Couple incorporates cutting-edge water-savers in their home
Looking for a new home and a new challenge, the couple decided to distill everything they had learned into a house they could call their own. They bought a hillside lot in Mount Washington in early 2008, broke ground on the project in 2009 and moved into the new house this April. The 2,400-square-foot house cost them about $250 per square foot to build, a relatively modest amount given the features that have been incorporated into the design.
The couple let California's scarcity of two resources ? power and water ? shape the design philosophy for a home that already was steeped in a minimalist, Bauhaus aesthetic. In Germany, electricity costs more than double what it costs in L.A. and water prices are 13 times higher, so it made sense for the couple to start there. (cont.)