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Progress: Bedroom Light and Vent, plus an Egress Window!

2 min readOnce we filled in the big hole we’d had dug in the ground, I turned my attention to filling in the big hole we’d had cut in the basement wall.

My plan is to turn the SE corner of the basement from a dim and dingy office/”bedroom” into a functional, bright and safe legal fourth bedroom.    For health and safety reasons a bedroom, especially one in a basement needs a window.  There was a tiny ceiling level window the the space before.  Once expanded, it now serves all those needs.  Continue reading “Progress: Bedroom Light and Vent, plus an Egress Window!”

Progress: Basement Bedroom Window Well

3 min readWe made  big jump forward in basement progress this week with the jump start on the new egress window.  From first thing Monday morning to late Wednesday we made some pretty dramatic changes to the south side of the house!

The basement currently has five small windows just at or below grade.  In the new design, two will be in the unfinished basement – and we’ll just pop in some better insulated replacements, two will be in the den and they will get new deep window sills set in with the vent soffit running around the ceiling edge and then there’s the bedroom window … it needs to be expanded dramatically to allow the required amount of air ventilation, natural light and a safe way to escape the house in an emergency.  Continue reading “Progress: Basement Bedroom Window Well”

Contemporary Buildings of Japan

2 min readThere area two distinct categories of building in Japan, intricate traditional OR stunningly inventive and sleek modernist.  Here are some of the highlights of contemporary Japan.

There seemed to be two very distinct categories of building in Japan, lovely examples of the traditional form either actually old, or lovingly reprised by new designers OR stunningly inventive and sleek modernist pieces, often in rigorously precise concrete and glass.  Here are some of the highlights of modernist Japan:

Perhaps the most surprising detour of our trip was the Naka Waste Incineration Plant, a trash facility at the water’s edge in Hiroshima.  We made our pilgrimage to the bomb site and then treked out to the farthest point of the city to see the plant, hiking through an industrial area at high noon to find this monster factory designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, also of the 2004 MOMA extension.  We cooled off in the shady, breezy “Ecorium” a spacious tree lined tunnel cutting through the building with views back to the city, into the incineration towers and out to sea.  Even my sister agreed it was well worth the journey.

Another  highlight of our universally great trip was the art museum island of Naoshima.  We barely scratched the surface of the available architectural delights.  Rather than rush from museum to museum (there are four designed by Tadao Ando) I just acknowledged that I WILL RETURN TO NAOSHIMA LATER and we limited ourself to the village of Honmura where a number of art installations set within un-used house are scattered.

One of my favorite buildings on in Honmura was not a museum but the Naoshima Community Center designed by Hiroshi Sambuichi.  I’m not alone in thinking its awesome.  It was recently featured in Dezeen  and just won the 2017 Wallpaper* Design Award in Best New Public Building category as well.

I got an amazing tour of the space from a tiny retiree who led us on a totally gestural (as we had no language cross over) survey of the buildings features.  He explained the heat chimney roof, the public and private spaces and the various types of enclosure, he even showed off how the light moved through the space at different times of day!

Note: I was sadly unable to take too many images of the Art House Project on Naoshima – I can respect my fellow designers’ desire to protect their own work but I was sad not to be able to take home my memories in digital form.

I did enjoy the Ando buildings scattered around Naoshima to the utmost.  And then I was surprised by another one, a small private art museum hidden inside the Shikoku Mura (a collection of historic buildings gathered from around the island of Shikoku which was a high point of the whole trip.  Photos weren’t allowed in the gallery spaces but I snapped away happily in the lobby and exterior water garden.

I collected snaps of many modernist private residences as we strolled through city streets on our way from one sight seeing venture to another.

An “L” of an opportunity: Adding on To your Ranch

2 min readIt is relatively easy to put an addition on to a ranch style house.  In fact, they were designed with just that idea in mind. 

If you need more space in your ranch house, I highly recommend looking around for it inside the existing walls first.  If any portion of your basement is un-finished, if your kitchen is fully closed off from the house or if you have a three season room connecting your house to the garage, any of those spaces should be your first move in a remodel.  Continue reading “An “L” of an opportunity: Adding on To your Ranch”

Micro Update: Instant Bathroom Window Privacy

2 min readSome home improvement projects can wait for the right time, but others really need to be addressed RIGHT AWAY!

This is a change I made to the house almost immediately but forgot to blog.  There have been a lot of existing conditions here that I’ve decided to just live with “for now” because I knew I’d fix them later but the bathroom window just could NOT wait.  That is my neighbor’s kitchen door and window 15 feet away from the main bathroom of my house. Continue reading “Micro Update: Instant Bathroom Window Privacy”

In other news: Design for a (ranch like) Passive House

2 min readSo I haven’t been making as much progress as I’d like on the Togstad project in August but it is for an excellent reason.  I’ve been designing another project – a new Passive House residence to be constructed in the Bloomington, IL area.

While nothing in the design brief said “ranch” it is no coincidence that it has an elongated single-story profile and flowing open plan layout.  I do have ranches on the brain.  Here are some of my sketches from the Schematic Design phase.

   Continue reading “In other news: Design for a (ranch like) Passive House”

Progress: Bathroom Framed and Roughed In

< 1 min readPutting in the floor plates and wall studs was an exciting first step to building back the rooms I’d spent so much time demolishing. Hooray for new spaces!

We got the walls of the new basement bathroom done and had the plumbers back to do the rough in.  It is really starting to look like a room with the vent and supply lines in and especially with the shower enclosure installed.   Continue reading “Progress: Bathroom Framed and Roughed In”

The Secret to (Warm) Success: Insulating behind new Basement Walls

3 min readPart of the reason I decided to entirely tear out the existing “finished basement” was aesthetic: it was incredibly dated with an unpleasant drop ceiling and an unfortunate layout.  I could have kept some parts of it however, if it hadn’t been totally un-insulated.  I can do SO MUCH BETTER than that.

I did part of this insulation work a couple of weeks ago – to make step one before framing the walls for the new bathroom – and the rest is still on my agenda.  I’ll be insulating the south and east walls next.   Continue reading “The Secret to (Warm) Success: Insulating behind new Basement Walls”

Progress: New Pipes, Water Heater and Softener, and Utility Sink

3 min readThis phase is all about win-win changes.  By updating the supply plumbing for the main floor I can improve the time for hot water, get bette pressure, save energy, AND win and extra 1 1/2 inches of ceiling height!

In order to start the next stage of basement progress, framing up the new walls, I needed the plumbers to come back and move some old pipes out of my way.  At the same time they replaced a bunch of aging equipment and re-located the water heater to make a more efficient pipe layout!    Continue reading “Progress: New Pipes, Water Heater and Softener, and Utility Sink”

Ack!! Flash Flood: water in the basement

2 min readI had literally not had the full den and bathroom areas covered in subfloor for ONE DAY when intense overnight rains (and some bad drainage) scared the pants off me. Here’s how I IDed the source of the water seepage and fixed it. Thanks rainstorm, I guess.

I came down in the morning to grab a tool and found water on the floor seemingly seeping out from under the sub floor.  HORRORS!  I ran around to check the windows for leaks – nothing – and the walls for cracks – again nothing and the ceiling for drips – nothing again.  What could it be?   Continue reading “Ack!! Flash Flood: water in the basement”