I have been spending some time enjoying the Pilates and Rehab studio that McBride Construction and I finished last year. At long last PGE hooked up the electricity and the mostly native plants that I helped select and install in front are growing in fast and the studio is shaping up nicely. Calscape has a tool where you can enter your address and it will give you a list of plants they consider native to that spot. This guided some of our choices.
The project involved remodeling the existing floor of the single family house into two residential units – a two bedroom in front and a one bedroom ADU in back, and adding a brand new accessible Commercial space below. (It was a dirt crawlspace)
In the afternoon sunlight streams into the entry making its way deep into the studioThe main studio – radiant heat in the floor and a way beyond code heat recovery ventilation system that keeps the air really clean during flu season and wildfire season.
I enjoyed adding a bit more pattern to simple white tiled tub and shower walls. This was a recent tiny house bathroom in North Berkeley. Work was accomplished by Steve Coleman Builders and Sarah Young Tile.
These guys are still waiting on some steel railings & southside deck & stairs, but you can see the basic transformation. We added some rooms on top and were sad to loose the distinctive little attic dormer. (See before shot below) I think we added just as much whimsical character back with the new details up top. Some serious energy upgrades and top to bottom remodel also occurred along the way.
Looking down on the big room – I love the flooring – It is existing, structural tongue and groove fir subfloor, but it was lighter and kind of pickled with dark marine grade caulk/ filler between the boards. We thought of putting new flooring on top, but the boards were so nice and long, which is unusual these days. Once we put on the dark stain the super nice figured grain popped and we loved it. The indirect LED strip lighting atop the collar ties also worked out well. The electrician did a great job and knew to stop the lights a bit shy of the ends to minimize bright spots. (This photo accentuates the bright spots) Before shot of the flooring/ structural subfloor with younger Èowyn.I had a goal to be very particular about the clips for the shower glass. So often the clips are not given much thought and they ruin the simple clean look. (First I tried to talk the builder into no clips at the bottom, recessing the glass into the curb, but they were not game to try this detail. The green floor tile is Arto and the shower floor and walls is Fireclay.Èowyn likes the big window looking into the woodsI was proud of this built-in brass towel bar. (Kind of wish the electrical devices were more orderly/ aligned and in a real photo shoot Id probably not have a used towel. Oh well)High tech- low tech – this is the bidet/ heated toilet seat controller and also the handmade wood toilet paper holder with a found gnarled stick. Another custom brass towel bar – this one with ash. You can also see the cool grain in the floor and the mudroom floor tile by Arto. I thought I maybe specified too many pegs in the mudroom, but every single one was being used on the day I was there. Another picture of the green hex Arto tile transitioning to fir flooring. The decorative cold air return cover for the forced air system is in the base of the linen cabinet – painted white to match the cabinet. We had fun with the sun rays over the back door (replacing glass that just caused the mudroom to overheat) and John McBride carved us some more diamond posts for the new covered porch. (Porch is the only addition to the house) This is a photo of the architect’s dog tracking water into the clients recently finished house. Also a photo of very nice green (Elder Green by Arto..photo doesn’t do it justice) tile floor in the entry that can take a little water no problem.This is another view of the big room. Big bifold doors connect the space to the garden and orchard to the west. Ample lighting in the room is provided by indirect LEDs shining up and cable lights for task lighting over the kitchen and dining room. You can’t see all the added insulation in the roof and air sealing and new windows and doors to keep the space warm in the rainy season.Here you can see the ash diamond posts at the end of island that match the redwood ones outside and also the tiled backsplash..somewhat random but also a pattern.A view of the mudroom – pendant by Metrolighting and painted shelving, pretty mushroom Arto tile floor, splash of color in the stained glass (fabricated by Feral Studios, designed by yours truly) I’m not going to bother with the not so nice before shot, but I was very happy with the lighting in this room after construction – Three of these large pendants from Metro Lighting in Berkeley.
This photo captures the four fir columns with foyer with slate floor to the north, bedroom and bathroom wing to west, living and dining to south and kitchen to the east. While most walls are simple painted surfaces, the four columns add some warm fir wood and organize the space.
Here are a few more photos: 1) Lower floor TV room – nice the way the TV disappears into the dark wall. 2) Primary bath curbless shower 3) Burnt orange Powder room with interior window to adjacent skylight 4) Looking in from the front door 5) Dining room 6) Kitchen – Kitchen features paperstone countertops and dark cabinets…a cantilevered island seating area and the best view in the house.
The initial concept was to remodel and possibly expand the kitchen, relocate the stairs down, fix the funky half wall between living room and hall….improve the primary suite, but we ended up doing a fair bit more. The sunroom was a bit too sunny with all those skylights, and it didn’t have any insulation in the roof, so we made some big changes there. (switched to high south windows instead of the skylights)
The big updates to energy efficiency are not evident in the photos.
There was a lot of good teamwork on this project between the very involved owners, the local builder and architect and myself.
Below are some before and after plans, then a few before photos.
We (myself and John McBride) collected a few photos of living roofs in Norway and Denmark. Starting with traditional details from the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, then some modernized, but very similar details that we saw everywhere we went in Norway, then one very modern example in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Starting with a traditional detail – with layers of tree bark for a waterproofing membraneThey hold the facia in place with tree branches! Looks kind of funny here. another view of that eaveA more recent example near Tonsberg – has metal clips to hold the facia, a modern waterproofing membrane in place of the treebark, and a bit of metal flashing in evidenceAnother recent detail with elegant joinery instead of clips to hold the facia. I’m not sure about drainage…whether it just spills over when necessary…or something more sophisticated.I think the lower part is a wooden gutter. Decorative clips hold the facia which holds the earth and plantings. This little changing room near a lake needed a bit of maintenance. I dont think having trees growing out of the roof is intended. We stayed in this house near Oslo with the same basic roof systemWater passes into a gutter with chain drains in some spots. And we slept a night under this living roof on a hut in Langedrag Nature Park. It also had some saplings growing out among the grasses. Almost all the buildings at Langedrag had the same sort of roof. We walked across Copenhagen to see this cool ski hill atop a waste to energy plant (in the background)
Also in Copenhagen we went on tours of some of the newly developed mostly residential areas…in particular, Nordhavn, which used to be a port and is now mostly apartments. Our tour guide told us that this and other newer parts of Copenhagen are built on what was once water. She mentioned that the master plan included both green space and blue spaces for enhancing the human environment – regular parks (green) and all sorts of connections to the water and uses of the water for transit, swimming, boating etc. (blue) Lots of mention of environmental certifications, and we also toured a very nice recycling/reuse facility. Nesting sites for 3 species of bird were incorporated into the roof of one tall building. The courtyards and other outdoor spaces, (blue and green) were mostly quite nice. We were wondering about impacts on the greater environment, wildlife, of expanding over the water…and how they were preparing for sea level rise. Multi family housing is already more energy efficient than single family houses, but we were told that most of these buildings incorporate many environmentally conscious features, but that wasn’t the focus of the tour. We did tour a very nice recycling and reuse facility serving the neighborhood. The entire waterfront is public space available to all residents and non- residents.
perhaps not very functional for playing or otherwise occupying, but still very nicePlayground on parking garage roof and two of the taller apartment buildings in backgroundside of parking garage and stair up to the playground with another playground at ground levelwater interfaces under construction still…but already in use. School on the waterfrontSchool on the waterfrontWe headed home on the electric ferry
quite lovely…including a basketball/ soccer court and various nooks for sitting, dining, gardening…hanging laundry…but we rarely saw people using the space.
Ive been sorting old photos lately. 🙂 This was one of 2 bathrooms part of a full house remodel. It was fun to design the sliding barn-door mirror that opened to reveal a window (to the back yard) Built by Canivet Construction and John McBride (Working for Canivet as a carpenter)
I visited a ten year old project yesterday. This client commissioned me to design a translucent floor in her dark entry hall. There was already a skylight directly above.
I just realized that I never added this recent bathroom remodel to my digital diary. I wish I had a photo of the tiled shower surround because it is really pretty, but here is the vanity.
The countertop is Paperstone (FSC certified and also acoustically and thermally more like wood than most counters, but very durable) The bright purple floor is Marmoleum. The cabinet and mirror frame are ash. The light is from Metrolighting in Berkeley. The white rectangle is a secret cabinet. 🙂 There is space under the vanity for scale, stool, & waste bin….even a basket of bath toys.
deedsdesign 