When designing your home, I think it is important to look at how you want to use the space, rather than automatically accepting current popular house designs. When we discussed the floor plan and features of the house I imagined, some of my requests surprised the architect. He was focused on making something beautiful, but I was focused on making something that worked well with my medical issues. I wanted the design to be attractive, but if I had to choose between design and function, function always won. Here is a description of the features we incorporated:
In addition to being chemically sensitive I have several autoimmune issues, and I’ve been told I may end up in a wheelchair. With that possibility in mind, the house includes universal design elements, such as an open floor plan, wide hallways, and ADA-compliant thresholds.
I do not have a partner or children, my parents are dead, and my siblings live 2,000+ miles away. Realistically, I expect to be the only person living in the house. The house therefore had to be small enough and simple enough for me to clean and maintain mostly on my own, since fragrance-free cleaning crews who use fragrance-free products are rare.
Contractors and visitors who enter my home might bring fragrance with them, which can take days to clear. The mechanical room therefor has an exterior door to reduce the number of fragrant people who have to enter the house to make repairs. In addition, the entryway has an interior door with an airtight seal, so guests can leave any coats or packages with fragrance on them there without having the fragrance drift into the rest of the house.
Because the fragrance issue makes it difficult for me to have guests in my home, the kitchen and living room are smaller than is typical. And, the kitchen cabinets only go halfway up the 10-ft walls. I am 5’4″ and I need to be able to access the cabinets without falling off a step stool.
The master bedroom is also much smaller than is usual; technically it is nonexistent. It is a room that is used just for sleeping, with only my bed and an air filter in it. To reduce dust accumulation in the bedroom, my clothes closet is incorporated into the laundry area. Because the bedroom does not have a closet, the county permitting office does not classify it as a bedroom at all. On the county’s plans it is a study.
I only need one bathroom, but it is bifurcated into a dry powder room and a wet area that holds my bathtub, shower and sauna. The entire room for the wet area is tiled in unsealed soapstone, and it constitutes the sauna chamber.
The architect designed two structures, a residence and a detached garage located some distance from the house. Because the garage is the area with the poorest air quality, it is detached. Most people in the Pacific Northwest want an attached garage or a garage with a breezeway so they can get into their house in the rain or snow without getting wet, but I don’t want car exhaust or other fumes working their way into my home. I prefer to get wet.
The original design for the garage called for two rooms at the back, a pump room for my well water equipment and filtration system and an offgas room for things that have to stop smelling before they can be brought into the house. The offgas room was to have an interior barrier between it and the rest of the garage, so it didn’t pick up fumes from the garage, and a dutch door to facilitate ventilation. However, due to the pandemic, the garage was not built until almost four years after the house was completed. By then my health had improved so much that I no longer needed an offgas room.
I did not want a wood frame house, as over time those houses smell musty to me. In addition, I can’t handle the products needed to maintain wood floors, wooden window frames, etc. I therefor chose Faswall insulating concrete forms as a building material for both the house and the garage. Both structures have a metal roof (with fir trusses isolated above the ceiling) and Hardie cement board siding. The house has an unpolished and unsealed concrete floor with a hydronic heating system. As a backup heating system there is a Tulikivi masonry heater. The interior sides of all the Faswall walls are finished in unpainted clay plaster, which helps to regulate moisture in the house. The 14” thick walls provide soundproofing, and they do a terrific job of keeping the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter, without a heat pump, forced air system, or air conditioning. Ceiling fans and open windows, plus an air exchange system, provide adequate ventilation.
There are no gas or propane appliances in the house. I am chemically sensitive in part because I lived with a low grade gas leak for over ten years. Everything runs on electricity. I was told that a solar system was not realistic in this area, but I’m no longer sure that is accurate. It is something I will investigate after I have recovered financially from building the house and garage.
Here is an early version of the floor plan, excerpted from the building permit. During constrution the laundry area was rearranged.
A less expensive version of my house might eliminate the studio area and entryway, folding the front door into the space between the dining area and the masonry heater, and connect the front and back porches. That would create a smaller house, with only one roof.
When I was still considering a prefab home, I had a different design in mind. I pictured two units joined by a breezeway that could be enclosed with screens in good weather and with storm windows or doors during inclement weather. One unit would house any rooms that might generate moisture, such as the kitchen, laundry, shower and sauna. The other unit would have a less elaborate heating and ventilation system, and it would house the bedrooms, living room, and other rooms that did not get damp. The breezeway would be a place to entertain visitors, to eat meals, or to enjoy an almost-outdoor nap. There would be a detached garage, some distance from the house. A design like that would work well for someone who is still very reactive, but because there would be three roofs involved (four with the garage) it would be more expensive to build.
“What about resale value?” you may ask. That is a valid question, and it was asked by the architect and the contractor, as well as the bank when I applied for a construction loan. The loan application was rejected on the ground that the house was not marketable. The bank was troubled by the detached garage, the bifurcated bathroom elements, and the lack of an obvious master bedroom.
I expect to live in my home until I die, so I am not particularly worried about resale value. I included a guest bedroom in part because I hope to someday recover to the point of being able to entertain overnight guests, but also because if I ever experience a medical problem that requires a live-in attendant I want a place for that person to stay.
When I die I hope my house is sold to another chemically sensitive person. If that cannot be done, adjustments can be made to bring the house more in line with conventional expectations. For example, the wall between the two bedrooms can be removed, creating one large master bedroom with a closet. The concrete floor can be polished and sealed, or a new floor can be installed over the concrete. The studio area I use as my office and workout space could re-purposed as a large family room or entertainment space. And, additional cabinets could be installed in the kitchen.
As you are making decisions about the materials and features you want for your house, it is a good idea to check in with your local building permit office. They may have requirements that are unexpected or inconsistent with your plans. For example, I initially wanted to build with autoclaved aerated concrete, but ACC does not meet the minimum insulation value required by Kitsap County; it is more suited to building in the Southwest. I was also surprised by the requirement of a water retention cell. And,, when all of the required setbacks were taken into account, the only place to drill the well was in the front yard, so I had to design around that. Finally, some jurisdictions now require heat pumps or air conditioning in new buildings, neither of which was part of my plan.