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Posts Tagged ‘details’

We have been busy with all sorts of great projects the last few months. Here are a few snapshots.

Mudroom Bench – Very similar to one we did 10 years ago, but customized to perfectly fit the new space: narrower on one wall than the other. The lid is solid ash and the rest is painted. I need to get some photos of the blue interior. Thanks to Kelly Best and McBride Construction for the excellent craftsmanship.

Copper induction range with battery and walnut knobs (Berkeley company!)
SANCO₂ heat pump hot water heater (tank inside, heatpump outside) that doubles as house heating system (Harvest System)
ADU slab..getting ready for the concrete pour

The slab was poured and beautiful saw cut control joints added. Now the structural framing is underway. The tolerances are very tight in these small living spaces. Every inch matters. I was delighted to discover that the concrete work and framing has resulted in walls that match my drawings to the 1/16 inch.

Framing Underway (Oscar of McBride Construction hard at work)
A small addition at the back of a small Berkeley house (we moved the storage, laundry and water heater to the middle and put the kitchen, dining nook, half bath, and reading nook at the back of the house by the yard. I like the deep eave over the door and windows and the pretty fir rafter tails
We added a skylight in the middle of the house…a lot of bang for the skylight buck. To right of skylight is laundry, pantry, and mechanical space and to the left is the kitchen and then the back yard.

Finally did a photoshoot at a recently finished Accessory Dwelling Unit in the Berkeley Hills. Below you will see the photographer, Lenny Gonzalez, and the photoshoot models Eowyn & John.

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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 membrane
They hold the facia in place with tree branches! Looks kind of funny here.
another view of that eave
A 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 evidence
Another 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 system
Water 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)

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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)

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Weve done a few of these in fir for interior and exterior, but this is the first one in ash. It will support a sitting area at the end of a kitchen island. Ill post photos after it is installed.

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On a recent trip to San Francisco I saw two more nice examples of Architectural sun rays. First has metallic gold rays and the second one has little stars at the tip of each ray. Both houses are on 25th Street.

The rays on this one are metallic gold with a dark blue-black background.

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We stole this detail from the Victorians for two projects underway in Inverness, California and North Berkeley, California.

Here are a few of the inspirations, mostly from the early 1900s in Berkeley & San Francisco:

Someone else was recently inspired by the sun rays –

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I never managed to get any photos of this project….but it was a tiny addition and rearrangement of the south end of a house on two levels to better connect to the yard and maximize the south light. The centerpiece was a stair with botanical railing and thick wood treads. The blacksmith, Shawn Lovell recently gave me some progress photos that she took. Thanks Shawn! I’ll take a photo of the organic handrail she made for our place and post that next.

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First here is a 3d model we built as a schematic design tool. A few things changed and not all the details are there, but you can get a sense of the overall layout.

This one was a rebuild of an existing garage. (We had to rebuild it to meet the energy standards for habitable space, but we had to keep it the same as the garage in footprint, height, and roofline. ) The owners wanted to keep it simple…and kind of traditional. We think it turned out well.

The heating is a Fujitsu minisplit, the insulation is beyond code including slab edge insulation, lighting is all LED, high efficacy, & high CRI. A spot HRV keeps the air fresh even when the owners are out of town.

Big doors to the patio open wide on a nice day

We kept a flat ceiling and a traditional attic for simplicity
A wall of cabinets on the property line side…120 Volt LED track lighting
McBride construction planned ahead and added flat blocks for mounting all the exterior electrical and plumbing
Very durable solid oak counter and painted cabinets and shelving
Kitchenette – induction cooktop with a toaster oven and microwave covers most cooking needs..and a remote fan in the ceiling
The back side patio
The electrical panel got a little roof and side screens
efficient full bathroom
My helper, Éowyn, enjoying the cool tiled shower

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www.instagram.com/p/B2PCXyDAJ5y/

Photos by the maker, John McBride

 

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John McBride and I saw a post like this at a castle in Northern Italy. It seemed like a nice detail for a little cottage in Berkeley.

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