Rebecca and Alec Sampson's Bloomington kitchen became baking central in August.

With the State Fair just around the corner, brownies, cinnamon rolls, cookies and bars were cooling on nearly every surface. The sink was piled with mixing bowls.

"Alec and I entered 14 categories this year," Rebecca said. "We've won lots of second- through fifth-place ribbons, but we're still on the hunt for blue!"

Cranking up the oven in August isn't for the fainthearted, but the Sampsons do so with a clear conscience.

Their new house runs on its own steam — all the electricity, cooling and heating are generated from solar panels and a geothermal heat pump system. In summer, the solar panels produce more than they need and the couple sell the energy back to the grid.

"Alec tracks it on his phone," Rebecca said.

Star Tribune
Gallery: HOTM Net Zero

Their eco-friendly house is a 2024-2025 Home of the Month winner, a partnership between the Star Tribune and the Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architects that honors residential architecture.

The Sampsons are high school sweethearts who grew up in Bloomington. They wanted to build their first house and after getting married they rented for almost a decade to save money and wait for the right property.

Then in 2020, a rare 1.38-acre empty lot in west Bloomington with woods on two sides and a pond in the back went on the market.

"We loved how secluded it felt," Rebecca said. "The fact that it was in our hometown surprised us both."

The Sampsons had a good idea of what they wanted — a modern aesthetic, pond and nature views, screened porches and an efficient kitchen for cooking and baking everyday meals and big projects like the State Fair entries.

They were also interested in sustainability and energy efficiency, so when their architects, Eric Odor and Alyssa Jagdfeld of Sala Architects, brought up net zero, they were all ears.

"I explained the idea of a net zero house where you produce as much energy as you consume," Odor said. "They were on board immediately."

Sustainability informed floor plan

The couple had originally wanted a spread-out, single-story house. But the decision to put sustainability front and center led to a more compact design.

"A more compact envelope creates less surface area to lose and gain heat from," Odor said.

The result is two neatly stacked boxes — black on the bottom and white on the top, with deep, recessed windows flanked by woodpecker-resistant steel panels painted to match the Douglas fir front door. The recesses shield the house from direct sunlight and give it a friendly appearance, recalling the robot protagonist from "WALL-E," a comparison that made Odor laugh.

"I'm OK with that," he said. "I think of them as eyebrows that stick out and shield the eyes from the sun and rain."

To create a tight shell, the house was constructed with layers of insulation that minimize thermal breaks, along with triple-pane windows. These features, plus a geothermal heat pump system and solar panels, cost more upfront but pay off in energy savings down the line.

The cost differential, though, is changing as demand for green building materials grows.

"The costs are lower than they used to be, and the payback is much quicker," Odor said. "It's a really good investment monetarily and morally."

Designed for function

At the home's core is a two-story great room with a steel staircase on one side. A bridge across the space connects the two upstairs bedrooms, the railing of which the couple often use for drying laundry.

"Not glamorous, but real life," Rebecca said.

Odor warmed up the space with white oak woodwork but minimized other embellishments to let the views and architecture speak for themselves.

There are two more bedrooms, an office and an entertaining space on the lower level. For the baking marathons and everyday life, the kitchen is an important area for the couple. They dug into every detail.

There's a 4-foot-wide sink to clean large pans, a spacious bamboo-topped island for projects, wide drawers for easy access and specific storage for baking sheets, pans, smaller appliances and tools.

The pantry is roomy but utilitarian, with open stainless-steel shelving, much like a commercial kitchen.

All of the house's appliances are electric and energy-efficient. The Sampsons didn't even run a gas line to the house.

The buzz

The Sampsons spend a lot of time in the home's two screened-in porches — one on each end of the house.

They look out onto the acre-plus of land with woods, a pond and tall prairie plantings instead of grass.

"There is a constant buzz of all sorts of birds and bugs making their homes in the wildflowers," Rebecca said. "Such a happy sound of life."

About this project

Designing firm: SALA Architects Inc.

Project team: Eric Odor, AIA; Alyssa Jagdfeld, AIA.

Project partners: Showcase Renovations Inc.

Laurie Junker is a Twin Cities-based writer specializing in home design and architecture. Instagram: @fojunk