Today, I feel like Iβm on the right track and learning as I go. Iβve been able to address most of what I wanted to do, but there are always going to be ways to improve (like using a dSLR camera). My goal right now is to look professional without spending thousands of dollars.
When looking at the completed house, itβs easy to lose sight of all the decisions that achieved the look and feel of the place. Before we move on, Iβd like to share some of the biggest stylistic decisions we made, along with the craft that went into making it real.
There is a unique point in each house’s life when it’s naked and in it’s purest form. The work is done, but the people haven’t yet moved in. For us that lasted about 24 hours and I took the opportunity to take photos before it’s hidden behind furniture, rugs, and all the things that bring it to life. Below, I’m sharing those photos along with sections of the creative brief from last week.
Sometime in the middle of the house project, I learned a lesson about chimneys that has fascinated me ever since. We were talking about the metal tubes, or βfluesβ that would eventually stick out of our roof and vent our two wood-burning fireplaces. According to the fireplace company, the size of the fireplaces meant the flues needed to be eighteen feet high to work. This explains why.
Home construction includes a variety of “big” things. Perhaps the most pivotal is the flooring, because it covers the house, is used every day and is mostly permanent. This is about our floor decisions.
A friend who is a few months behind us in their home project reached out to ask a few questions about choosing recessed LED can lights for their new home.
When building a new house, it’s worth considering whether or not to run ethernet networking and if so, what products may work best. This is our plan.
Our final decisions on smart home lighting and home automation options for our house on Orcas Island.
The post below was sent as an issue of my newsletter, Ready for Rain. Iβm ready for spring. Iβm ready to be done with 2020, done with the election, done with the pandemic. Iβm ready to feel a sense of hope along with longer, warmer days, with friends. And those days...
Today at the construction site the team was putting down a subfloor over the radiant heating tubes that will warm our house. One of the risks of having tubes of water in your floor is one of them getting punctured when flooring goes down. This is especially true once...
The post below was sent as an issue of my newsletter, Ready for Rain. Iβve taken thousands of photos of the house project, mostly from my phone and drone. In isolation, they look like any other house photo, a point in time without context. One can only get so excited...
The post below was sent as an issue of my newsletter, Ready for Rain. On the ferries we take to the mainland, there are often puzzles on tables for anyone who wants to pass the time. What most short-term puzzlers on the boat donβt know is that some of the puzzles have...
Before the house could be painted, the dust from level 5 drywall had to be removed and it was a much bigger challenge that I expected and it put a strain on our relationship.
We are doing the painting on the house project, which ended up being a much bigger job than I expected.
Our fireplaces are the heart of our house and an element we took great care to design.
The siding for our house is Japanese cypress that has been charred to make it more resilient and beautiful. It’s called “Shou Sugi Ban” or “yakisugi”.
The race is on. A couple of weeks ago, Drew, our contractor, set a date for our house to be insulated. Weβre using spray foam insulation, which creates a hardened shell in the spaces in the walls. It also locks into place years of decisions and the work of...
Once the drywall goes up, a lot of decisions become harder to change. We tried our best to think ahead and avoid any changes.
Our house was designed to have a metal standing seam roof and I was not clear about how, exactly, the roof panels would be delivered and applied. It turns out they are formed on-site.
You've probably seen metal roofs on houses. They usually have "standing seams" like this: The roof on our house will be no different. In fact, it's one of our only options because the slope of the roof is so flat. For us, it's exactly what we need. A metal roof can...