interiordd.com Blog

Now that you have an idea of what the entire property looks like, I’d like for you to understand how we are planning to develop the entire site.  Our goal is to develop the site so that it feels like one estate.  These means that we will establish a stronger presence for the existing home.  Currently it has the feel of a farmhouse that was built years ago and  lived in hard with practically  no maintenance.  To be the “main house” on the grounds, it needs to feel more firmly rooted and look established.  I will go into more detail about the changes we are planning to make to create that solid, timeless look in future postings.  For now I’d like to stick to how we are making this lot into an estate. 

To begin with there will be a shared entry.  The drive will split before you reach the existing house, and will curve through the wooded area to wind up the east side of the property.  By carefully developing the wooded area in the front, we will screen the drive from direct view, and have a cozy, quiet, woodland feel to the drive for the main client.  This will be embellished by the development of the wet weather brook and careful control of berms. 

The façade of the new house will appear as if the garage area was the original structure built of brick and the remainder of the house was added later.  Even then, the “addition” area will primarily be of stone with a few areas that could have been added later finished in cedar shakes. 

There will be a pool house located near the west line just behind the existing house.  The pool will be as close to the property line between the two house as possible and will be a shared feature for the homes.  It will include a beautiful water feature that will appear to spill over the west wall and into the pool.  The pool house’s exterior will be completely stone, and it will have the feeling of a renovated carriage house.  Because it is built into a steep bank it will be almost invisible to the neighbor on the west side, and the heavy plantings along that line with further promote the feeling of isolation. 

Besides the west wall along a good portion of the property, there are plans to fence the entire site as one property.  This will increase the estate feeling, and allow a gate to be used at the shared entry should this be desired.  Similar products will be used on each structure to reinforce the idea of all three structures being built at the same time.  We are also using as much of the desirable existing foliage as possible.  This is in keeping with the established feeling, and is also environmentally friendly.  

Now you can see our plan of three structures on “one” estate with a shared pool and beautiful, well-established gardens tucked into the turns of the meandering paths.  Beautiful foliage drapes over the top of the wall along the west property line and thick bushes and tall evergreens obscure any view of a neighbor.  Sunlight sparkles on the dancing waters that fall graceful over the natural stones into the pool area below.  At first glance to pool appears to be a sandy bottomed glade, and you peer closer to look for fish.  Only then do you notice to track for the almost invisible safety pool cover.  The stone deck wanders in and out of garden areas that were carefully planned to double as entertaining areas when necessary.  And I am certain that it will be necessary!
 

Keep designing your life!

I am postponing my discussion of low maintenance exteriors to tell you about the CEU class I attended today on Green Construction.  There is a wonderful new website out www.greenguard.org that is dedicated to helping manufacturers build better and safer products.  Since GREENGUARD is an industry independent, non-profit organization, it doesn’t have any conflicting interest in by promoting one product over another.  It is devoted to improving public health and quality of life.  How is this important?  The website is creating a list of products that can be used when building a green home.  While the list is not yet comprehensive, it is a great place to begin if you are searching for a green product.  Whether you are building a new home or remodeling an existing home, consider using low-emitting materials that are Greenguard Certified. 

If you are interested in green design there are a number of affiliations that are working towards unifying the green build efforts.  LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) www.usgbc.org sustainable building program.  It is dedicated to creating high-performance, sustainable buildings.  While it is the leading standard and the most recognized name, there are also other green build sites that are lesser known but equally effective.

Today we discussed ways to improve the indoor air quality of areas of new construction.  Using low emitting products is a good way to begin.  It is also important to allow proper drying and curing time before beginning the next step in construction.  The off-gassing is greatly reduced after liquid products dry and cure.  Besides the proper sequencing of finishes, it is important properly ventilate the construction area.  This not only improves the working conditions, but it also assists in clearing the off-gas and removing it so that it cannot be absorbed by other surfaces.  To continue with improved air quality, be aware of the VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emission of the cleaning and maintenance products. 

There are many things to consider when choosing to pursue green construction.  Find a designer or a builder who is familiar with green construction, and best of luck. . . . after all, it is St. Patrick’s Day! 
 

Tree guys working on the back of the lot.

Besides creating a barrier-free layout for the home, my client also wanted to explore options to keep the construction as green as possible.  One of the ideas we wanted to explore was radiant heat flooring.  This form of heat is very quiet, and it is also energy efficient over a long period of time.  The down side is that it is expensive to install, and should there be any maintenance issues, it is difficult to access for repairs.  The idea of this heating is to install flexible tubing in the zone to be heated.  After the tubing is installed the concrete slab is poured.  Then heated water is pumped through the tubing to heat the concrete and the floor above.  There is also an electrical version of this that can be installed over a substrate.  Rather than water running through the tubes, electrical wires that are suspended in a flexible grid are laid upon the base floor.  The finished floor is then installed over the grid.  The electrical method of heating is much easier to install, but the heated zones are usually much smaller.  After much research we determined that the electrical method of radiant heating will be a stronger choice for my client.  With her elderly mother sharing her home it is necessary to create smaller control zones so that both people can be comfortable sharing the same space. 

Besides radiant heating we are also exploring extremely energy efficient windows and doors.  This will assist my client in having the natural lighting that she loves without sacrificing her heating and cooling to the exterior.  We are still exploring our options on this, and we will let you know we decide.

In addition we are exploring our options on recycling the rainwater.  We have found a lot of information regarding this, but we haven’t determined what direction will work best for us.  My client’s primary use for this water is to irrigate flowers and landscaping.  Gardening is one of her passions, and she doesn’t want to sacrifice this pleasure should summer heat and water shortage be an issue.  We are hoping to find a way to utilize the rainwater and natural runoff and contain it in some type of reservoir until it is needed for irrigation.  If anyone has any resources on this I would love to hear from you.

Our next topic is low maintenance exteriors.

Considering all of the plans that we had for the acreage, we had to be very careful about where we divided the lot.  The setback requirements for the lot are ten feet on each side, thirty-five feet to the rear of the house, and forty feet to the front of the house.  For those of you not familiar with setbacks, this is the term the government uses to determine the amount of space between homes.  It varies from area to area, and it is possible that in some rural areas there are no setbacks.  A setback is the measurement of space that must be left (not built upon) between the property line and the building.  It is possible to get a variance for this should your structure encroach upon the setback.  A variance is simply written permission from the controlling government that allows you to build upon the area that has been deemed part of the setback.  We established a depth of almost fifty feet by a width of almost a hundred and fifty feet as the buildable space.  Now the challenge was to create a plan that would fit within this space and meet the client’s criteria.  We began this process by having the client create a list of desires for this home and then to prioritize the list.  The number one item on the list is that the entire home be step free.  My client is planning to live here for a number of years, and she currently has her 93 year-old mother living with her.  While her mother can still stand a walk her strength and mobility is very limited and she frequently uses her wheelchair to increase her mobility.  While she didn’t request that the entire home be wheelchair accessible, we plan to do our best to have very little if any space that isn’t accessible.  The advantage of this is that, should my client find herself in a situation that would lessen her mobility, she would still be able to live in her home and maintain her lifestyle without any major modifications to her home. 

While we studied handicapped accessible space in school, Design Details has taken that one step further by aligning the designers on our staff with Universal Design Alliance.  This is a non-profit organization that furthers the education of designers and the public alike in the idea of aging in place.  Simply put, this is the idea of constructing homes in a manner that the entire home is accessible and adaptable to any changes you might encounter in life.  All doorways are wide enough for wheelchairs.  Bathrooms are large enough to access via wheelchair, and at least one bathroom has a shower that has a no-step entry.  There are other requirements, and I invite you to visit www.universaldesignalliance.com to explore the idea of aging in place further.

Tomorrow we will explore another of my client’s priorities – green design!  Have a beautiful day.