trends in residential architecture
A few days ago, Kyle sent me this from the American Institute of Architect’s website. The article mainly talks about a modest turnaround beginning to take shape in the residential sector (woohoo!), but it also looks at specific trends and patterns that have been gaining in popularity. Since many of the items directly relate to what we’re doing over here at chezerbey, we thought we’d bring up the topic up and see what others thought.
1. Houses are getting smaller – not a shocker, but it makes us feel better about opting not to add on to our 800 SF footprint.
2. People want accessibility and flexibility – the most significant decision we’ve made at chezerbey is to knock out walls and open up the floor plan. Now…I’m hesistant to say that any ol’ open floor plan is successful though. While it’s nice to have visual connection between the “public” spaces of a house, it’s also a good idea to use materials, light and volume to provide distinction or a sense of hierarchy. For instance, at our house we felt that keeping a consistent ceiling across the space would produce a bit of a “bowling alley” effect. By vaulting the ceiling over the kitchen and dining room, we were able to bring in more light and provide more volume in a space where you’re mostly standing up. For the living area, we chose to add some richness and texture to the space by exposing the wood joists. Additionally, the lower ceiling height (as compared to the adjacent vaulted ceiling) gives people a sense of coziness and refuge, which makes a lot of sense for the area with the most comfortable furniture!
Along with an open plan, we’re also designing for flexibility. By doing a series of sliding barn doors instead of swinging doors, we can easily change the feel and function of the spaces depending on our needs. The new room we created from part of the old living room will have a generous doorway and direct connection to the living area which means it could serve as overflow living space, an office or a guest bedroom. The new loft space could also transform as needed.
Although our house’s main spaces are all on one level, it’s not exactly accessible (and granted, this trend is likely a result of the aging baby boomer population). While we probably won’t be leaving our construction ramp up long-term, there are some options to create better accessibility in the event it was needed.
3. People want to spend more time outside, but not maintaining fussy yards – Ok, so we haven’t really done much in the way of property enhancements besides take stuff out (shrubs, decrepit picket fences and excessive amounts of concrete), but we definitely have plans to address many of these topics. Seattle loves its low-maintenance, drought-tolerant landscaping (it usually doesn’t rain at all during the summer months) and we’ll be more than happy to minimize our lawn/mulch and embrace the natives. (And once we actually have things that need watering, we can easily add a couple of rain barrels to our existing downspouts.) We also have big plans for a deck in the back (and, if our friends had their way – a hot tub), with a grill, seating and maybe even an approved fire pit for those cool nights. We’re also big into blending the indoors and outdoors – which drove our decision to install 4 skylights and open up the back of the house to the backyard.
So what do you think? Does the AIA have it right? We seem to be addressing most of these issues in our own home as well as our professional projects. I would have been curious to see a poll regarding the growing trends in efficiency – something that looked at the demand for better windows, higher r-value insulation, more efficient appliances, renewable energy, etc.
All images were found here.
progress report: week 11
Hey, Mother Nature – it’s June, ok? Enough with the 55 degrees and the rain!
On second thought, dreary weather does make it easier to work inside.
1. The weekend forecast looked promising earlier in the week, but as Friday rolled around, it was shaping up to be another rainy weekend. So we said “take that!” Mother Nature and installed the skylight on Friday night. We started at 6:30 and were done by 10:00, just as the last bit of light left the sky.
Kyle had already framed in the rough opening so it was just a matter of drilling pilot holes from the inside and then connecting the dots and cutting out the roof.
Roof on the floor, roof on the floor!
Victory! We’re thrilled with the new view (it’s our neighbor’s tree, but nature can be borrowed).
I’m still learning how to take photos in situations with extreme contrast, but you get the idea. Unfortunately, we still have the loft window to install, but at least now we know it can be done on a weeknight!
2. Kyle also installed the tension rods last week.
He ran a string line across the space to use as a guide to align the turnbuckles.
This end will be concealed behind the finish material, so we didn’t have to worry about aesthetics. I still think it’s a sexy connection though.
The rods act in tension when you tighten the turnbuckle. This effectively forms the bottom leg of a triangle, creating a more stable roof structure.
3. Ok, I don’t know how – but it happened again. I blame the rain.
We thought we’d have to rent a plow this time, but the ol’ trusty lawnmower did a passable job.
4. Since it was so crappy on Sunday, Dustin (who is also just a generally awesome guy), came over to help and he and I got to work installing rigid insulation on the exterior side of the vaulted ceiling.
Since we only had about 5″ of depth to work with, we had to use rigid insulation instead of batt insulation to meet energy code requirements. (Kyle first installed 1″ furring strips in each bay to provide a 1″ airspace for ventillation.)
It was not as easy a task as we had hoped.
And since old houses aren’t perfect, there was a lot of tweaking. Ultimately, we made a big mess and I think I still have insulation in my hair.
But it came together nicely! The panels more or less friction fit and then Kyle went around with the spray foam and filled any crevices and the space around the tension rod anchors.
5. While Dustin and I insulated, Kyle worked on electrical rough-in.
The only thing I did while Kyle was in Miami last week was organize the electrical supplies. Being able to find what you need is key to maintaining sanity during a remodel.
To place the j-box for the island light, we marked out the island location on the subfloor, then used a chalk line to find the center. We then placed the laser level at the center, shooting a light up towards the ceiling.
Kyle then used this point to align the center of the j-box before installing.
I call this one, “men at work”. Hey – I made the Whole Foods burrito run.
And here we have the rough in for mission control. We’ve been surprised how warm the house has been, especially since it was only in the low 60’s today.
Phew…busy week. We’re still trucking along and I’m feeling confident that the electrical will go pretty fast. Installing the rest of the rigid insulation in the loft, not so much.
chezerbey’s a winner on One Project Closer!
One Project Closer is holding their annual Before & After contest and we were excited to find out that our exterior remodel project is the first weekly winner! In addition to our $50 gift card, One Project Closer is also donating $100 to Habitat for Humanity. Check out the post here and thanks again to the folks at One Project Closer for featuring our house!
decisions, decisions: steel ledges
Although it may seem a little premature, we need to make a decor decision. Back in January, we posted some images of our sketchup model that showed a slim black line running from the kitchen backsplash, through the dining room and into the living room. This black line is intended to be a steel ledge that helps visually tie the spaces together and serves as a multi-purpose storage/display system. (For instance, in the kitchen it will hold spices and other commonly used small items and in the dining and living room it will be a display space for pictures of Ferraris artwork, bud vases and whatever else captures our attention. )
And now that we have everything opened up, we need to install a row of blocking to attach the ledges to (this isn’t completely necessary but will give us more flexibility as we won’t have to depend on stud locations or use drywall anchors). But what ledges to use? We’ve seen a couple of versions floating around the interwebs, and came across two we liked from West Elm and Room&Board.
We tracked down one of each, knowing that it would be important to test out in person. On the left is the West Elm version. It’s 3.5″ deep, 1″ tall and comes in lengths of 2′, 3′, and 4′. The price is about $12-$17/linear foot and it comes in just the brushed finish. The Room&Board option on the right is 5″ deep and 2″ tall and comes in lengths of 3′, 4′, 5′, and 6′. It costs anywhere from $17-$23/linear foot and comes in either natural or stainless steel.
The R&B option is appealing because it comes in longer lengths which means we wouldn’t have to join shorter segments together. But it is also bigger and more heavy-duty than we really need.
The West Elm ledge has crisper corners and the proportions fit our space and application better. The downside, we’d have to butt a couple runs together to work with our design. We were also worried about potential flimsiness, but both products seem really solid and well-constructed.
Ultimately, we’ve decided on the smaller, West Elm ledge. We’re not crazy about the slotted fastener holes, but the idea is to actually put stuff on the ledge so maybe it’s not a big deal. We could also cover the holes with a small piece of fir trim. Hmm, we’ll have to revisit this later…when we actually have finished walls.
progress report: week 10
Get ready for a let-down people – we made no physical progress last week. Kyle was in Miami most of the week/weekend for the AIA (American Institute of Architects) conference. I would have been there with him, but was busy getting my education on and not feeling hardcore enough to throw a skylight on my back and haul it to the roof.
I’ll leave you with a few slightly grainy iphone photos:
[I know, a Ferrari. It was just a rental. A fun reward for months of manual labor. And he loved it.]
It was nice to have the weekend off, but of course we’re both itching to dive back in. We’ve done a few small things and continue to cross things off the “to decide” or “to order” list so we’ll have some more updates this week. The roof window should arrive this week and if weather permits, we’ll have two more holes of light by the end of the weekend.
Also, thanks for all of the audio advice that we received. We’re still working out what will be the best set-up for us, but we’re getting there!
