genkan

I found an idea that I liked, in a slightly roundabout way:

1. this Unhappy Hipsters post (found on Twitter):

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led to:
2. a search for "genkan", which led to:

3. this Wikipedia entry, which explains that genkan "are traditional Japanese entryway areas for a house, apartment, or building—something of a combination of a porch and a doormat. The primary function of genkan is for the removal of shoes before entering the main part of the house or building. Genkan are often recessed into the floor, to contain any dirt that is tracked in from the outside (as in a mud room). The tiled or concrete genkan floor is called tataki."

photos are from:
http://litlotrs.blogspot.com/2007/01/mans-home-is-his-shiro.html
http://www.tjf.or.jp/deai/contents/teacher/mini_en/html/genkan.html

I ran the idea by the husband today and he likes it too.

Benefits:

  • We have a good-sized entry that would benefit from an additional separation from the main living area.
  • Using a step would also allow us to more easily tile the entryway with a more durable material (transition between materials = easy—a step!)
  • I really like the idea of physically stepping up slightly to reach the living spaces
  • We could reduce the number of steps that need to intrude into the garage for our garage-to-house door.

Obstacles:

  • this could involve too much re-engineering. We'll need to reduce one of the steps outside the door, same thing for the garage-to-house door, and then add this step back, between the entry area and the living room. We'd also have to decide how to cut the step (cut into the living room, or cut into the entry area, or use a diagonal step?).
  • we don't want us/guests tripping or falling (like this JET exchange teacher's genkan which tries to kill all that enter it—it does seem to be a badly designed genkan).

The plan is to talk to the architect this week and see if it gives him a heart attack or not (or gives our budget a heart attack). Wish us luck.

elevations, now in color!

Time to start thinking bout color...check out the latest elevations with some rough approximations on the exterior colors.

These were also part of an exercise to help us decide if we actually prefer to field-mull the window groupings (rather than mull them together as single units at the factory). Yeah, the window saga hasn't ended quite yet. Tentatively, we've asked for field-mulling (waiting to hear architect's opinion on that idea). This would help spread out the windows a bit more, which is good for the interior. Looks a bit less modern on the exterior for some reason, though.

pretty things: glass-and-metal garage door

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I was dropping some color onto our elevation drawings and thought about doing some un-painted aluminum doors for the garage (nice complement to the redwood shingles that will clad the garage).

Husband liked the idea, and then stumbled on these garage doors. So awesome. (I've always loved car repair garages with glass garage doors. When they have glass doors on both ends = even more awesome.) But we're pretty sure we'll find some way to break the glass within the first month. Metal doors can also dent/deform. So...we'll just fantasize for now.

windows! fiberglass time...

Windows are the never-ending loose end of this project. But finally, looks like we've settled on a material (fiberglass) and a vender (Serious Windows). To summarize recent developments:

  1. We had sourced and were ready to go with a Milgard Canadian supplier (the only thermally broken aluminum window vendor our architect could find at a decent price). But then we got a sample: these windows have a push-out hinge style, and this mechanism requires an unfortunate screen design: mesh housed in a separate, 1.5"-thick frame that sat on top of the window itself, plus the screen needs to be tilted open before unlocking and opening the window itself.
  2. Aluminum windows really have two bonuses: wearability (hence their commercial uses), and aesthetics (thinner frames & mulling). Cons: they're terrible for insulation, also the embodied energy (the energy/resources required to manufacture them) is high (they're metal).
  3. Vinyl windows are made from petroleum-based materials, don't last anywhere as long, and don't feel/look as nice. They only appeal they have is price.
  4. Fiberglass has some not-so-nice ingredients (in the binders), but its wearability is like metal, and its thermal properties are excellent. These windows will last as long as your house.
  5. Wood has good thermal properties, and appealing material quality. However, it has high maintenance costs, (needs periodic painting/sealing).
  6. We're willing to pay more for better insulation, but not so much for aesthetics.

We looked at four lines:

  • Serious Windows
    - they use a two-pane-plus-film design, and use extra-inert gasses in some of their lines (krypton and xenon)
    - they fill the hollows of their frames with an insulating foam
    - this all adds up to ridiculously insulated windows, with R-values from about 3 to 11...their thermal properties start significantly higher than that of the average fiberglass, then go up from there.
    - their finishes are beautiful...and use some kind of integrated color process
    - they have nice hardware
    - they can go pretty completely custom on the sizing
    - their cost for dual color (one color for exterior, different one for interior) was rather high...the salesman apologized since he didn't expect the difference to be so great. but we eventually decided that we probably prefer one color anyway. 
  • Anderson's fiberglass series
    - interesting tidbit: made with the mixed wood-vinyl sawdust by-product from their vinyl window manufacturing
    - their finish and color options are pretty nice
    - the hardware isn't that nice, in my opinion; husband was ambivalent.
    - they have an awesome fine-mesh screen option (but it's $60 to $70 extra per opening)
    - their pricing runs the lowest of the options we looked at 
    - I want to say that their colors are painted on...
    - sizing does have some limits 
  • Marvin's Integrity series
    - the finish is nice
    - the price is ok, if I recall
    - sizing does have some limits 
  • Milgard's fiberglass lines
    - the finish is obviously far less smooth than all the other options
    - the price is somewhere between the Marvin Integrity & Anderson's

Anyway, we ended up with Serious, because of their crazy awesome thermal properties, the quality of their finishes, and we were willing to pay extra for the thermal properties. If you're in the market for windows, consider:

  1. thermal properties
  2. durability/lifetime
  3. maintenance needs (need re-painting? will color fade?)
  4. cost (factor in durability & maintenance aspects)
  5. sizing options
  6. quality of the finish
  7. is the color painted on, or manufactured as an integral coating/layer (the latter lasts longer, fades less)
  8. color selection
  9. the hardware
  10. operation process of the window
  11. screen operation/options

re-use resources

An on-going list of vendors for re-used materials...many of these places accept re-used materials as well as sell/distribute them.

Photo-home-1

Building REsources, San Francisco:
http://www.buildingresources.org/index.html
Description from their site: "San Francisco's only source for reusable, recycled and remanufactured building and landscaping materials. Building Resources is a not for profit organization dedicated to providing our community with low cost high quality materials, in a friendly, clean and organized setting. Our 1 1/2 acres are full of wonderful finds and great values. Project ideas are demonstrated throughout our buildings and gardens, all of which are built using 100% reused materials."

The ReUse People, nationwide (with Bay area locations in Oakland and Sacramento):
http://thereusepeople.org/
Description from their site: "We are a nonprofit, 501(c)3, corporation dedicated to keeping usable building materials out of our landfills and providing them for reuse. To date we have salvaged hundreds of thousands of tons of usable building materials."

urbanite

Urbanite...not the radioactive crystalline material from the planet of Urban that renders our beloved superhero Urbanman as weak as a normal human...but rather the affectionate name for re-used concrete. When you remove concrete, you can take the broken pieces and reset them as pavers, re-dyeing if you like to achieve the colors you want. In our case, we might even be able to have the concrete pre-cut into the shapes we want. Anyway, we're seriously thinking of doing this when we remove the concrete driveway and the concrete pad from the un-permitted room that used to be at the back of the house.

We've seen concrete pavers elsewhere in the neighborhood and they look quite nice, and there are many really nice-looking projects on the web. The above pictures come from these links, which the husband recently came across during his research:

http://netzerolife.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-concrete-or-urbanite.html
http://www.terranovalandscaping.com/blog/2007/02/07/90/
http://tmousecmouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/eco-friendly-concrete-alternative.html

gray-washed bamboo flooring

I was looking at Sunset magazine's pair of smart homes for 2011, and came across a mention of something that looked and sounded very lovely: gray-washed bamboo flooring. I was immediately drawn to fact that it evokes sun-bleached driftwood. Check out the 2nd thumbnail photo from their Week 1 of documentation.

The vendor they looked at is Plyboo—http://www.plyboo.com/edge-grain.html

The only thing that makes me sad is Plyboo doesn't offer this color in their strand-woven bamboo flooring—which has a hardness rating up to twice that of the edge-grain bamboo. We've known a few people who installed the edge/flat-grain bamboo, and it just dents too easily. So...we can always install unfinished strand-woven flooring, then apply the gray wash ourselves (I foresee a lot of test swatches on scrap flooring first).

[Update: husband is not fan of the gray-washed flooring. Thinks the color is too limiting for the decor options. I think I've lost the battle to promote beach-house/modern styling.]

ACS Home Show in San Jose—not worth it

Logo
We got a card in the mail (that probably should have been a sign this wasn't going to be worthwhile) for a home show in San Jose and decided to check it out today:
http://www.acshomeshow.com/

We were hoping to see a lot of manufacturers (windows, flooring, tiling, landscaping products, etc.) and get to see and touch product samples, but it was nearly all local contractors—not useful for us, unfortunately. It wasn't very big, either. And to be honest, I'm not sure how useful this would be to most consumers, unless they had very specific contractor needs. There were also a number of vendors that I didn't find particularly relevant to home remodeling—start-your-own printing business from home, small craft-like home decor products, etc.—that was pretty weird.

The photos on the ACS site show many more manufacturers' booths, so their shows in other cities might be better. But as for the San Jose show, I don't recommend it.

Zero-waste home tips from Sunset magazine

Sunsetmagazinezerowastetips

Found an overview of some zero-waste living tips on Sunset Magazine's site. The household they profiled consumes less, and aims to generate no non-recyclable, no non-compostable garbage. This page has an overview video with links to more detailed videos for specific parts of the home (kitchen, laundry, closet, etc.):
http://www.sunset.com/home/zero-waste-home-tour-video-00418000073279/

I wish I could say that I'll do all these things in the foreseeable future, but there are some vices/practices that will take a while to give up. But, here are some tips worth noting:

  • bring jars/containers to the grocery store, and buy fish, meat, grains, pasta, etc. in bulk, or from the fishmonger/butcher...and obviously don't buy pre-packaged produce or prepared foods (i've been wanting to bring containers to the grocery store & farmer's market...so i won't be the first to get quizzical looks for doing that)
  • maintain a very minimal wardrobe
  • make your own cleaning products if possible (the woman profiled makes a simple baking soda mix for brushing teeth, but noted that she wasn't able to create an effective laundry detergent, so she buys her detergent in cardboard boxes)
  • use washable towels/rags (no paper towels in their house)
  • maintain a minimal cosmetics regimen
  • compostable toothbrushes
  • old-fashioned safety razor for her husband requires less frequent blade replacements

bamboo nursery: Bamboo Giant

2004-brochure-map

We'll probably need some bamboo in concrete containers to create a privacy hedge. A co-worker mentioned there's a huge bamboo nursery near Santa Cruz, approximately 1 hour from us. If there aren't better bamboo suppliers close by, we may drive out there some time.

Part of me wishes I could grow a lush bamboo grove with some of the really giant specimens. But we certainly don't have the space, and bamboo can really take over everything if you plant it in the ground (hence the concrete containers—that's solid concrete containers...no drain holes!...keep that in mind if you ever wish to grow some bamboo hedging).

http://www.bamboogiant.com/

windows, windows, and more windows

Screen_shot_2011-10-16_at_10

A few weeks ago, we got some steep quotes on windows...later realized they were for all-metal windows, from some pricier manufacturers. We actually prefer aluminum-clad wood windows (better insulative values, and a wooden sill on the inside is nicer, in our opinions). It's supposed to be tough to find clad windows with a contemporary style. Our architects will be looking, and we'll be looking. This is an on-going compilation of window supplier-related links; we'll update this post with more research as we go along:

Forum discussions:

Articles:

Manufacturers:

Vendors/showrooms:

final elevation drawings

Figured folks might be interested in seeing the more-or-less final elevations. Latest status is the city is reviewing the plans, bidding is going out to contractors:

Elevation-1front-201110

There's a green wall that spans the front of the 1st floor (most likely a climbing/trailing vine on a wire trellis), and green roof on the roof of the 1st floor. We're pondering even more green wall on the 2nd floor (vines growing out of containers on the 1st floor roof).

Elevation-2rear-201110

There's a balcony off the 2nd-floor master bedroom. The entrance to the backyard will have a few steps down to the backyard, which will be a mixture of pavered/natural landscaping.

Elevation-3left-201110

We hope to reclaim, strip, and re-use the existing redwood siding from the house, and apply it to the garage and staircase exteriors. The green wall from the front will wrap around to the entrance.

Elevation-4right-201110

spider lamp

The husband has been pondering the idea of building a dramatic chandelier out of eight desk lamps mounted to a central hub. I recall mentioning the idea to a friend of mine while we were still in our old place, and she said something like, "But your place is so......nice." Also, every time I think about it, this post from Unhappy Hipsters comes to mind:

Tumblr_l1gbsx9jl51qam6ylo1_1280
Their commentary was a bit odd until I realized the tie-in they wanted to make: this is the kitchen light fixture in Flaming Lips' lead singer Wayne Coyne's Oklahoma abode (covered in this New York Times article). It appears to be a 16-lamp contraption—much grander than our plan. We'll actually have enough room in the new space to do justice for something of the 8-lamp scale. So, I'm still open to the idea. Still need to find the right desk lamps...

solar LED pavers

Seriously pondering these for the front walk & driveway:

They charge during the day, and glow at night. I like the assymetrical, scattered arrangement from the example in Dallas.

Update: ok just showed the first photo to husband. He digs it big time. Posed this idea: putting some of these pavers in the backyard too...

tools: Google Maps

For finding and selecting vendors, a quick-and-dirty planning technique is creating and sharing maps under Google Maps. I created one for our local remodeling vendors, and shared it with the husband. A decently diverse selection of location icons and colors allows you to classify and color code your location types. You can add notes for each location, which I use to keep track of general summaries, how I found the vendor, etc.

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window shopping: Fixtures 'N' Faucets

One of today's goals was to find a tub to try stepping into and sitting in—to see if the dimensions of the tub we've picked out are adequate, and comfortable to navigate. The ADC showroom was closed for the entire Labor Day weekend, so we hit up Fixtures 'N' Faucets' Redwood City location. We found a similar height tub which was unfortunately mounted about an extra 7" higher, but this was enough to give us some confidence that we might not need a step for the tub. Overall, Fixtures 'N' Faucets has a nice high-end selection, and we collected a few ideas from their showroom:

mount separate sink above cabinet:

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A thought for the master bath: two small separate sinks, mounted above a wide cabinet in between. Lots of counterspace, and an interesting way to fill a wall width that doesn't match your available cabinet widths.

single large swing-out door for master tub:

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We've currently penciled in a swing-out glass door flanked by two stationary glass panels for the master tub. I wasn't a total fan of this, so here is a much more appealing idea. If the temperature mixer is still at the end with the shower head, you can reach it since the glass swings open.

separate temperature & flow controls for shower:

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We're not fans of shower controls what don't let you control the volume of the flow separately from the temperature. This setup appears to have temperature below, and flow above.

better sample of the 3-way mirror medicine cabinet arrangement:

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Just a better sample of the 3-way mirror medicine cabinet thing we're thinking about. The manufacturing quality of these units is much better than those at IKEA...and we like the idea of setting the cabinets into the wall cavity, if it's feasible.

thinking bout places for outlets:

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cut-out drawer handles:

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If we ever built our own bathroom cabinetry...this cut-out idea for drawer handles is fun (we can skip the chrome accent, and the blue rubberized finish).

drawer separators:

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Some nice-looking drawer separators for an under-sink drawer.

things i covet, but will not get:

1. the shallow front slope to this sink basin makes me think of placing my hands onto gently sloping sand shaped by waves lapping at the beach. I know, I got a pretty strong visual from this sink. Filling it (something you need every once in a while for soaking/hand-washing something) would not be very productive, but maybe that's ok if it's a powder room sink.

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2. this tub. But I think I might drown in it...its height is impressive, though.

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3. these onyx & stone materials...soooo pretty, but I wish to avoid mining raw slabs of material just for my countertop needs:

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for fun:

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This looked really uncomfortable. Didn't actually try it, though.

window shopping: Fire Clay Tile

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Today we stopped by Fire Clay Tile , a local manufacturer of hand-made "eco-friendly, beautiful sustainable ceramic tile". They have some very nice stuff, albeit pricey for our budget ($24/sq. ft. and up). Their Boneyard selection of overstock, 2nd quality, etc. appeared to have some of the black river rock we spotted in the photo from this post. We like the look, but just wonder if this tile is comfortable on bare feet. Anyone out there have experience with this style of flooring?

pegboard is good

The discussion of open on-wall storage reminds me of the pegboard in Julia Child's kitchen:

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I believe the pegboard was an idea from her husband, who also drew outlines of the items to make it easy to see where each one belonged:

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I have a pegboard in my office (for cutting, sewing, and drawing tools), and I rather like the utilitarian tool shop aesthetic, as well as the convenient accessibility.

kitchen storage: how about...no wall cabinets?

Via @WarnersStellian, "A beautiful (but small) working kitchen in St. Paul":
http://www.midwesthomemag.com/media/Midwest-Home/August-2011/Petite-Patisserie/

Df23b756b291a08cbfd747adc56d2e43

Likes:
- against-the-wall pot rack by the stove
- use of open shelving above the countertops

For fun, this week I've also been doing an informal survey of friends: for a kitchen, do you prefer light or dark cabinets? Light cabinets currently have a significant lead (8-3), with one person making the no-cabinet suggestion. And while it doesn't solve our light vs. dark question, we're seriously pondering open shelves since we might have plenty of under-counter storage (as well as a sizable pantry). IKEA has some rail systems:

We noted that pots on an on-the-wall pot rack will probably dent drywall (the owner of the St. Paul kitchen doesn't have this problem since her walls are tiled with carrera marble). We're considering some custom-placed strips of wood. It could create a fun rhythm of materials on the wall...

going vertical: tile inspiration

Inspiration from Heath Ceramics: vertical tile above a tub.

Dae81799-ca18-44de-bca3ab90f6e9ca2d
We like the deep-in-the-jungle/bamboo grove experience. Very cool. We also really like the wood surround on the tub, but wonder how practical this is for a combination shower-tub. Maybe if a lot of matte urethane is involved...

And right now I just noticed the black river rock for the floor. Nice.

Found: via Google maps search for tile in Bay area...although the name Heath Ceramics is familiar, for reasons unknown.

IKEA Kitchen Planner

So my last experience with an IKEA planning tool was the IVAR shelving planner which they had over a decade ago. Today's Kitchen Planner tool is significantly better, but using it is still an exercise in masochism. A few useful notes:

  • doesn't appear to work in Chrome at all
  • works very poorly in Safari on Mac
  • works fine in Firefox on PC
  • the "Switch Top/Front" tool is really great for more precise cabinet height placement when you are in "Floor View"
  • note that the glass-door cabinets get a separate category from the wood-door cabinets (probably because the glass doors come in fewer sizes)

We started off with the black-brown Nexus finish, but are fairly sure we want to go with light-colored cabinets now (probably birch, Nexus finish). We're also fairly settled on using one of their aluminum-framed, frosted glass cabinet doors for the wall cabinets. The only drawback is the limited size selection (and slightly higher cost). We may/may not have a cabinet to the right of the stove (would do shelves and/or a rail system there). Enjoy some quick screenshots of what we put together:

Birch:

Black-brown:

drawers is where it's at...and other lessons from IKEA

Today, we ambled around IKEA scoping out the kitchen & bathroom cabinetry and hardware. First, a hearty IKEA breakfast:

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Under-counter drawers:
Per the subject line, we'd been thinking, and finally confirmed that drawers for bathroom vanities, and drawers for all under-counter storage in the kitchen is the best idea ever.

You don't have to crouch down to see what's inside, or pull out all the stuff in front to get to the stuff in back. In the bathroom, you can keep a ton of things on hand without having to clutter the countertop. Do you lose some storage height? Yes, however I don't anticipate this being a problem for what we store in these two rooms.

birch + white, and Vitviken sinks:
So...the bathrooms are tentatively going to be birch cabinets with white sinks:

We like the Vitviken line of sinks, which has a modestly sized circular sink bowl which = more counterspace.

floating bathroom vanities: YES

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Notice: no legs/portion of the cabinet touching the floor

3-medicine-cabinet setup:
For the bathroom, a solid expanse of mirror is nice, but we're bigger fans of medicine cabinets...for the convenient storage. Here's a nice 3-medicine cabinet arrangement = open the two outer cabinets & you get a 3-way mirror in the middle.

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The doors are also mirrored on the inside, which can be handy. My only hesitation is the quality of these mirrors and cabinets isn't very high.

for bathrooms, skinny-opposite-wall-storage:

Two of our bathrooms will have room for only one medicine cabinet. If they are used primarily by 2 or 3 people, these skinny cabinets may be handy for toiletries. We'd probably mount them on the wall opposite that of the sink and toilet.

extra space on side of vanity = another wall cabinet + towel bar:

Our master bath has a vanity space significantly wider than the widest IKEA sink vanity. This is one way to use the extra width.

small bath ideas:
This shouldn't be a technique we need in this house, but we noted these two space-saving ideas:

1. mount a not-as-tall cabinet well below a sink = get some counterspace without the extra width

Screen_shot_2011-09-03_at_7
2. wall-mounted small sinks, for when you really need to save space. (Side note: I can't stand pedestal sinks. I could never rationalize wasting all that heavy porcelain to just create a stand, which isn't really needed.)

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behind-mirror storage:

Hinge a boxed-out mirror = hidden storage. The sign says, "Mount knobs to organize keys and accessories." We liked the idea of using this in a dressing area.

kitchen color palette samples:

We're not sure yet if we are dark-, or light-cabinet fans. Our kitchen is large enough where dark cabinets shouldn't make it feel too closed-in or dark. But...dark cabinets still = less light reflected around.

glass shelves in wall cabinets = see what's above:

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For those on the petite side, glass shelves allow you to see what's above, even when you're looking from below.

appliance garage:

After additional review at home, we probably don't have a place for an appliance garage. But the idea is cool. (There are also many less-industrial looking options out there.)

Overally, a productive IKEA visit. Side note: we were pleased to see there was a ton of marketing centered around concepts for small living spaces (they had a couple super-small studio apartment mockups, which is notable, given that this store is in the Silicon Valley suburbs).