Houzz Ideas

Peggy sent a passel of Houzz photos "for inspiration to help tie the two looks together." It has taken a long time to get to this point in the design, but I think we're there--the roof line, the fenestration and some distinctive details will be what people will remember, not the scope and floor plan decisions that I've spent months perfecting.

More of a negative example. Focus on the fascia, ignore the massive roof lump.

Similar to one of the A.12 roof schemes. Maybe we lean in to the slim "Rorman" brick we already have. I like what the planter at the right does in 3-D. Prairie-style, Robie House. Good "hips over hips" details.

Clever solution for Bedroom 2 Egress

Seattle Residential Code R310 and R311 specifies egress window size and sill height, but they don't seem to care how far above the ground the window is. Basement egress is concerned with getting up to the ground level, but the same egress rules apply to the ground floor as well as one floor up.

I sketched a sliding glass door, landing and steps for egress. That's a few thousand dollars, when you count the railing. If we do nothing, we meet the SRC requirements for size, but anyone climbing out would fall into the basement stairs.

Peggy's clever suggestion was to build a roof over the basement stairs. Now, climbing out the BR2 window lands you on the roof. You could still fall, but it's a lot less likely.

Fire engine hurries to the neighborhood

A fire engine rushed into Broadview, siren wailing, at 10:35 p.m., then parked up on 8th Ave. and nothing else exciting happened. No smell of smoke, no one threatening to jump from a high ledge, no cats in trees that I know of.

Mr. Insulation

I met with Josh Brown of Arrow Insulation. He confirmed that the city wants R-49 in the ceiling and R-21 in the walls. He looked at the 2" of balsam wool I uncovered in the dining room and said that it looked like brand name "Silva Wool," a shredded wood product of Weyerhauser in the 1940s. The good thing about the product is that it is "encapsulated" with waterproof paper, so it generally doesn't rot or grow mold. The Internet says it does not contain asbestos.

To Josh, this means we should blow in dense-packed cellulose from the inside. The procedure involves drilling a 2" diameter hole in the drywall about 4' off the floor. They push a hose up to the top of the cavity and push in the cellulose, moving down. They force it in at a higher pressure than it's natural settle pressure. When the cellulose gets to the hole, they put the hose at the bottom of the void. They have 2" diameter wood plugs with tapered sides that press into the drywall holes. They tap the plugs with a hammer until they are just below the face, ready for drywall mud and sanding.

Further Development of A.12

The Airbnb unit (BR4): kitchen and fireplace

California lifestyle--barbecue, designer furniture

Diagonal view from Trees Room to Kitchen. That's a lot of cabinets, huh?

Entry

Entry view into Trees Room and BR3

View from street

Approaching the front door

A.12

Peggy found a way to avoid popping out to the north. I'm still not sure how that works, but it involves putting the dining room table in the traffic flow, rather than dedicating 120 SF to dining.

This simplifies a lot of things, but the kitchen kinda bothers me--the eating counter is not comfortable--too narrow, too close to the wall. The counter space on either side of the range is inadequate, too.  Maybe the solution is just let the eating counter go.

If we put in the spiral stair in Phase II, we'd be blowing off the dining room altogether, but that's a choice some folks make and it still sort of works.

The structure sorts itself out very nicely. We span a beam N/S over the dining table, with posts that bear on the existing stem wall. Then we hang E/W beams from the garage to the new beam. These are 14' spans--piece of cake. The E/W shear walls at BA3 and BR2 line up with the beam that supports the higher roof in the Trees Room.

Parapets

If the city wants us to catch all rainwater, and we're using awning windows, why not integrate the gutters behind parapets and forget draining off the edge of a roof. Also, if we're rebuilding the hip roof over the garage, because the old carpenter truss approach doesn't meet current codes, then how about a flat roof. It could be a patio, a future master suite, or just a comfortable place to go up and sweep the needles every so often.

November afternoon sun--everything is dark

July afternoon sun--fewer shadows