Local Builders

I'll use this post to list the builders I might want to engage with.

Blue Sound Construction - I spoke with these guys in early 2015. I saw a sign on 122nd St. I'm still on their email list.

Masterwork Builders - I spoke with them, too. I got their name from the Schwesinger's at 122nd and 8th, the house with the metal roof. They noticed my sagging garage roof and said they'd just rebuild it, no big deal.

Fosmore Construction - I talked to Wally Fosmore and his wife in 2015. He may have retired. I saw a project they were doing in Edmonds that was very nice. Fosmore was the guy who liked the corner window in the kitchen and said in a half a day, he could blow away the breezeway and the vault under it, concrete or no. Fosmoreconstruction.com seems dead, but there's a listing on Yelp.

Magazine Quality Kitchens - They did Luke's remodel. Their portfolio looks good. I would check back with Luke, but I don't think he had any problems with their work.

Hammer and Hand - I've seen their trucks around. Apparently, they're in Portland, too. Classy graphics.

TSG Remodeling - Internet. Additions, ADUs, kitchens. 

Wygal Builders - They're remodeling 814 NW 118th now. They plan to take 18 months! 

Jackson Design-Build - Found on the Internet. They specialize in "vintage Seattle homes," by which they mean 1900-1950. We qualify. Not clear if they'll work without doing the designs.

Unique Home Construction - Internet. They specialize in kitchens and bathrooms, but they show off a garage addition and say they specialize in that, too.

Elite Construction - Internet.

Ready Home - Internet. Email sean@readyhomellc.com 

Masterwork Builders

Blue Sound Construction

Hammer and Hand DADU

Hammer and Hand Kitchen

Jackson Design-Build

I'm watching the 814 NW 118th project (Wygal Builders). It seems that the Gadgil's bought the house on 8th Ave and adjusted the property line to give the backyard to 814. It's an "L." Blue Sky Electric. Quality Plumbing 206-789-7676. Also, for the lot adjustment, they used Terrane (formerly GeoDimensions), the same surveyor that I used.

Phase Two

Once we have a certificate of occupancy for the ADU, I'll move there and let the contractor work on the main house. We'll rearrange the two bathrooms and modify the kitchen.

Same plan as Project 2025.

Bedroom 1. The bookcase has a surprise.

The Dining Room with built-in hutch.

Kitchen overview. Bathroom 2 has a bathtub!

Galley kitchen with more counter space.

Kitchen and Laundry beyond from Dining Room.

Utility counter in Breezeway.

Living Room still looks into Kitchen.

Project 2025

Here's the overall plan for remodeling the Trees House. We'll do the ADU in 2025 as Phase One, then do the main house, Phase Two, in 2026.

Not shown: Doors/windows on Workshop west wall

As seen returning from a walk

Front yard TBD, but the breezeway will be a fenced yard

The new workshop. Roll-up door hardware (and door) not shown.

ADU living area. Existing west-facing window. Under-counter refrigerator.

ADU entry and bedroom beyond.

ADU entry. Grade will change to more gradual ramp.

ADU overview

New 8' high view door for ADU

The Mudroom. Any resemblance to backstage at Westworld is entirely intentional.

Workshop addition meets Seattle SDCI

Update 18 Nov 2024: Left a voicemail for Faye Emmanuel. Found an online form for requests (response within 2 days, they say). The form takes attachments, so I need to prepare a basic drawing (like the one below).

Maybe the new ADU design is not legal.

Here's the problem: Tip 220, updated August 9, 2024. I touched on this in Code Analysis 18 months ago.

The problem in an NR1 zone is 23.44.016 Parking and garages: F.1.a "no portion of a garage...[attached or detached]...may be closer to the street lot line than 80% of the...non-garage." So, if the main house is 29.1' from the property line, then the garage has to be 29.1' feet back as well. With that language, 1 foot closer to the street is not allowed. Put another way, the existing house at 29.1 effectively resets the front setback from 20' to 29.1'.

A garage is not required and only 1 spot is needed. There's no problem parking in a yard, just not the front yard.

As I noted last year: "F.3.c says "The Director may waive or modify the standards of this section based on..." One point is "Configuration of proposed or existing structures on the lot"; and another is "Location of exceptional trees as defined in 25.11.020." Another reason for exception is design features of modulation, screening, and landscaping."

We would request parking on the driveway in the front yard. We're not constructing a garage, but the workshop requires a roll-up door.

• The new workshop would align with the garage on the property to the west, which is non-conforming with F.1.a.
• Front setbacks on the street vary from 76' on the house to the east (801), 29.1' on the existing house (817), 20' on the house to the west (823). Both neighbors are non-conforming with F.1.a.
• We want to build the workshop on the north side to avoid building in the backyard, which is adjacent to Carkeek Park and is designated ECA.
• The new workshop preserves two exceptional trees as defined in 25.11.020.

The existing 1947 house is 68' wide on a 90' frontage; 48' living area the new workshop is 20' wide. 

We need a drawing like this to persuade the Director:

Here's the neighbor to the west:

For questions about Director's Rules, we're supposed to call Faye Emmanuel (206) 684-0114.

Game Plan

1. Get rid of stuff: Music equipment, old files, "Museum of Alastair" stuff.
2. Finalize layout: Kitchen, ADU, BA1, BA2.
3. Phase I: ADU - create drawings, talk to contractors
4. Phase II: Main house: Kitchen, BA1, BA2
5. Phase III: Exterior (so that it doesn't get trampled during construction)

Maybe do basement door sooner (but Phase II might trample it, so maybe not?) My chimney guy might be up for the concrete work at the basement stairs. Maybe we hold off on the Bilco door and just use plywood/tarp for now.

As for "finalize layout"--there is no 100% solution; everything is a compromise. Everything.

Baseline prices

I want to leave a note about prices two days after the election.

Regular gas is $4.29/gal. Many stations are charging $4.39. 

A dozen eggs at QFC is $3.69--likely cheaper at places like Grocery Outlet. Organic eggs are $5.49/doz.

A basic loaf of Franz white bread is $4.29 at QFC. That's also the price of a half gallon of whole or 2% milk.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index closed at 43,729 on November 7. S&P 500 was 5,973.10.

Suggested retail price on a RAV4 Hybrid XSE is $37,385.

Let's see if things change.

Ambient Lighting Everywhere

The color consultant talked about brightening up the house with white paint, and she made a casual comment--white on the ceiling, near-white on the walls, throw in a few wafer lights--you won't recognize the place it'll be so bright. (Paraphrasing.)

There is a reason every house has these wafer lights--they are awesome! Low energy, easy installation, easy to ignore. You put in more than you need and put them on a dimmer. 

I installed twelve 4" Parmida wafer lights in the Workshop in 2019.

The only challenge is getting power to one of them. In BR1 and BR2, we have a switched outlet, so we tap into that. In the Dining Room and Hall, I don't know if I want them on the same switch as the existing overheads, so maybe a new switch. The problem in the Living Room is that the switched outlet and the porch light are jammed into the same 1-gang box. To install a full-size dimmer like I have in BA1, I need more wall. But these are all surmountable.

Less than 24 fixtures ($150 or so), plus an electrician

I'm thinking that if I buy the fixtures and cut the holes, I can get an electrician to give them power. All I need is Romex sticking out of each hole--I can hook up the lights the way I did in the workshop. There are 5 sets on this plan, 5 switches to deal with. Maybe a man-day? Fingers-crossed $1500?

The dimmer switches (like BA1) are Lutron Maestro. They are $32 each at Home Depot--that's more than the wafer lights. But a $300 lights and switches, $1500 labor budget for all that light seems like a good deal.

• Living Room: Switch by front door. (8) 6" wafers = 8,000 lumens, 96W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #3.
• Dining Room: Switch by front door, not by kitchen? (4) 4" wafers = 2,800 lumens, 36W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #3. Living and Dining add 132W to the circuit.
• Hall: Switch by the laundry (TBD). Maybe skip the dimmer? (3) 6" wafers = 3,000 lumens, 36W. Not color-change. Circuit #15.
• BR1: Switch by the door. (4) 6" wafers = 4,000 lumens, 48W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #24.
• BR2: Switch by the door. (4) 6" wafers = 4,000 lumens, 48W. Not color-change. Circuit #24. BR1 + BR2 add 96W to the circuit.

Background

Lighting designers talk about ambient, task, and decorative lighting. Decorative can be anything and task is for sinks and kitchen counters. Let's discuss ambient lighting, now that I own a light measuring device.

Units: Bulbs and LEDs emit lumens (or candelas). My light meter, on the other hand, measures how much light hits a point in space. It displays lux (or foot-candles). The light produced by a 1 candela source on a single square foot poster board held one foot away from the candela is 1 foot-candle. 1 lumen hits a square meter held one meter away for 1 lux.

We seem to want 9 or ten foot-candles 3' off the ground to feel that a room is adequately lit. (This is based on my measurement, not confirmed yet.)

Range of foot-candles: 

BR1 7-8 Fc over the bed, 10-11 at the desk (near the lamp).

BA1 11-15 Fc thanks to 3 LED downlights. At max brightness, 20-23 Fc.

Hall 8-9, depending on how far from the clg light.

Kitchen 20-22, up to 26 directly under a downlight.

Living 6-9, depending on how close we are to a floor lamp. 10.6 near the lamp in the dining room.

Watts to Lumens, from [Lumens and FootCandles MEP Academy] (Candela assumes an apex angle of 56 degrees):

Incandescent	Lumens	Candela
40 Watts	450 Lumens	612 Candela
60 Watts	800 Lumens	1088 Candela
75 Watts	1,000 Lumens	1360 Candela
100 Watts	1,600 Lumens	2176 Candela

I

This diagram illustrates that distance from the bulb matters. An 800 lumen bulb is about equal to a 60W incandescent bulb. FC = Lumens / (distance in feet squared). The Illuminating Engineering Society recommends 100 FC for classroom or gymnasium, 50 FC for offices, 10 FC for hallways.

4" Parmida wafer lights (like I put in the Workshop) are 700 lumens, dimmable, with a 120-degree beam angle. A 12-pack is $70.

6" Parmida wafer lights are 1000 lumens, dimmable, with a 120-degree beam angle. A 12-pack is $60.