The architects designed the new house to cantilever slightly over the 20-foot-wide-by-32-foot-long foundation, adding 100 square feet to the first level. The extra square footage allowed the architects to include a full, accessible bathroom and a bedroom (with a stacked washer and dryer in a laundry closet) on the 1000-square-foot first level. Fisher and Wielgorecki anticipate that someday they will live solely on the main level, so the architects addressed those aging-in-place concerns. Currently, the lower-level bedroom is the grandchildren's play area.

The architects also built upward with the home's design due to the foundation's constraints and the tight urban site. As such, the kitchen, dining, and living areas on the first level are open plan and face the backyard (and the couple's former house). The home's spacious double-height volume, with a large window looking into the leafy canopy of a mature oak tree, gives the home an airy feel while bringing in abundant daylight.

"Because the windows project out, the house feels bigger," Fisher says. "The house is basically a gabled box with windows that are purposefully asymmetrical and arranged to block the neighbors on either side." The asymmetrical gable roof and exterior walls of the home's two-by-six wood frame are packed with closed-cell spray foam insulation. The house is clad in gray corrugated and standing-seam metal panels.

The home isn't a certified Passive House but fulfills many Passive House qualifications. The mechanicals includes an electric ComfortMaker SoftSound heating and cooling unit, along with a highly efficient heat pump air-exchanger. The home has LED lights and an electric kitchen range. Interior finishes include maple hardwood floors and white-painted walls.

For now, though, the couple "uses every square inch of the house," Fisher adds. Having achieved a low-carbon life, he adds, "It's great living in this all-electric house."