Shed Demolition

Our trusty shed, which was built in 1994 and has served us so well for the 11 years we've lived here, came down earlier this week.

Joe (our builder) destroying the shed from the inside out

All that's left at the end of the day is a giant pile of debris! I spent some time with a hammer and prybar salvaging 2x4s and plywood for a small addition I'm making to our new (and much smaller) shed

The next day Marilyn's recycling came by and took away the debris

Looking to the northwest, it really opens up the yard!

Looking from the alley to the northeast

After Excavation

Once the ground prep work started, things changed fast--the fence came down, trenches were excavated for the water, sewer, and electrical connections, the chicken coop and trampoline were relocated, and giant mounds of dirt were piled up throughout the yard.

View to the southeast from the upper deck. You can see the rough outline of the cottage excavated in the dirt.

View to the east from the upper deck

View to the west from the lower deck. The pile of dirt is about 3-4' high and parallels the trench that leads from the meters on the side of the house to the cottage site

That's a lotta dirt!

Before Excavation

This is what our backyard looked like before construction (and demolition!) began.

View to the south from the upper deck

View to the southwest from the upper deck

View to the east from the upper deck

View to the northeast from the yard

View to the east from the yard

View to the northwest from the back fence

View to the southwest from the new bike shed

View of the fence from the alley

The Plan, and the Design

We are building a cottage in our backyard. The City of Seattle allows for the construction of DADUs (detached accessory dwelling units) in backyards of lots that are 4,000+ sf in size. Our lot (barely) qualifies, and we had been considering investing in real estate somewhere in Seattle. However, the prices of housing and commercial properties have skyrocketed over the past several years and we could not afford to purchase anything. However, we could build a rental property on our own land!

After discussing the pros and cons at length, we decided to go for it. We interviewed three architects and decided to work with Matt Hutchins at CAST Architects. They have experience designing backyard cottages and their offices are located really close to our house.

Matt and his colleagues generated several designs for us and we chose our favorite. After receiving construction bids from a couple of builders, we realized that even construction costs have escalated dramatically and we would have to scale down the design. Again, Matt did a great job of keeping the spirit of the design intact while scaling down the size and complexity.

Here is the final design, from three different angles:

From the southwest

From the northeast

From the northwest

The location of the cottage within the yard (it is in the lower right)

The cottage will be built by Joe Syverson of Viking Construction and a number of subcontractors.

Our plan is to rent the cottage after construction is completed at the end of summer. Maybe we will rent it out through AirBnB. Years from now, perhaps when the boys are in college, we will move in to it and rent out the big house.  But mostly, we just like the flexibility of having a second housing unit on our property!