Construction Diary: It Took a Decade, But Their Experimental, DIY Home Was Worth the Wait
Twelve years ago, Holly Freres and David Horning were renting a house by architect Dale Farr in the leafy neighborhood of Dunthorpe, in southwest Portland, Oregon. As designers themselves—she is owner of the firm JHL Design, where she oversees interiors and he runs the architecture side—they longed to create a home of their own, which would be a better long-term fit for themselves, their four children, and two hunting dogs.
They started searching in the neighborhood, and they eventually discovered an abandoned 1956 property listed as a "serious fixer"—which ultimately turned into more of a rebuild.
Before: Holly Freres and David Horning, both of JHL Design, bought this abandoned 1956 "fixer upper" on a .69-acre Portland lot for $285,000 in 2012. "This is after the bank had come in and actually cleaned it up," says David.
Holly and David met while working on an early LEED-certified project, and they were eager to experiment with sustainable building strategies while balancing splurges (like soaring windows and hydronic radiant floor heat) with more cost-effective construction measures (like having David act as general contractor).
The couple completed the project in phases, with years-long breaks in between to build their budget back up. The first phase took a year and a half—seven months for demolition, planning, and permitting; and ten months for building, ending in a 2014 move-in. In the next phase, they landscaped the three-quarter-acre lot, and in 2020 they built a backyard "casita" flex space for guests, an office, a home gym, and a sauna. Holly and David recount their decade-long experience below.
Before: Holly and David stand in front of the home during the deconstruction process.
Finding the Property
Holly: There are very few empty lots in the neighborhood, and it’s pretty small. We were lucky enough to find a home that was in really bad disrepair.
David: The price point in this neighborhood was really high. One day I was looking at Zillow, and there was this property that popped up for $285,000, which was significantly less than anything else. We didn’t know where the road was; I couldn’t find it at first. The property was completely overgrown. There were trees blocking the driveway so that when you drove in, branches were hitting the top of the car. It was just a dump. And I looked at it, and I said: "Well, this is it. This is the place."
Before: The couple used the home’s original foundation and added a small addition of about 700 square feet, for a new total of 3,610 square feet.
Evaluating the Infrastructure
David: It was bad, but it was an opportunity because it had electrical and sewer connections, and a driveway. It was a way to do a ground-up project, but have a little bit of infrastructure already in place.
Holly: We knew we could control our costs a lot more with a new construction project, instead of renovating something. That was important for us. We also really wanted something that we could make our own. Buying something that was already done didn’t feel right for our family, or for David and I, because we knew we would want to make it our own aesthetic.
Saving the Foundation
Holly: The shape of it, and the footprint was very conducive to what we needed. There was a sufficient number of bathrooms and bedrooms, and the kitchen was in a good position on the property—it was centered in the home. We did decide to do a small addition to put the main bedroom on the ground floor.
Even though we took the original house down to the foundation, we kept the original footprint of the lower level. It worked out well because we didn’t have to move any big functional systems—plumbing, for example. This was a big cost saver. It was miraculous that it worked so well with the new design.
David: We decided to deconstruct the original house and save the foundation, to reduce the amount that was going to end up in the landfill. We had somebody come out and scan the walls and check to make sure it had adequate rebar. It didn’t look very pretty, but it was functional. So, we decided, "Hey, it’s fit—why not reuse it?"
Before: Holly and David’s teenage sons help with the deconstruction process.
Deconstruction and Reuse
Holly: We had the house deconstructed by hand: basically, how you would build it, but backwards. You take off the roof shingles, then the plywood, the siding, and the interior finishes. We reused all of the interior paneling and wood. The house had some beautiful fir ceilings, so we reused that for the entrance and the front of the garage.
David: It had tongue-and-groove decking. We pulled out all the nails and set up a little shop to plane all the boards, refinish them, and then put them in place.
Holly: We had two teenage boys living at home with us at the time, and that was their summer job.
The rebuilt Idea House, designed by Holly Freres and David Horning of JHL design. The driveway is permeable to encourage good drainage; it’s made of crushed granite gravel set over a stabilization mat. The James Hardie exterior siding is painted in Benjamin Moore White Dove, and the entry and garage are clad in wood reclaimed from the existing home.
In the entry, a mirror handmade in India is joined by artwork by Patton Miller, an Urban Electric ceiling light, and a bench from Fourhands with a custom leather cushion.
General Contracting
David: I did the waterproofing on the basement walls, and put in the drains around the foundation. When we had the house framed, there were a lot of adjustments to the studs to get the walls all flat, and to do all the shimming. So, I did a lot of that busy work.
The rest of that process was just hiring subcontractors to do the work and then managing them. I didn’t do the concrete, but I was there while they were pouring it and overseeing that process. We had a friend that was a mechanical contractor and he came out and helped us with the radiant floor heat, and I laid the tubing on the weekend. We did everything we could to make the house as affordable as possible.
The living room has a vintage Milo Baughman couch with cushions fashioned from Angora mohair from Architex. The coffee table is vintage, as is the side table base, which sports a custom stone top. The Seneca table lamp is by Danny Kaplan, while the artwork over the couch is by Patton Miller.
A Bright Idea
Holly: We call it the Idea House. That came about because we really wanted to build a home that was as affordable and sustainable as we could. This was 10 years ago, so there were a lot of new things that were coming out at that time—like rainwater retention, using graywater, composting toilets, and solar. We really looked at what we could afford to do, and what would really benefit this specific site. Recycling as much materials as we could was the biggest arm that we could flex.
We looked at using rainwater and the cost and the size of the containers was doable, but it was only going to give us like six weeks of water in the summer. So, it was like, do we really want to spend $9,000 digging, and putting these containers in?
David: We even excavated for the tanks. We took it that far. Then we decided it wasn’t really going to benefit us.
Holly: For solar, we don’t get enough solar gain. We had the roof analyzed and it’s a lot of roof, but because of the shade pattern and the way the trees are in the sun, we just wouldn’t get enough solar to even get tax credits for it.
The kitchen has Ikea cabinets with Colonial Bronze hardware and honed Carrara marble counters. Holly is adept at specifying a high-low mix for clients. The stools are by PNW maker Phloem Studios and the ceiling lights were sourced from OneFortyThree.
The backsplash tile is Dirk Elliot, and various decor items on the walls and shelves are from the couple’s travels in Indonesia, India, and Mexico.
Building for Energy Efficiency
David: We used an unvented attic assembly. Then we improved the R-value in the walls, and we used radiant floor heat throughout. The thermal mass of the concrete holds the heat and it’s a very efficient way to heat the home. It’s been such a great system.
The unvented attic assembly was a brand-new thing in the code. The insulation envelope is right up tight against the roof, and the mechanical equipment is up in the attic. You go up in the attic in the hottest summer day and it’s not hot. [There’s also a heat recovery ventilation system, which allows heat reuse from exhausted air, and introduces fresh air inside.] It’s been very successful, but it was an experiment.
The covered patio creates an indoor/outdoor flow conducive to the PNW climate. The table is surrounded by Blu Dot chairs, and the hanging light is from Urban Electric.
In the primary bedroom, 10-foot-tall doors from Sierra Pacific open to a patio.
The same oversized doors are in the primary bathroom, alongside a soaking tub from Victoria & Albert and porcelain In Essence tile in Sabbia.
The patio outside the primary suite is made of bluestone pavers. The gabion walls were "a cost-effective way to build retaining walls, which we needed because of the slope, and for privacy," says David.
Spending & Saving
Holly: We had to make some big choices on where to spend and where to save. All the floors are concrete. I initially wanted hardwood floors, but to treat the foundation they had to pour concrete anyway. To put hardwood on top of that would have doubled the price. It saved us about $50k.
I really value the age and patina of natural stone, so I thought it was important to make room for it in the budget. There is so much more life and movement in natural stone vs the synthetic alternatives.
Since the house is streamlined and modern with just a handful of materials, lighting was so important. We used fixtures from Urban Electric, Allied Maker, and Mathew McCormick to add interest.
David: Phase Two [the casita] was a splurge, and we splurged on modified hemlock instead of cedar in the sauna.
Holly: A warm sauna is how we survive the wet, chilly Pacific Northwest winters.
The guest bedroom, as well as other parts of the house, have a plywood accent wall. "My family's in the plywood business and they have been making plywood for over a hundred years," says Holly. "This is not your typical Home Depot plywood. This is really clear with a nice veneer on it. We were able to do a special run of plywood that had a really beautiful grain to it, and it adds so much richness to our home." The sconces are from Cedar & Moss.
Keeping It Simple
Holly: We wanted a really simple palette for our home because we have a lot of wonderful art pieces that are colorful and dynamic. Obviously, I am going to change the furniture a lot, and we have a lot of furniture and accessories from our travels.
We wanted a base layer that we could populate with color. And with four kids, there’s just so much going on that we needed a simple, streamlined palette.
The landscaping was added between the construction of the main house and the casita.
The couple added a playhouse sided in hemlock in 2021, during the pandemic.
A view from the courtyard near the casita, which the couple built in 2020.
The casita gave the family 1,095 square feet of flexible space for guests, a home office where they can host firm meetings, and an exercise area with a traditional Finnish sauna.
Fir plywood from Freres Lumber joins Ikea cabinets. The figure painting is by Dylan Dean.
Floor Plan of Idea House by JHL Design
More Construction Diary stories:
A Maine Designer Builds His Family’s Home Completely by Hand
This Architect’s "Fugly" Beach House Has the Most Exquisitely Crafted Kitchen
The Founder of a Cabin Rental Company Builds a Fire Island Retreat of His Own
Project Credits:
Builder: David Horning
Structural Engineer: CSE Engineering
Landscape Design: JHL Design
Interior Design: JHL Design / @jhldesign
Published
Last Updated
Get the Dwell Newsletter
Be the first to see our latest home tours, design news, and more.