With our home addition and renovation project, we wanted nothing less than to create a template for sustainable home construction. At the same time, we hoped to demystify the process and make it comprehensible and achievable for the average home renovator or builder. We placed sustainability at the forefront of our renovation plans.

We did not want to create a “scary” (atypical) renovation which would not be desirable for the average home renovator but rather one that would not look out of place on the pages of a high-end shelter magazine. We wished to create a home for a typical Western Canadian Family of typical means, which would significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the renovation process as well as of the finished house. At the same time, we believed that improved environmental performance and features would by themselves not have the desired impact unless the completed house could stand on its own as a compelling piece of design.

Though the ambitions of the project were great, the scope was quite small. We bought our house in 1999; it was a very ordinary 1,400 square foot, spec-built rancher (3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom). One of the objectives of the project was to demonstrate that a family of four can live happily and comfortably in a house of less than 2,000 square feet. It is an often quoted statistic that since 1950 the average size of the North American family home has been increasing while the average size of the North American family has been declining. The owners added only 350 square feet to the house – bringing the total to 1,750 square feet. However, the interior was extensively renovated and replanned by adding a second bathroom and a den/office/bedroom. One of the fundamental environmental strategies was to live well with less!

Architect and homeowner: Kevin Hanvey, MAIBC, Architect and Principal at Omicron
Sustainability Consultant and homeowner: Helen Goodland, MBA, Executive Director of Lighthouse, the Sustainable Building Centre