside wall when you walk in.
- [Sean] You know, the thing I love about reclaimed wood
is you see all the nail holes, and bolt holes,
and it's got some character to it.
- [Anna] Actually, some of the wood still has
like tree sap coming out of it from 100 years ago.
- When it was first being framed out,
I was looking at it, it was like,
"This is gonna be way too small."
Two rooms, one bathroom and living space.
But once the finishes started going in,
the flooring and everything, it felt perfect.
- You just feel cozy, and you feel homey,
and most people say,
"This doesn't even feel like 700 square feet,"
and they haven't even seen the bedrooms or the bathroom yet.
- I think the biggest way we made it feel bigger
is the ceiling height.
- When he first brought it to us
and showed us the initial render,
these are gonna be 13-foot ceilings,
it's gonna be really tall.
We were like, "Yes, absolutely do that."
Having a bunch of windows to have natural daylight
is so important here in Seattle.
- It feels bright and warm in here at the same time.
Our kitchen is incredibly functional.
And I was worried moving in here
that downsizing to a small apartment kitchen
would feel tight.
- We cook every night, and it doesn't feel smaller
than the big kitchen that we had before.
- There's a full pantry that you can open
with these deep drawers that allow you to access
and actually see your food.
This amazing spice rack, which I've always wanted.
We have a 24 inch sink, which I thought wast tiny,
but the deep sink actually allows you
to really use that space effectively.
- [Sean] These countertops are madrona wood,
it's a local, sustainably-sourced wood.
It's a very hard wood, durable.
- Sean really brought the vision for this project.
He brought the design, he brought the level of detail
to the green materials.
We were just gonna put cheap vinyl plastic floors in here.
The cork floors, I can't get enough of them.
I didn't think I would love them this much, but I just do.
They're cozy, they stay room temperature,
and they look really good,
and they hide all of the pet hair.
- Cork is a renewable resource.
They don't cut down cork trees,
they take the bark off, they process it,
the tree grows the bark back.
The cork is the bark.
- Houzz really allowed me to pull each room together
in a really cohesive way.
I love that I can pull up inspiration photos,
find products that fit within my space.
I had a lot of fun, as well, just designing my home.
So I found the perfect bar stools
at the right counter height.
Our couch is one of my favorite things,
in addition to the rug with it,
and seeing those paired next to each other
on the ideabook was so important.
The fabric is pet friendly.
- We actually didn't have a couch this nice before,
and now I wanna sleep on this thing all the time.
- [Sean] We didn't waste any space with hallways,
everything's sort of right off the core here.
- [Anna] The bathroom, there's heated floors,
I got my fun tile that I wanted,
and the clean lines of the shower wall
going up to a gorgeous window.
We have an office where Donovan works from home.
And then there's the bedroom, which I love,
because the window stares up at these evergreen trees.
We knew it was going to be a smaller room,
so you wanna make sure that
everything you're bringing in is functional and beautiful.
- [Donovan] We put in our own closet system.
Living in this small space,
it's really necessary to think about
what you're buying and where it's gonna go.
- It's a very functional use of space,
because of the items we've picked out,
and the design of this home with the tall ceilings
and the natural light, and the big open space.
I love that Sean incorporated
these French doors that open to the outside deck.
Outside time is so valuable
to people that live in the Northwest.
Believe it or not, when the sun comes out,
it does get warm here, it does get up to the 90s,
and rarely, the 100s,
and so I'm really excited to entertain
and host friends out on this beautiful deck.
- In green building, we wanna build houses
as airtight as possible.
I added a layer of exterior insulation
that wraps the house, it's outside the plywood,
covers all the studs,
so think of like a blanket around your house, right?
If you're cold in the winter,
do you wanna stuff insulation between your ribs,
or put on a jacket?
So this house has a jacket, okay.
It's two inches of mineral wool board.
For heating and cooling we're using a ductless heat pump,
also known as a mini-split.
In the bedrooms, we're using a radiant panel on the ceiling
that creates a radiant heat.
It kinda creates that sort of campfire, cozy warmth.
- The way he vacuum-sealed this house was very interesting.
He basically vaporizes caulking,
blows it throughout the house,
and it auto-seals the house.
- Really, it's like fixing a flat for your house.
Because it's so airtight, we wanna provide fresh air.
I'm doing that in this case through an ERV,
an energy recovery ventilator.
The recovery part is before that stale air,
which has been heated inside in the winter,
leaves the building,
it exchanges heat with the incoming air.
They don't mix, but the heat is transferred
to the incoming air.
So on a day like today, where it's 45 out,
instead of bringing in 45 degree air,
I'm bringing in 63 degree air,
or something like that, fresh air.
It's not creating heat, but it's recovering a lot of it,
so it's more comfortable, it's more energy-efficient.
- So we built a really strong friendship with Sean,
and we worked really closely together.
We never felt like we had to compromise on details,
we would give him feedback, and he would say,
"Oh, I have a way to make that work."
- It's very fulfilling to have that home finished,
the homeowners be very happy with it,
and walk in to a nice cozy home, and a nice space.
- We went from 1,800 square foot to 700 square foot.
- We decluttered our space, we decluttered our minds,
and we've been able to spend a lot more time
doing the things we love
and spending time with family and friends.
(gentle music)