Citys first certified passive house is also a fun family home

IT WAS ALL those 1990s town homes that seemed to go up overnight. The ones packed as tight as a box of Oreos. Puzzle pieces for parking garages.

Really? thought Sloan Ritchie.

At the time, he was a burned-out engineer in need of inspiration. (His girlfriend and now wife, Jennifer Karkar Ritchie, urged him onward. I said, Quit. Do what you love. I did the corporate thing. It was soulless, she says.)

And, inspired by all the low-quality houses, he did.

Long story short, today were sitting in the result of Sloans professional reinvention as a developer and contractor his familys bright, spacious home in Madison Park. A thoroughly modern house that heats and cools using no conventional furnace or air-conditioning, by its very definition a passive house. A place, 2,710 square feet, that they heated last winter using the clothes dryer.

Really.

In a move thats one part science project and one part five-year family plan (the couple have two young children), Sloan has built Seattles first certified passive house. It sits close to the water, a tall contemporary among homes stately and old. The groundbreaking project, so to speak, was a joint effort between his Cascade Built and NK Architects, Marie Ljubojevic lead designer.

Some of the things I like most about it have nothing to do with a passive house, he says. I love being near the water. I stand-up paddleboard; when you do that theres no cellphone.

But when winter rolls around I love not using a furnace.

The Ritchies home has many sustainable features: an ash tree on the property has been remade into stair treads, wall paneling and window sills; paint is no-VOC; floors are bamboo; the fireplace is bioethanol; cooktop is induction; native drought-tolerant plantings instead of thirsty lawn; composite exterior decking; wiring for solar power and plumbing for thermal water.

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Citys first certified passive house is also a fun family home