Published by Martha Danly under Green Building, Kitchen, LEED, Sustainability

Efficiency. Not a word that usually makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Yet David and Sara Gottfried have applied the genius of “and” by making their award-winning home welcoming, comfy, and highly efficient.

You might say that highly efficient is an understatement, since the Gottfrieds’ restoration of their 1915 Craftsman home elevated the house’s status to the highest green rating in the U.S., as defined by its LEED Platinum certification and its GreenPoint Rating. (For newcomers to these rating systems, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a certification program of the U.S. Green Building Council; GreenPoint Rating is the like-minded program of Build It Green.)

In a recent house tour, David showcased the home’s efficient use of energy, water, and space, focusing on the least sexy topic of the three—space. For a family of four living in a house with only 1,460 square feet, every inch must count.

David noted that between the 1950s and today, the American house has increased in average size from 350 square feet per person to almost triple that number: 900. So how can we learn to live with less space and enjoy it more?

The Gottfrieds made many adjustments to make their living space hyper-efficient. While the changes are based on commonsense principles, they require a talented eye for design to get the layout right. It couldn’t hurt that David approaches layout from an engineer’s standpoint, using his degree in Engineering and Resource Management from Stanford University. Here are a few examples that impressed me most:

Eliminate waste. Walking in the front door, you enter the mudroom, a large transition zone where boots, umbrellas, backpacks, purses, and packages can be dropped, taken off, staged, and otherwise kept out of the house proper. The original porch is now a large entry, made especially gracious with a welcoming Buddha (the first of many I saw).

Share space. The dining room table is the center of gravity in the main living area. It’s used not only for meals, but also for homework, projects, and anything that needs horizontal space. There’s excellent line of sight and sound between the kitchen, dining room, and living room, so that everyone can camp out in his favorite spot yet remain connected. A few steps down from the kitchen is a combination family-laundry-guest room with a walkout to the garden.

(Re)move walls. Facing the small-room problem characteristic of old houses, the Gottfrieds were willing to move walls just a couple of feet to eliminate unnecessary hallways and frame each room’s proportions just so. Despite the limited space, they actually added a powder room, combining bits of space they scavenged from a hallway and a bedroom. They also opened the wall between the kitchen and dining room to integrate the common living areas.

Fight clutter. One of the many typical benefits of a Craftsman home is built-in cupboards that help keep the number of free-floating objects to a minimum. An enlarged closet in the master bedroom borrowed space from another bedroom, and the mudroom mentioned above is a key clutter killer.

Bring the outside in. As I entered the master bedroom, my gaze was drawn at once through the French doors and into the rear garden. The outside comes right into the room through the doors that had replaced an ordinary window, while the new deck just outside enlarges the room, too.

Move the inside out. The deck contains one of my favorite features of the house, an outdoor shower. David confesses that he uses it even when no one is home, so it’s not just a backup for bathing in a crowded house. Also, by moving his office into a freestanding LifePod by Kyu Che in the garden, David gets both privacy and proximity for his work.

Get more for less. Reinforcing the attic floor and adding pull-down stairs was a simple way to increase easy-access storage at very low cost. The entry point is centrally located, and it takes just seconds to pull down the stairs—a big space savings versus a full stairway.

Stick with the program. For a period the Gottfrieds considered building a second story, but dropped the idea when the additional time, money, and risk weighed too heavily on the remodeling project. And looking back at their original intent, it seemed more consistent to live within the space they had acquired.

Mind feng shui. In respect of the ancient Chinese aesthetic practice of feng shui, the front door was re-hinged so that it now opens in, welcoming visitors. The radiator in the mudroom is powder-coated gold so as to attract positive Qi, or energy. If you’re unsure or skeptical about this very old art, just consider that many of its recommendations are practical at the very least.

The Gottfrieds have greened their home from the inside out. Many of its sustainable qualities are inherent, designed into its highly livable floor plan, location, and siting. Yet for all its intangible greenness there’s also much on the surface to enjoy—the finish materials, furnishings, lighting, and so on—what Sara calls ‘eco-bling’.

Eco-bling is fun and tells a green story every time you use it; maybe that’s why we love it so much. And that’s where we pick up our story in the next blog. Stay tuned!

Images courtesy of David and Sara Gottfried