design – On ErikaRS' Mind

Landscaping

Posted on September 8, 2014June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Landscaping around our house was moderately difficult due to the long, narrow lot layout and the steep slope. To help overcome these challenges, we hired a professional landscape architect. Our builder, Yuval, recommended ANR Landscape Design. Our basic request was something fairly low-maintenance which used native plants when possible. Anri came up with a great design that we are very happy with.

There did end up being a few challenges during the design process. The biggest one was providing access to utilities. Our front yard has a lot of utility boxes and lines running under the ground. The backyard has a drainage line running across it. We ended up rearranging the backyard, and changing a lot of the retaining walls from poured concrete to corten steel or basic stacked blocks so that there would be less cost and work if access was ever needed to the underground lines.

Front Yard

The front yard is what we present to the street, so we want it to look nice. It needs to have a pathway from the sidewalk to the front door that is distinct from the public trail on the side of our property. It also needs to accommodate the slope of the yard. With the great eastern and southern exposure here, the front yard is the prime place for growing vegetables.

The resulting design uses several retaining walls to provide a few terraces, including a level area for a vegetable bed. A simple stone path leads from the sidewalk down to our entry. Around the edges, larger bushes and a tree provide some privacy and shield some of the utility boxes from sight. Different types of ornamental grasses provide color variety in different sections. Strawberry and thyme provide low maintenance ground-cover for the remaining space.

The vegetable area has a raised bed with a separate drip sprinkler system. We decided to use hazelnut shells for a softer ground cover than gravel. We also added extra stepping stones in this area to mark and protect an underground utility that is very near the surface. This area turned out nicely; but with a new baby we aren’t actually growing any vegetables this year!

The entry needs to be screened to provide some privacy (especially with package deliveries) without blocking access to the trail next to our house. A simple wood-slat fence with a gate in the middle works well, taking material cues from other parts of our house.

We considered adding a fence and gate at the sidewalk. We later decided those probably weren’t necessary, since the landscaping provides a clear division between the walkway to our front door and the public trail down the hill.

Back Yard

The backyard had already been leveled out with a small retaining wall, so it was the perfect place to have some more interactive space. We want a bit of grass for kids to play in and some seating for enjoying the outdoors. Since there is a public trail to the south, we need a screen to provide some privacy.

A seating area in the south-east corner was built in a style matching our decks. This surrounds a small concrete firepit powered by propane. Next to this, in the shade under the main deck is a rock garden with just a few plants. A set of concrete steps connects the backdoor to the seating area. Most of the rest of the yard is grass.The outer edge has some bushes and ornamental grasses to separate the lawn from the retaining wall. A wood-slat fence matching the one in the front provides privacy along the south edge. The north part of the backyard has more ornamental plants and a tree, with a gravel trail leading to the stairs up the north side of the house.

Side Yards

The side yards have the steepest slope to deal with, so their designs were primarily based around terraces with some basic plants.

The south side has a narrow section of wood-supported terraces. There wasn’t a lot of space between the public trail and the edge of our house, so this was the most reasonable solution. Some bushes and bamboo are planted here to provide a bit of a screen from the trail.

Shade-loving plants were added to the existing terraces along the north side. The terraces and the stairs they line were added earlier. On the north edge of the driveway, we used the wood-slat fence once more to build a small enclosure for our garbage cans. This leaves them easily accessible, but slightly obscured, and out-of-the-way of anything else.

Patterns

There are a lot of patterns around designing outdoor spaces and gardens. Here are some of the ones we used, and how they shaped our design.

Positive Outdoor Space (106)

Problem: Outdoor spaces which are merely “left over” between buildings will, in general, not be used.
Therefore: Make all the outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your buildings positive. Give each one some degree of enclosure; surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades, and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around corners.
In our yard: We have two main areas for gathering, which is around the vegetable bed in the front yard, and most of the backyard. The vegetable bed area is defined by the retaining walls around it, along with a surface of hazelnut shells instead of dirt. The backyard is defined by a fence on top of a retaining wall, the house, and bushes around the edge of the lawn.

Half-Hidden Garden (111)

Problem: If a garden is too close to the street, people won’t use it because it isn’t private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won’t be used either, because it is too isolated.
Therefore: Do not place the garden fully in front of the house, nor fully to the back. Instead, place it in some kind of half-way position, side-by-side with the house, in a position which is half-hidden from the street, and half-exposed.
In our yard: We don’t really have a side yard to use in such a way. But with a public trail going down the side of our house, the backyard ended up being a half-hidden garden, with some shelter from the trail, but some exposure, too.

Hierarchy of Open Space (114)

Problem: Outdoors, people always try to find a spot where they can have their backs protected, looking out toward some larger opening, beyond the space immediately in front of them.
Therefore: Whatever space you are shaping—whether it is a garden, terrace, street, park, public outdoor room, or courtyard, make sure of two things. First, make at least one smaller space, which looks into it and forms a natural back for it. Second, place it, and its openings, so that it looks into at least one larger space. When you have done this, every outdoor space will have a natural “back”; and every person who takes up the natural position, with his back to this “back”, will be looking out toward some larger distant view.
In our yard: For us this mainly applies in the backyard. The sitting area with bench has a natural back against the retaining wall, and looks out onto the lawn. The lawn then looks out onto the wilderness around our house, and the distant view.

Terraced Slope (169)

Problem: On sloping land, erosion caused by run off can kill the soil. It also creates uneven distribution of rainwater over the land, which naturally does less for plant life than it could if it were evenly distributed.
Therefore: On all land which slopes—in fields, in parks, in public gardens, even in the private gardens around a house—make a system of terraces and bunds which follow the contour lines. Make them by building low walls along the contour lines, and then backfilling them with earth to form the terraces. There is no reason why the building itself should fit into the terraces—it can comfortably cross terrace lines.
In our yard: This was an obvious one for us. Both sides of the house plus the front yard use terraces to provide flatter areas for landscaping and planting.

Garden Growing Wild (172)

Problem: A garden which grows true to its own laws is not a wilderness, yet not entirely artificial either.
Therefore: Grow grasses, mosses, bushes, flowers, and trees in a way which comes close to the way they occur in nature: intermingled, without barriers between them, without bare earth, without formal flower beds, and with all the boundaries and edges made in rough stone and brick and wood which becomes part of the natural growth.
In our yard: We followed this pretty well, with most plants mixed together. We especially used different ground covers with larger plants like ornamental grasses and shrubs. The main boundaries we have are the retaining walls and a bit of hardscape to walk on.

Garden Wall (173)

Problem: Gardens and small public parks don’t give enough relief from noise unless they are well protected
Therefore: Form some kind of enclosure to protect the interior of a quiet garden from the sights and sounds of passing traffic. If it is a large garden or a park, the enclosure can be soft, can include bushes, trees, slopes, and so on. The smaller the garden, however, the harder and more definite the enclosure must become. In a very small garden, form the enclosure with buildings or walls; even hedges and fences will not be enough to keep out sound.
In our yard: The backyard is enclosed by the building on the east side, and a retaining wall plus fence on the south side. The north side faces our neighbor, and the west side wilderness down the hill from us, so the busy sides are protected. Even the trail isn’t that busy, so just a fence should be enough protection for it.

Vegetable Garden (177)

Problem: In a healthy town every family can grow vegetables for itself. The time is past to think of this as a hobby for enthusiasts; it is a fundamental part of human life.
Therefore: Set aside one piece of land either in the private garden or on common land as a vegetable garden. About one-tenth of an acre is needed for each family of four. Make sure the vegetable garden is in a sunny place and central to all the households it serves. Fence it in and build a small storage shed for gardening tools beside it.
In our yard: We are starting small for this one. We do have a dedicated vegetable bed that is protected and very sunny. In the future, we may convert other areas, especially the south side terraces into vegetable beds, too. We also have a space under the house we can enclose to make a nice shed for tools.

Sitting Wall (243)

Problem: In many places walls and fences between outdoor spaces are too high; but no boundary at all does injustice to the subtlety of the divisions between the spaces.
Therefore: Surround any natural outdoor area, and make minor boundaries between outdoor areas with low walls, about 16 inches high, and wide enough to sit on, at least 12 inches wide.
In our yard: We didn’t make every division a sitting wall, but we do have a couple good ones. The retaining wall above the vegetable bed uses some interesting natural stone blocks, and is just about the right size for sitting on. The standard garden blocks for the lower retaining wall between our backyard and the wilderness also form a nice sitting wall if you want your back to the cultured yard, and to look out on the wild plants nearby.

Overall, we’re quite happy with how things turned out. It ended up being a long project, with a lot of stages to it. But we are excited to see the plants spread out and mature into a more established landscape.

A room for many

Posted on November 3, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Whether it’s two or three friends over for dinner or 20 for board games, we entertain frequently. We designed our home to support groups of many sizes. Much of what makes a room work for two also contributes to how well it functions for larger gatherings. In this post we want to focus on some of the things that are especially important in making a space work for entertaining.

Most spec homes have entries that are, at best, mediocre. The townhouse we rented while this house was under construction had a terribly entry. It was narrow, dark, and led you up stairs into the middle of the dining room. There was no coat closet. Even a moderate size group filled the entry with shoes and left coats scattered everywhere. People coming would collide with those going. It was a mess.

Entrance Room (130)

Problem: Arriving in a building, or leaving it, you need a room to pass through, both inside the building and outside it. This is the entrance room.
Therefore: At the main entrance to a building, make a light-filled room which marks the entrance and straddles the boundary between indoors and outdoors, covering some space outdoors and some space indoors. The outside part may be like an old-fashioned porch; the inside like a hall or sitting room.

The entrance room to our home is everything that was not. Outside we have a generous covered area where we will soon have a bench for setting parcels on. We don’t have a window in the entry — this was one of the few times where we let style override substance — but we plan to install a video camera. The interior entrance room is large and has a bench, shoe cubbies, a full sized closet for hanging coats, and a storage console. Guests can hang their coat and take off their shoes while easing into the activities going on inside. There is room for those last bits of conversation that slow the departure of good friends.

Eating Atmosphere (182)

Problem: When people eat together, they may actually be together in spirit — or they may be far apart. Some rooms invite people to eat leisurely and comfortably and feel together, while others force people to eat as quickly as possible so they can go somewhere else to relax.
Therefore: Put a heavy table in the center of the eating space — large enough for the whole family or the group of people using it. Put a light over the table to create a pool of light over the group, and enclose the space with walls or with contrasting darkness. Make the space large enough so the chairs can be pulled back comfortably, and provide shelves and counters close at hand for things related to the meal.
In our home: This pattern defines our dining room in all but one respect. We have a large, heavy table that can bring a group of people together. It has a pendant which defines the table as its own space. The counter is nearby for keeping things close at hand. Because we have an open floor plan with lots of windows, the space is not really enclosed by walls or darkness. Instead, we captured the essence of that contrast by making the table a comfortable, attractive place to continue conversation. (We have a mat for under the table on order; this should increase the contrast between the table and its surroundings and encourage more pulling back of the chairs.)

As mentioned in the previous post, the heart of our home is a single large space. The space is dominated by our dining table. To accommodate our varying needs, we commissioned a custom table that consists of two 5’x5′ tables which we generally leave pushed together. We seat 12 comfortably (more when we don’t mind getting a little cozy). When the tables are apart, we can fit 10 at each table. Apart, the tables are good for games, although a bit large to reach across. The 5’x10′ default configuration of the table is surprisingly intimate. The table is wide enough to fit two people on each end, and the width allows greater visibility of those at the other end of the table. The distance is still large, but the wider table does help reduce fragmentation common to long, rectangular tables.

Sitting Circle (185)

Problem: A group of chairs, a sofa and a chair, a pile of cushions — these are the most obvious things in everybody’s life — and yet to make them work, so people become animated and alive in them, is a very subtle business. Most seating arrangements are sterile, people avoid them, nothing ever happens there. Others seem somehow to gather life around them, to concentrate and liberate energy. What is the difference between the two?
Therefore: Place each sitting space in a position which is protected, not cut by paths or movement, roughly circular, made so that the room itself helps to suggest the circle — not too strongly — with paths and activities around it, so that people naturally gravitate toward the chairs when they get into the mood to sit. Place the chairs and cushions loosely in the circle, and have a few too many.

The table acts as a sitting circle when it’s not being used for food or games, but the usual place for conversation is the living room. It opens to the main area on one side, but is enclosed by two outer walls and a staircase. Being ever-so-slightly separated allows the living room to act as a natural sitting circle. Couches, an arm chair, and the bench around the fireplace provide seating for about 8, and pulling in chairs from the dining room or utilizing the floor raises that number to 15. Even when the group is small, the space is compact enough to make conversation comfortable.

Large groups, like we have for our game days, naturally divide into smaller groups. We can support a couple groups at the two dining tables and another in the living room. Another crowd always gathers around the food on the kitchen island. Folks taking some time alone or talking in pairs can use the alcoves created by the fireplace bench. When the weather is nice, the deck increases the variety of spaces available for interacting with others.

Alcoves (179)

Problem: No homogeneous room, of homogeneous height, can serve a group of people well. To give a group a chance to be together, as a group, a room must also give them the chance to be alone, in one’s and two’s in the same space.
Therefore: Make small places at the edge of any common room, usually no more than 6 feet wide and 3 to 6 feet deep and possibly much smaller. These alcoves should be large enough for two people to sit, chat, or play and sometimes large enough to contain a desk or table.

Of course, not all is perfect. In a large, open space noise can be an issue. It can get painfully loud as voices gradually increase in volume to be heard over the general din. So far, the best solution we’ve found is occasionally reminding people to be more quiet (having some folks go to the up- or downstairs game space also helps). Most of the noise comes from people who are chatting between games, so from a volume perspective, having the spaces that attract conversation — the kitchen and living room — adjacent to the place where most of the games are played is less than ideal. To balance that, the adjacency allows people to easily drift in and out of games and allows more social mixing. Perhaps we’ll find a better solution in time.

Overall, we’ve been quite happy with how the space performs. Despite its shortcomings, we can entertain here more easily, more comfortably, and on a larger scale than we could in any place we’ve lived before. All-in-all, success!

A room for two

Posted on September 15, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

The great room is the heart of our home. Since we entertain frequently, it must serve two purposes — purposes which are sometimes at odds with each other. This is the place we spend time together and the place where we welcome others into our home. Today, we’ll focus on how we designed a perfect place to spend time together as a couple.

We wanted a space that would be comfortable, functional, and beautiful. We wanted a space where we would love to spend time. By honoring how we use space together and by using patterns from A Pattern Language, we were able to build a space that filled our needs.

The obvious pattern to start with is Common areas at the heart (129):

Problem: No social group — whether a family, a work group, or a school group — can survive without constant informal contact among its members.
Therefore: Create a single common area for every social group. Locate it at the center of gravity of all the spaces the group occupies, and in such a way that the paths which go in and out of the building lie tangent to it.

The heart of our house is the great room: a single large area consisting of the kitchen, dining room and living room. This open space allows easy interaction when Jeff and I are doing different activities and provides spaces for us to be together for cooking, eating, reading, crafting, or, well, whatever. Although we think of this space as a kitchen, living room, and dining room, the layout and the fact that over half the space is dedicated to the kitchen and dining room makes it essentially a Farmhouse Kitchen (139):

Problem: The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient, but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants; and from the more recent days when women willingly took over the servants’ role.
Therefore: Make the kitchen bigger than usual, big enough to include the “family room” space, and place it near the center of the commons, not so far back in the house as an ordinary kitchen. Make it large enough to hold a good big table and chairs, some soft and some hard, with counters and stove and sink around the edge of the room; and make it a bright and comfortable room.

Even though the great room is a single large space, it allows for intimacy. The L-shape allows each function to have its own well defined space. Such functional differentiation also lends itself to the generation of a Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142):

Problem: Every corner of a building is a potential sitting space. But each sitting space has different needs for comfort and enclosure according to its position in the intimacy gradient.
Therefore: Put in a sequence of graded sitting spaces throughout the building, varying according to their degree of enclosure. Enclose the most formal ones entirely, in rooms by themselves; put the least formal ones in corners of other rooms, without any kid of screen around them; and place the intermediate one with partial enclosure round them to keep them connected to some larger space, but also partly separate.

Each area has its own level of intimacy. The seating in the living room, which looks out over the whole space and is visible from the entry, is the most social and public but even with in that space, some seats — the one facing toward the outdoors, the end of the couch half hidden behind the fireplace — feel more private. These are the seats we gravitate to when it’s just the two of us. The dining table is a bit more intimate; people sitting there are, by the arrangements of the seats around the table, more closely connected to each other than the rest of the space. Although we don’t use them when it’s just the two of us, sections of the bench around the fireplace are most intimate. These are the places you go to have a 1:1 conversation or to get some time alone.

We can’t ignore the functional aspects in a space like this. Of course, we made sure that spaces like the kitchen are highly functional. We also included a fair amount of storage for our games and books and the projects we are working on. With laptops and phones and tablets, a office is not necessary as often as it use to be, but when it is, we have a space that is near enough to still feel connected to the life of the home. For when we do need a little more isolation, we built a Half-Private Office (152):

Problem: What is the right balance between privacy and connection in office work?
Therefore: Avoid closed off, separate, or private offices. Make every workroom, whether it is for a group of two or three people or for one person, half-open to the other workgroups and the world immediately beyond it. At the front, just inside the door, make a comfortable sitting space, with the actual workspace(s) away from the door, and further back.

Our office does not (yet!) have comfy seating, but it is connected to the rest of the home when we use it, by virtue of a large opening and a sliding glass door. For those times when we need a bit more privacy, it is a Solid Door With Glass (237):

Problem: An opaque door makes sense in a vast house or palace, where every room is large enough to be a world unto itself; but in a small building, with small rooms, the opaque door is only very rarely useful.
Therefore: As often as possible, build doors with glazing in them, so that the upper half at least, allows you to see through them. At the same time, build the doors solid enough, so that they give acoustic isolation and make a comfortable “thunk” when they are closed.

The space also works well because it connects us to the outdoors. This is helped by windows with Low Sills (222):

Problem: One of a window’s most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off.
Therefore: When determining exact location of windows also decide which windows should have low sills. On the first floor, make the sills of the windows which you plan to sit by between 12 and 14 inches high. On upper stories, make them higher, around 20 inches.

Although our window sills are not as low as Alexander recommends, they are low enough that the sill is just above the seat of our couch. This means that whenever we glance aside, we are connected to the outdoors.

Of course, some of these are Windows Which Open Wide (236):

Problem: Many buildings nowadays have no opening windows at all; and many of the opening windows that people do build, don’t do the job that opening windows ought to do.
Therefore: Decide which of the windows will be opening windows. Pick those which are easy to get to, and choose the ones which open onto flowers you want to smell, paths where you might want to talk, and natural breezes. Then put in side-hung casements that open outward. Here and there, go all the way and build full French windows.

The connection to the outdoors is even more direct when we use our deck as an Outdoor Room (163):

Problem: A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging, croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball for the dog. But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all.
Therefore: Build a place outdoors which has so much enclosure round it, that it takes on the feeling of a room, even though it is open to the sky. To do this, define it at the corners with columns, perhaps roof it partially with a trellis or a sliding canvas roof, and create ‘walls” around it, with fences, sitting walls, screens, hedges, or the exterior walls of the building itself.

Our deck is just such an outdoor room. Enclosed by the building and a rail, it is a pleasant place for sitting and relaxing, reading, or cooking and eating a meal. Of course, it wouldn’t work so well if the details weren’t right, so we made sure to have a Six-foot Balcony (167):

Problem: Balconies and porches which are less than six feed deep are hardly ever used.
Therefore: Whenever you build a balcony, a porch, a gallery, or a terrace always make it at least six feet deep. If possible, recess at least a part of it into the building so that it is not cantilevered out and separated from the building by a simple line, and enclose it partially.

At 10′ x 12′, our deck is about the same size as our living room, and we have just enough furniture to make it really work as an outdoor space.

All of this together leads to a space where Jeff and I can do things together or do things separately while still being together. We have privacy when we need it and companionship when that is what we want. By being sensitive to how we use our space and by taking advice from A Pattern Language we were able to design a space that works well for two people. As the next post will show, it works just as well for ten or twenty.

Media Room

Posted on May 13, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

A dedicated media room is an unusual feature for a house, especially one of this size. But we felt it was worth it, and designed the room to have the right balance of cost and features.

Why a media room? Because it’s awesome! The home theater experience is amazing, and a popular feature of our house. But, at a deeper level, why did we choose to put the extra cost, design work, and square footage into it? The first reason, and the obvious one, is that we’ve have viewed dedicated media rooms with envy for awhile. We do a lot of entertaining, including watching shows and movies and playing group video games. Having a separate space dedicated to this activity gives a superior experience, while leaving the main living room free for entertaining more people.

Patterns
You might think there would be a number of patterns to use for this kind of design. However, A Pattern Language was written before televisions were present in every living room. Instead, we worked based off general ideas from patterns and our observations of social gatherings.

The second and stronger reason for adding this room was space usage: we did not want a television in the living room. We wanted the living room to be a social space, where people could gather and socialize. A circular set-up is best for this, as it easily allows everyone to focus on other people in the room. The focal point is towards the center of the room so that everyone feels included. This makes it difficult to fit a television into the room. It isn’t reasonable to provide a single focal point on the wall that all the seats can use. This is made even more difficult by the design of our living room, which has no normal walls at all. Two of them are full of windows to allow in lots of light. One of them is covered with a bookcase backed by the stairs. The last boundary of the room is the open space to the rest of the main floor. The media room gave us the opportunity to divorce the singularly-focused activity of television out of the social space of the living room.

Room Layout

Decision number one was the size and shape of the room. We wanted a couple rows of seating focused on a screen against one wall. We wanted enough space (if chairs were removed) to play Kinect games such as Dance Central and music games such as Rock Band. A rectangle of ratio 3:4 or 3:5 would be best for these functions. The ideal size for us would’ve been about 15 feet wide, and 20-25 feet long. With the realities of the land and form of the house, we were able to fit in a 12-by-19 foot room downstairs on the north side of the house. This was a bit tight, but fit very well into the layout.

The short wall on the east side was under the house and partially dug into the ground, so that was the perfect wall to put the screen on. The opposite wall on the west side could then fit a row of seating. The door was in the middle of the long south wall, which put it right where the second row of seating would go, giving easy access to both rows. To make the two rows of seating useful, we built up a stage against the west wall so the first row of seating against the wall would be elevated above the second row.

The other main item to figure out was an equipment closet. The various equipment for powering the speakers, routing the sound and video, and the players for games and other media needed to be accessible (for changing discs), but covered up (to prevent light and sound from the equipment leaking into the main room). We also wanted to use this space for other computer equipment: a server for file storage and internal services, central networking, and a wireless access point. It ended up being most convenient to put this on the east side of the south wall, taking space out from the storage/bathroom next door.

Details & Finishes

Lighting

For lighting we didn’t want anything that would intrude into the wall and disrupt the sound isolation. We added sconces on the wall for general lighting. Then we added two sets of track lights to light different portions of the room: one for the rear seating (which could be used without interfering too much with the screen); and a second one near the equipment closet to provide task lighting when dealing with anything in that location. To control the equipment lighting, we recessed a switch near the closet and away from the door. By the door, we added switches for the sconces and rear track lighting, as those are the general lights for the room. We also added dimmers to those two switches to give us more control over exactly how much light is in the room. Eventually we would like to hook the lighting up to an automation system so that it can be controlled from our universal remote that controls all the equipment. This would allow us to do things such as automatically dimming or turning off the lights when hitting Play for a movie; and then bringing them back up when hitting Pause. That is a fairly easy addition later, so it is relegated to the list of long-term improvements.

Seating Stage

The stage for the second row of seating was framed up against the west wall. The dimensions were very specific. We wanted to make sure it would be deep enough to comfortably fit a couch with enough leg room/walk-way to make people feel comfortable. But we also needed enough space on the floor for the first row of seating to not be too close to the screen. We also didn’t want the stage to extend into the doorway, as that would complicate the entry. We decided 7 feet of depth would satisfy the requirements, ending shortly before the doorway. To decide the height, we used some calculations based on the size and position of the screen, and the position of the seating to determine that 8-12 inches would be the minimum needed to give everyone a clear view. Since we had the room height, we bumped this up to 16 inches high to give a comfortable clearance. This also divided nicely to give a single 8-inch step to reach the platform. We spent a while discussing if the step should run the whole length of the platform or not, and whether we would need a railing. It was determined that we didn’t need a railing, and a 3-foot wide step right by the doorway would be enough to get up, and the rest would be flat to give more leg room and walkway.

Soundproofing

Soundproofing was covered more extensively in a previous blog post. So far, we have not had a problem with sound leakage from downstairs as long as the door is properly closed. We have found that it works the other way, too — we can’t hear the doorbell if someone arrives while we are downstairs. That is another addition to the home automation list, so that we can have our cell phones notify us when the doorbell rings.

Closet

An area on the east edge of the south wall, next to the door, had been framed out for a closet. We then spent a while designing the enclosure for it to properly support everything we wanted it to handle. Part of it needed to be enclosed to isolate the lights and sound from the equipment. However, we also wanted part of it open to make the basic remote controls, lights, and media more accessible. The enclosed area would have all the internal wiring for the media room, plus the whole house network panel. Because of all the equipment that would be connected to these, we wanted to ensure there was enough cooling in the tight space.

The end result was that about two-thirds of the space was enclosed, while the remaining one-third nearer the door was left open. The enclosed space had two hinged closet doors, set about 6 inches from the floor. This allowed a vent to be placed at the bottom to draw in fresh air. We used freestanding shelves from Elfa to avoid drilling into the sound-isolated walls. The bottom shelf on these also started about 6 inches from the floor, ending up level with the bottom of the closet doors. Within the closet we just used plain shelves and various heights to hold different sizes of equipment. In the space next to the enclosed area, we mixed a couple shelves with several draws for holding game controllers and other small items.

Games and controllers are more accessible

Part-way through construction we realized there was an air-flow problem with the room. It was designed with a heat-pump unit that would control the temperature of the room. However, that would not provide any fresh air. With a tightly-insulated room and a weather-sealed door, practically no air would be able to circulate into and out of the room. Once you put 10-12 people in there and close the door, the air would be become stale surprisingly quickly. We only realized this well after framing was completed, and most of the the rough-in was finished. The solution was to use the HRV, which already required a pair of vents on each floor to circulate fresh air. On the lower floor they had been located in the future bathroom and main landing area. However, they were right next to the media room, and we were able to move both the supply and return vents into the media room. We had them both moved into the ceiling of the closet; but the supply was in the open area (providing fresh air to the whole room), while the return was in the enclosed area, drawing air from the vent at the bottom, up past the equipment, and then out. This coincided nicely to provide a free cooling solution for the equipment closet without extra noise.

Paint & Carpet

To help with light control, we wanted dark colors in the media room. The walls did not need to be a solid black, though, which might have made the room a bit too depressing. The most obvious choice was to use the dark red color from our palette. It would’ve looked sophisticated and echoed the tradition of dark red velvet curtains in theaters. We also had a dark teal in our palette, though. Combined with a black carpet, it would provide a more modern, striking color scheme to the room without feeling too suffocating despite all the dark color. Applied in a matte finish to diminish reflected light, it was a wonderful result that has received many compliments.

We decided to use Karastan SmartStrand carpets throughout the house, which included the media room. These are eco-friendly carpets made from corn instead of petroleum. But we chose them because they were also the most comfortable of the carpets we looked at, and some of the most stain-resistant. They were easily the nicest carpets we looked at for the price. Their Indescribable line of SmartStrand Silk carpets had the Black Velvet color, which was exactly what we were looking for, giving us the color combination we had originally conceived.

Equipment

Electrical and sound wiring was discussed in detail previously. The only wiring we had to run ourselves was pulling an HDMI cable through the conduit to the projector. Long high-speed HDMI cables are not common, but we lucked out because Monoprice released a new slim, powered HDMI cable shortly before we needed it. This was more flexible than standard cables, making it not too difficult to pull through the conduit.

Choosing a projector ended up being a lot of research and reading. In the end I decided on the Panasonic PT-AE7000U. It was rated as one of the best projectors for color, black levels, sharpness, etc. The closest competitor was the Epson PowerLite 5010, which had longer lag times, making it worse for video games.

The ceiling mount for the projector was a bit easier. Chief was a well-rated brand for ceiling mounts, so I first acquired a simple plate that was mounted onto a block that was fixed between studs in the ceiling, giving it a secure base. A short post was then attached to the plate, and the drywall was installed around it, hiding the plate. Then the primary mount attached to the post in the ceiling, and the projector. It has adjustments to help align the projector; and a quick disconnect when I need to take the projector down to replace the bulb. Getting the projector attached to the ceiling took two people, but it worked! Almost. The distance from the projector to the screen hadn’t been calculated quite perfectly, and the projector didn’t have quite enough distance to fully fill the screen. It was only off by a little bit, though, so a shift bracket was added to slide the projector back a few inches, filling the screen just perfectly.

There are a lot of options for home theater screens. The first thing I knew was that I wanted a fixed-frame screen. This kind is assembled once, and then fixed to the wall permanently. It does not retract or move, but usually is a flatter, more even canvas. A nice, thick frame covered in black velvet (or similar material) provides good focus on the screen, absorbing any light that might stray off the screen. A widescreen 16:9 format is standard for most content now, though many movies are still in a 2.35:1 format. We watch more than just movies, so we chose the 16:9 format as the primary size of the screen. At this aspect ratio, a 106-inch screen was about the largest that the room could reasonably support. While there are many companies that provide such screens in a wide range of prices, Monoprice recently introduced a low-priced series of projector screens that are quite high quality. In addition to the items listed, they also offered multi-format screens, which are primarily a 16:9 screen; but have a manual mask of black velvet that slides in from the top and bottom to perfectly frame the screen at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio for movies.

Years ago I had discovered SalkSound, a small speaker manufacturer that sells direct to consumers. They provide very high-quality custom speakers at a reasonable price. At the time, I had ordered a pair of SongTowers with upgraded ribbon tweeters, and a matching SongCenter. We decided they shouldn’t stand out too much, and got a simple black satin finish with aluminum baffles on the towers. We had enjoyed these for a number of years in our previous home. With the dedicated media room here, it was time to round this set out into a full 5.1 system. A pair of SongSurrounds was ordered for the rear speakers, and a 12″ Salk/Rythmic subwoofer was added to complete the set, all in matching black satin.

Most of the remaining equipment we already owned: a Pioneer receiver paired with a 7-channel Emotiva amplifier. We had three gaming consoles: a Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, and a Microsoft XBox 360 slim. A Sony PlayStation 3 was added primarily for Blu-Ray and streaming video support. For music throughout the house, we acquired several Sonos components, and the media room received a Sonos CONNECT to play music through the Salk speakers.

The last bit of equipment was the universal remote. After having a Harmony remote that stopped working several years ago, we switched to a URC MX-450, which feels much higher quality and is programmable without any additional software. When we moved all our equipment into the closet in the media room and out of IR range, we were easily able to add an RF base station that was compatible with our existing remote. This receives radio signals from the remote, then translates them into IR signals that are sent to a specific piece of equipment, allowing complete control even when the equipment is hidden away. The only complication was the PlayStation 3, which is only controllable via Bluetooth — IR is not available. An IR adapter was acquired, resulting in the remote sending an RF signal to the base station, which translates it into an IR signal sent to the adapter, which then sends commands to the PS3 over Bluetooth!

After all this time and money spent on layout, design, details, and equipment, the end result is amazing. The media room never fails to impress, and is a wonderful room for enjoying electronic entertainment. We use it regularly with and without friends, and the focus of the room really shines through. It may not be a worthwhile room for everyone, but it was a great decision for us.

Six month review

Posted on May 6, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

It’s already been six months!

The house feels like home at this point. We’re mostly unpacked. Furnishings are mostly in place (although there are, of course, things we want to add or upgrade). We’re making good progress putting up art. We’ve even been part of a couple home tours (that’s a normal part of setting up a new home, right?).

Six months in, we have a feel for what works well and what could have been better. Overall, we love the house. It’s a great place to live: comfortable, beautiful, and functional. It just feels right — it’s the right size, has the right functions, and supports our life in positive ways.

The great room is compact enough that people in the the kitchen, living, and dining rooms can interact comfortably, but spacious enough to hold large crowds. When the crowd gets too large, the large open space can get loud, but furniture and carpets have helped decrease the noise.

The kitchen is highly functional. It’s one of the first things people comment on. We love the large amount of counter space, the induction stove, and the general layout. The bi-fold cabinets get out of the way just like we hoped — and they look really cool. A shelf under the sink provides a place for necessary but unsightly sink accessories. We’re not finding the combination microwave / convection oven as useful as we hoped; its controls are just awkward enough to make it a bit of a pain to use as an oven.

So much counter space!

The media room also elicits exclamations. It must be something about walking into a teal cave with two rows of seating and a 106″ screen. It’s been a great venue for watching movies and playing video games — Rock Band is easier when everyone can read the screen clearly! Although we find the room itself quite large enough, we do wish that we had been able to add more storage, especially for large objects such as Rock Band drums and DDR pads.

The house is filled with natural light. Even on cloudy days, we don’t bother turning on lights most of the time. We do use the lights in the kitchen, partially because it is further from the windows and partially due to the fact that work done in the kitchen often requires more light (e.g., chopping).

Separating the master suite into separate sleeping and dressing rooms has made it easier to get up and dressed without disturbing the sleeping partner. We haven’t had an opportunity to test the dressing room’s fitness as a sitting room — when just the two of us are in the house, there isn’t much need for another sitting room.
We love the master bath and don’t regret forgoing a tub in favor of a smaller room and larger shower. Although the high (36″, standard kitchen height) countertops took some time to get used to, it’s rather convenient. We’ll see how well this height works if we have kids. =)

It took awhile to figure out exactly how to tune the heat pumps. We initially set the temperatures too high. We didn’t initially understand how the presets worked. We had to learn how to tweak the settings to maximize efficiency when it was really cold out. Now that we’ve figured all that out, we appreciate the ability to set the temperature differently in different rooms, especially the rooms we don’t use as often. The heat pumps don’t dry out the air, which makes for lovely feeling air. In retrospect, heat distribution would have been more even if we had put the second main floor unit in the great room rather than in the office.

We have had some annoyances, but they are mostly small things. We had initially planned the dining room so that the table and pendant could be centered relative to the island and the adjacent wall. When we actually accounted for the space needed for chairs and cabinet access, we realized that the table would need to be about a foot off of centered on the wall. We were able to move the pendant, so that is centered, but when you look at the table head on, you can tell it’s not centered on the wall. A small thing, but something that we could have fixed with a little more forethought.

100% natural light!

Another thing we might have changed in retrospect is our exterior color scheme. The grey-on-grey color scheme is gorgeous on sunny days, but on cloud days it looks a bit dour. And in Seattle, it’s often cloudy. While on the topic of paint, the matte finish paint that was used in the interior looks good, but is a maintenance pain. It mars easily and can’t be cleaned.

Another thing we need to fix — the house number is just above a downward pointing light. Oops.

The angle of the driveway is steeper than we would like. It’s a constraint of the site, so there’s not much we could do about it, but it does make washing the car less convenient.

That’s about it for the things we wish were different. We also already have a list of improvements that we want to make over time, starting with…

More built-ins! If I have my way (and I will eventually), we’ll have built-in furniture added wherever it is practical (and some places where it’s not). In particular, we want to build a daybed with bookshelves into the office with a custom desk on the opposite side. This would provide a private, quiet place for reading or working on a laptop. We want to add window benches on the stair landings and add some built-in bookshelves in a few places.

On the topic of storage, we need to get some in the garage (and get rid of all of the give-away items stored in there, but that’s another topic). Right now, everything in the garage is either still packed in boxes or is sitting on the floor. It is neither organized nor space efficient. Getting shelves in the garage is on our short list of important projects.

Even higher on our short list is landscaping. We moved in six months ago, but winter isn’t the best time for putting in landscaping. It would have been a great time to start planning then, but we didn’t. We’ve finally started to work on plans for improving our exterior. More on that later!

All in all, we are still glad that we decided to take on our house building project. There’s nothing quite like living in a home that was designed to fit your life.

South Wall and Other Built-ins

Posted on April 14, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

The south wall on our main floor was one of the most heavily-designed spaces in the house. We knew early on that we wanted to do something interesting there. This space is not attached to any room and is part of the pathway for entering the house. It is distinct from the dining room, so it would be awkward to use it for tasks or storage related to eating. The south wall of the house also provides some of the best light, which we wanted to take advantage of.

Alcoves (179)

Problem: No homogeneous room, of homogeneous height, can serve a group of people well. To give a group a chance to be together, as a group, a room must also give them the chance to be alone, in one’s and two’s in the same space.
Therefore: Make small places at the edge of any common room, usually no more than 6 feet wide and 3 to 6 feet deep and possibly much smaller. These alcoves should be large enough for two people to sit, chat, or play and sometimes large enough to contain a desk or table.
In our home: The south wall is one of the primary places we considered this pattern. We built a long bench that wraps the fireplace, and is also divided by a planter box. This gives it several small sections and corners of bench for one or two people to sit. The west edge of the bench by the fireplace can be joined by a small table to the open end of the couch, giving a comfortable two-person spot for a game or drinks. These spaces are not exactly full alcoves, but they provide similar uses.

The Fire (181)

Problem: There is no substitute for fire.
Therefore: Build the fire in a common space—perhaps in the kitchen—where it provides a natural focus for talk and dreams and thought. Adjust the location until it knits together the social spaces and rooms around it, giving them each a glimpse of the fire; and make a window or some other focus to sustain the place during the times when the fire is out.
In our home: This is a pattern that we followed almost exclusively for the reasons described in the pattern, instead of the physical value it provides. With our modern construction, a fire is not needed to heat the house. But the social value and psychological comfort it provides is valuable.We located our fireplace to draw together rooms and provide a single focal point. It is at the convergence of pathways from the entry, and to the private spaces. It is also on the edge of the living room and dining room. We chose a two-sided fireplace so that the longer side could be seen from the dining room and pathways, while the short side could be seen from the living room. It is not exactly the primary focal point in the living room; we have more prominent windows, and we are setting up this room to be a sitting circle for everyone to focus on each other. But it can be a focus from the living room. It also is wrapped by a sitting-height bench to allow people to gather around the fireplace and absorb its warmth.

We decided to use the southern light to support an herb box. An indoor well-lit space to provide fresh herbs year-round would be a very nice feature. So a 3-foot by 3-foot window was added to the wall.

The next step was to figure out the fireplace. We were fairly certain that we wanted to wrap the corner of the living room in windows to take advantage of the great southern and western exposure that we have. That didn’t leave a lot of room for a fireplace in the living room. Putting a fireplace in the living room also has the disadvantage of adding a strong focal point, which we didn’t really want. A fire is comforting, but is not useful for three-quarters of the year in the Pacific Northwest. We also wanted to encourage a social circle in the main living room. Looking at various positions, a fireplace on the south wall, just east of the living room seemed like a good location.

We now had two strong elements on the south wall, so the next step was to bring them together. We wanted a bench in the entry, as we’ll describe in another post, and the south wall of the entry seemed the best place to put it. It was natural to extend that bench into the main area of the house, and continue it along the south wall to connect herb box and fireplace. It also makes this area a valuable space in its own right, instead of just left-overs. The bench is interrupted by the herb box, dividing it into sections. Around the fireplace, it juts out to provide seating all around the fire and some extra corners. It also brings a nice end to the bench on the west side of the fireplace without it feeling cut-off.

Once we had decided on all the elements, the next step was to figure out the materials and colors to make this area a feature, with just the right amount of focus. We didn’t want to make it the primary focal point on the main floor and overwhelm the living or dining rooms. But if it didn’t have the right amount of contrast and interest, it could easily feel flat and fade away. The first item we noticed was the two strong elements of the herb box and the fireplace. Making those dark would help them stand out against the light floor and walls, and make them similar to each other. We could emphasize the planter box by making it go all the way to the floor from the window, seeming to penetrate the bench. The column around the fireplace would provide a contrast and start at the bench, going all the way to the ceiling. We chose blackened steel to form the herb box, contrasting against the natural plants and rocks it would contain. The fireplace would get dark stone-like tiles, giving it a still sharp but more natural look.

The rest of the work was figuring out important details. We decided not to paint the wall behind this area, instead letting the physical elements provide the contrast. We wanted a material which would contrast the bench with the planter box and fireplace; so we chose a light, smoother version of the same tile used to wrap the fireplace. The edge of the bench was done with a thick wood edge to relate to the floor, and dark hardware to give it a bit of interest.

Throughout the house, we used built-ins to provide storage and comfort. The south wall had a couple obvious opportunities which we took advantage of. The area under the bench could provide a lot of storage; the best area for this was under the bench jutting out from the fireplace. By adding several wood dividers, we added a nice amount of storage space, while also providing structurally-necessary support for the bench. In the east side of the fireplace column, we set in an area to use as shelving, providing a display area visible from the entry.

The biggest opportunity for built-in shelving was along the north wall of the living room. This was built as an open space connected to the stairs. We wanted to put in shelves, along with a translucent backing to get light from the stairwell into the living room, and vice-versa. We looked at a variety of materials, including some really beautiful panels from 3form. In the end, though, we decided on a simple translucent plastic panel with some wood dividers to give it structure. For the bookshelf in front of that, we looked at a variety of different ideas and designs, including a lot of custom-built options. We ultimately chose a modular shelving system from ISS Designs, which has the option of some higher-quality materials at a reasonable price.

There are several more areas where we planned for future built-ins. In our office, we would like to convert one side into a day-bed with shelves above it. This will give a smaller, more private space to relax and read (compared to the more open and public living room). To accommodate that, we will add a custom desk on the other side of the office that both of us can share. We also plan to put a bench/day-bed on one or both of the stair landings. The windows were designed to be at the appropriate level for someone reclining by the stairs. We will also add more shelves underneath those benches to handle our large (and ever growing!) collection of books. For now, both of these areas have furniture we brought with us. It is not the best fit for our home, but it is functional until we can put a more permanent solution in-place.

The built-ins, and especially the south wall, are special features in our home. They increase the quality and functionality of the space. Just as importantly, they personalize the house and make it unique. The south wall adds interest and personality to the house, instead of just leaving a large, blank wall. It adds an aspect that wouldn’t be found in most spec houses. It was also designed with functionality in mind, giving extra space for seating, display, growing herbs, and gathering around a fire. Ultimately, the built-ins took more effort than many elements of the house, but they are what make it special to us.

Stairs

Posted on February 3, 2013June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Unless stairs are hidden away, they cannot help but be a visual focus. And a modern, custom built home is pretty much required to have visually intriguing stairs. As far as we can tell, building the stairs is also required to put the house behind schedule. Our home is no exception on either count.

We consciously chose to push the stairs into a prominent position that made them more functionally and visually central. The process of designing the stairs differed from much of the rest of the house. We were deeply involved with most elements of our home. For the stairs, we provided some inspiration pictures and some input, but largely trusted our builder to come up with something we would like.

Staircase as a Stage (133)

Problem: A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart.
Therefore: Place the main stair in a key position, central and visible. Treat the whole staircase as a room (or if it is outside, as a courtyard). Arrange it so that the stair and the room are one, with the stair coming down around one or two walls of the room. Flare out the bottom of the stair with open windows or balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming down the stair become a part of the action in the room while they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally use the stair for seats.
In our house: We partially implemented this pattern. We placed our staircase in a central location, and we made sure that it was a space in its own right, with nice wide landings (which we plan to develop into window seats). However, a semi-translucent wall, and the way that the stairs protrude from the building keep the staircase from being fully integrated with the main living areas. A person coming down the stairs may be part of the action in the dining room, but they are almost completely cut off from the living room (although there is a “spy hole” that allows limited interaction).

Stair Seats (125)

Problem: Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them inaction.
Therefore: In any public place where people loiter, add a few steps at the edge where stairs come down or where there is a change of level. Make these raised areas immediately accessible from below, so that people may congregate and sit to watch the goings-on.
In our house: Our stairs are not actually good stair seats. They are fairly wide, but not wide enough that they can be used for getting upstairs and sitting on at the same time. They are fairly deep, but not deep enough for most people to comfortably sit sideways on. A structural column keeps them from protruding into the room, so they don’t provide a good vantage point. Thus, it speaks to the power of this pattern that even though our stairs were not designed as effective seats, they are still used as seats when we have large crowds over.

Staircase Volume (195)

Problem: We are putting this pattern in the language because our experiments have shown that lay people often make mistakes about the volume which a staircase needs, and therefore make their plans unbuildable.
Therefore: Make a two story volume to contain the stairs. It may be straight, L-shaped, U-shaped, or C-shaped. The stair may be 2 feet wide (for a very steep stair) or 5 feet wide (for a generous shallow stair). But, in all cases, the entire stairwell must form one complete structural bay, two stories high.
In our home: Since we were working with a team of an experienced builder and architect, we were not in danger of doing anything terrible here. However, we did find that our initial estimates of square footage always forgot to account for the stairs, and the stair area on the floorplan always felt larger than they needed to be. There is, indeed, something about the three dimensional volume of a staircase that makes it hard to grasp intuitively.

Inspiration

Shortly after purchasing our property, we started to collect inspiration pictures (alas, this was before Pinterest, so our inspiration pictures were managed by a Google doc). Without trying, a number of themes emerged, and we worked them into our final stair case.

Although the most stunning stairs were the ones with little to no visible support of the treads, when it came to visible supports, a number of our inspiration pictures had dark supports with light treads. Others had light supports with dark treads. The contrast and rhythm provided by contrasting treads and supports would become a central theme.

One thing you may notice if you spend a lot of time on architecture blogs looking at modern houses is that they generally have impractical rails and balusters. These homes are clearly somewhere with less stringent building codes than Bellevue, WA. Fortunately, we were able to find some inspiration images that met the requirements imposed on us by the city and our desire not to have people fall through the stairs.

The vision which inspired us, even before we started thinking about the practical constraints, was long bars which spanned multiple levels of stairs. We liked how having a single bar span multiple levels tied the levels together to make the staircase a single sculptural piece.

We had other inspirations, but these were the features that stuck as we turned this into something real.

Actuality

There are a lot of practical constraints that go into stairs. Local codes constrain most of the distances between elements, available materials constrain what is cost effective to use, practicality of assembly constrains how elements can be put together. These practical constraints had as much influence on the final form of our stairs as our inspirations.

To complement the material choices throughout the rest of the house, we chose to contrast wood and metal. The railings, balusters, and supports are all blackened steel. Steel is also used for the bars between treads, which ensure that nothing too large, such as children, can fall through.

The treads are a 1″ oak slabs, each made out of smaller pieces of oak, bonded to a dark stained piece of plywood. We ended up really liking the rhythmic effect of the alternating light and dark lines, but this was almost accidental. Brent, the onsite manager for the first part of construction, found some nice, relatively cheap, solid white oak treads at Home Depot. These needed to be made thicker to support the necessary span, so each tread was reinforced with a piece of high quality plywood. The plywood is set back and darkened to give a stronger appearance of floating to the lighter oak.

Codes and assembly also influenced the tread design. Because of the constraints on tread overlap, each oak tread had to be lengthened by about two inches. After that, each tread had to be precisely sized to work with the balusters. Overall, the additional labor balanced initial low expense of the materials, but the result is visually more interesting than solid slabs, and it is unique among the staircases we have seen.

Another practical difficulty was figuring out how to assemble the balusters, rails, and treads. The balusters are 16 foot steel rods which span three half-flights of stairs. By code, The maximum distance between balusters is 4.5″, and they need to be attached to the stairs for structural stability. Because of the differences in floor-to-ceiling height between the main and lower floor, the number of treads per half-flight varied, making alignment of the balusters difficult. To make assembling this puzzle easier, Yuval and Brent decided to attach the balusters to the stairs using stainless steel standoffs. These standoffs screwed into the sides of the treads, which was easier, more stable, and risked less damage than drilling through the treads. The standoffs provide a nice contrasting visual element. Getting the standoffs in the right location was a puzzle that took Dave, who was leading the effort, several days. He had to mark each standoff location with masking tape, use a laser sight to figure out where the corresponding standoffs would go on the lower levels, mark those, and then move on to the next one. Occasionally, the max 4.5″ distance between the steel rods would mean that a standoff would have to go in a position that could not be securely attached to a tread. At that point, that standoff would be adjusted, which led to all the other standoffs that had been placed so far needing adjustment. The precision paid off, and after getting everything marked up, they were able to install the standoffs and slide in the rods pretty quickly.

Overall, we are quite pleased with how the stairs turned out. The use of white oak and steel integrates them with the rest of the house, while the tread and baluster design adds a unique, sculptural touch.

Lighting Design

Posted on October 15, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

This post will get down to the nitty gritty details of lighting design. It’s a complement to the general electrical design we covered in an earlier post.

Lighting design is complex — it is one of the areas where we had the most dependency on our build team for input. There are many issues to balance: ambient lighting competes with the desire to use light to define spaces, legal requirements compete with aesthetic desires, and the need to make decisions early competes with lack of available knowledge of how the space will look with drywall, paint, furniture, etc.

Overview
Yuval and Brent put together a general lighting plan, and we worked with them and our electrician to refine the plan. Although we had a lot of say in the specific fixtures we chose, we mainly followed the lighting plan given by them.

We have a lot of lights in our home. To give an idea, let’s compare the three homes we will have lived in in 2012:

Home	Built in lights	Area (sq ft)	Lights per 100 sq ft
Kirkland town home	25	1600	1.6
Bellevue town home	12	1200	1.0
New house	100	2700	3.7

Our new home has over twice the built in light density of other homes. Plus, unlike those houses, where the lighting was placed haphazardly, our new home has lights placed thoughtfully so that they both work well and look good.

Main floor electrical plan
On the main floor, we use can lights for for general illumination. They are also used to highlight some specific features such as the dining room wall (for art), the fireplace, and the kitchen island. Pendants in the dining room, living room, and stairwell will be used to provide focus and as aesthetic elements in their own right.

The detailed electrical plan for the main floor is below. You’ll have to click through if you want to see any detail.

Lower floor electrical plan
The circulation areas on the lower floor use can lights. In the media room, we wanted to avoid penetrations that would interfere with soundproofing. Wall sconces provide general, low level illumination in the media room. Track lights provide bright lighting over the equipment closet and over the seating area.

Upstairs electrical plan
We relied heavily on sconces and track lights upstairs to avoid ceiling penetrations — here for heat efficiency rather than sound proofing. The few can lights used are 4″ fixtures which are smaller than the standard 6″ cans. The bathrooms use these lights to provide good, waterproof illumination, especially over the shower or tub. The bedrooms use track lights for general illumination; the landing uses wall sconces.

Switches
Placing switches is hard when there are 100 lights. The control we want — fine light groupings, three-way switches (which, confusingly, only have two switches controlling the same light) — requires more switches. But more switches make the lights harder to use. The switches also need to be usefully located.

While there are some rules of thumb to switch placement — e.g., no more than three switches per bank, three-way switches both ends of passage ways — many of the detailed decisions were based on advice from our electrician combined with imagining how we would live in the house.

Overall, our switches ended up fairly logical. Switches ended up in places that make sense when you want to use them — at entries and exits to spaces, on accessible walls, etc. We’ve been using them some as the house works toward completion, and we are slowly learning which ones are which.

Once the design is done, the next step is choosing the specific fixtures to be installed. This will be covered in the next post.

Light and Space

Posted on October 14, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Natural light is best for conservation and hard to beat for light quality, which is why our home has plenty of it. Artificial light is more than a necessary evil, however. It can be used to define space, and the fixtures can be beautiful details.

At the broadest level, light can be used to emphasize the social and functional structure of a home. Light should define how a space is used. Light should be usable.

So often, lighting is just an afterthought. Many spec homes have terrible lighting layout. The single ceiling light in the middle of the room comes to mind immediately. Lights are thrown in haphazardly without thought to how the rooms will be used or whether the light is sufficient. Or, perhaps, the builder does not want to dictate how the room will be used by some unknown future owner, so the light fixtures are added in a way that does not work well for anyone. Perhaps not surprisingly, the rooms with the best lighting design in standard spec homes are those that are the most specialized — kitchens, bathrooms, and dining rooms.

But how do you get good lighting? If we were to take a page from stores and office buildings, the answer would seem to be a large amount of uniform lighting. To some degree, this is a better alternative, but this approach increases functionality by making the space sterile.

Good lighting design must start with how a space will be used and work to support that usage.

Tapestry of Light and Dark (135)

Problem: In a building with uniform light level, there are few “places” which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light.
Therefore: Create alternating areas of light and dark throughout the building, in such a way that people naturally walk toward the light, whenever they are going to important places: seats, entrances, stairs, passages, places of special beauty, and make other areas darker, to increase the contrast.
In our home: Light is used to emphasize the main navigational points of our home. Some key examples are:

Guiding lights in the entry

Guiding lights on the stairs

People also orient themselves toward the light and away from the darkness. This tendency can be used to define the social spaces in a home which we’ll explore more in…

Pools of Light (252)

Dining room pendant

Problem: Uniform illumination — the sweetheart of the lighting engineers — serves no useful purpose whatsoever. In fact, it destroys the social nature of space, and makes people feel disoriented and unbounded.
Therefore: Place the lights low, and apart, to form individual pools of light which encompass chairs and tables like bubbles to reinforce the social character of the spaces which they form. Remember that you can’t have pools of light without the dark places in between.
In our home: It’s important to realize that this pattern doesn’t mean that there should be full darkness between more brightly lit spots — although having darkness as an option provides some interesting opportunities. Our home has a generous amount of ambient lighting.

Living room pendant

But light should define boundaries. It should concentrate attention. And we should make sure that light defines the space in a way that is consistent with how people use it. If a brightly lit area does not correspond to a social or functional space, it will be confusing and less effective than if the light is designed around how the space will be used.

Pools of light may be social or they may be used to provide task lighting. We have both in our home. We have task lighting in the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the dressing room. In the dining room and living room, the pendants define social spaces. These are not the only lights that support this pattern, but they are some of the key ones.

Filtered Light (238)

Filtered light in the powder room

Problem: Light filtered through leaves, or tracery, is wonderful. But why? … Direct light coming from a point source casts strong shadows, resulting in harsh images with strong contrasts. … These contrasts and hard boundaries are unpleasant — objects appear to have a hard character, and our eyes, unable to adjust to the contrast, cannot pick up the details.
Therefore: For all these reasons, we have a natural desire to diffuse light with lamp shades or indirect lighting, so that the images created by the light will be “softer,” that is, that the boundaries perceived are not sharp, there is less contrast, fewer shadows, and the details are easier to see.
In our home: (I cheated a little with the problem statement and therefore. This pattern is primarily about light filtered through windows, but I chose some key points about general light diffusion.)One of the main ways we keep light diffuse is by having a large number of lights to provide ambient lighting. This provides a general background level of light which the pools of light shape further. The light fixtures themselves also have shades to diffuse light.

Warm Colors (250)

Problem: The greens and greys of hospitals and office corridors are depressing and cold. Natural wood, sunlight, bright colors are warm. In some ways, the warmth of the colors in a room makes a great deal of difference between comfort and discomfort.
Therefore: Choose surface colors which, together with the color of the natural light, reflected light, and artificial lights, create a warm light in the rooms.
In our home: This pattern does not say that every surface in the house must be between red and yellow. This is a good thing, since we have a rather large teal wall in our home. However, the overall quality of the light should be warm.We accomplish this partly through the materials we use — that teal wall is next to a warm floor in white oak. We also accomplish this through warm light. LED lights were a particular concern here since they often give off light that is cooler than that from incandescent bulbs. We went with EcoSmart LED lights in soft white. They give a warm light quality, very similar to incandescent lights.

In the next two posts, we’ll go over the details of our lighting design and then spend some time discussing the light fixtures we chose.

Master Suite

Posted on October 1, 2012June 18, 2023 by ErikaRS

Our master suite has an unusual design. You enter into a dressing room that combines clothes storage with sitting space and space for getting dressed. The bathroom is on one side of the dressing room. The bedroom is on the opposite side and is sized just right to fit a bed. There is no walk-in closet or access directly to the bed or sitting and writing space next to the bed. Nor is the bathroom directly connected to the bedroom. Deliberate considerations informed these choices, as explained by these three patterns.

A Room of One’s Own (141)

Problem: No one can be close to others, without also having frequent opportunities to be alone.
Therefore: Give each member of the family a room of his own, especially adults. A minimum room of one’s own is an alcove with desk, shelves, and curtain. The maximum is a cottage. In all cases, especially the adult ones, place these rooms at the far ends of the intimacy gradient, far from the common rooms.
In our home: The master suite is the private place for us. It is distinctly separate from the kids’ bedrooms. It is also at the far end of the intimacy gradient, well away from the common areas. An important part of this is that the master suite is more than just bed, bath, and closet. The dressing room is also a sitting room. We will have a couple of comfortable chairs and a small table. It will be a cozy space we can retire to individually or together.

Bed Alcove (188)

Problem: Bedrooms make no sense.
Therefore: Don’t put single beds in empty rooms called bedrooms, but instead but individual bed alcoves off rooms with other non-sleeping functions, so the bed itself becomes a tiny private haven.
In our home: While not strictly an alcove, our bedroom was inspired by this pattern. The bedroom portion of the master suite is just a bed with a pair of nightstands. It has no closets, chairs, or desks. There are two reasons it is a room instead of merely an alcove. The first is for privacy and isolation. A full room allows the bed to be separated from the dressing room, so mismatched patterns of sleeping and getting ready won’t disturb the person sleeping. Secondly, a larger bed meant for two is awkward to access from only one side. A room allows a pathway and nightstand on both sides of the bed for convenience.

Dressing Rooms (189)

Problem: Dressing and undressing, storing clothes, having clothes lying around, have no reason to be part of any larger complex of activities. Indeed they disturb other activities: they are so self-contained that they themselves need concentrated space which has no other functions.
Therefore: Give everyone a dressing room — either private or shared — between their bed and the bathing room. Make this dressing room big enough so there is an open area in it at least six feet in diameter; about six linear feet of clothes hanging space; and another six feet of open shelves; two or three drawers; and a mirror.
In our home: The solution to this pattern is the most prescriptive of the three. It is also the one that we followed most closely. Our dressing room has a comfortably-sized open area in the center that allows easy movement. The southeast corner has two walls full of clothes storage: hanging space, shelves, and drawers. Under the windows, we have a dresser to provide more drawers. On the west wall, we will have a full-length mirror.

These patterns describe the major points of philosophy behind our master suite design. They guided us to a layout that is uncommon but surprisingly natural at the same time. We have already received many comments along the lines of “Oh! That is a good idea.” when showing off the master suite. We hope it will prove to be as convenient as the design suggests.