Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott's green dream home.	Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott achieved the Living Building Challenge’s imperatives with their green dream home.	A constructed wetland helps process the home’s graywater

Homeowners Barbara Scott and Tom Elliott were so taken by McLennan’s vision after hearing him on a National Public Radio broadcast that they returned to the drawing board with their building project, which was initially planned to be LEED-certified. Motivated by cost concerns, they also downsized the house by one-third.

Their home‚ Desert Rain, was designed to LBC standards from the ground up. The main residence went from two stories to one, in part to expand the roof area for rainwater collection, and the project evolved into an ambitious “residential compound” with a main house and two accessory dwellings.

For their designer, Al Tozer, who’d been practicing sustainable design for nearly 20 years, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. “Instead of picking one or few design tools,” says Tozer, “it was like dumping the toolbox upside-down on the floor and saying, ‘We’re going to use all of these.’”

The main house design includes staggered-stud 2-by-4 double walls that were insulated with spray-foam, for 8- to 12-inch-thick walls insulated to R-36 to R-47. A concrete floor provides thermal mass to store passive solar gain. In the summer, deep overhangs prevent direct sunlight from heating the space; well-placed windows provide good cross-ventilation for passive cooling. The arid climate—Bend’s average annual precipitation is 9 inches—drove parts of the design, including the large roof area for rainwater collection, constructed wetland, graywater storage cistern, and 35,000-gallon potable water cistern, which is housed under the two-car garage.

The couple has enjoyed the collaboration among team members and says the LBC has challenged many of their subcontractors. For instance, when the stucco contractor couldn’t source exterior plaster that complied with Red List and Appropriate Sourcing criteria, he created a new product from local materials.

Scott and Elliott have embraced the Beauty petal’s second imperative: education and inspiration. Early on, the couple reached out to the local paper, the Bend Bulletin, which has been publishing a series of articles following the home’s construction. The couple hosts about four tours a month, and plans to use the property as an educational venue.

The masonry wall and newly planted tree memorialize a Ponderosa pine that was sacrificed for the project.	A batteryless grid-tied 14.8 kW PV system provides abundant electricity to meet the home and accessory dwelling unit’s needs.	An eight-collector solar water heating system (not pictured) provides hot water for the hydronic floors.