Search Results for: back door
studio zerbey / 1201 boulder
In the last few years and especially since the announcement of Studio Zerbey, I’ve received several inquiries from friends and fellow blog readers about design services. Typically, they’re homeowners who want to tackle their own remodel but need a little guidance first. The only glitch – they usually don’t live in Seattle. So, a deal-breaker huh?
Nope!
Unlike others in the design field who can easily work with clients all over the world, architects tend to keep things local. And for good reason – when working with physical and permanent structures, having an architect who is nearby makes a lot of sense. But it’s not totally necessary. (In fact, most of mine and Kyle’s experience is working with clients on projects outside of Seattle.) The truth is, not everyone has access to architects in their town or sometimes it’s hard to find a right fit. When it comes to your own home, design is an incredibly personal process and it’s important to work with someone who understands what the goals are and can help you achieve them.
There is also the common assumption that architecture can only be afforded by a certain few and well, that’s simply not true. Part of my drive to start Studio Zerbey was to debunk this myth and show how architects can play an important role on projects of all shapes and sizes.
Case in point – earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working with a couple in Colorado on their recently purchased 1940’s home. I think the process is a good example of how an architect (oh, like myself…) can work remotely and provide non-traditional services.
The homeowners, Leslie and John, bought this cute little home in Boulder last year. Although it certainly has a lot of charm (both inside and out), the layout didn’t make sense for the way they currently live. (In fact, one of the reasons they contacted me was because their floor plan was so similar to our original layout.) They also knew that the house required non-cosmetic updates (some more immediate than others) and that those updates could have an impact on future design changes. Like many homeowners, they plan on remodeling via a combination of DIY and hiring the work out. They also plan on living in the home during the remodel so the idea of phasing became very important.
The challenge – come up with a holistic design direction that could be broken up into phases as time and budget allow.
Even though Leslie snapped the above photos with her phone shortly after moving in, it helped me realize that 1) they already have an eye for good design and 2) we could push things in a more modern direction. (Woohoo!)
After some initial discussions, Leslie and John sent me additional information and photos of their home so that I could put together a proposal. For their immediate purposes, they needed help with establishing a general design direction (mostly in the way of floor plan layouts) as well as a game plan for how the project could be phased and what materials and products they might use.
In a typical remodel, the architect goes to the home and takes “as-built” measurements of everything in order to verify existing conditions and create digital drawings. For this project, instead of traveling to Boulder the clients and I agreed to handle everything remotely. So with the help of photos, videos, real estate documents and the homeowners themselves, I was able to put together this floor plan showing their existing layout (the blank dimension strings were a homework assignment for Leslie and John to help me verify that I had drawn the plan accurately):
It’s very similar to our original layout, isn’t it? (Their house is a smidge bigger, allowing that second smaller bedroom.) Leslie and John also have a full (but mostly unfinished) daylit basement, which allows some additional flexibility and a great space for staging or temporary living during the remodel process.
After collecting lots of information and producing baseline as-built drawings, my next step was to come up with several schematic layout options. Armed with trace paper and pencils, I came up with 6 different layouts based on both the needs of the clients as well as practical elements, like existing load-bearing walls and window and plumbing locations. In a way, I approached the process as if it were my own home.
Like chezerbey, their home is modest in size so every square inch counts. Primarily, they needed more functional bedrooms and a living/dining/kitchen area that was more cohesive. They also wanted a better connection to the basement and more efficient storage throughout (especially for coats and boots in snowy Boulder).
After reviewing the different layouts and discussing them back and forth via email and phone conferences, Leslie and John narrowed it down to one scheme that could be explored further (yes, we dubbed it the “chezerbey” scheme). Although this scheme involves more dramatic changes, it was the one that made the most sense for the way they’ll use the space. (They were also ok with losing one of the dedicated bedrooms since they still have their entire basement to utilize.) While everyone was on board with the general direction, we wanted to experiment a bit more with the central knuckle of the home and how a small office could be incorporated next to a new master bathroom.
These two variations also show (because of their existing roof form) how the ceiling could be vaulted over the living/flex zone or the kitchen/dining zone. The challenge with taking down walls and opening things up is that you lose that precious real estate for furniture. That’s why, like in our own house, I proposed a stair cabinet or “fauxdenza” (thanks Anna!) to help make up for the reduction in wall space. Another element that I love (and wish we had in our house!) is the full wall of storage in the kitchen. The two variations show that this could be divided up any numbers of ways depending on what the needs are (all pantry or a mix of storage and display space for example). Finally, while having some type of mudroom at the entry was critical, we played with whether this included a bench with cubbies and exposed hooks or something more like a coat closet.
After a bit more discussion, the two options were ultimately combined to create the final floor plan you see above. Although no square footage was added to the home, reconfiguring the spaces achieved a number of things:
Finally, because replacing the original wood windows is high on their priority list, I helped Leslie and John come up with a strategy for how they could have that work done first without negatively impacting future projects on the inside of the house. (We’ve also started a conversation about different basement layouts and a potential pre-fab garage/shop in the backyard.)
Working with Leslie and John has been a great experience and cemented my desire to help other homeowners with their own funky layouts and design challenges. If you think Studio Zerbey could help you out, let’s talk!
redesign!
It was 1992 and I was getting ready to start my first day of middle school. Like most kids, I was apprehensive about the transition, especially when it came to the one thing that strikes fear in every newly-minted 6th grader – lockers. But I wasn’t only concerned with memorizing a combination, I also needed to figure what I was going to do with this metal storage unit that I would occupy for the next year. (Because, obviously it needed to be improved upon.) The week before school started, when most kids were swimming or vacationing or otherwise enjoying their last bit of summer, I dragged my little sister to the middle school to help me remodel my locker. Contact paper in a floral print? Oh yeah, this was 1992! Applying the sticky-backed paper within the narrow confines of a school locker was no easy feat, but before long I had (sort of) mastered the technique. Next came the Locker Mate (those flimsy shelving systems) a locker mirror (duh!) and finally, all of my class folders – neatly labeled and in rainbow order. There, I was ready.
Despite my questionable fashion and hair choices, I had a functional and pretty locker and with that – I felt empowered to tackle anything.
And that’s similar to how I feel right now. Oh, you don’t notice anything…different around here? This blog started out with humble beginnings (a Blogger format that is now extinct) and three years ago I moved over to WordPress where I dabbled in theme manipulation and developed all sorts of coding bad habits. Although part of me wanted to learn how to properly design a custom blog, I finally decided that I just didn’t have enough time. I needed professional help. Fortunately, Anna came to my rescue.
It’s pretty, isn’t it?
We are so thrilled with the redesign and not just with the new colors and sexy graphics (hover over the header – oh yeah!), but because it is also way more functional and cleaner than the old format. [That being said, if you notice that something isn’t working, please let me know!]
While Anna worked her magic, I’ve been updating pages that had grown stagnant over the last few years. Looking for before and after floor plans? Design! Want to know where something came from? Resources! Curious about how we’re making our house as green as possible? Sustainability! Looking for a comprehensive summary of all of our “before and afters”? House Tour!
And if you want to find us in other parts of the interwebs, check out all those little social media icons on the right!
I’ve got a bit more organizing and cleaning up to do, but it feels so good to have a fresh start for our 4th year of chezerbey. Just like the first day of middle school, but without the culottes and layered bangs.
Bedroom / After
We reused our bed frame (IKEA) and the night stands are actually TV stands from Blu Dot that we got on sale from Design Public. We scored the duvet cover on sale from Velocity Art and Design (we had seen it a few months earlier, but it was too expensive) and the reading lights were a splurge from Artemide.
The wardrobe is three IKEA Pax units with an IKEA cable rod and curtains. It’s just the right amount of storage and we completely avoid the reaching-across-each-other-for-clothes dilemma. Even better, we can easily close the curtains if we want to hide the wardrobe (a solution that was much cheaper than buying doors and is more functional when you have two people using one wardrobe). We also installed an additional set of brown curtains and curtain track over the window to keep the space darker during the summer when the sun rises at 5:00 a.m.! During the months we don’t need it, we can push the curtains back into the recess between the wardrobe and wall.
Nearly a year after completion we finally put up some homemade artwork. Read all about the birds here.
A detail shot of the bedroom. We really liked the simplicity of the night stands and their ability to provide some storage space for books, magazines, etc. We found that our old night stands (with 2 drawers each) ended up becoming junk drawers so this arrangement helps us eliminate that unnecessary clutter in the bedroom.
→ Bedroom / Before
→ Bedroom / Process
→ Resources
Sustainability
A significant goal throughout our remodel process has been to make the house as sustainable as possible while doing it ourselves and working with a small budget. Below is a rundown of what we’ve accomplished (and what we hope to accomplish in gray italics), organized by common environmental categories.
Site
- Chose a small house on a smallish lot in an urban location.
- Reduced the amount of impervious pavement – removed concrete from front yard planting strip, backyard driveway and apron and backyard sidewalk (concrete chunks were freecycled)
- Replaced the existing grass with low-maintenance, native plants that require no additional watering after established.
- Added a south-facing edible garden.
- Added foundation drains and tightlined to infiltration drains 10′ away from house.
- Added five new trees!
Energy
- Opted to keep the heating load low by reworking our small footprint rather than adding on.
- Replaced our ancient coal-turned-oil furnace with a high-efficiency gas furnace and had all new ductwork installed to reduce the potential for air leaks.
- Added a 7-day programmable thermostat.
- Replaced our old hot water tank with a tankless hot water heater.
- Insulated all of the walls with cotton batt insulation.
- Added r-30 polyiso rigid insulation to the loft and vaulted ceiling.
- The remaining attic space is filled with all the loose fill insulation (about 3′ deep) that was previously spread out over the whole attic space.
- Converted our crawl space into a conditioned “short basement.”
- Installed rigid insulation along the perimeter between the foundation wall and slab to prevent thermal bridging.
- Installed all new, double pane, low-E 4 windows.
- Caulked and sealed all joints throughout the house.
- No air-conditioning.
- Installed fans in the bedroom.
- Installed a fan in our stairwell that draws cooler air up through the basement while exhausting warmer air out through the operable roof window in the loft.
- Chose efficient appliances that minimize water and energy use.
- Might add an energy recovery ventilator, which would take the heat from warm exhaust air and use it to pre-heat the incoming air.
- Ran empty conduit from the basement to the roof with the intent of someday adding photovoltaic panels to our south-facing roof.
- Might add an air-source heat pump and convert our gas furnace into a backup-only system.
- Would love to have an energy monitoring system so we know which watts are going where and how we can further save.
Lighting
- Redesigned the lighting to be only where you need it, with controls that are intuitive to use (i.e. – no excuse to leave lights on unnecessarily).
- Experimenting with LEDs and other more efficient lighting.
- Installed new windows, 3 new skylights and one new roof window (you can really never have too much natural light in Seattle).
- Painted all of our walls white to better reflect light within the space.
Water
- Installed a low-flow, dual flush toilet.
- Installed a low-flow shower head.
- Chose an efficient dishwasher.
- Opted not to install a garbage disposal or an ice maker.
- Replaced our old tank water heater with an efficient tankless version.
- Updated all of the plumbing lines for more efficient runs.
- Added drought-tolerant landscaping that requires minimal irrigation after established.
- Replaced our washer and dryer with more efficient versions.
- Would like to Install rain barrels to collect roof run-off.
Materials
- Used zero-VOC interior paint.
- Installed non-toxic recycled denim insulation.
- Installed renewable cork flooring with a natural wax finish.
- Refinished our fir floor in the bedroom and finished it with a natural hard wax oil.
- Very limited amounts of carpet, and where we do, it’s responsibly made Flor carpet tiles.
- Have largely reduced or limited the use of PVC plastic or vinyl.
- Used long-lasting, durable wood (cedar and ipe) for the exterior.
- Opted for a longer-lasting 30-year roof.
- Chose rapidly renewable Lyptus for our island butcher block.
- Chose durable, long-lasting composite quartz counters instead of solid stone.
- Used FSC wood when available.
- By reducing the size of our space, we have less stuff in general.
- Restored our 100-year old cedar siding and exposed and refinished our ceiling joists in the living area.
Indoor Air Quality
- Selected mostly hard surfaces and have very little carpet.
- All carpet is cleanable Flor tiles or natural fiber rugs.
- Chose a natural, wax finish for the floors and zero-VOC paint.
- Installed new exhaust fans for the bathroom and kitchen and added new operable windows for cross-ventilation.
- Installed formaldehyde-free cabinets.
- Added a continuous ridge vent and soffit vents in the roof.
- Installed a vapor retarder on the inside face of all exterior walls to mitigate moisture-related problems.
- Converted our front porch into a mudroom, which serves as a buffer zone between the heated house and outside.
- Thanks to the new mudroom, we implemented a “no shoes” policy so dirt and other contaminants don’t get tracked into the house (though we can’t quite get Bailey on board with that one).
In conclusion, even though we would like to do more, we think this list represents how small and thoughtful moves can add up over time. It also emphasizes the importance of holistic thinking and that sustainability is truly a component of good design.
basement progress: done(ish)
Hello!
Has it really been over two weeks since I last posted? All is well in the Zerbey household but we have been busy enjoying Miss Avery (which I like to say with a southern drawl) and showing her off to various friends and family members. We also celebrated Kyle’s 34th birthday! The day was way more low-key than last year, but we did go out to breakfast and I managed to sneak off and pick up a small ice cream cake to celebrate that evening.
My mom was also in town to help out last week and in our ridiculous DIY fashion, we finished the basement just hours before her flight arrived. Finished being a relative term of course. Fortunately, our newborn was very amenable to the last-minute construction (I think we have our in utero remodeling to thank for that) and slept peacefully through the chaos.
But enough chit-chat, come on downstairs!
[Need a reminder of how scary the basement was when we moved in? Oh the shame.]
Our first week at home found us balancing the basement project with caring for a newborn, so there are virtually no progress photos. But to be honest, the tasks weren’t that glamorous – painting, trim, electrical, carpet tiles…been there, done that. Yawn.
So let’s just jump straight to the pretty pictures, ok? The week before our family expanded, Kyle and I went to IKEA to scope out sleeper sofas. After trying out every one they had (which was probably pretty comical at 9 months pregnant), we decided on the Manstad. (Or as my sister calls it, the Transformer Couch.)
It comes in a beige or blue-gray color, but we went with the latter because you can never have enough blue-gray in your life. Also, we thought it would show less wear than boring beige. [As we shared in this post from way back in January, the plan is to eventually add a storage/media unit along the blank wall in the photo above.]
The design for this sofa is quite different from the other IKEA options. Unlike most sofas that fold out along the long side to create the bed, the Manstad has a hidden piece under the main portion of the sofa that pulls out to effectively “fill in” the shape formed by the chaise. Like this:
For us, we liked that the sofa configuration had a chaise (which can go on either side) and that the bed was elevated and not close to the floor like many of the other models. The only downside (and this applies to most IKEA sofa sleepers) is that it wasn’t terribly comfortable. After going back and forth (literally) between the sofa and bed departments, we decided that the best solution would be to buy the sleeper sofa and a memory foam topper to provide a little extra cushion. (Annoyingly, IKEA sofa beds are somewhere between a full and queen in width, so the queen size topper hangs over one side by a couple of inches.)
The topper is light enough to move easily and when not in use we’ll just roll it up and store it in the adjacent closet. The memory foam (which is only a few inches thick) does make a big difference and got the seal of approval from my mom.
Another nice feature is that the chaise cushion pops up to provide extra storage space for linens or the sofa cushions depending on what configuration it’s in.
Sofa. Bed. We love how easy it is to go from one to the other, without one of those weird metal frames to wrestle with or awkwardly folded futon mattress.
With a low ceiling height, we were limited to wall-mounted sconces or recessed cans for the room’s lighting. We placed three cans along one end for general/task lighting, with the idea that this is where people will be sitting our laying down. The two sconces are on the opposite end and will flank what will eventually be a built-in media/storage unit. Finding well-designed yet affordable lighting fixtures has always been a challenge for us and Kyle must have gone through dozens of options for this space. Finally, he found these sconces, which cost about $120 each (with our trade discount) from our local retailer, Lighting Supply. They have a nice diffuse light and are appropriately sized for the space. We also ordered dimmable CFLs because you know how Kyle likes his dimmers.
The two windows still need a proper shade (we got classy with some cardboard for my mom) and we’re currently pricing out different options. We plan on installing some type of blackout shade for optimal movie watching and daytime napping. [Side note: this space is significantly cooler than the main floor, which has been a well-timed blessing during our “heat wave” this week.]
To make the space feel as bright and airy as possible, we stuck with our go-to paint color (“super white” by Benjamin Moore), but decided to mix it up for the doors. We had some leftover paint from our sliding barn doors upstairs, so we painted the future bathroom door the same “Thunderbird” as the other bathroom and the bedroom door the same “Lakeside Cabin” as the nursery. Or so we thought. About halfway through painting the sliding door (which was a real chore since it had to be done in place) Kyle realized that it was actually a completely different color (“Spellbound”, to be exact). Neither of us could really remember, but I guess we bought it as a contender for the upstairs doors. After about 2 minutes of discussion, we decided that we liked it and that it didn’t matter if it matched the other doors.
This project has really honed our ability to make quick design decisions.
The carpet tiles are Flor and from the “Flats and Cords” line (though it looks like they no longer have the same neutral brown color, which was on sale when we bought it). This was another decision that was made quickly and without a lot of discussion – basically we picked the least expensive tile that was rated for at least medium traffic (but was still comfortable for bare feet) and in a neutral color that could work for the room as it evolves over time. So far, so good.
For the swinging door hardware, we stuck with our favorite Stuttgart levers from Emtek. We’ve been very happy with our exterior door levers and Emtek is really reasonably priced (we bought ours locally through Frank Lumber, but they are also available from The Hardware Hut).
For the threshold between the bedroom and hallway, Kyle cut a piece of 5/4 vertical grain fir to fit. (It’s bare wood in these photos but is now in the process of being finished.) At the doorway to the laundry room, we hung a temporary curtain for the time being. We’re still deciding whether we’ll eventually want a swinging door between the two spaces or just a simple framed opening.
Even though the bathroom door is done, the space beyond is definitely not. Phase two.
The small closet between is currently holding insulation for the other half of the basement and the shop vac. It’s so exciting having a closet. I spent at least 38 seconds opening and closing the door just for the hell of it.
The other half of the basement got a little love too. After misplacing a bag of electrical supplies and spending a good hour searching for them, we decided it was time to organize and clean up the disaster zone on the other side of the curtain.
It felt so good to be able to see the floor and the top of the counter again. Although we’ll eventually paint the concrete floor in the laundry area, for now we just put down an IKEA sisal rug that we already owned…which means no more putting on shoes to do laundry. Yay!
Sadly, we never did find the missing electrical supplies.
Of course, there are still lots of little details to be completed, but at least the bedroom/den space is functional. In addition to window shades, we need to figure out and install a custom storage/media cabinet. We might also add a lounge chair opposite of the sofa and maybe move the coffee table down there. The end goal is to create a space that can work both as a place to hang out and watch movies as well as a guest or kid’s bedroom.
With the framework complete, it’s now time for the fun part. After we finish the bathroom and laundry room that is. Is it time to make a 2013 to-do list yet?
