"Perhaps what you need isn't a home, Mr. Blandings, but a series of connected cabins..."

Sims, the architect from Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), may have been on to something. A childless couple (our target demographic) wants a nice bedroom, a party-friendly kitchen and great room, and an office space for each of them. But beyond that, their needs might be met with one or two separable apartments.

These secondary units would be for

• Grown children who need to move home
• Grown children visiting with grandkids
• Aging parents
• Renters
• Airbnb renters

Flexibility is a wonderful thing. Wouldn't it be great to have a quiet place to put the grandchild down for a nap, without shutting the whole household down? Or to offer an efficiency apartment to drop-in visitors for a few days at a time?

Peggy's recent concept sketch (which I will post when she sends me a photo) imagines a Plan A variant with the apartment behind the garage, the master bedroom where it is, and an apartment in the existing living room and dining space, using the existing front door.

Learning from the Spec Houses

Houses built to sell, rather than for a client, have a number of things in common in this part of the world. I worry that I respond positively to the clean, modern look, but that my tendency would be to change details that would make it unprofitable and perhaps unattractive to the mass market.

Exterior

9729 Woodlawn Ave N

Modern homes built in 2014 are oblong boxes with flat roofs. The siding is cement board (sometimes in a Venturi-esque brick pattern), with accents of horizontal cedar. They are not afraid of bold color accents (Kiwi green, Blast-off orange).

The designs reject their neighbor's bourgeois normality, which helps them stand out in the home marketplace, perhaps. It is only potentially awkward when someone tries to live in the Fuck You house in the middle of the block. Maybe this is why builders cluster them in groups--for peer support.

Like International-style gas stations in the 1950s, the reason behind the design choices is cost savings, pure and simple. By not pandering to accepted norms like a sheltering roof, or cottage massing, builders signal a "take it or leave it" attitude that allows them to save money on details like sun protection, landscaping, or trim. How can a deciduous tree shade the second-floor windows? It can't, this is the new style, maybe its not for you.

908 28th Ave S

There are a lot of "L"s and squares expressed on the exteriors of these homes, as if the game Tetris was used to style a place to live.

Windows do not respond to view opportunities--large windows often face another building a few feet away. And the fenestration isn't used to establish a rhythm. Window placement is random. Alignment is far more important than symmetry.

Although these homes feature lots of glass, the windows are always penetrations in a solid geometry. Curtain walls, a glass skin for an internal structure, are never employed. Open houses leave all window coverings to the imagination, and the homes have lots of natural light, but for structural and thermal reasons (and perhaps for placement of furnishings), there is far more flat wall surface than glass.

Exterior doors are almost always single-lite french doors with either clear or patterned glass. (I happen to like this trend.)

Interior

The interior is Open Plan, often starting at the front door. In practice, this means a white oblong with a 9' ceiling peppered with downlights, containing living room furniture, a dining table, and kitchen cabinets against, but not embedded in, the walls. A gas flame behind glass is often, but not always, a feature.

1209 NE 88th St. Offered at $1,098,000.

The floor is usually hardwood, parallel to the long side of the oblong, visually connecting the kitchen to the other spaces.

The ideal appears to be no bumps in the walls, no soffits in the ceiling--as close to being in a white shoe box as possible. The kitchen cabinets and appliances (with the exception of the refrigerator) do not engage with the walls. ("Engagement" is consistently found in the examples in Susanka, The Not So Big House.)

Carpeting is a well-known buyer turn-off, but the staging usually includes one or more area rugs on the hardwood floor. The acoustics of such a space are not a concern at open house time, just when two or more people try to live in it.

Windows run nearly to the ceiling--headers are always part of the floor framing. This draws the eye up, which is good, especially when the view at eye-level is of old-fashioned houses. Window coverings are another problem left for the home's eventual owner to solve. Open houses rarely have any.

9729 Woodlawn N. Note the lack of trim
at the top and sides of the windows.

Trim is simple painted 1x  or 5/4 (3/4" or 1-1/4" thick) or is omitted altogether. The drywaller's skill is on display everywhere. Corners are crisp--rounded corners are dated. Crown molding does not fit the modern style. Sometimes, the trim will be painted a color that subtly contrasts with the walls. 

Outlets and light switches are generally conventional, usually, but not always, "Decora" paddles for switches paired with ordinary receptacles. Most homes are wired with network and CATV, and these connections are typically combined with receptacles. Builders (at least below the $1M price point) don't usually indulge in lighting control systems, or even dimmers.

Bathrooms

1209 NE 88th. Frameless glass, elongated tub.
No place to hang towels.

Bathrooms are typically more spacious than the old 5' x 8' standard. A 5' x 12' (the length of a bedroom) is often seen with tub, toilet, and a long, two-sink, counter. Tub-free homes are rare, for historical reasons, apparently. Many Master en suites have a tub with a shower next to it, or a walk-in shower with a soaking tub in the stall.

Bathrooms, especially non-master baths, are often windowless. The shower surround is an expensive tile, such as glass ceramic, or large oblong "Roman" tiles. Subway tiles (3 x 6 or 4 x 8 tiles with contrasting grout in a brick pattern) are trendy, but are not dressy enough for the Master suite.

9729 Woodlawn Ave N

Fancy multi-head or programmable showers are rare. One of the most common fixtures is a vertical rail for height adjustment and a detachable sprayer. Also rare is a place to put soap or shampoo. Towel racks are also optional in builder's minds.

Why not real architecture?

I'd like to fit in with the Broadview neighborhood. Established, conservative, refined. I've always admired this house:

House at 8th Ave and 122nd Street

But why buy into this suburban trope? Why not go for real, whogivesashit, capital-A Architecture? I saw this rendering of a new boutique hotel being built across the street from Pike Place Market.

11-story Seattle hotel by Olson Kundig Architects

Wouldn't a couple floors of juxtaposed glass look great on 118th Street? Or a different approach, like stone abutments with heavy timbers lofting a bridge house into the trees? Steel and glass creating an impossible cantilever, like Pierre Koenig's Case Study House 22?

Fever dream (noun): A particularly intense or confusing dream brought on by a fever.

Survey says...

GeoDimensions sent over the finished property survey this morning. It is excellent work--they took dozens of spot elevations, located every tree and all the backyard constructions, and, of course, verified the metes and bounds (which I had trouble obtaining). Somehow, the main floor elevation I've been using (263') is dead on. Amazing. This is what $3,008 buys one. Worth it!


As an example of how useful this survey is: Mr. Cross, the soils engineer, suggested that I should drain the roof toward the street, not Carkeek Park, if I could. The survey says that the invert elevation of the pipe where the entry walk meets the street is 260.43. (IE is the inside bottom of the pipe.) Drain lines slope 1/4" per foot, which means the IE of the new pipe must be 10" higher 40' away (roughly at the house), or 261.27. The spot elevations on the survey show that the ground at the living room is 262.27, meaning that the new pipe would have to be in a 12" trench. That's not much lee-way, but it works.

Project budget the other way

In November, I looked at Plan A (minimal), Plan B (full on), and Plan C from a ROI perspective. I think it might be useful to come at this from the other direction.

I bought the house for $467 and Zillow thinks it's worth $519 now.

Address	Bed/Bath	SF	Zestimate	Per SF	Notes
817 118th	3/3	1596	$519,000	$326	Sold 2014 $467,000/ Lot 10,798 SF
801 118th	3/3	2760	$643,000	$233	Swierz--Sold 2012 $460,000
823 118th	3/2	1630	$597,000	$366	Rob
814 118th	4/1.5	2030	$758,000	$373	Across the street--Sold 2012 $630,100. Lot 10,018 SF
11803 8th	3/2.25	1940	$654,000	$337	Corner
11815 8th	4/2.75	2260	$747,000	$331
11804 9th	2/1	1560	$462,000	$296	Corner
11810 9th	5/2.5	3100	$786,000	$254
11738 9th	6/1.75	3760	$805,000	$214	Pool. Largest, most $$$ on block

The most interesting of these is 814 118th, a studs-out remodel in 2011-12 that earned $373/SF, the most on this block.

Plan A, at the moment, is about 1,860 SF, 3/3. At $370/SF, we'd be $688,200. Zillow estimates the home will appreciate at 12.48%, twice the Broadview or Seattle number. That would be $774 in 2016, $871 in 2017. Even at the more conservative Broadview number, it's $770 in 2017. $750,000 seems conservative.

Plan B is more vague--it's an additional 1,400 SF, bringing us up to 2,996 SF. At $370/SF, that's $1,108,520, but as we see with 11738 9th, houses that size fetch more like $300/SF, putting us at $898,800. At $250/SF, it's only $749,000--that's a big variation. We would still be smaller than 11738 9th, with no pool. So, let's say $805,000. That's $900,000 in 2017 at the lower Broadview appreciation. Say $880,000.

Working backward, we can determine the budget + profit number. If we aim for 25% profit after two years, we have our construction budget.

	$750,000	$880,000
Basis	$467,000	$467,000
Commissions @6%	$45,000	$52,800
Excise tax @1.78%	$13,350	$15,664
BUDGET + PROFIT	$224,650	$344,536
Construction (75%)	$168,487	$258,402

Plan A is 300 SF for about $562/SF. Plan B is 1400 SF at $185/SF.

Plan A gets more refined

Still preliminary, but Plan A is getting more detailed, more hardline. The kitchen and entry pushed out toward the street; ideas for a roof plan are sketched; and the kitchen layout is informed by our recent post.

Plan A, hardline. Designated A.5

The new plan imagines a "prow," a low-slope standing seam metal roof jutting toward the street, with Pacific Northwest-meets-Mid-Century Modern wood details. One could imagine a jalousie window next to the sink.

On the kitchen: Perhaps the pantry could recede, allowing the dishwasher to fit to the right of the sink. This would allow us to express the king post as kind of a focal point for the end of the kitchen. The layout is now clearly two zones: One end has the sink, dishwasher, pantry, range, dish, glass, and pot storage. The other end has a microwave and coffee maker counter next to the refrigerator, along with a multi-purpose island that has its own sink.

The goal of the extra-wide entry hall is to impress visitors with the spaciousness and vast storage in the house. Hoping that the small bedrooms, closets, and bathrooms later on won't seem so small.

The TV is on the garage wall now, so that it can be seen from the kitchen (thanks, Peggy), and that lets us squeeze in a garden door to a tiny roofed patio.

The laundry is intended to be the stacked appliances with a small countertop and cabinets for supplies. The counter is exposed and the appliances behind a door in this drawing, but we could also hide the counter and the appliances behind bi-fold doors. Or, we could move the laundry to the north side of the hall, where cabinetry for linens is currently.

I gave in and added a bathtub to Bath #2. I had planned to have only showers. I don't think people really take baths anymore, and the target market doesn't have kids. However, they have grandkids and dogs and maybe they just want a bath. And realtors count baths with only showers as 3/4. I think this plan has 2 1/2 baths, where the old shower-only plan had 2 1/4, if that's even a thing.

Sketchy roof plan, with top of fascia elevations

The roof plan respects the garage's existing hip roof by extending it forward, but it treats the main house differently, essentially truncating it to just the eastern half. The idea is that Bedroom #2 (main house, SW) has a new flat roof, revealing an ugly triangular wall where the old hip roof was cut. Worse, this roof is higher than the hip's fascia, so there's also a smaller triangle below it.

High, flat roofs (or maybe sloping toward the street) are in the middle. The smaller entry roof is highest, almost a tower. The larger part gives the Trees Room its tall south-facing windows, and also clerestory north light. It extends across so that Bath #2 has clerestories as well. We can easily skylight the bedroom hall at the laundry and the Master Bath.

Bath #3 remains a problem for the view out of the Trees Room. I propose cutting off the eave of the hip roof at this point, and extending the wall up to meet the roof. It's pretty awful, because the new, ugly triangle is right in the view through the high windows. But, from a construction point of view, it's easy. We're stripping the asphalt shingles in any case, so it's not hard to cut off some OSB sheathing and frame a slightly different geometry before installing the new metal roof.

Storage-based Kitchen Design

Back in the day, we focused on the sink-range-refrigerator triangle. That can be reduced to: Don't put any two of those things at opposite ends of the space. Then, we worried about having adequate counter-height workspace--by the sink, for dishes; by the range, for prep; by the refrigerator, for groceries. This is bogus, I think. Yes, space for dirty dishes next to the sink, but if the grocery landing zone is next to the refrigerator, you're reaching around the refrigerator door, so it is better to have the grocery landing across from the refrigerator. And a good prep counter or two works wherever they are--cooks walk things to the stove all the time (e.g., pots of water from the sink). It's nice to have an oven landing zone nearby, but the range top will do in a pinch.

I think working out the storage needs first will lead to a better kitchen design. The other considerations will solve themselves. My brilliant insight is inspired by Ikea's 2014 Kitchen Planning Guide:

"It sounds obvious, but keeping items near the places you use them most makes for a kitchen that's geared for efficiency."

I think 52" between counters is close to ideal. One person can pass behind another, but you can move work from one counter to the other with a pivot and a single step. 48" is minimum, Ikea says, and 56" seems more like two steps. So, a galley kitchen is 8'-4", wall to wall.

Upper shelves are 55" and 67" from the floor. Higher shelves (79") are not reachable for common items. In a pantry situation, you can have 7 shelves at 4", 17", 30", 43", 56", 69", and 82".

Garbage seems to be central to a good kitchen layout. Most communities want you to separate garbage from recycling (cans, bottles, and paper), and Seattle now wants food waste separate, as well. Recycling could be outside the kitchen (in a mud room, say), but food and garbage bins need to be near the sink and not far from the range. Consider carrying leaky garbage out to the can--mud rooms are nice. Ikea sells 15" tall bins in 3 sizes that fit into a single 30" base drawer (shown under the sink).

Buyers like this $7,000 Wolf range and infrared charbroiler

The coffee maker and toaster seem meant to be on the counter, but a good design should not be cluttered. Unresolved. Also, I like an open shelf for the microwave so that it's about 55" up and easily replaceable. I don't like built-in microwaves, personally. Some people prefer wall ovens and cooktops, but I notice that spec builders almost always go for a range.

What do we store in the kitchen?

• Plates (dinner and salad), bowls. Upper shelf, 3 LF min. Ikea sells organizers for putting plates and bowls in a base drawer, probably need 36" x 15" high drawer min.
• Glasses (drink, wine), mugs, cups. Upper shelf, 3.5 LF min. Wine glasses can hang under a counter. Mugs should be near coffee maker or refrigerator hot water dispenser.
• Silverware, knives, utensils. Silverware and knives are in a drawer at counter height. 24" for silver, 24" for knives. Lower, taller drawers for utensils. Some long utensils can hang.
• Pots, pans, cookie sheets, muffin trays, casseroles. Big bowls. Cheese grater. Some pots and things stack, but you need a separate rack for the lids. Both shelves of two 36" base cabinets = 12 LF min. Ikea suggests deep drawers, which makes it easier to reach the back. Some pots can hang.
• Plastic wrap, baggies, aluminum foil, trash bags. 1 or 2 24" drawers, maybe 6" deep. Or a pantry shelf.
• Appliances: Mixer, blender, crock pot, rice cooker, waffle iron. Unlike the coffee maker, these things are brought out for projects. They take about 1 LF each, so..5 LF of 12" shelf, or 2.5 LF of 24" shelf. They can be heavy--ideally, they'll be at about counter height, not down by the floor or higher than 55".
• Cleaning supplies, dishwasher soap [traditionally under the sink]. Need about 2.5 LF of 12" shelf or 24" cab.
• Dry food: cereal, pasta, coffee, chips, popcorn, nuts, soup, canned goods, gravy mix. Varies by family, but we used perhaps 24 LF of 12" shelves in Los Gatos.
• Spices, bulk supplies (sugar, flour, olive oil), Need to be near the range, not necessarily with the dry food. Maybe 2 LF of 12" shelves?

What might be stored in the kitchen?

• Liquor, mixers, and bar accessories
• Dish towels, placemats, serving trays
• Pet food, light bulbs, batteries
• Vases, large platters
• Vacuum cleaner, mop, broom
• The "good" china and seasonal accouterments
• Cookbooks

So, the upper cabinets need: 3 plates, 3.5 glasses, 2 spices = about 10 LF, 5' of upper cabinets (2 @ 30"). (3.5', 2 @ 21", if plates are in cabinets.)

The base cabinets need: 2 silver, 2 knives, (lower drawers for utensils, plastic wrap), 6 pots, 3 garbage, 13' of base drawers, no cabinets. (3' more for plates.)

Pantry: 24 of dry food, 2.5 cleaning supplies, 5 appliances = 31.5 LF, or 4.5 feet of 7-high shelves.

We need 17.5 feet of base cabinets, not counting corners, or the refrigerator. The pantry can work in just 3.5' of counter-depth space, and can fill into the corner.