Final Pics of “Personal Home” Project…

I started blogging about my own personal home project back in November of last year.  The intent was to follow the process that our company uses and show a project running through that process from start to finish.  Well, I have been in the home for about 5 months now and have been posting finish pictures of the spaces as they are completed & furnished.  The following rooms are not fully completed/furnished but I am showing them anyway…

Above you can see a picture of the main “Live” area with the “Play” space behind.  These rooms are up one half-level from the Kitchen, Dine & Hearth areas that I posted earlier.  The “Live” space is used daily for informal living and also is where the TV is.  Right now my daughter uses the play area for art projects and reading books.  However, as she gets older, I see this space turning into a small reading “Library” area, a game area or something else.  The space was designed to be flexible.

This picture is a closer view of the “Play” area.  I also had some boxes made (middle, right side of the pic), that slide under the bench area, and hold a bunch of toys, books and stuff.  A bit of organization for those items that are hard to organize, you know?  The boxes were made of oak and have the same floor finishapplied to them so they blend in with the surrounding materials.  The main uncompleted item in this room is the acrylic screen that will be placed in the opening above the bench (right side of the pic).  The screen will have a phrase from a poem cut into it which will be visible from both the Play and Kitchen area of the home.  It should be a really cool feature when complete.  My architect is actually doing that work for me as he has a CNC machine in his basement on which to fabricate the panels.  Also unfinished is the cushion for on top of the bench seat.  Once that is complete, along with the screen, this area should turn out to be a fun spot to curl up with a book or just relax. 

The above picture is taken while standing in the “Play” space and looking back out into the living room.  Here you can see the same window pattern repeating that was used in the master bedroom.  It also offers really nice views of the wooded lot beyond.  You have probably noticed, but there are not any window coverings on most of the windows, including this one.  Window treatments were only used at the bedrooms.  I prefer that look to keep the views unobstructed and the interior lines of the trim nice and clean.  

Here you can see a shot of the white oak wood floors with the Rubio Floor Finish and the trees beyond.  The natural appearance of the floors, in this setting, is exactly what I had hoped for – natural, beautiful and comfortable.  I hope you agree.

Since this is one of the last posts on my personal home, very soon my blog will be shifting to focus on other Re-Development Group projects, the performance of the projects we complete, green construction techniques and cool design solutions.  I still plan on posting some updates on how my home is actually performing versus how it was modeled/planned.  Also, once my LEED-H paperwork is complete (finally! I’m still waiting…) I will post an update on that as well. 

Any and all feedback is appreciated.  Click on “about” for my contact information if you have questions or comments you do not want to post on the blog.

Finish Pics (Part 3 of ?)

Below are some more finish pics of my own personal home project along with a some dialogue on why we did some of the things we did.  Enjoy.

From the main entry, the kitchen & hearth room area is up two steps and to the right.  You can see this change in elevation, from the outside, at my previous post.  The floors are a white oak with a unique finish applied to them.  I discuss that material & process in another post as well, if you are interested.

The kitchen area is open and bright with plenty of countertop space.  The cabinets are a cherry material with a slight amount of color (stain) applied in the finish.  At the end of the island is a bookshelf area that helps to separate the other spaces (shown below) and blocks the view on to the countertop, which can get cluttered after meal prep.  We limited the amount of upper cabinets to keep the “feeling” of a kitchen to a minimum and better integrate it with the adjacent living spaces.  Most of our kitchen items are stored in the pantry (see below) or lower cabinets.  It has worked out well and I love the finished look.

Above is another shot of the kitchen island and the bookcase area.  The countertops are a granite material named “White Persia” that has quite a bit of veining and movement.  We wanted the natural feeling of stone, to compliment the natural setting (lot) of our home, and ensure that our modern style also had a warm aesthetic.

Above is a different view of that same space.  Here you can see the lower cabinets, which are all drawers, that are used for most of the kitchen storage.  Also at the other end of the space is the pantry (more on that below).  The pantry was finished out to as minimally as possible so that it was not visually heavy in the space.  Again, the intent was to keep the space from feeling too much like a kitchen.  Also visible is the bulkhead above the island area, whichwas completed to help demarcate the island area.  This entire room is large, so using elements like this at the ceiling assist in defining, and anchoring, certain areas within the home.

Above is a shot of the pantry with one of the doors in an open position.  We intentionally planned these spaces, and how they would function, for most of the items seen here.  The microwave (which we don’t use too often) is tucked in this space.  The coffee maker (used everyday – click here for the best beans you can find) is plugged in and ready for use at this location.  Basically, this pantry serves as a large “appliance garage”.  It has worked well so far and we are very happy with the function of the space, yet the ability to visually close off “the stuff” inside.

This photo is of the kitchen but from a reverse angle.  Here you can see the “hearth area” beyond the kitchen, which is also connected to the dining space (see below).  The hearth area is not yet complete (still need a rug, side table, lamp, etc…) but the intent is that it becomes an informal living area off the kitchen.  We cook every morning and evening, so the kitchen and surrounding spaces are important areas.

Above is a picture looking at the other side of the bookcase area & showing the horizontal lift up door that serves the other (counter) side of that cabinet.  This space was designed for a “drop area” for cell phones, laptop, etc…  So far it has not been used like we thought due to a mistake (I made) on the detailing of the cabinet.  I missed the ability to run an electrical outlet to that location, so that does not work real well for phones & laptops.  But is works nicely to hide things that would otherwise be on the counter (kleenex, cook books, mail, etc…).  I am still happy with the finished product.

Above is the hearth & dining space off the kitchen.  The two chairs face the fireplace and a small TV/built in area.  I will post some more pictures of that later.  The table is the space that we use for everyday dining and it has a bench seat along the back side.  Plenty of space and lots of light…  we really enjoy these couple rooms of the home.

I will continue to post more pictures of the finished product over the next couple weeks.  Check back for updates soon.

Finish pics (Part 2 of ?)…

The master bathroom at my personal home is all finished up with the pictures below.

Cherry cabinets were used in the bathrooms, just like the rest of the home, in order to keep a consistent pallet of materials.  The countertops selected are a limestone material that closely matches the tile that we used in the shower and other areas.  The faucets are from Hansgrohe (model – Talis S) and the sinks are a unique rectangular model from American Standard.  Another detail that you can see here are the cherry medicine cabinets that I had made for above the sinks.  In our previous homes our countertops always seemed to have “stuff” left on them from daily use.  We did not want that here.  So the medicine cabinets help organize those items that are daily used.  The good news is that it is working…  yes, I moved the kleenex box for this photo but other than that, it usually looks like this.  This is an example of being intentional as you design and layout your home.  Doing so can increase your quality of life and all you have to do is give the way you want to live, a little extra thought.

We installed the same white oak hardwood floors, like we used in the other areas of the home, here in the master bathroom area.  We prefer the wood as it is a warmer material, both visually and physically.  The shower door is a 3/8″ heavy glass unit that has an acid etching applied to one of the sides to give it a “frosted” look.  Here too, this was in an effort to keep a visually clean look and hide the stuff, inside the shower, that is used daily.

Inside the shower is a porcelain tile that closely relates to the Limestone we used at our countertops.  The two controls are also manufactured by Hansgrohe (also the Talis model) and serves the two different systems that are installed (see below).  I absolutely love this shower…

On the other side of the shower wall (that you can not see from the above photo) is a standard shower head and a seperate handheld unit.  We installed the handheld so it would be easy to wash the dog!  Yep, he is a bit spoiled…  The shower heads are the Hansgrohe “Raindance 180″and I would highly recommend.  These shower heads actually suck up air and then infuse it into the water as it comes out.  Really nice.

Yes, I saved the most glamorous photo for last…  the toilet.  This unit has a dual flush system from Sterling Plumbing (a Kohler company) that allows the user to control how much water is required.  Dual flush systems can save between 3000-5000 gallons of water, per year, per user. Impressive.  We have had one of these toilets installed at our previous home and at my work (RDG offices).  So I can say with confidence that these new systems work well, even over time.  The unit costs about $100 more than a comparable standard toilet, but with only a couple units in most homes, I think it is well worth the investment.  The payback on that investment is around two years, according to the EPA.  These toilets also give us some points towards our pending LEED-H certification.

More pics of the kitchen, living and other areas of the home, coming soon.

Hands On…

Progress on my own personal home has continued.  We moved in a couple weeks ago (I promise, more finish shots coming soon) but there was still some work to do and mainly on the outside.  However, one of the few inside projects was finishing up the fireplace hearth and surround areas.  We had originally planned to use some Indiana Limestone or other native material to accent the area, but the budget got tight towards the end of the job.  Thus, I chose to use some pigmented, cast concrete since that was something that I could do myself and keep the budget in check.  This, along with the hardwood floors, are the only things I “self performed” on my home.  I work with a bunch of very talented craftsmen and I certainly appreciate their work and skill, even more so, after building my home.

Below are some shots of the process and the results.

Exterior forms were installed, all the joints taped (so the concrete &/or moisture would not leak out onto the hardwoods) and everything was checked for level.  Then I installed some special fiberboard material (you can see my hand float sitting on it) that keeps the heat, from the fireplace, from reaching the wood substrate below.  The exact materials and thickness was specified by the fireplace manufacturer.   Since the interior is finished and clean, I mixed all the concrete by hand out in the garage, added the pigment (a charcoal color) and then carried it all inside in 5 gallon buckets.  Here you can see me about 1/2 way through packing the forms full of the concrete material.  (sorry for the photo quality – I used my phone)

After everything was poured I had to trowel it smooth several times that evening.  Towards the end we used some different techniques to expose some of the aggregate and give the concrete a softer, warmer feel.  Then I stripped all the forms and cleaned up (except for the paint touch ups you can see on the wall).  The finished hearth stands about 3″ above the hardwood floor.  This height was a result of the thick, special, heat board that had to be installed plus another 1″ of concrete above that.

I then installed the surround pieces (that were completed in the same manner) with some thinset material so we would get a good, solid bond.  The result is nice and clean but still has a warm feel.  There is still some grout/touch-up work to complete on the hearth (which you can see if you look closely) but overall the installation is complete.

My energy audit is complete, but my final LEED-H paperwork is still pending a couple more items.  Those should be wrapped up in the coming weeks and then we will submit for the final LEED-H certification, of which I am currently targeting a “Gold” level.  I will update that more in the coming weeks.  Further, our company is getting ready to start construction on another green home that will take some of what I learned on my home, and take it to an even higher level.  Exciting stuff.  You should start to see posts on that home in the coming weeks as well.

Finish pics (part 1 of ?)

Construction at my own personal home is largely complete and we actually moved in last weekend.  Our house is still a bit of a wreck and furniture is still coming or being moved; thus, I will not be posting pictures of all the rooms/spaces for a couple weeks.  Instead, I thought it might be interesting to post different pictures of the areas throughout the home every week, talk about how the area is performing, share any lessons learned during construction and/or discuss how the home is performing after living with it for some time.

So, with that intent, below are some pictures of the hardwood floors.  If you remember from my previous post, the hardwood floors had a special European oil finish applied to them.  What do you think?

Above is the front room with the finished floors.  We used a 4″ white oak floor (grade of select & better) and then applied the oil finish to give it a natural, matte appearance.  We are still waiting on delivery of a couple chairs for this room so that is why it is so wide open.  You can also see the landscaping and sod (finally!) outside the front windows but I’ll post on that later.

Here is another shot of the floors with the table in the foreground.  We used some left over flooring to make the table and then applied the same oil finish.  I had my steel fabricator make us some legs for the table to match the railings and some of the other furniture in the home.  Overall, the same wood and steel, along with the white chairs, blend with the surroundings.  We did not want the table area to be visually intrusive into the space .  It looks a little bland right now but once the rest of the room is finished I think we will get plenty of color and interest from the chairs, fireplace and accent fabrics.

So far the floors have held up to the dirt & dust of moving just fine.  The finish is actually in the wood – not on top – so they have a very natural “touch” as well.  Our dog seems to slip less on these floors (versus a normal urethane finished hardwood) and they are easy to clean.  Overall, I would highly recommend this finish and floor (with my limited experience thus far…) and the finish look is certainly one of a kind.

Check back soon for more updates on different rooms, finishes and installations through out the home.