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Ideas and References
Jan
20
2006
0For 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...
Jan
23
2006
3
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...
Feb
7
2006
1From 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...
Feb
7
2006
0Regarding David's previous entry on the proposed moratorium for adding on to inner city homes, I find the cover story of the Austin Chronicle rather enlightening. Another proposal, this time facing the Austin Independent School District, suggests closing under-enrolled schools (like our own Brentwood Elementary) starting...
Feb
14
2006
1I 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*
Feb
14
2006
0
IMG_1583
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
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...
Feb
14
2006
2
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...
Feb
15
2006
4
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...
Feb
16
2006
2
The Ikea kitchen is cheap, but inflexible in design, and it comes from a factory, not a craftsman across the street. If anyone has had a bad experience with Ikea cabinets, we really need an excuse to not use them.
Btw, this is one of the last things Christiane did before her computer melted. Did Ikea kill her computer?...
Feb
16
2006
0
...for the kitchen backsplash. Colors and mixture by Christiane, and it fits the Apollo-space-program-chic that I want the kitchen to have. I have an old boat from 1959 that has those influences: chrome, gold, gloss white, red, gray, and black.
The mosaic generator on hakatai.com is a nice bit of interface design (except...
Feb
16
2006
5Since 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)
Feb
20
2006
1
looking out from the dining room
Originally uploaded by boristheblade.
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...
Feb
21
2006
0When 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...
Feb
23
2006
0Speaking 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...
Feb
23
2006
5While 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...
Feb
28
2006
0Dear Tile Guy,
I regret to inform you that I could not convince my husband to install hard tile flooring in the kitchen and dining areas. I have amazing persuasion skills, yet he was unmoved. I promise to give it one more go at the last minute on your behalf, but don't hold your breath.
Nevertheless, we are looking forward...
Mar
2
2006
1
From Living Room On
Originally uploaded by Mattie & Den.
Some time ago, I became addicted to the Saucy Dwellings community at LJ. Yesterday's post by pulpattack sent me into convulsions at the end. Ya gotta read it. Lip liner, ha!
At one point, I created a sister group over at Flickr for anyone interested....
Mar
7
2006
0Speaking 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...
Mar
12
2006
0
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...
Mar
20
2006
5
50's kitchen
Originally uploaded by Handpicked.
Well, it took me forever to stumble onto Dwell, so I guess it makes sense that we were midway through our project when I finally found HouseBlogs.net. 'Cause, ya know, I'm slow like that.
There was a plethora of yummy linkage to be found there, and I particularly...
Mar
22
2006
3I'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...
Mar
26
2006
10Yesterday 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...
Mar
29
2006
1
I Dream of Carport
Originally uploaded by cmwoodley.
Once upon a time, it was not raining. It was sunny. And beautiful. And David and I lived in a blissful bubble and talked about the progress they were making on our house and imagined landscaping.
Harken back to a time ages ago.... Picture it: March 26th,...
Apr
3
2006
3
Mary Milam's Yard
An Award-Winning Green Garden
Sunny days like today make me want to install some solar panels and soak up the sun. So, I perused the Austin Energy website to find out more about their Solar Rebate Program. I found out that the first step is being approved as a potential rebate recipient, so I signed...
Apr
13
2006
5I 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...
Apr
14
2006
0A 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...
Apr
20
2006
4Will 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...
Apr
21
2006
2We 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...
Apr
23
2006
3Those 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...
Apr
26
2006
6I 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...
Apr
30
2006
2Our 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...
May
2
2006
4We 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...
May
5
2006
0I've been a little worried about the particular shade of purple we picked out. It has to be right, or we're going to have to live with it wrong. "Oh, you're the people with the Barney house!" or "You mean the big lavender wedge on Grover?"
I took a couple more trips to the paint store, and consulted with my wife, and my three-year-old....
May
17
2006
6Well, 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...
May
30
2006
5The 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...
Jun
7
2006
7The 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...
Nov
23
2006
8One 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,...
Sep
28
2007
6We 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...
Feb
8
2008
8During 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...
Oct
7
2008
2When we went on our first AIA tour a few years ago, we went to every home looking for ideas and inspiration before we embarked on our own design/build journey. We visited each home with a sense of naive excitement. Going on the AIA tour now is a slightly painful reminder of the things we wish had gone differently during...
Mar
30
2009
0Thank you, Doug and Rochelle Kramer, for providing me with a ray of sunshine on an overcast day.
People, if you have not yet visited this website (or if you have had an overcast or otherwise bleak and dreary afternoon), I suggest that you high tail it on over to RanchoStyle.com post haste and have a gander at their...
Apr
3
2009
1Thinking about buying, renovating, and somehow keeping it green at the same time? You might want to check out this article on Bankrate:
Green mortgages save on energy, loan costs
Excerpt:
"Most energy-efficient mortgage, or EEM, programs let you qualify for bigger loans than you would otherwise by folding...
Apr
9
2009
2
Ideas, anyone? I tried denatured alcohol and steel wool as a friend suggested, and then a mesh scrubber. Some of the old varnish came right off, but much didn't, and I don't want to scratch the veneer. I hate to take it in to someone... or use intensely nasty chemicals while preggers.... I'm open :-)
Apr
10
2009
3A while ago, I spotted this pic on Retro Renovation:
As luck would have it, I found a similar retractable Moe hanging light fixture down at my fave resale shop, Room Service:
Sadly, the retractable portion was busted. The Light Fixture Shoppe on Burnet (now closed, wah!) put it on a swank brass chain for me, but I'm actively...
Apr
15
2009
4David picked up these groovy Sherwin Williams paint color palettes a while ago and I have been meaning to scan and post them.
Of course, scanning means the colors are off a bit. They are greyer for sure, the yellows not so yellow-y, in real life.
The line is called the "Suburban Modern Preservation Palette"...
May
11
2009
1For us, the Activity Room is kind of like a 1950's game room or den. We're breaking some rules here. Architecturally speaking, the room is a formal living room. Before the remodel, it was the master bedroom. But with three children and one on the way, it is the true heart of the house. Well, okay, it is the heart...