mark's panomara

cherner, bassett, room/board, bludot tables, etc.

Some things I learned about remodeling

1. Think about why you bought the house in the first place and what you liked about it. Then retain or enhance those ideas during hte remodel.

2. Space is not the same thing as square footage. Adding square footage will not automatically make a space feel bigger and can actually make thing worse. Some people actually need more square footage but some people just need a better designed space.

3. The two most common (and worst) cheap additions: room outside a room and room on the end of a room. Room outside a room--makes the inner room dark and dreary and it always looks like an add on. Room on the end of a room--means you have to go through someone's room to get to the new room. Bad idea.

4. You cannot just impose a 'style' on a house. It's better to understand what kind of house you have and work with that.

5. When you're remodeling just one room like a kitchen, you have to think about it relation to everything else.

6. The worst way to think about aesthetics is in terms of things/entities. Like, thinking about a kitchen primarily in terms of countertops and pendants. Aesthetics is based on the relationship of parts. A lot of good looking people don't have particularly noticeable features, it's the way their face is put together that makes them attractive. Most of the time, what we respond to when seeing things is NOT the thing/entity/pendant light, but an overall effect. Generally speaking, people put WAY too much money into materials/features/appliances and WAY too little money on design. The design is way more important.

7. Design is the act of falling in love with something and then killing it off. This happens both in terms of features and design ideas. You may love the "high bar countertops" but if the feature starts to become too prominent or forces too many design compromises, it may be time to kill it off. 

8. Qualities are different than colors. In other words, the green of a ceramic tile and the green of house paint may be exactly the same, but they might feel very different because the materials possess different qualities and different associations. For example, a dark green that looks nice as paint might not look good as tile because it might remind you of public bathrooms. So don't think of colors in isolation from the material. 

9. Rather than picking out everything at once, it's better to make one materials/detailing statement and then work from there. For example, it sounds reasonable to just pick a floor and paint and everything at the same time and assume it will work. However, things seen in context are always different, especially when it comes to houses because of the different lighting, seasons, etc. So, if possible, it's better to choose one thing and install it. Then look at it and pick the next thing. And the next. This gives you a much more integrated look because you're constantly engaged with the actual space. It actually gives you a more lively, improvisational appearance.

10. Home design TV shows tend to be uniformly awful because of their emphasis on the a) visual,  b) identity

11. a)visual---houses are meant to be lived in, not only seen. The dynamic reveal at the end of TV shows is a moment of visual impact. But good design manifests itself in everyday tasks. It is not purely visual.

12. b)identity--a lot of homes are designed to support a client's view of him or herself. So the home becomes about your aspirations, who you hope to be and how you want others to regard you. A home should be a reflection of yourself and your values. It should express and support a lifestyle, not attempt to create it.

13. If in doubt, prototype When I was thinking about reducing the number of windows on the E side of the house, I covered the existing windows in the appropriate places with paper to see if I'd like the effect. After a few days, I knew this wasn't a good solution. On the other hand, when thinking of walling-in the breakfast nook, I put in paper to see if I'd mind losing the view. I didn't mind, and it ended up being a good design. Would adding a wall next to the fireplace really make a difference? I put one in there with paper and a C-stand for a couple of months and liked the effect. Sure enough, the wall has worked out great. 

14. Few people are really good previsualizing a space and it almost doesn't matter if you can do it or not. The important thing is to know how to improvise and listen to the space as you complete it. Two of the best features of the house--the fireplace wall and the kitchen beams--were either an accident or a necessity based on existing structure. 

before/after

WALL REMOVAL

Removing the wall between the living area and kitchen solves a number of problems. First, it makes the house seem much bigger. Second, it makes routine activities more socially-oriented. For instance, Sean seems happier to do work (like taking dishes out of the dishwasher) because the activity is not so isolated. And now, if I have someone over for breakfast, I can cook and talk at the same time. Notice in the after picture that there is south-facing window over the sink (there is another unseen south-facing window to the right). Before, there were no south-facing windows. These windows open up the house and provide sky to look at since we live on a hill. The short wall between the living area and the kitchen is a 'bar top' that we use for eating or serving. The wood beams were not part of the original plan. They were necessary because of money-saving construction techniques used in the original house. They ended being a nice feature.

LIVING AREA

The original living area had ceiling to floor windows and a door in the middle. While this admitted lots of light (once the covered patio was removed) notice that there is no ventilation. It was like being trapped in a big glass cube. The new design has a sliding door with a screen and 3 awning windows creating much better ventilation. The sliding door is much bigger than the old door making access to the back much easier. Further, because the door is off to the side, the new space is much easier to furnish than before. The old space was extremely difficult to furnish because of the door which seemed to always be right where you'd want to put furniture. Notice that the sliding door is housed by a 'bump out'--a small, one foot area that juts slightly into the backyard. This brings focus to the dining area, visually breaks up the long wall and provides a little more space to this heavily trafficked area.

ALCOVE

On the flip side of the breakfast nook was a strange undefined area. It felt like a 'no man's land.' We used to have a desk and a chair there. This area was improved in several ways. First, when the breakfast nook was walled off, it created a much better appearance. Second, there is a small handrail which encloses the space. This tiny wall creates much better spatial definition and a more satisfying space to inhabit. Third, there is a built-in bench. The new space is designed to house a small table but could be used without one.

LIVING AREA/FIREPLACE

This area was fraught with problems. The original house had an over-scaled fireplace. "Over scale, under-furnish" was the motto of fifties design. I think the original idea was that the fireplace would be an ambiguous transitional area that could be interpreted either as entry or living area. In reality, it functioned as neither. The huge fireplace dominated the space. And sitting on the couch next to the fireplace was unpleasant. It felt like you were sitting in a hallway because of the lack of spatial definition.

In the redesign, we made the fireplace about 20% smaller and tore off the brick. A wall was built to the left of the fireplace. This small wall does miracles. It encloses the living area making it feel more comfortable and defined. Second, it creates, seemingly out of nothing, an entry area. What was once wasted space now houses a shelf unit and a bench. In the 'after' picture notice that the fireplace juts out slightly in the living area. This wasn't part of the design. It was a last-minute solution to a framing problem caused by a communication mix up. It actually turned out to be a nice feature in the end--it brings focus to the fireplace without allowing it to be overwhelming. In the 'after' picture notice that the entry area also now has a closet. This space was taken from Sean's room, an idea Maria and I had considered long ago.

more old house photos

restoration hardware stool

Kitchen corner before/after

This is the southwest corner of the house before and after. Before remodeling, it was part of the kitchen. Now it is a small nook with a built-in desk. I use it as an office. To the right of the desk is a new door to the patio. The door is right where the sink used to be. The window in the 'after' picture is a new south-facing window. In the old house, there was no window there, just cabinets.



If you're sitting at the table shown above, stand up and turn around, you see this...

more 'school punk'

more really old house pix

which chair is from ikea and which is from Design within Reach?

Original house / remodeled house

Maria and I bought the house in 2001 because we thought it had "great potential." In retrospect this means several things. We liked the generally open layout, the back-facing orientation and the siting of the house on the plot which leaves lots of room for outdoor activities. We had always planned on remodeling it. The before photos were taken before we closed on the house in 2001. The before/after views were all taken from the same spot. All the work you see here was done between June 2008 and August 2009.

LAUNDRY ROOM

This was technically called a 'covered patio' but was really little more than a poorly-built shack. This is where the washer, dryer, water heater and more than a few black widows were kept. In June 2008 I had it ripped down. The structure was painted with lead paint and because of termite damage, the wood had become brittle like styrofoam. Today, the same spot is now mostly outdoors. The old room is gone. The water heater tank was replaced by a small, tankless, on-demand system that hangs on the side of the house.

COVERED PATIO

This covered patio was also a problem. It was too small to be useful plus it blocked off all outside light leaving the living room in a state of perpetual twilight. This is the classic cheap remodel--putting a room on the outside of an existing room. It makes the inside room dark and dreary. This is the view now with the room gone.

BREAKFAST NOOK

The original house had a breakfast nook with sliding doors that faced west. The nook isn't a bad idea, but the implementation had problems. First it was too small to hold a table. Second, why would you need a table right next to the dining table? Third, the west sun would blare in the house all afternoon creating too much light and too much heat. Fourth, we just ended up putting shelves in there since we needed the storage. In the after view, note that this area is now enclosed by walls. It houses the washer/dryer, a pantry, a small walk-in closet and some cabinets. In a way, it was like taking the old wash room and moving into the middle of the house. Moving the laundry here involved considerable expense because of the plumbing. There was no plumbing here before so a new line going to the main had to be added. While we were at it, I decided to install some needed drains at the sides of the house.

LIVING AREA

In the before photo you can see the other side of the breakfast nook which is now enclosed. For several months I papered off the nook to see if I'd miss seeing to the west. Answer: not really. Note how dreary the old house looks because of the covered patio outside. Now gone, the house feels much less dark and claustrophobic.

round coffee tables

colors