Snyder House RANCH DRESSING by Greg Acker

Kent and Phyllis Snyder bought their 1951 ranch style house in Portland in 1999 because they liked the neighborhood and the big lot with excellent south sun pouring into the living room facing the street. With a child on the way and outgrowing their small floating home, the Snyders were looking for a house to retrofit with passive solar space heat, thereby fulfilling a goal Kent had held for over 20 years

The house looks due south and had entered the market on Phyllis' birthday. We knew we could create the home of our dreams with the size of the lot and house style, says Kent.

From the beginning, Kent and Phyllis knew how they wanted to remodel the house: a passive solar home with a full-meal-deal of sustainable design features to make living lightly on the earth a daily activity. Fast forward to the present and you find them completing the long-anticipated renovation. The renovation was slowed down temporarily by the birth of their two young children. But the added time gave them opportunities to make the house better.

They hired architect Greg Acker to design the renovation. They told Greg they really weren't attached to the style of the home and wanted to solve the problem of the steep driveway on the east end that was tight and difficult to maneuver. They wanted a make-over.

The first design move was to relocate the attached garage from the east end and detach it on the west, cutting into the slope for a level driveway. The former garage end of the house became the new bedroom wing with a new master bedroom expanding into the back yard. The roof over the living room in the center of the house was to be raised to contrast with the low, ranch-style proportions and was to become the solar collection room with large south facing windows and a tiled, concrete floor.

Kent and Phyllis wanted a rainwater harvesting system which would store rainwater, filter and treat it with ultraviolet light, and use it for all potable uses within the house including drinking and cooking. So the first design capitalized on that esthetic with a water flume as a distinct, sculptural element along the entire front of the house, emptying the water into a round, above grade cistern.

It was a perfectly fine design, keeping much of the original feel of a ranch style house. says Phyllis.

Kent and Phyllis were pleased with the design, so Greg recruited architect Thia Bankey and architectural designer Andrew Olds to help refine it and execute the construction drawings. After several months of work and collaboration, the drawings were done and everyone was happy. Or at least they thought.

During a lunch meeting six months later, Andrew told Greg he had a new idea for the Snyder house. Andrew sketched his idea on the placemat. It was a rough little sketch but enough to convince Greg it was idea worth exploring.

The idea was to keep the footprint of the existing house as it was and add an addition to the front towards the street. It would require a front yard setback adjustment from the City, which had to be approved by all nearby neighbors. A bit of a gamble. But it gave the Snyders what they really wanted: a complete facelift that disguised the ranch style house behind. Plus, the idea of retaining most of the shell of the existing house was a strong sustainable design strategy.

The flume would be replaced by a dynamic sloping roof for rainwater harvesting. The living room would remain, but a dramatic high solarium would be added between the living room and the street. The master bedroom? Moved from the back to the front of the house, containing a loft for the home's only two-story portion. Bingo. No more ranch house.

What to do? Not share the idea with the Snyders? They had already paid for completed construction drawings for the first design. They were ready for permits. Ethical quandary. Build something that may not be the best design or take the extra effort to explore this new design idea? Before the lunch was over, the choice was made: go for it. Andrew's new idea was too good to be ignored.

Greg, Andrew and Thia collaborated on the new design without telling the Snyders. They worked without compensation to redesign the house and build a model. When they were done a month later, and with some trepidation, they presented the new design to the Snyders. Kent and Phyllis were excited by the new design.

We always wanted a more contemporary house style. The new design was such a change from the ranch that we really got excited to get started, says Phyllis.

Without looking back, the Snyders forged ahead. After getting their neighbors' consent, they asked David Berniker to write the front yard setback adjustment application for the City. Greg, Andrew and their architect-friend Narada Golden pitched in with interior design ideas. With Greg, Andrew and Thia too busy to do the second round of architectural drawings, they hired architectural designer Tim Williams. They hired landscape architect Pat Lando to design the rainwater harvesting system and landscape. Structural engineer Tim Covert revised his structural design. They also hired interior designer Bonnie Bruce to help and obtained valuable energy design assistance from Charlie Stephens at the Oregon Department of Energy. It takes a village to raise a house!

The second set of architectural drawings, rainwater harvesting and landscape drawings, structural engineering, and interior design drawings brought many challenges including the sad and untimely death of Tim. But eventually all drawings were complete and a permit issued. After finding contractor Rick Quirin of Ground Up Developers, the project was off and running in September 2004. Finally on to construction!

We have remained open-minded about how long the remodel would take. In order for the project to turn out the way we wanted, we could not rush it, says Kent.

So, what is this house all about? It's about solar and sustainability. It's a model of what others can do with their own renovations to create a home which harvests solar energy and rainwater, is well insulated and energy efficient, incorporates healthy materials, and creates an uplifting, bright interior by bringing sunlight deep into the house.

The goal is a carbon neutral house meaning no fossil fuels are burned to create global- warming CO2s. Back yard photovoltaic panels, to be installed next year, will assist with electricity production, with additional purchased electricity coming from renewable green power. If the electric loads can be minimized, the house may become a net zero energy house producing as much electric energy annually as it consumes.

How do you heat such a house? An efficient electric heat pump heats hot water which is delivered through flexible plastic tubing in the tiled concrete floors for radiant heating. Sunlight hitting the concrete thermal mass floors augments the radiant heating. The solarium can be closed off from the living room when necessary.

And cooling? In addition to deciduous plants shading the south windows in summer, cross ventilation and high windows in the solarium provide night flushing when summer nighttime temperatures drop and the thermal mass exhausts the heat stored from the day. That cool mass keeps the house comfortable the next day.

We are ending up with a beautiful, energy efficient home that will be inexpensive to operate and a joy to live in and that harvests one of our city's most abundant natural resources - rain, says Kent.