Sun Catcher
They loved apples and the proximity to an open meadow provided just the incentive needed to build a working out building to service the growing orchard. Macs , Grannies and best of all Jonathons were holding their own on the well fertilized organic compost! The one story profile was complimented by a four and a half foot hip roof that was whimsically shingled to resemble the cottage in an old English countryside. Windows on all sides flooded light into the thermal insulated and heated floor. With the aid of a recycled wood stove the solar heating was supplemented by wood on those days when the place needed a human presence to balance the cats laird.
Four rain barrels caught most of the irrigation necessary and a well placed dry/wet surface runoff ditch helped divert the remainder needed. He had loved to play in the rain as a child and the opportunity to sink bare feet into the softening soil was too much to resist. Recently he was seen again with his bare feet. A song accompanied his cadent bounce and the tune was mistakenly that of a not so distant 1950's childhood.
A fondness for playful architecture planned this house from entry garden path to nine pane country cottage windows. Using triple insulated glazing, the heat loss is minimized and the light gratefully worshiped in what would be the traditionally darkened recesses of a subdivision house! When window openings are not practical a tube or skylight opening serves similar humanizing purpose. Uniquely designed the light plays a drama of its own as the colors dance from one opening to the next. With a rainbow of created light openings the cat seems to move from couch to chair to window seat in smooth defiance to the resident humans verbal warnings of disapproval.