You can see the big new dining room windows and to the right three new bigger windows in the living room looking at the view. These windows face SW and will have exterior shades on them.
Archive for the ‘Design Projects’ Category
Black with White trim?
Posted in Design Projects, tagged building paper, color, El Cerrito, process on September 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Shiny new tile tub surround
Posted in Design Projects, tagged bathroom, color, patterns, process, tile, value on August 31, 2010| 2 Comments »
I kept this elegant tub surround alive for a few extra years by patching it with fiberglass and epoxy, but I think it was time for an upgrade.
partially demolished, you can see both layers of old surround – fiberglass on top of coated masonite – with a european street scene in sepia….perhaps from the early 60s?
pacific tile putting on a layer of thinset mortar over the wonderboard (over building paper & moiststop at the tub lip)
the first row of tiles – cut to fit the curved tub
I don’t have any photos of the plumber at work, but he installed copper rough plumbing for this shiny new shower faucet. It has a modern take on the cross handle for the valve, and a nice curvy tub spout.
I would not recommend buying the cheapest shower curtain rod or brackets. I did, and I notice spots of rust already forming on the chrome.
The tiles are 4×4 white (0100) Daltile Rittenhouse Square with a god’s eye pattern in yellows and blues. Keeping the pattern in the middle meant that all my trim tiles and fussy cut tiles would be white. Extra ones when we ran out were easy to come by. It also made finding a recessed soap dish easy and repairs down the road possible. Affordability is another advantage.
We used bright white unsanded grout and white adhesive caulking to complete the clean white look.
Daltile white 0100 4×4 squares with a god’s eye pattern in blue and yellow
I don’t think I got a screaming deal, in part because I was in a rush, trying to reduce the inconvenience for my renters. The plumber was about $575, the tile setter $1300, the tiles, grout, caulk, and sealer, about $250 and the plumbing hardware another $375 or so. Call it about $2500 + a few more hours of carpentry work, sheetrock repair, clean up, and a dump run bring it to about $3200. I still have to repaint the ceiling on the lower level where we had to open it up for plumbing access.
Sheathing inspected, windows going in, and the front door coming together
Posted in Design Projects, tagged process on August 24, 2010| 1 Comment »
Guillaume (the builder) sent me these two photos of the facelift in El Cerrito. They have passed the sheathing inspection and the new windows are going in. Tomorrow I will swing by and see how the view has changed.
All new sheathing and a start on the windows
Samuel and Freddy install the new master bedroom window
We have also been finalizing the design of the front entry door so that it can be fabricated by John Staton Doors, Berkeley, CA.
The client spied this nice modern door in San Francisco
Bathroom Before and After
Posted in Design Projects, tagged bathroom, brass, clawfoot tub, copper, curves, hextile, mirror, painted plywood, patina, process, redwood, tile, wood on August 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
This bathroom had some charm from the start with its orange-bottomed clawfoot tub and cheerful checkered yellow vinyl flooring. It also had a nice view of the Golden Gate. After a while I decided that it could use an upgrade.
Hearst Castle Guestroom Bath
I kept the tub, but gave it a fresh coat of fireball orange on the bottom. I made a curved sink counter out of a big slab of redwood salvaged and milled by Matt Mcbride. The toilet was moved to the other side of the room. This way the view can be enjoyed while seated and there is more space for the sink. I replaced the old toilet with a dual-flush Caroma.
After visiting the Hearst Castle guest room baths, I chose white hex tile for the floor.
The mirror goes wall to wall and all the way to the ceiling for simplicity and so that two people can get ready to go out at the same time. The fluorescent sconces by Justice Design give off a warm glow. The other light in the room is a LED recessed can over the tub.
The secondhand unprotected brass faucets and shower valve are from Ragnar at the Sink Factory on San Pablo, and the nicely patinaed soap dish and towel bar from a secondhand store in Portland, Oregon.
Curved, white-washed corner shelves are filled with colorful towels and plants, and a mural of flowers and butterflies is underway on the back wall behind the tub.
I kept the 100-year-old door (no faux distressing here, just hours of labor with a heatgun and then a sander to take off the layers of paint)
Thanks to Darren McElroy (general help,) John Mcbride (electrical, plumbing, trim carpentry, and sheetrock help,) Matt Mcbride (big slab of redwood,) Dan Lewis (paint removal), Lara Cushing (demo,) Ragnar at The Sink Factory, Peter Renoir Plumbing (moved the toilet,) & J & D Glass & Sash (mirror) for their help. Thanks to my downstairs renters for sharing their bathroom for a while.
Don’t remodel your only bathroom without a good plan.
Links:
Great Article about bathroom remodeling by Matt Cantor in the Berkeley Daily Planet
All New Skin in El Cerrito
Posted in Design Projects, tagged El Cerrito, energy efficiency, exterior shading devices, houses, redwood on August 6, 2010| 3 Comments »
We (deedsdesign & Canivet Construction) have just started work on this exciting face lift and energy efficiency update in the El Cerrito Hills!
Tight budget 1972 modernism would probably be the best description of this house. It has an open floor plan, vaulted ceilings with clerestory windows and sweeping views of the bay. Many of the single pane aluminum windows are such random sizes that it seems likely that the owner might have bought them for cheap somewhere (long before Craigslist) and made them fit into the design. As is common in the east bay hills, the house has a lot of west-facing glass to take advantage of the views. All this glass is problematic because it means that a lot of direct afternoon and evening sun blasts the living spaces.
So, as well as replacing the aged siding with a rain screen, adding shear strength, replacing all the windows and doors with new insulated units, rearranging and resizing many of them, replacing and slightly modifying the double-deck, adding a hot tub (!!!) and insulating with blown-in cellulose, we are adding some exterior window shades to moderate that afternoon sun.
European Rolling Shutters (http://www.ers-shading.com/) is providing the shades and a nice red-orange retractable awning for the deck.
Stay posted as the project evolves!
Alameda Kitchen
Posted in Design Projects, tagged formica, holes, house surgery, kitchen, lighting design, metal, metal edgebanding, value on July 28, 2010| 4 Comments »
This is my first post. I wanted to share a few kitchen design ideas and, in particular, a partial, tight-budget kitchen remodel that I assisted with in Alameda, California. The client, it turns out, has a great design sense herself, but she needed a bit of help.
I was hired to do a partial, tight-budget upgrade to this kitchen:
This side of the kitchen we didnt change much.
I started by measuring and discussing her needs and visions for the space. She wanted to keep the half of the kitchen with the sink, but tear out a wall and add some new cabinets and a laundry area on the other side.
We did add a dishwasher…and the client took away one curtain ruffle
Can you see the metal edge banding on the counter top?
The lighting in the kitchen consisted of one big light in the middle. This used to be standard, but most people these days have a lot of different lights in their kitchens. I came to love this glowing orb. It is sort of like a sun shining in the middle of the room.
The Glowing Orb!
this is the laundry center…with folding counter on top
Another important feature came late in the design process. As was normal for 1898, the kitchen was walled off and disconnected from the rest of the house. The client didn’t think it was in their budget to make the changes necessary to rearrange the entire first floor, so we focused on making the kitchen nicer. Then we realized that it would be a pretty simple (low-cost) and easily reversible change to cut a window in the wall separating dining room and kitchen. This way food could be passed through and communication could happen without killing the formality of the dining room. Southern light from the kitchen window is an added feature in the dining room.
Happy client peeps through the new opening
Other features of affordability and style are the colorful plastic laminate counter tops with 50s style metal edge banding, the beautiful green Marmoleum floor (you’ll have to just believe me because you can’t really see it in the photos, & the open space for art that is available because the client didn’t squeeze in as many upper cabinets as they possibly could.
Of course keeping half of the old kitchen was a big cost savings. The new part looks different, but complimentary. Palimpsest architecture is the word for this sort of layering and leaving ghosts of the past rather than tearing out everything and starting over. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest
Contractor: Guillaume Canivet
Cabinetmaker: Rusty Dobbs
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