Latest news: We purchased our first lot in August 2025 in Fort Collins, Colorado, and are currently in the design process of a ~1800 sf, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 story home with a detached garage. If you are interested in getting updates about our project and perhaps participating in design charretts or discussions about the various elements, and sharing data and information, please join our email list. We will use it only to send updates on our project and anyone can unsubscribe at any time.
Sashcara plans to build high-performance yet attainable homes in Northern Colorado. We want to help more families to enjoy the financial, social, and psychological benefits of owning an excellent home, for those homes to have a small environmental footprint, and for our communities to be stronger and more resilient as a result. And we just love to design and build.
We intend for those who work with us to earn a living wage, enjoy a high level of health and safety on the job, build valuable skills, and be treated with dignity and respect. We want to have a positive impact on everyone involved.
We believe we can achieve high performance through adherence to building-science best practice. We will keep costs as low as possible through intensive value engineering on a system level, and the utilization of innovative means, materials, and methods, to remove unnecessary and expensive material, labor, and schedule duration.
There will be tough choices as we address target conflicts (situations where achievement of one target directly reduces achievement of another target, and vice versa), and optimization must be done on the entire system level. For instance, we want highly resilient roofs, but too heavy a gauge of steel would reduce affordability. And, we aspire to have high energy efficiency largely through a highly insulated building envelope, but we also want ample natural light from windows, which unfortunately are not well insulated (and/or are ultra expensive). Fortunately some very important targets are complementary, though - for example, great insulation and air sealing increases comfort and sustainability, and decreases operating cost every month for the life of the home, and can be acheived at a reasonable up-front cost.
The table below is a rough draft outline of the eight top considerations for our homes. They are listed in rough order of priority, but we work hard on all eight. Homes are the most expensive thing most of us buy, so it's worth the effort to get them right. We share our aspirations as an invitation to others who might collaborate with us in one or more areas. We welcome input and suggestions and are eager to learn from and share information and learnings with others who share our vision. For instance, do you think any important Key Measures are missing? As we dive into detailed design, we would love constructive debate and criticism regarding our targets and how we can achieve them.
Important note: this is not marketing or sales content for our homes - we will share actual details about each home we build individually after we have built it.
If you have any advice, suggestions, or questions, you can reach me, Erik Mikysa, at "erik@[the domain name of this website].com" (I try to confuse spam bots), or you can leave a voicemail for me at Nine-Seven-Zero-449-9994.
| Attribute and aspiration | Key measures and targets for each home | Means to achieve the targets |
|---|---|---|
| Safe: very high level of protection of occupants. | Ability to withstand exposure to and protect occupants from hazards including:
Wind: TBD Wind borne projectiles: TBD Snow: TBD Hail: TBD Flood: TBD Wildfire: TBD Extreme heat: TBD Extreme cold: TBD Seismic: TBD | Advanced simulation and disaster modeling to enable optimal material and assembly selection. |
| Healthy: environment which maintains and increases wellbeing. |
Air: CO₂, PM1, PM2.5, VOC: TBD
Humidity: TBD incl WWR > TBD% Condensation: none Mold: none Light: TBD incl WWR > TBD% Sound: TBD dB w/ 100 dB 20' from door Green space (yard): TBD |
Air: Continuous mechanical ventilation with filtration, low-emitting materials
Light: daylight-optimized layout and glazing, smart lights with circadian rhythm function Sound: acoustic insulation. |
| Affordable: ownership of a high-performance house possible for many more. |
Build cost: less than $150 per sf (excluding land and water tap) Operating and maintenance cost: TBD Total cost (incl. purchase and use): TBD |
Design: simplicity, value engineering, system level optimization Execution: lean construction, panelization/modularization, efficient mechanical systems. Lifecycle: low maintenance materials and equipment. |
| Comfortable: a high level of occupant comfort. | Thermal uniformity (incl MRT): TBD
Air flow: ACH50 ≤ 1.0 |
Tight envelope, balanced HVAC with zoning, high efficiency windows, acoustic insulation. |
| Sustainable: preserve the environment for future generations. |
GHG emsissions: TBD.
Water usage: TBD. Toxic materials: TBD. What key considerations or measures are missing? |
Digital design and modeling to understand and reduce total environmental cost through system design. Meticuolous air sealing and robust insulation to achieve a high-performance envelope. Optimized shading strategies. Renewable energy integration. |
| Resilient: durability and low maintenance over decades. | Degradation: low susceptibility to UV, bulk water, water vapor, etc. Metrics TBD.
Maintenance required: low. Metrics TBD. |
Materials and assemblies which are highly resistant to or protected from UV, bulk water, water vapor, wind, impact, vermin and insects, etc. Structural redundancy. Backup systems, elevated foundation. |
| Adaptable: fairly easy accommodation of evolving needs and new tech. | Modification potential (e.g., pulling new wires) with low expense: TBD. | Accessible crawlspace and mechanical areas. Service cavities or conduits for electrical/plumbing. Modular floor plan. |
| Attractive: highly attractive (interior + exterior). | Subjective assessment: elegant, simple design with curb appeal and interior quality that people enjoy. | Integrated architectural/design thinking from the beginning, digital design iterations with user input, material/textural palette coherence, lighting design, proportion and massing studies. |