Category: Rooms and Designs

It’s February, and we’ve already had a few heat waves. The housing bubble is
bursting nicely, and so it looks like it’s time to start working out the kinks in
our current design with Ray before resubmitting our plans for bids.

Here’s a starter list of topics we want to revisit with our plans:

• Bedroom
  • Wider Door into BR
  • Closet
  • Bathroom
• Great Room
  • Fireplace Relocation
  • Wood-burning FP if low-particulate okay?
  • Piano Location
  • Kitchen Design
  • TV Location
  • Moving bookcases/ladder to SE corner
• General
  • Wheelchair Ramp
  • Extra-wide Front Door
  • Larger Pool / jacuzzi
  • Walled Herb Garden
  • Steel Frame / Wood Frame
  • Ensure x-mas light outlets along outside
  • Satellite Dish Mount

Here is a snapshot of our latest floorplan (click to enlarge):

You can also download the scalable PDF version here.

You will notice that most of our change requests were implemented. In addition, the
observatory was redesigned as a circular platform, and moved away from the main house to
avoid the line-of-sight interference and thermal effects that interfere with astro-photography.
When the telescope is not up, it can double as a picnic area or gazebo.

Here is a sketch of one possible way to implement the leading edge “brim” of the
roof that can be deployed or retracted depending on the amount of shade
and the angle of the sun:

Our friend Andy gave us a brochure from a window company called Eagle. These arts-and-crafts style
windows look like they may work for us (click to enlarge):

My first comments on the 1.0 design as shown in the 3D CAD view are

1. We would like to extend the deck around most of the
   south side of the house, rather than have separate decks.
2. Currently the glass goes straight up, flush against the inside edge of
   the angled columns. We would like to push the glass out at least
   half a column to form recessed nooks for reading couches on the inside.
   It could, in fact be an angled pane of glass, parallel to the outside slanted edge
   of the stone column. This would create a much stronger sense of separate
   “living centers” as Christopher Alexander would say. It also createst a
   stronger definition for Gigi’s studio on the southwest corner of the house. For the
   same reason, we also would not want the glass to go all the way to the outside
   edge, but allow the column to form recessed area on the deck.
3. The tall windows are beautiful, but at present it almost feels like too
   much exposure. We’d like to keep the “lean-to” style of the southern part
   of the house, but would like to think of a way to someway provide more
   deep shade /privacy for the deck that would now extend around the south.

One possibility that has occurred to me for item #3 is to add a set of hinged
“eaves” to the upward-sloping roof, that when deployed drop down from the
roof edge, parallel to the outside column line. Here is a sketch of the idea:

This is a first attempt to get down on paper a bubble diagram of all the stuff that
we want to go into the house (click to enlarge):

Wish List: (aka Ask for the Moon, and maybe you’ll get half):

• Serene
  Ideally, when walking into the house you should feel a sense of relaxing, of coming home, the pressure off. Here is where you can be yourself and enjoy life.
• Beautiful:
  Rustic beauty. Should come from the natural way that it expresses the life of the people that live in it, and not from any preconceived notion of “style”.
• Stone, Glass and Wood.
  Niles grew up with stucco. That was enough. We see stone floors, lots of glass for the views of Zion, and some interior and exterior wood accents, such as cedar, which is common in the area.
• Books, Books, Books:
  We read. A lot. Bookshelves by the kitchen for cookbooks, bookshelves underneath window-seats for something to read while
  enjoying the view, bookshelves in the bedroom.
• The Deck:
  Barbeque on one side, Jacuzzi on the other. The deck is at least partly covered by a long shading roof extending out from the great room. At one place along the shaded part of the deck, there should be at least hooks for a hammock. Another possibility is to have a mist generator on the eaves for hot days, which are many.

• Views and Light:
  Our lot has almost 360 degree views. We see the deck growing out of the Navaho sandstone with a south-facing view, skylights.
• Great Room:
  Old houses have all these claustrophobic little boxes called formal dining rooms. We do our own cooking and would like to see and talk to people while we’re cooking. Ideally, it will open out to the deck with the view. The kitchen will have an island which will have the main burners, with suspended hangers for various pots and pans.
• Master Bedroom with fireplace:
  ideally the fireplace is shared in the stone wall between the bedroom and the great room.
• Guest Room / library:
  We should be able to accomodate one couple and their kids.
• Entertainment area
  Occasionally we watch TV or DVD movies. We admit it. Never during the day, though so the best thing would be to have a suspended projection TV with a screen that retracts. Probably can be integrated with the great room.
• Observatory:
  Nothing fancy. It is probably a good idea to have a simple base on the hard bedrock to avoid vibration of the telescope, with some kind of retractable cover. Could be integrated with the separated studio by the garage.
• Studio:
  A studio for getting away and studying, reading, writing and what not. A place for Gigi to get away and read, such as a loft.
• Storage Room / Pantry/ Cellar
  A place to store long-term food, wine and the like. Ideally it would be in an earth-cooled cellar.
• Laundry/Utility/Mud Room:
  With shower, allowing you to come in after hiking the Zion narrows and not get
  the rest of the house muddied up.