“Sweet Spot” House. 1148 square feet. One and a half stories. Three bedrooms, two full bathrooms. Ground floor: entry vestibule, full bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, dining/sitting space, laundry space. Upper floor: two bedrooms, full bathroom.

We met a single mom, a bookkeeper with modest income, dreaming of a comfortable, affordable, sweet home for her family. Her children were teenagers — mom and kids could use spaces of their own. She wasn’t ready to build – but her story inspired us to design a compact, energy-efficient home with living spaces and one bedroom on the ground floor, and two more bedrooms with a second bathroom on the upper floor, another “realm.” This design offers a lot of livability in a modest area and roof space for enough solar panels to make “Zero Net Energy” a possibility. This design could be adapted so a single person or couple could live downstairs and use the upper floor for work, rooms to rent, or other needs. We think it would be a “Sweet Spot” to live. How about you?