Swanky Little Pad

February 08, 2008

Door Meets Door (Front, Screen)

During the first round of designs, every door David sketched had a complimentary screen door on it. He again referred to the ones in our neighborhood, mostly aluminum scrolls or carved wood saloon doors. This "Langston" with the duck and scrolls was truly inspiring:

I've been trying to figure out since how we could put a screen door on our own house without ruining the aesthetic appeal of our fabulous "Pasadena."

We had found a number of companies which make awesome reproductions of the oldies and goodies:

Moonshine Shades offers the standard scrolls with the ever popular heron and palm tree silhouettes.

La-Ti-Da Retro has herons with cattails as well as other old Florida retro ditties like the sailboat and ducks.

Hansen Aluminum has a large variety of old school inserts including the heron, flamingo and manatee, but also carries more geometric designs, and they do a limited amount of custom work, too.

But none of these compares to Austin's own Susan Wallace. Check out the "Grover" with the "Red Ganesh!" Her custom pieces are amazingly affordable, and we're working with her to do some Crestview Doors-inspired designs for some of our clients too. Very exciting!

All of this just confirms what we already knew: a fabulous modern front door deserves a spiffy retro screen door! A match made in heaven, just in time for Valentine's Day.

So, if you had to pick a screen door for Erwin House... what would you suggest?

Whatever you pick, I'm thinking it needs to go with these kick-ass wall sconces! No offense to the ones that David made, but these things are the boss.

Posted by Christiane at 02:58 PM | Comments (6)

September 28, 2007

Don't Drink and Drywall

We were very honored to have been written up in the Wall Street Journal today, mentioned as one of the many housebloggers that converge on the Houseblogs.net site.

Many blog about their work in order to share progress with family and friends. Reading others' blogs, meanwhile, helps renovators share ideas, find inspiration and support -- and sometimes just be entertained.

Our story wasn't in the print version of the WSJ, but was mentioned in a sidebar to this story. I had never thought of having a home renovation party, thought it was a great idea on first review, and then started to read in horror:

One reveler near Chicago hung a sheet of drywall backwards, while a partygoer in Seattle messed up the host's bathroom floor by installing the tiles crooked. During her recent "Martini Bash" renovation event in Toronto, Debora Beam wandered upstairs to find one of her friends halfway through sledgehammering out the wrong wall. . . . Contractors say these parties have become a marketing opportunity. Orange County, Calif., handyman Paul Maceyka says a couple in their 30s recently paid his company almost $4,000 to undo a mess their inexperienced friends had made with a paint sprayer.

If I had thought of having a masonry party to finish our concrete screening wall, I am now of the mindset that the broken toes aren't worth it. It sure does make for entertaining blog posts, though ;-)

Posted by Christiane at 02:48 PM | Comments (5)

November 23, 2006

1950's Paint Colors

One of the most common search terms leading to our blog is "paint colors". I've been looking at Better Homes and Gardens from the 50s. (Separtate project, to be announced later.) And I came across these presentations of the year's colors. The first one is from 1951 (obviously) and the others are from 1957.

It made me wonder, how did you buy paint in the fifties? Did they mix a color for you? Or, could you only get what they had on the shelf?

Ranch Redo made a post today on the exact same subject. Go figure.

Posted by David at 12:48 PM | Comments (8)

June 07, 2006

Mosquito Disco Death

The Mega Catch arrived on Monday. It was a much needed pick-me-up after a very bad day of breaking cabinets. I immediately assembled it and put it in the backyard. I noticed a few details that were not available online.

First is the liquid trap. I had assumed this was some special stuff that was sold separately. In fact it is a deadly cocktail of tap water, dish soap, and soda pop. The soap is to break surface tension, but the only thing I know about the pop is that it must not be diet. If this thing was made by an American company, the liquid would be packaged and sold for $10 a gallon.

The net is an inferior catch but is provided for easier identification of species. Indeed, they don't look much like mosquitoes after soaking for a while. I tried fishing them out with a plastic knife at the dinner table. This is one of those times when it's nice to have a wife around to point out when I'm acting like a crazy person. I'm pretty sure we caught an albino mosquito (which replaced the Trammps song that was stuck in my head with a Nirvana song).

Second is the attracting lights. When I switched it on, red, green, and blue lights started flashing like the encore at a Duran Duran show (yes I'm that old). I checked inside for a disco ball. Nope, but it is lined with foil for a similar effect. A pattern of colored lights danced on the nearby fence and I wondered if I had just been hoodwinked out of 200 bucks. I chose a shady location near the source, where the lights won't wake the neighbors.

Third is the timer. Why would a mosquito trap have a 7-day programmable timer? Maybe some people don't want to kill mosquitoes on Sunday? Or maybe they want to save energy on Tuesday, when mosquitoes typically stay home for dinner.

Twelve hours later we had about 40 dead mosquitoes floating in the trap. After 12 more hours we had about the same number. And at 36 hours, maybe 10 more were added to the tub. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or maybe we only had 50 or so mosquitoes. Three is a swarm as far as I'm concerned so 50 is a lot. Or maybe we just killed the 50 dumbest ones and the smart ones hang out by the trap to bite me on the ankles while I'm checking the tub for carcasses.

Posted by David at 02:50 PM | Comments (7)

May 30, 2006

Killing Machines

The mosquitoes have claimed our yard. As of about 3 or 4 weeks ago, the kids have stopped going outside, and Mom and Dad have become hyperactive about the door being open for more than 5 seconds. "Close the door. Close the door! CLOSE THE DOOR!"

We have a nearby neighbor that does not mow, and has a V8 engine hanging from a tree branch. I image the mosquitoes over there, hanging out poolside in various cans and cylinders planning their next meal at the gourmet restaurant that is our back yard. "Mmmm, three-year-old forehead... tasty!"

There are machines for this problem. They run in the hundreds of dollars price range, but if they can really knock out the mosquito population, they are totally worth it. Two years ago, when I first looked into them, the only one I could find was the Mosquito Magnet, but there was a pretty obvious pattern to the consumer reviews. People who had just bought it loved it. People who had owned one for more than one year hated it. Three hundred dollars is great if I can kill most of the mosquitoes in my yard for 5 to 10 years, but it's too much for just one year.

From left to right, the Mosquito Sentinel available at Lowes ($199), which is too good looking to possibly work, the Mega Catch ($179) only available online, and the troublesome Mosquito Magnet ($1,250).

The idea of a greedy, evil, devil-mosquito landing on my precious and not-yet-born daughter has pushed me over the edge, so I bought the Mega Catch Premier today.

Posted by David at 10:14 AM | Comments (5)

May 17, 2006

The Angle of the Sun

Well, someone finally built the daylight application I had always wanted to build. (Not as pretty of course, and upside-down.) You can put in any latitude, longitude, and time of day and get the exact angle of the sun. And it graphically shows the sunrise and sunset times for every day of the year.

So I plugged in the coordinates (30°18'01" N 97°44'50" W) and the dates for the summer and winter solstice to get all the extreme angles of the sun in Austin, Texas.

First is the altitude. This is the angle off of the horizon. 90 degrees is straight up. We're pretty far south, so on the summer solstice the sun gets up to 80.1 degrees.

The second is the azimuth which is the position on the horizon that the sun is directly above. It is measured in degrees off of North. So South is 180 degrees.

The diagrams below all show summer solstice in red and winter solstice in blue.

The first two diagrams just show the angles of the sun at sunrise, sunset and high noon on the two solstices. The next one down on the left shows a profile of our house and the shadow cast at noon on each of those days.

The three diagram on the right show a silhouette top view of our house and the angle of shadows at sunrise, noon and sunset. The gray four sided outline is our oddly shaped lot.

The big surprise for me is how little sun our south wall gets in the summer. I wish I had had an application that did this for me while we were designing the house. We might have made some adjustments to take advantage of the shade a little more.

Posted by David at 05:36 PM | Comments (6)

May 02, 2006

Everybody Must Get Manufactured Stone Veneered

We are doing one interior wall in stone. I haven't been able to find stone selection on the net anywhere except Owens Corning, of all places. The stuff looks beautiful (online), but it's fake. I don't know if it's better or worse on any attribute; aesthetics, quality, price. But I sure could pick it out and be done with it.

Has anyone had any experience with this stuff?

Posted by David at 09:04 AM | Comments (4)

April 30, 2006

Sonos

Our now or never point for installing network and audio wiring has stretched into now-or-some-time-in-the-next-three-weeks. So we have had more time to devise a solution.

This is the system I would have purchased had I been rushed. It is flexible and easy to install. Cost/benefit is pretty good.

Still, it's not the ideal solution. There are multiple ways it is not right. The flexibility is just on the wrong axis. We don't need 6 different sources of music in 6 different places, we need the music we want in about 2 areas. 1. Downstairs commons, 2 Master suite. We need access to internet radio and our iTunes play lists. And we need to know what we are listening to without walking half way across the house and kicking somone off the computer. It just looked like the ideal solution had not been invented yet. Until I stumbled upon Sonos.

It's really cool to see interaction design that just knocks one out of the park. Everything I have seen about this product and the company tells me that they "get it." The web site is sharp, and the FAQ answers actual questions.

We will be wiring standard speaker wires and volume knobs throughout the house. (Once again, I can thank commenters on this blog for a good decision.) We can plug our old component stereos into these and someday, a we'll get set of Sonoses.

Posted by David at 09:09 AM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2006

American Lawn

I was surfing around the other day and happened upon a truly fascinating article by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. The article is one of his oldest about American's fascinations with suburban lawns.

Like the interstate highway system, like fast-food chains, like television, the lawn has served to unify the American landscape; it is what makes the suburbs of Cleveland and Tucson, the streets of Eugene and Tampa, look more alike than not. According to Ann Leighton, the late historian of gardens, America has made essentially one important contribution to world garden design: the custom of ''uniting the front lawns of however many houses there may be on both sides of a street to present an untroubled aspect of expansive green to the passer-by.'' France has its formal, geometric gardens, England its picturesque parks, and America this unbounded democratic river of manicured lawn along which we array our houses.

I've never been a lawn kind of gal. We lived on a half-acre lot when I was growing up and I watched my dad while away the better part of his Saturdays mowing the damn thing, pruning the trees, trimming the hedges. It was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but it took an inordinate amount of work. Most of our neighbors had services, but then most of our neighbors on our quaint and quiet little lane were also the retired original-owners my dad had grown up next to.

In Texas, a lawn is a strange and difficult obstacle to an otherwise hassle-free weekend. Texas lawns need year-round care, unlike my parents' lawn in Illinois which was covered in snow for the better part of the year. Texas lawns require weed killer and ant killer and snake killer and creative de-pollenation. I have no time for these things. I am all about letting nature do its thang. Native plants are beautiful and require very little maintenance. Gardening... well, I'm not good at it, but I do enjoy it, I must say.

For if lawn mowing feels like copying the same sentence over and over, gardening is like writing out new ones, an infinitely variable process of invention and discovery. Gardens also teach the necessary if rather un-American lesson that nature and culture can be compromised, that there might be some middle ground between the lawn and the forest--between those who would complete the conquest of the planet in the name of progress, and those who believe it's time we abdicated our rule and left the Earth in the care of its more innocent species. The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature half way.

David is our resident lawn-mower. He likes the lawn, and he's willing to take care of it. We've got our work cut out for us once the remodel is finished--chances are good that our lawn has been demolished along with much of the original house. Luckily, we live in a really cool neighborhood with amateur (and professional!) landscapers who have gone where we have not gone before. I look at our new yard as a fresh palette, an example of what the New American Lawn could look like if we met nature somewhere in the middle.

Posted by Christiane at 11:43 AM | Comments (6)

April 23, 2006

Architectural Archetypes

Those of you who know me personally know about my interest in Jungian and Campbellian archetypes, themes that appear and reappear throughout the ages across unrelated cultures. I see three square windows everywhere nowadays. In trying to find out more about their architectural history, David and I stumbled upon a few interesting links...

The three square window theme dates back to the Incan Temple of the Three Windows at Macchu Picchu:

Temple of the Three Windows
From National Geographic.

It is now known that it was built long before the Incas, and that it's olden name was Tampu-Tocco, "Haven of the Three Windows." The place, and its unique windows, are featured in local lore regarding the origins of the Andean civilization when the gods, led by the great creator Viracocha, placed the four Ayar brothers and their four sister-wives in Tampu-Tocco. Three brothers emerged through the three windows to settle and civilize the Andean lands; one of them founded the Ancient Empire that preceded that of the Incas by thousands of years.

Ubiquitous they are, and yet considered modernist. From Architectural Ruminations on a 1936 Armstrong home:

Overview of exterior.
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

The design makes effective use of tones and textures from the white of the stucco to the grey of the limestone, darker tones and shadows at the bricks, and darkest in the repeated composition of three square windows. While the stone face of addition partially concealled by vines and planting appears to be old, the white stucco of the garage extending beyond the end together with the flat roof of the addition, is a clear indication of its modernity.

Armstrong has developed his architectural expression by the careful juxtaposition of materials, forms, geometry, and textures.

It appears we are not the only ones with an eye on 50's doors:

IMG_5550
Uploaded by David Erwin.

I never cared for the diagonal thing myself, but I've always liked that other 195Os contender, the three square windows stacked vertically. They're crisp and Modern, unlike the diagonal version, which looks to me like it's trying too hard to be different. Then there was also the model with the same three square vertical panels. but they were wood, attached to a flush door.

Another random find:

Window 1, Window 2
Uploaded by David Erwin.

when i was a kid, i'd hang out by the back door in my kitchen. the door had three square windows, one on the bottom, one in the middle, and one on top. and i remember at one point only being tall enough to look out the bottom one. then the middle. then the top.

Funny to think that this theme has such interesting origins and varying interpretations. I've read others, from the fact that early art shows three square windows on the side of the Trojan Horse, and that three windows are often used in Christian architecture as an entry point for the Holy Trinity.

And here I just thought they looked cool.

Posted by Christiane at 01:43 PM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2006

Eagle Windows

We have Eagle windows. I am giving them a deliberate shout-out and link. We did not spec a brand of window, we just asked our contractor for the best value, and we got all wood double hung windows. They are spectacular. The only way they could match our original windows better would be to put ten layers of gloppy lead-based paint on them.

The Framers came by today and corrected the trim around the windows. Sill, drip cap, no board under the sill. What a huge difference this makes. I can't wait to move in and spend one lazy afternoon after another building wood screens for them.

But I wonder if this obsessive attention to detail means a have a little too much in common with a certain beaver.

(Props to Lauren for the heads-up on the article.)

Posted by David at 11:11 PM | Comments (2)

April 20, 2006

Earth Day is April 22

Will we see you at the Austin Farmer's Market this weekend?

Come for a toddler's dream diggin' bed, making recycled Earth Day projects, a garden demo and a chef's demo by ZTejas.

Sounds good to me. Maybe we can squeeze it in somehow around the previously-scheduled soccer game.

I know ya'll were planning to meet up with us at the Sustain-A-Ball this Saturday, right? We were going to sit in hemp chairs in the blazing sun, drink some herbal tea and maybe buy a few rainbarrels.

Not so fast! April and May rainbarrel sales have been postponed.

Due to a manufacturing issue, our supplier is unable to provide rainbarrels for our scheduled sale dates, including the planned sale this Saturday, April 22nd at the Sustainable Shoppers Ball.

Never fear: you can still pre-order them AND get $10 bucks off when you do! Come oooooonnnnnn, you know you want a rainbarrel. All the cool kids have them.

See you Saturday!

Posted by Christiane at 03:44 PM | Comments (4)

April 14, 2006

Note to Self: Buy Graph Paper.

A small confession. We have some limited analytics on our blog. That means we know about how many people visit our site, what pages people view, and what sites refer them. We get about 100 visits a day, about half are repeat visitors. About 75% of our traffic comes from House Blogs. And occasionally we get a friendly link.

Folksy Lady linked to our little ol' blog and in about 3 clicks, I learned something new. This is exactly what I should be doing to describe the interior trim for our house.

Gotta buy graph paper.

Also, we got blogged at ModWalls. Neat. We think they're cool too.

Posted by David at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2006

In-Wall Stereo Recommendations?

I need to run stereo and cat5 in our house this weekend. The walls are open so it's now or never.

I think I can figure out cat5. Just run a line from each spot I want to have an outlet, and back to the closet with the router. But I've just scratched the surface for stereo systems.

The big difference in my mind is analog volume controls or digital controllers. I'm not seeing a big price difference and I'm leaning toward digital controllers because they give more control and look easier to install. But I like analog because, well, volume knobs have been analog for about 100 years, and I think there will be analog volume knobs for another 100 years. Twisting is also much better than pushing buttons for volume control.

This is what I'm looking at.

Digital keypad.

Analog controller.

Does anyone have any recommendations for systems or components?

Posted by David at 11:52 AM | Comments (5)

April 03, 2006

Greenage

Posted by Christiane at 02:07 PM | Comments (3)

March 29, 2006

Ah, Memories

Posted by Christiane at 11:29 PM | Comments (1)

March 26, 2006

Eye Candy

Yesterday was a very full day. Kidless for the afternoon, we figured we would grab a late lunch and run some Erwin House-related errands.

We headed over to the Sustainable Shopper's Ball (the "Sustain-a-Ball") first with the hopes that we would be able to get more info on photo-voltaics (PV's, or solar panels) and rain barrells. The website wasn't really very clear on when the event would start or end, but it said they would have food. Unfortunately, we got there a tad too late. Everyone was clearing out.

David's tenacity helped us to corner the Armadillo Solar guy and get some answers. The good news is that we have plenty of space on our roof for the PV panels, and the roof is even angled in the proper direction to capture the most sunlight (that's what we had tried to plan for). Plus, the panels just plain look cool.

For those of you in Austin, there is another Ball next month on the 22nd at the Tony Burger Center.

Since we figured we were too far from the Habitat Re-Store to go look for a dining room window, we hit SoCo instead.

We hit the Travis Heights neighborhood where both David and I lived at different times years ago. Wow, that neighborhood is undergoing a change. Even though I don't like the tone of the "McMansion" debate, I do see the rapid development that has a lot of people on edge. We drove past the Preston-Garcia mansion; does anyone know what is planned for this property?

We also snapped a pic of the carport we want. Looks simple enough (except for the rockin' storage in back with the sliding door). I wonder what it would cost or how long it would take to build it?

We then drove through the Penn Field parking lot where I took pics of the landscaping since Architerra was closed. Can anyone name the vines or grasses here? This is mainly what I'm thinking about when I think of the wrap-around deck--vines up the posts and some kind of grass or maybe rosemary and lavendar around the walkway underneath.

By the time we got to Opal Divine's for lunch, we were no longer hungry. We'd had too much eye candy.

Posted by Christiane at 01:39 PM | Comments (10)

March 22, 2006

Kill Bill Homes

I've been a little sleep-deprived lately. And today, when I could not hold my head up at my desk, I stepped out for a quick walk. Across the street is a KB Homes Design Showroom. I had never had any reason to go there, but I popped in today.

What awful glee I had. There was not a single good thing in the showroom. Even the designers of the retail space seemed to despise the merchandise. Against the clean lines, bright colors, halogen lights and crisp aluminum windows, the merchandise looked like Mennonites crashing a disco.

First several kitchens. Yuk! In a hotel or apartment - fine, but not in my house!

Next bathrooms, with stern signs everywhere proclaiming, "White. Only available in white."

Now porch lights. Why, why, why do they all look like eighteenth century carriage lanterns? And why are they so big? That must have been one huge buggy.

And your choice of three, count them three, plastic door types. The plastic doors are supposed to look like wood, but they look like Disney wood, with over-exaggerated wood grains. Real wood doors are sanded, and you can't see the wood grain. I say, if you are going to use plastic, embrace your materials. Make it look like Legos or Tupperware or something.

Now carpet, tile, and paint. Beige! Beige! Beige! Eight hundred shades of beige! No wonder couples go after each other's throats when they're designing a house. "Honey, it's 'sweet cream' not 'corn silk'. Can't you tell the difference?" "No! And I don't care! I don't care about anything anymore!"

My God I love our house. It is going to be so cool.

Posted by David at 11:33 PM | Comments (3)

March 20, 2006

Fifties Forever

Posted by Christiane at 07:47 PM | Comments (5)

March 12, 2006

Living the Good Life

Ya'll know about my green building interests, so it should come as no surprise that I am finding Linda Cockburn's sorta-blog about her family's experience building a strawbale home very fascinating. Just wish I could subscribe to it (RSS feed, plz!).

Ever since I read about Linda's book on Loobylu's blog, I've been wondering about how to get my hands on a copy... It appears that our library doesn't carry it yet. I'm positive I could order it or pick it up at Book People, but it sure would be nice to pay homage to Linda's "lifestyle of less-is-more" by acquiring a freecycled copy, ya think?

Posted by Christiane at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

Tokyo Blues

Speaking of tarps...

I met Nurri Kim last fall at Design Engaged 2005 in Berlin. Her presentatation was breathtaking. I was feeling ill and missed the original viewing, and I was told by many, many people to take her aside later and ask her to review it with me. They were right.

Nurri's photos of blue tarps being used in unintended (and artistic) ways all over Tokyo are stunning.

From Nurri's site:

"I'm interested in the everyday - in the things that we see too often, and then forget to see. I try to pay attention to this sort of detail wherever I go, in both public and private space. My work is an attempt to make these things visible."

I couldn't help but think about how the tarp covering our house will be there for only a few days, less than a blip on the radar of time. One day, the kids may not even remember the house before it was remodeled. They may have an emotional memory. Ellie won't have any memory of it at all. Chances are good that it will be complete before she is born (fingers-crossed).

* Nurri's photo reprinted without permission. I think she's in town for SXSW. Maybe I can ask her if I run into her before she skips town :)

Posted by Christiane at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2006

Saucy Dwellings

Posted by Christiane at 11:32 AM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2006

Basics

While talking to people at our open house I was reminded of a few basic things that I learned while designing our house. Here they are.

• In Crestview, houses cost about $150 - $200/sqft, and you can build for about $100 - $175/sqft.
  
• A construction loan is based on the value of the property after work is done, not the current value.
  
• Pools and decks return about 40% of what they cost in resale.
  
• A small bedroom is 10 ft by 10 ft. You really shouldn't go smaller than that.
  
• 13x13 is nice but not a big bedroom. 14x14 is ok. 15x15 is great. 16x16 is crazy big.
  
• A shirt on a hanger is 2 feet wide. If you want to hang stuff up on both sides of a walk-in closet, that's 2 feet on each side, and 3 in the middle. 7 feet.
  
• A hallway is 3 ft minimum, and that's really small. 3.5 ft is ok. 4 ft is nice.
  
• Stairs take up about one full bedroom of space. Stairs in a straight line take up 60 sqft out of each floor, for a total of 120 sqft, but if you start to fall at the top, you're going all the way downstairs. Add a landing (is that why they call it a landing?) in the middle and it's 180 sqft.
  
• 8 ft ceiling is low, 9 is high, 10 is, well, just get out a ruler and see how high that really is before you spec it.
  
• Closets and bathrooms can have kludgy shapes, but bedrooms should be rectangles.
  
• Exterior lights look better if you can't see the light source.
  
• Every room should have windows on 2 walls.
  
• Sometimes a window has to be in an odd spot inside, to be in a good spot outside.
  
• It's not how many feet of pipe you have that drives cost, it's how many times it pops out of the wall. Sink? 1000 bucks. Tub? 1000 bucks. Another sink? 1000 bucks. It's enough to make you rethink those his-and-her toilets.

Posted by David at 11:45 PM | Comments (5)

DIY Solar Power

Speaking of reducing those energy bills...

David and I have tried hard to design the house for eco-friendliness. Although the house will be pretty conventional in form, we decided to:

• Angle the roof for the best access to capturing solar energy
  
• Reduce the amount of windows (and thereby heat) on the west-facing portion of the house
  
• Plan for as much rainwater capture as possible
  
• Reuse as many of the materials in the existing home as possible
  
• Create comfortable outdoor spaces instead of increasing indoor square footage
  
• Use environmentally-friendly materials whenever possible, like Marmoleum and IPE
  

The solar panel thing has had us stumped, it seems so expensive to break into this market when it seems like fuel cell technology is right around the corner, but it turns out that going solar little by little might not be as expensive as I had originally thought. The comments on that post are enlightening--just as many great ideas and experiences shared as in the post itself.

Posted by Christiane at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2006

Zowie, Zillow

When I do information design, I usually look for data that tells a story so plainly, that it seems blunt, almost a little rude. This is where Zillow comes in. It has some really blunt data. How about the value of your home trended over the past 10 years, against average homes in your zip code, city, and the United States?

But here's what you really want to see. An aerial photo of your street, with the price of your neighbors home superimposed on their roofs. Now that's explicit.

If this was accurate, it would really be freaky. The value of our home at the time I bought it is off by about 15%.

Update: I found one that's accurate. The interface is not as good, and no maps. But the numbers are based on sales and city appraisals.

Posted by David at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2006

Green Is Beautiful

When there is nothing going on at the house, I surf the midcenturymodern tag @ Flickr.

This is dangerous because I come up with ideas. Ideas can be very dangerous when one is in the middle of construction.

So, I distract myself with philosophical afterthought and questions such as...

• Is there a place for modernist design in a home with small children?
  
• Are credenzas proof of a higher power at work in the universe?
  
• What if I never want to leave my kitchen?
  
• Do these people own a cat?
  

Posted by Christiane at 06:29 PM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2006

Countertops

Since we're on a kitchen kick...

Here's the laminate I picked out for the countertops. I dig the cabinet faces too... but I'd rather have white than birch.

(Click it to see full-size)

Posted by Christiane at 08:42 PM | Comments (5)

February 15, 2006

Greeeen!

Yes, I am still geeking out on the landscaping theme.

I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out where to put the rainwater barrels. After surfing for a while, I realized that we may need more than one or two 75-gallon barrels. In fact, we may need a high-capacity cistern.

See, since our roof is a shed roof that drains on only the south side of the home, a lot of water will be dumped into one spot. I read that a 1-inch rain may produce around 500 gallons of runoff from our roof (it's a little less than 1000sf, and we're going with composite shingle tile, so there may be a 10% loss or more due to evaporation).

Now, I just don't see us getting a 500 gallon tank. I don't know where the heck we'd put it, and I bet that most of the year it would be pretty empty. After surfing, it seems like a 6ft tall green polyurethane tank that holds around 300 gallons should do us well. It would probably fit well between the windows on the south side, and it would provide a good frontyard/backyard access point for irrigation.

In a few weeks, when we go over the plumbing plan, we need to find out if recycling the greywater from the second floor is feasable also.

Speaking of green choices, I need to get my butt back down to Eco-Wise to pick up some samples of the yellow (or yellower) Marmoleum that we were hoping to use in the kitchen...

Beyond ecological benefits, I'm thinking about aesthetics, too. I noticed that one of the newer homes down the street has a flagstone skirt instead of concrete. Looks great, and it would help create more of the indoor/outdoor marriage that we've been looking for since one of the walls in the livingroom will be masonry.

I'm wondering if this would clash horribly with this fabulous black granite driveway I saw yesterday. We can't really afford to pave, but I did love the look of the dark, finely ground stone, and it seems like it would be okay for riding bikes and trikes.

Posted by Christiane at 08:25 AM | Comments (4)

February 14, 2006

Modern Austin

Some friends of ours live in a small section of town with a number of homes designed by A.G Stenger. They remind me a bit of some of the homes in our area that we're designed in the 60's. Just a hint of modern and very retro chic.

He signed their house, ya'll. Isn't that cool? (Yes, you may now label me as a geek in whatever fashion you like.)

From a Google search, I stumbled upon LiveModern.com, a clearinghouse of modernist architectural resources.

From there, I leapt to the drool-worthy Stenger photoalbum from west Austin.

Eventually, I surfed to the Austin Modernists blog.

I am a sated... for now ;-)

One of the things I love about the Stenger homes is the blend of harsh lines with organic matter. Usually the stark angular facade of the home includes a bit of stone siding which blends with the stone walkway, driveway, and/or landscaping. Given that the area is heavy with limestone, the homes almost seem to grow out from the ground. The lots seem to include at least 30% old-growth foliage, mostly natural to the greenbelt area. The colors of the homes are rich browns, ochres, coppers, and highlight the woody hills.

Given that I am also a big fan of earthships and eco-houses made from cob, adobe, strawbale and stone, I really like how Stenger's houses somehow strike a different but equally primal chord in me.

Now, someone get me away from the internets. They are hypnotizing me.

Posted by Christiane at 04:26 PM | Comments (2)

Come On In

Spring must be around the corner because I've caught the gardening bug.

I was driving around our neighborhood admiring some of the landscaping people have done. I started taking pictures, but when I got home I noticed that it isn't really the right time of year to do justice to their yards.

What I ended up with were some pictures of some really cool front entrances. David has always talked about entrances, how they should be a warm transition between the inside and outside worlds, not just "a door." We talk a lot about what the space should look and feel like just inside the front door, but we haven't talked much about the outside.

Today, I saw some doors that just said, "Come on in..." or don't! The porches, patios, or stoops were just as inviting. I only drove up and down three or four streets, so this cross-section certainly doesn't represent all of the really cool doors in the neighborhood, but it gives one a feel for the diversity of styles and messages.

Some things I noticed:

• There are a lot of red doors in our area.
  
• There is a lot of super-cool and funky ironwork at many of the entrances.
  
• I think it is really impressive when people have glass front doors. To me, it says a lot about feeling like you live in a safe place.
  
• The numbers and mailboxes are often as unique as the houses.
  

Our neighborhood was built using a lot of very generic floorplans and facades. Over the years, people have made amazing modifications. What shocks me is when two houses that started out looking pretty much the same evolve into two totally unique homes, one Spanish courtyard and the next French cottage. Some have had the siding redone in cob or adobe, others in metal siding. Reminds me of the Brentwood/Crestview bumper stickers that say "Close In But Far Out." Where can I get one of those?!

Posted by Christiane at 03:41 PM | Comments (0)

L.A. Obscura

I just stumbled upon this great mid-century modern exhibit site. Really, gorgeous architecture AND great photography? I just don't know if I could handle it all in one viewing.

*droooooooooool*

Posted by Christiane at 10:18 AM | Comments (1)

February 07, 2006

An Angled Setback

From the Austin Chronicle

"At last Thursday's City Council meeting it was McCracken vs. McMansions. A resolution initiating changes to city code to ensure that development is consistent with existing neighborhoods, sponsored by McCracken, passed unanimously. Council is set to vote on similar interim rules at tonight's meeting to quell a perceived influx of building permits before the so-called McMansion ordinance is finalized in March. Materials accompanying the proposed measure state that 'due to an increase in property values and the desire to live in Austin's central city area, many property owners are demolishing or moving smaller older homes and replacing them with larger homes known as McMansions.' The new ordinance would seek to regulate such constructions by employing any number of the following methods: changing the maximum allowed building height for single-family uses, creating a new floor-to-area ratio (meaning the ratio of building square footage to lot size), applying compatibility standards to new homes or remodeled homes with significant additions, revising building setbacks for homes exceeding a certain size, limiting home size based on the average size of nearby homes, or providing an angled stepback from the front property line of the lot so a new or remodeled home would not tower over the adjacent street. - D.M."

Seriously? They put the word "McMansion" in the official language? Can we replace "smaller older homes" with "Cracker Box Houses"?

I'm not against the City Council addressing this issue. I'm just against them being silly about it.

Posted by David at 08:37 AM | Comments (1)

January 23, 2006

5304 Agatha Circle

This is a concept home in a new neighborhood called Agave in East Austin. I like the variety of depth of the front elevation and the contrasting angular nature of the roof lines.

Unfortunately, most of the floorplans of the homes designed for this neighborhood seem to be rather clunky. They remind me of apartments I have lived in. This seems to be because the lots are extremely narrow (50x100 in most cases). This forces the homes into a long, narrow hallway of a building.

But there were other details I noticed, like how the living/dining/kitchen areas are all open to one another, something that doesn't really work when kids are watching cartoons in the livingroom and you're trying to have adult conversation (or just some quiet time) in the kitchen. Also, most of the homes don't have a "public" bathroom, or if they do it is located in an odd spot (the one I've highlighted actually has a nicely located half-bath, one of the few).

I love how all of these houses have lots of windows, but in the Texas summer heat we really have to watch window placement. David and worked hard to come up with a design that allowed as little heat into the house as possible on the southwest wall of the house. The glass windows and doors leading to the backyard will be double paned, low-E, and the rest will have screens and/or awnings.

Looking at other house designs, after spending 7 months designing our own, has given me an appreciation for truly efficient, usable (or livable) design.

I recommend Small Houses and The Very Small Home if you are trying to get away from the faux efficiency of designs featured in The Not-So-Big House (note to Susanna Susanka: 3000sf is big, for real).

Click on the pic for details.

Posted by Christiane at 12:45 PM | Comments (3)

January 20, 2006

Exterior of the House and Pattern Languages

For the last couple of days I have been thinking about the exterior design of the house in terms of elements found in our neighborhood. My obsession with this may be the fact that the 3 largest features of the house are not consistent with the other houses. These are:

1. 2 Stories
2. Shed Roof
3. Upstairs Deck

So the challenge is, how would a 2 story, shed roof house with a balcony have been built in 1951 in Crestview. So we're covering the house with patterns that are found all over Crestview.

This will be better with photos, but for now I'm just taking notes.

1. Notched roof edge, really wide eaves - Firehouse on Grover
2. 12 inch lap siding, 6 inch flat siding - everywhere
3. Mixed siding - many houses
4. double hung windows with wood frame screen - everywhere
5. Casement windows - slightly common, maybe 1/4 of houses
6. mixed casement and double hung - common on all houses with casement
7. painted front door - only replaced doors are wood grain
8. low slope roof, 12:2 - very common and unique to this area
9. carport, no garage - attached garages are very rare

I realized that I had internalized this way of looking at architecture and had completely forgotten about the Christopher Alexander book that got me started. I’m thinking that clearly communicating the features that are designed to match the neighborhood might help with acceptance of the design by my neighbors. Maybe a sign or flyers in the front yard with photos from around Crestview.

Posted by David at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)