Boggy Creek Backhouse
Motivated by their passion for missing middle housing, Frank and Katie approached Moontower with the desire to build an ADU at the back of their generous boggy creek lot. The separate structure offers privacy for their renters and guests and provides additional income for them. Their original home is CMU construction and had steel casement windows and a hip roof. They had been careful to update interior finishes without altering the historic features of their home (door hardware, casement windows, and fireplace) which made their home the ideal showcase on the Austin Preservation Tour in 2018. Many of the homes in the neighborhood were built with the same method and aesthetic and are slight modifications to a standard plan. It was important to the clients that the new structure (although built with light wood frame structure) resemble the neighborhood context of stucco exterior walls and hip roofs. The back house is compact with a roughly 400sf footprint while using 15' tall walls for a cozy sleeping loft. The interior is painted white to reflect daylight from a few strategically placed windows, and the finish out is modest and spartan. Painted plywood steps, concrete floors, and reclaimed elements like the bathroom door, and a second hand dresser for the vanity were pragmatic and helped keep the project lean.