Why greywater?

We live in the Pacific Northwest where we have the good fortune of an abundance — some might say overabundance — of rain. But not all climates are so fortunate. Some parts of the world have almost constant water shortages due to degradation of the local water supply or a population which exceeds the water capacity of the region. Even in the northwest, we have to occasionally worry about drought, and no one likes high summer water bills.

On the other side of the coin, most homes in the US dump hundred of gallons of water into the sewer system every week. Some of this water is blackwater, which is any water that contains high levels of pathogens, e.g., toilet water. But the vast majority is greywater, which is water that has only a small amount of contamination, such as laundry or hand-washing waste water. Since black and greywater are mixed in most sewage systems, municipalities have to invest in expensive treatment plants which treat the whole slurry as if it were blackwater.

So here we have two problems: water shortages and sewer system load.

As is often the case, this problem can be mitigated by turning waste into a resource:

By separating out greywater from blackwater, we can reduce our residential water usage and reduce the load on our sewer systems. It’s a win-win!

In the next posts, I’ll give a high level overview of some of the concerns around greywater reuse and some practical tips about greywater systems.

In this post and throughout the rest of this series, I use Art Ludwig’s The New Create an Oasis with Greywater as my primary source; it’s considered one of the best resources on residential greywater for the lay reader. Other bits and pieces are mostly pulled from my memory of other books and websites I’ve read. Any mistakes are, of course, my own.

Why Design Is Not Done

Now that construction has started, we've been asked: "Oh, now you just get to sit back and watch, right?" The answer is "No, not at all."

We work with the principle: "design only what we need". Some major design elements are needed from the beginning. The floor plan and building structure determine everything else. Details such as windows were required for permitting. The kitchen needs to be ordered early. Since the colors in the kitchen are closely related to the colors of the floor and counter, we've chosen those too. These major decisions are the ones that we have finished.

But there are many more decisions that are still to be made. We have delayed some decisions simply because they are not needed earlier. For example, we've just started talking to a craftsman about the front door.  This class of decisions follow the construction schedule. A few of the many other items in this category are hardscaping (driveway, outside walkways, etc.), landscaping, deck material and railings, stair railings, interior doors and hardware, kitchen backsplash, shelving, and light fixtures.

We intentionally delay other decisions until we have more information and context. For example, many of the colors will be finalized once we can test them on the building. We have a general color scheme chosen, but once the siding is up we can apply some paint swatches and choose the exact colors. We haven't even begun to think about carpet and interior wall colors. Another example is wiring. Once the frame is up, we can walk through the structure and decide on exact positions for light switches, electrical outlets, and any additional wiring such as Ethernet cabling and speaker wiring.

We delay other decisions because we do not know they are needed. Some decisions have unintended consequences that we have to take into account later. We discovered one example recently. Our island is 11' long, but CaesarStone comes in slabs up to 10' in length. We can live with it and have a seam in the counter where two pieces of stone join together. We can attempt to shorten the island to 10'. We can tweak the counter design to avoid or integrate the seam. We could even change the counter to another material. Luckily, we learned about this issue early enough that we have time to address it (though shortening the counter would affect the imminent cabinet order). Not everything will be so accommodating.

The early stages of construction are interesting to watch but don't require a lot of input from us. We don't really have anything useful to say about the size of the foundation hole or the concrete being poured. As construction progresses more elements will need our input, and we will be more involved in the construction process. Some of these decisions will be minor, but some will be required to allow construction to move forward. We will be kept busy designing throughout the entire construction period. In fact, this may be our slow period!

Kitchen Design Finished

The kitchen design is finalized. We made the few remaining decisions in-person at the new Pedini showroom in South Lake Union.

First and most important was choosing the finish of the upper cabinets. We wanted something lighter than the dark brown lower cabinets. The section of uppers is small, so we chose something with a bit of contrast. We quickly narrowed our choices to the painted glass finishes. A coat of paint on the back of glass provides some gloss and depth to the color. We settled on Bianco, which (despite the name), isn't white. The paint color is a light grey, and the glass adds just a hint of green to it. It is fairly neutral and matches our other materials well; it is lighter than the other cabinets, but is enough darker than a white wall to stand out nicely. Sadly, we cannot find any photos of the color on Pedini's site.

While we were at the showroom, we noticed they had a sample kitchen with an interesting mechanism for opening the upper cabinets. In the Magika line (which we are using), they have an upward-opening option in addition to traditional side-hinged cabinets. To prevent the upswing doors from running into your head, they are hinged in the middle. The upper half is hinged to the cabinet like expected, but the lower half is hinged inward, so it stays roughly vertical while the door is opened. When fully open, the door is compact and out-of-way, without hitting the ceiling. Particularly for someone tall, this seems like a nice alternative. They cost a bit more, but it is worth it to us. The sample unit they had was equipped with a motorized control, so just a touch would open or close the door. We weren't interested in the extra expense or complexity of the motors, so we chose the manual version.

We discussed several small decisions, mostly about handles. Magika has two handle options: hidden handles inset into the top of each door, accessible via a horizontal channel; and external vertically-oriented handles in aluminum or white. We generally liked the inset handles; they look clean and lack bits to snag on. For the back of the island facing the dining room we considered the aluminum handles for the visual effect. However, the channel for the inset handles adds height to the cabinets, and matching a set of channeled and channel-less cabinets on the two sides of the island would've been tricky.

On the upside, this conversation revealed that using handled cabinets in the bathrooms would lower the height a bit, so we switched those. Back in the kitchen, the cabinet and drawer on the appliance wall can't fit channels, so those require external handles. We spent a while debating which handles to use, and how to position them. We decided to have no holes drilled by the factory, and decide which handles to use and where to put them at installation time.

The fixed, opened shelving was dropped from the order completely. The shelves from Pedini wouldn't exactly match the cabinets, and were fairly expensive for simple shelves. Since we are getting other built-in cabinetry work done in the house, we decided we could get a better result by having those shelves constructed later.

With a few emails for revised diagrams and cost quotes, we now have the kitchen design fully locked.

Exterior Siding

The bulk of the exterior will be finished before most of the interior of the house, so we need to finalize the design for that fairly early. Yuval also likes to submit a basic siding scheme with permitting documents, even though it is not required.

We were inspired by a picture of another house by Whitney Architecture. We like the simplicity of plain lap siding for most of the house, with large panels to emphasize features such as the stair tower. The other houses at Bellevue 41st have used more elements than this in their siding schemes. Our house will have a lot of exposure to view, so we wanted something simpler to keep it from being too busy. This picture also suggests a light grey/dark grey color scheme that is cohesive but provides nice contrast between the different sections. The funny thing is, in person this house is a nice cream/chocolate brown color; but we prefer the grey that we saw in the picture.

Another picture inspired a plan for the windows. We like the contrast of the dark window trim against the light siding. To prevent it from being too stark, we'll use a dark grey instead of straight black.

Markus designed a great siding scheme from those initial inspirations. It uses lap siding for most of the house, but uses a smaller width on the upper floor for variety. The stair tower and the garage use panels, along with a little bit around the living room windows. The section next to the front door is designed as wood slats, to warm up the entry a bit. We've also discussed using wood on a section of the upper floor over the garage, to mesh with the green roof garden up there. Other than the wood, we are planning on a light grey for the lap siding, and dark grey for the panels.

We still have to finalize colors and woods, but we like the current design, and are happy to have a piece that is nearly perfect from the start.

Pictures from:

• Whitney Architecture: Wedgewood
• Bungalow Style House by Architect Randy Bens

Shiny things! (Sinks, Faucets, Toilets)

We don't need to choose plumbing fixtures until later in the process. Most of the time, they come near the end of interior design. But when Yuval sent us a sample list from one of the other houses, we spent an afternoon and evening picking out sinks, faucets, toilets, and accessories (drains, mainly), because we're exciting like that.

Kohler is our preferred supplier. To simplify our choices and provide visual consistency, we decided to reuse the same items and lines as much as possible. Our faucets of choice come from the Purist line. For the lavatory, we were drawn to the version with separate linear handles, and we matched it in the shower and bath/shower. We considered the single-handle stem version, but found it fairly ugly.

The Purist line also has kitchen faucets with several variations: bridge or single stem, larger or smaller, and pull-out spray or no spray. We're not fond enough of the bridge look to pay several hundred dollars more, so we chose the single stem version. We chose the larger faucet with spray as the main kitchen faucet, and the smaller without spray as the prep faucet in the kitchen. In the laundry room, we went with the larger version without spray.

Looking through all the sinks was a bit more work. Upstairs, we settled on rectangular under-mount sinks with a curve to the basin. They are simple, and look nice. We considered choosing something more stereotypically modern such as a vessel sink or wading pool sink, but neither seems as usable.

The powder room needed something a bit different. Yuval suggested that we could save money by skipping cabinets and using a wall-mount sink. We will separately install a bit of storage for the few things that we want to keep in that room. We found a reasonable wall-mount sink that should work well.

We quickly narrowed down the kitchen sink to two options. A large single-basin sink, or a model where some of the basin is taken up for a shelf on the side. Even though it has a smaller basin, we really like the shelf on the Stages sink. It is well-placed for using as a prep area, since the prep faucet will be mounted right above that section. The main problem is that it costs twice as much, at least in part because it comes with a whole bunch of accessories. They may not be completely useless, but we'd be happy to have just the sink. Despite that, we'll probably use the Stages sink.

The laundry room just needs a large, sturdy sink. The garage gets a large, sturdy sink that can mount to the wall. It also gets a service faucet which can accept a hose. This means we don't need a hose bib anywhere else in the garage to use it as a car washing area.

For toilets, we only had a few requirements. We want dual flush, and for the master bath and powder room we want comfort height. Out of the many options, we chose a style that looks a bit more modern. We decided not to spend the money on Kohler's fancy new Numi toilet, because we don't need a toilet that is also a geek gadget. Also, it costs $6000.

It will be a while before we need to order these, but it is another set of decisions made.

Kitchen Design

After the main layout was finished, we designed the kitchen. Kitchen design isn't required for permitting, but the lead time on the cabinets is long enough that we need to order them around the time construction starts. We are using the Pedini Magika system for all the drawers and cabinets. The kitchen design was done by Pedini Seattle.

The main layout followed what we had decided while designing the floor plan: a counter and cabinets along the back (north) wall, a long island parallel to that, and then a full side (east) wall with appliances and cabinets. We wanted the cooktop on the island, since that is where we spend the most time when we want to interact with others. That put the main sink on the back counter, with the dishwasher next to it. The side wall then had the double ovens and refrigerator.

The cooktop is offset to the west of the island so that it isn't back-to-back with the sink. That also gives a nice large prep area on the island. The wall with the ovens and fridge has a tall, skinny cabinet for things such as brooms, mops, vacuums, and aprons. It also has some open shelving for cookbooks and a larger open surface for open cookbooks, mail, or other non-food items.

We considered putting a small prep sink on the north-east corner of the island. I want a chopping station where I can rinse vegetables and cut them up without fighting with Erika for the faucet. I also want a slightly taller section of the counter for chopping so that I don't have to lean over. Raising the main island wouldn't work very well, though, and the prep sink would add extra cost. Instead, we raised the back counter by two inches and added a second faucet on the right corner of the sink. We also removed the upper cabinets in that section. This gives me a nice section of counter to use for cutting up ingredients, without cabinets getting in the way and with access to water that doesn't interfere too much with Erika. She might not be able to wash lots of dishes, but if she needs to fill pots with water, or rinse and peel potatoes, or other smaller tasks, we can easily share the sink and not interrupt each other.

The original plan showed the south-east corner of the island as a bar counter. We decided not to bother with this, because we will have a large dining table just a few feet away; we replaced it with more cabinets.

We considered adding some smaller amenities, but decided they weren't worth the cost. We looked at having a pull-out trash and recycling under the island, but decided, given the $600 additional cost, that having just a plain cabinet there would work fine. We also had a tambour (roll-up door) over the open shelving on the side wall in the original design. However, we didn't want to add a bunch of extra metal next to the stainless steel appliances or to pay the additional $700, so decided to go with open shelves.

The upstairs bathrooms also feature designs from Pedini Seattle. The layouts are very simple, with two cabinets and one set of drawers in each bathroom. We did debate on the heights for a bit. Standard kitchen counters are 36" high, while bathroom counters are usually around 30". Since we are using kitchen cabinets for the bathrooms, they are only available at around 36" high. For adults, especially tall ones, 36" is a nice height. For young children, the taller height can be a bit more difficult. We decided that we wanted consistency with the cabinets, so we are going to use Pedini for both bathrooms, and add a temporary step for when our children are young. This also allows us to adjust the height more easily as they grow.

Compared to other parts of the design process, the kitchen and bath were pretty easy. After the first round of design, we were only tweaking details. Still, getting those more or less in place feels like real progress.

Materials and Colors 2

After choosing the bathroom materials, as described earlier, we moved on to the main level.

The Hearth Room
We were less certain about the main living area. Anne encouraged us to start with the kitchen surfaces and the flooring since those are some of the largest and most visible areas in the house.

In the kitchen, we gravitated toward dark brown cabinets with a white counter top. But we had to decide what type of white counter to use. We had asked Yuval to get samples of the different varieties of white CaesarStone and settled on Quartz Reflections. It has more variety and character than plain white, including metal flakes in that give it a bit of a sparkle. Anne commented that most men fear the glitter, but it is sparse, and we both think it looks nice.

We will use the dark brown for the lower cabinets, and the cabinets around the appliances on the east wall. However, we want to pick a lighter color for the cabinets over the sink and back counter so that the room doesn't feel too dark. Pedini has a lot of colors available in a painted glass that looks really nice, so we're going to get some samples to help us pick a final color.

Choosing the floor material was harder. Wood comes in so many colors, textures, and finishes. We knew we wanted a fairly neutral colored wood; I don't like woods that are too yellow or too red. We liked darker brown woods, but, as we suspected and Anne confirmed, with the dark cabinetry, dark wood could lead to the room feeling too dark. I liked the very light colored woods, but Erika was less fond of them. Eventually, we settled on a fairly light brown, oiled wood that we liked the look and feel of. Oiled floors require a bit more yearly maintenance, will stain more easily, and will still dent; but they look more natural and less shiny, and develop character as they age (instead of just looking worn).

We chose Ecotech tiles for the entry. It is a sturdy tile, so we can use it both in the outdoor and indoor entry. The Ecogreen version nicely matches the wood floor on the main level, so the transition from inner entry to the main area would work well.

The Powder Room

We want the powder room on the main floor to generally match the theme on the main floor. However, the powder room is a small space not visible from other areas of the main floor and provides a chance to do something more interesting. Not crazy — our style, as Anne put it, is more 'understated elegance' — but using some interesting textures, lighting, and color combinations.

We were drawn to the Pental Glow tile. It has a fabric-like texture and a nice sheen. We chose a lighter gold that goes with the floor and white of the sink and toilet. We will run the tile up one of the main walls (probably behind the sink and mirror) and use light to bring out the texture of the tile. Anne suggested a grey paint for the other walls and ceiling. We were surprised, but it works. We will use black for accent, perhaps through some elements made of iron or blackened steel. It seems like a very unusual combination, but it should yield an elegant and interesting result.

And much more...

Even if we don't change our mind about these choices, there are still many choices to make. The south wall on the main floor is the biggest one. It will contain the fireplace, with a raised hearth for sitting and some kind of material wrapping it and extensive built-in cabinetry between the entry and fireplace. We need to decide on the interior color of the window frames, carpet colors upstairs, other flooring options for the upstairs landing and utility room, trim, paint colors on walls, the media room and other areas downstairs, and of course the stairs themselves, which will be a centerpiece of the house. Many of these choices will be delayed until the house is partially completed and we can stand in the rooms and look around. This will be an ongoing process; but we have made good progress.

Materials and Colors

We are working on interior design, starting with materials and colors. We started by visiting tile show rooms. On the first trip, we browsed. On the second trip, we picked out samples. There are a lot of nice tiles, but the vast majority in the showrooms are neutral: white, black, grey, and brown. A few come in red, a few in  metal, and glass comes in a wide range of colors. So when we saw a lovely blue tile, we investigated further. The people at the Statements showroom referred us to their commercial/builder showroom. We got a nice selection of blue tiles, mostly from the Italian company FAP.

Next we reviewed our finds with Yuval and saw the samples he had picked out for us. We didn't make a lot of decisions, but we identified several more samples we wanted to get to prepare for the second meeting. Then we brought in Anne Viggiano, the color designer Yuval works with. This meeting was really good, and we came out with some specific material choices for different rooms. Yuval took some nice pictures of the material combinations for reference, which we have below.

The Bathrooms
Erika and I had a vision for the bathroom. Our favorite counter material was Deep Ocean CaesarStone, and we thought it would pair well with lacquer white cabinets. We wanted to continue the blue theme from the Amour Mer tile by FAP, although we weren't sure where. We paired that with a grey floor tile and some naturally-shaped flat stones for the shower floor.

Anne and Yuval helped us tie everything together. Anne suggested using the same stones we liked for the shower floor for the backsplash to give it a more organic, rounded-ragged edge. The stones pair nicely with the rough-edge maple Yuval suggested for the bathroom bench. Ecotech tiles provide the grey we wanted for the floor as well as some natural texture that would be less slippery when wet.

We decided to use the Amour Mer tiles in the shower so that they would tie into the blue of the counters without competing. The shower will be mostly glossy white tiles with some vertical strips of the blue.

These materials will provide a nice balance between the clean, modern counters, cabinets, and shower walls and the natural stone and wood in the floor, backsplash, and bench.

After discussing all this, we moved on to the main level, where we had only a vague idea of what we wanted...

Windows!

We have been working on a number of things in the past month, and we finally have something finalized to report on — windows. Window planning took several rounds of design and feedback, but was relatively easy from our perspective. The initial design was mostly good. We had a few comments, but most of the changes were suggested by Yuval and Markus to accommodate structural changes (a beam was added in the living room, which interfered with some of the windows) or to improve usability or decrease cost.

Our main point of concern was the stair tower. The initial design featured large windows over most of the west wall to take advantage of the views. These ended up being the most expensive windows, and we found the design kind of boring. In the spirit of Zen Views, we asked for less window and more interest.

Markus came up with a design which really delighted us. Wide windows punctuate the stair landings, where you can pause to take in a wider view. Vertical windows make for a dynamic view — descending from the top floor to the main floor, you see out from the highest point down towards the trees and water; ascending from the bottom floor to the main floor you see up towards the trees and sky. Going the other directions, you just have a small bit of horizontal window at the landing to focus on. From the outside it looks interesting but intentional (plus it reminds us of Tetris pieces, which is awesome).

The original design is on the left, the final design is on the right.

The rest of the windows were straight-forward. We have plenty of openable windows to get good air circulation throughout the house (look for the dotted Vs). The living room has lots of windows on the south and west to take advantage of the view and bring lots of light into the main floor. This is important since the dining room and kitchen do not have any exterior walls of their own to put windows in.

Now that the windows have been finalized, permitting should start shortly. We are working on kitchen design, and choosing appliances and plumbing fixtures (faucets, sinks, toilets, etc.). All the while, we are starting to analyze the budget and make sure our choices stay within it. We have been busy, but we'll post more as we finalize our choices.

Roof Form

As of a couple weeks ago, we still needed to decide on a roof form. After looking at different forms from different perspectives and in context of the other houses, we made a decision.

The two shed variants were eliminated fairly quickly — we weren't as fond of how those looked, either in isolation or with the other houses. The choice was between flat and butterfly. We liked the way the flat roof looked in isolation, but it didn't fit as well with the community (the rest of the homes have butterfly roofs). We decided to go with a butterfly roof. It matched the other houses and still looked good on ours. It also adds visual interest to the strong horizontal lines on our exterior.

Here's how the butterfly roof looks in the context of the neighborhood. In the top portion of this image, our house is the right-most one; in the bottom portion, it is the left-most.

We currently have lots of other things in process. Windows are being finalized, kitchen design has started, and plans for permitting are being worked on. It is keeping us busy, but there is nothing finished to report on quite yet.

Final Floor Plans

We have finalized the floor plan. The big decision centered around the layout of the upper floor. Initially, we had planned to put the master suite on the east side and the other bedrooms on the west.

This layout gives the master suite good light and access to the rooftop deck, but we disliked the layout of the other bedrooms. They did did not feel connected, and we felt that this pattern lacked a Children's Realm (a pattern which Erika is going to write about soon). We discussed adding a play loft over the stairs to connect the rooms. It would be a cool and unique feature, but it would negatively impact the view out of the stair tower on the upper floor, where we would have the longest views. Markus gave us a diagram with sight lines to show the impact. The dotted lines in the upper left represent the play loft. As you can see from the sight lines, there would be no view from the stairs on the upper floor if we had a play loft.

We considered the alternative of moving the master suite to the north and the other bedrooms to the south. This puts the bathroom for the secondary bedrooms right between those rooms and adds a bit of circulation space which strongly connects them into a children's realm.

This layout has some disadvantages. Going through the utility room to the deck is a bit awkward. The second bathroom is slightly smaller. The master dressing room is a bit smaller, and we have a bit more unnecessary circulation space in the master bedroom. The master suite also has less eastern light (although it will have more light throughout the day).

However, we decided that having a cohesive space for the children and preserving the western views out the stair tower were important. We can shift the deck to give access both from the utility room and the master bathroom. We hope that with access to the deck though the less private laundry room, it will get more use, since children and guests might feel strange going through our room to get to the deck.

The layout of the main floor has not changed much from the first sketches with western stairs. This level contains the main social spaces and our office. We are starting to flesh out the details left out of that initial sketch.

The exterior entry porch lies several steps below the garage and ground level (a couple feet). It has benches on both sides to increase the sense of enclosure and make the entry feel like an outdoor room. The fireplace is going to be open on three sides so that it can act as a visual connection between all of the social spaces on this level.

Downstairs is mainly the media room. We are aiming for the full home theater experience: raised platform to support two rows of seating, acoustic isolation, and few to no windows. We will install the plumbing for a future downstairs bathroom, but for now we will leave that as storage space. The lower level has access to the backyard, although you have to descend another half level to access it.

The total size is about 2700 sqft. It's a bit bigger than the 2500 sqft we had settled on (and much bigger than our initial goal of 2000 sqft), but we like the way everything came out, and feel that it is still an efficient layout with a lot of functionality packed into the space.

Our next steps, other than the already mentioned roof form and fenestrations, are working on mechanical systems, especially HVAC, looking at and choosing materials, and kitchen design. This will be the point where Yuval's expertise will go from useful to invaluable. We hope to have everything needed for permitting finalized within the next four to six weeks. Permitting will take another six weeks (during that time, we will work on design aspects which don't effect the permitting process). Hopefully, we will start construction in mid-May!

It looks like a house!

Design is progressing nicely. Markus modeled our house in CAD which brings us one step closer to permitting and construction. Moving from simple layouts to a computer model gives us our first views of the building's massing — how the house sits on the land, height, roof form, etc. This makes the building much more real. Clockwise from the top left we have the west, south, northwest, and southeast perspectives.

As the images show, our lot has a strong slope from east to west. The garage is actually elevated a few feet above the main level to decrease the slope of the driveway (bottom left image). The slope also gives us additional height: a limit of 30' from average grade gives us a total of about 35' on the west side. To take advantage of this, Markus added the 35' stair tower as a distinctive architectural feature (bottom right image).

We still need to decide on window placement and roof form. The images above show a flat roof. We like how the flat roof emphasizes the strong horizontal elements of the soffits and decks. However, all of the other homes in the community will likely go with butterfly roofs. We are going to look at several roof forms in the context of the neighborhood. As you can see below, in isolation the flat roof definitely looks best.

Computer models aside, we're not planning on having a home made out of gray, featureless pixels. Although we have awhile before we finalize the external colors and materials, we have found an inspiration for our exterior. It is another home from Whitney Architecture, the firm our architect works for:

We like the elegance and simplicity of the limited palette of materials and colors and the contrasts between horizontal and vertical, dark and light, warm wood and cool silvers/grays.

Size, Cost and Decisions

The previous post looked at just the layout of the floor plans, and some comparisons between them. Here we talk about some other issues that were raised by these plans, and what we've decided to do.

Size

After seeing these two sketches, we spent a while discussing size. The first sketch, with the fully built downstairs was around 2600 sqft. The second, with only stairs on the lower floor, was 2300 sqft. We decided that we could not fit everything we wanted into just 2000 sqft without feeling cramped. We do a lot of entertaining, and hosting people comfortably requires space — space for a dining room big enough to seat 10-12 people, space for a dedicated media room big enough to sit 10-12 people, space for a kitchen big enough to support both of us cooking regularly, etc.

Looking at projected costs, our budget, and our desires, we decided that 2500 sqft was a reasonable target. That would give us enough space to comfortably fit everything we really wanted without going outside what we can afford. This pushes total estimated cost to roughly $825k, which is a far cry from our original estimate of $700,000. However, as we get closer to starting construction, we have a better idea of how much money we actually have saved versus how much we need to borrow. Based on those numbers, things look fine.

Are we worried that costs will keep increasing like they have been? Yes and no. We are not in a situation where things are costing more than we expected in an initial budget. Instead, we are choosing to increase our budget to get more space than we originally planned.

Plus, now that we are close to locking down a layout, the size will be fairly fixed. The remaining unknown cost is construction, and that tracks size fairly closely, so our costs should be stabilizing. There is some contingency built into the construction budget, and other large budget additions can be planned as alternate additions (which we can choose to include or not later in the process). So hopefully, at this point, we should be able to manage the costs at a finer level.

Decisions

We had a good meeting with Markus (the architect) and Yuval (the builder) to discuss the plans, and work through some options. We considered (and eventually abandoned) an interesting design that attempted to combine the media and living room on the north edge of the main room; we could shut off a smaller media room or open it up to the main living spaces to get seating for larger groups.

We eventually decided to go with a modified version of plan two, with the stair on the west. Because we could not get a media room that met our criteria on the main floor, we decided to build out the media room downstairs. This allows us to shrink the north-west corner of the main floor (the media room in plan 2) and use it as an office. This should allow us to hit our target of 2500 sqft, and get a nice layout all-around.

With the general layout/relation of rooms locked down, we'll move to a deeper exploration in CAD to allow us to get sizes nailed down, and start getting a better idea of what the house will look like on our site in all three dimensions!

More Sketches

We received some sketches right before Thanksgiving and a second set right after. Now, a month later, we finally have a chance to discuss them. Our architect has graciously allowed us to share his sketches so you can see how the design has progressed. First we'll go over the sketches and discuss our thoughts on them. The next post will talk about some issues that these sketches raised, and what we decided to do.

Both plans share some similarities that come from the constraints of the site. The garage is on the east side. The house is an approximately 30' by 30' square to the west of that. The garage overlaps the main floor, causing an indent of several feet on the east edge, starting at the north and going down about 25'. This effectively turns the main floor into a rectangle, with a little jut out at the south-east corner for the entry.

The upper floor takes up the full square; we will use part of the space over the garage for an upstairs deck. The lower floor can run the full north-south length, but only about 15' or so deep (from the western edge) due to the hill on the east.

Plan 1: Stairs on North

Plan 1 is approximately an open floor plan interpretation of the traditional four square, although the stairs on the northern wall are separated from the entry in the south-east corner. The stairs leave a narrow space in the north-east corner; just large enough for a very small office and a powder room. The kitchen takes up the south-east corner; counter, pantry, cupboards, etc. run along the east wall; a north-south oriented island defines the edge of the kitchen.

On the south edge, cutting between the main kitchen area and the breakfast nook, a walkway leads from the entry in the south-east, along the south edge of the kitchen, then to the living room. The western edge opens the main living and dining space to the view. The dining room lies in the north-west corner and flows into the living room in the south-west corner.

On the lower floor, the stairs let out directly into the media room, which fills most of the space. The north-west corner, next to the stairs, has an office/guest that opens onto the media room. The south-east corner contains a full bathroom, again off of the media room.

The upper floor has a large gathering area in the center from the stairs to the south edge. To the west lie a pair of bedrooms; a play loft connects the bedrooms. The bathroom just to the east of the stairs services these bedrooms. The master suite takes up the eastern wall. The dressing room and closet space lie in the middle and provides access to the deck above the garage. North of this (the north-east corner) is the master bath, and the south-east corner is the sleeping alcove, which is just large enough to fit our bed and a couple of nightstands.

Plan 2: Stairs on West

Plan 2 moves the stairs to the west. They bump out so that the landings fall outside the main straight-line envelope of the house. In this sketch, the lower floor is not built out. The stairs go down to open space roughed out for future expansion.

The living room is still in the south-west corner of the main floor. The north-west corner contains a media/guest room. There is a full bath off of that room, located in the center of the north wall. The kitchen is just below the bath, oriented east-west, with the dining room as an open area between the kitchen island and the south walkway (which connects to the entry, same as in the first plan).

The upper floor is similar to before, but now the two bedrooms are split by the stairs instead of closets. The open family/play area has been converted to a smaller utility room with washer/dryer, sink, counter space, and storage. The master suite has been enlarged to fit a small office into the north-east corner, off of the dressing room, since there is no space downstairs for it.

Comparison and Issues

At first, we found the stairs on the west a bit odd; the western edge seemed best for the main living area: it has the views, and it provides the best connection to a deck outside. But western stairs provide some interesting advantages.

With the stairs on the north, there is a relatively narrow slice of space to the east (since the garage cuts into the east-west space on the main floor), and that space can only open to the south. This basically requires it to open into the kitchen, which is not great. With the stairs on the west, there is room for comfortably-sized rooms to both the north and south, and access to the bathroom is not directly off any of the main living spaces.

This layout allows for a nice L-shaped kitchen, which gives us a nice amount of counter and cabinet space. Western stairs provide a nice focal point for the interior layout, and they make the space in the northwest corner more private. However, the dining room in plan 2 is a bit small, and we worried about it spilling into the walk-way from the entry.

In contrast, putting the stairs on the north provides a large open space along the western edge of the house. There is less distinction between the living and dining rooms. It would be much easier for them to visually merge into one space (this isn't necessarily bad, but is different). The kitchen is more linear and, since the north end of the kitchen provides access to the north-east corner, has less space for counters and appliances. The office on the main level is too small for two people, and isn't really necessary if there is a second office downstairs.

Both layouts had some issues with the media room since we hadn't provided enough clarification. Neither was able to be closed off completely to block out noise, a key feature for us. In plan 2, the media room was not the right size.

Both sketches were interesting, and had some really good elements; but these are both larger houses than we had originally planned on...

Design Sketches

Things have been fairly quiet until recently.  We got the first round of design sketches a couple weeks ago and have been reviewing them.  There ended up being various delays, so it's taken longer than we hoped to get these first sketches.  But thing seem to be moving again, so hopefully we will soon have even more progress to report.

In this round of sketches we're mainly focusing on getting room layout finalized.  However, the sketches also start to incorporate details such as benches, window seats, closets, counters, etc.  It is nice to see some of our customizations and personality start to show in these diagrams.

Overall, the general functionality on each floor is roughly the same as in our original discussions.  We are considering fully building out the bottom floor, which would have a guest room and full bath in addition to the media room.  We're still playing with some ideas, and may make the guest area an extension of the media room instead of a separate room to conserve space.

The upper floor sketches provided a nice idea of what the master suite might look like.  It is really nice to see that coming together, and how it might work for us.  But other parts still need some development; we've decided that we don't really need a large play/gathering area upstairs; and would rather have a smaller, focused utility room.  So that will result in some bigger changes to the upper floor.

Overall, the plans are still larger than our target size, so we need to work towards reducing the overall area, see what does and doesn't fit, and determine how much space everything really needs.  I think that will actually be the most challenging aspect. Certainly, it's the most in-flux aspect at the moment.

There has been a little more activity than just the sketches. Earlier in November, Yuval hosted a party for everyone on the project.  We met our new neighbors, and they all seem great.  We also got a chance to meet some of the other people we'll be working with during the process.

Our pattern language

For once, I (Erika) am writing a post.

A Pattern Language provides the classic reference for defining the qualities that make buildings work and houses homey. My own sense of what I want from a home developed largely from reading and rereading this book. The book is massive; it contains 253 patterns which can be used to define everything from an entire geographic region to a corner of a room. Such complexity seems overwhelming, but fortunately the authors provide a way to get started. In the words of the book:

[E]ach part of the environment is given character by the collection of patterns which we choose to build into it. The character of what you build, will be given to it by the language of patterns you use, to generate it.

For this reason, of course, the ask of choosing a language for your project is fundamental. The pattern language we have given here contains 253 patterns. You can therefore use it to generate an almost unimaginably large number of possible different smaller languages, for all the different projects you may choose to do, simply by picking patterns from it.

To generate your own pattern language, A Pattern Language, suggests the following steps:

1. First, find the pattern which best describes the overall scope of your project. We chose pattern 76, "House for a small family"
2. Turn to the starting pattern and read it. Add the patterns mentioned at the end and any other interesting patterns mentioned and add them to your list of candidate patterns.
3. Repeat step two until all of the connected patterns have been read. 
4. Remove any patterns you aren't sure about. The list of patterns can easily get too long. We ended up pruning over 30 patterns from our initial list.
5. Add your own materials. If there are things you want to include that aren't captured by patterns in the book, add them.
6. Change any patterns that you want so that they are appropriate for your situation and desires. Change the name of the pattern so that it captures your changes clearly. 

We have gone through all but the last two steps. In a future post, we will  talk more about the patterns that make up our personal pattern language.

Architect Pre-meeting

As part of the land purchase process, we had an introductory meeting with the architect who will be working on the project.  The purpose was to get a feel for what a house might look like that fulfills our program, on this piece of land.  I call this a "pre-meeting" since at that point we had not officially purchased the land, or signed a contract to work with anyone on this project.

The architect YS Development has hired for all of the Bellevue 41st project is Markus from Whitney Architecture.  We spent about two hours with him going over a proposed design for our house.

The lay of the land and orientation towards the street pretty much fixes the garage to the east with entrance from that direction; but the front door to the house on the south east corner (well, the front door could be moved around, but it doesn't look like there are many other good locations for it).  The advantage to this is that for guests, the front door from the street will kind of by-pass the garage, so our house should be more inviting, instead of having a big garage door greet you, with the entrance tucked off to the side.

With the land sloping down from the east side to the west, we're probably going to go with the main floor on the same level as the front door and garage, a second floor with bedrooms above that, and then a partial floor below the main floor on the west side (probably just one larger room).  This bottom floor won't be a basement, since it will be at ground level on the west side, and probably tucked into the hill only a little bit.

The exact layout, size, and orientation of the rooms will certainly change throughout the process; but we had a really good discussion, and I think a lot of good ideas were brought up.  Markus was very willing to let us throw around ideas, and talk about what we liked and didn't like about this design.  Overall, the meeting was really good, and talking with Markus was awesome — we're very excited to be working with him.

Outdoor Spaces: The Garage

The garage will be primarily for vehicles and activities related to them. It could be used for other outdoor work/hobbies, but we currently don't have any.

The main house will have a single primary entrance for both residents and guests. The garage, however, needs two distinct entrances: one for people and one for cars. A garage door does not work for people — it is the wrong scale and feels awkward. That entrance operates mechanically, via a remote. This works from a vehicle, but feels slow and annoying to a pedestrian. To accommodate people, we will have a second, standard sized door. Ideally this will be connected to some kind of covered walkway that leads to the front door of the house. For most single family homes, where the garage is right next to the house, this would be a short gap of less than 10 feet; but in the Taltree development it will likely be longer.

The garage should have space for parking two cars. There should be enough space on all sides of the car to comfortably load/unload people and parcels. (Including the front — while most cars load people from the sides and parcels from the rear, some cars, such as Porsches, have storage space up front and the engine in the rear. Even more interesting, the Tesla Model S has all the hardware in the floor, so both front and rear are storage; and the rear includes two seats for children.) The garage floor should be level and smooth.

The interior should have good lighting. Light sources should include a mix of natural and artificial sources. Most garages are fairly dim; light makes them feel more comfortable and welcoming. It also improves safety and makes it easier to load and unload the car. We would like to have the lights on a timer and/or sensors, so they automatically come on when entering the garage and turn off once everyone has left.

We like to clean and detail our car(s), and being able to do this in the garage would be delightful. It would allow us to keep the car looking good even in the winter or when it is raining. Detailing is about more than making a a car look nice — wax or paint sealant helps to protect the metal and paint from water and dirt, so regular detailing can help maintain the car. For detailing, we need a drain and hose spigot inside the garage, plus ample surrounding space. An electric outlet would provide power for detailing tools.

I like to work on my cars. In addition to work space, this requires storage space for tools, jack, stands, parts, etc. Both overhead and movable task lighting are required. Both lighting and tools need regularly-spaced outlets. We will also need storage storage space for wheels/tires and other seasonal items. Car work can be dirty, so an in garage sink would be nice.

We will need space for cabinets, drawers, and other organizational aids to store supplies and tools. We may not install all of the cabinets we want at once, but it is important to design in the room for these things.

Looking forward, we want to be able to eventually install an electric car charging station. A normal household circuit is 120V at 15 or 20 amps. Large appliances (such as washer/dryer) might run at 240V/30 amps. Electric cars can use a larger circuit to charge more quickly. For example, Tesla's site lists home charging up to 240V/90 amps; and it has support for 440V commercial circuits (I don't even know if that is possible to get installed in a residential home). Getting a very high-amp 240V circuit run to the garage seems like a good thing to have done up front.

Even if it is not part of the main house and is a more focused space, the garage will have a big impact on the quality and enjoyment of our living situation; so making sure to think it through carefully before we start building is important.

Private Spaces: Second Floor

The second area (and second floor) of our house contains the private spaces. The activities located here are more personal: sleeping, bathing, dressing, and quiet activities such as reading, writing, crafts, etc.  There will also be storage and laundry space.  The second floor works well for all of these, as it is separated from the public areas of the first floor, and is "deeper" into the house than the first floor — you must cross through the public areas and go up the stairs (a transition) to get to the private spaces.  This provides a feeling of privacy and security.

Mirroring the first floor, the second floor must have an entry. Where the stairs enter into the second floor should be a landing or distribution area.  Unlike the first floor, where the open public spaces allow flow through each area, the second floor should have direct entry to most of the spaces (e.g., you should not have to cross through the master bedroom to get to one of the children's bedrooms).

Our bedroom (the master bedroom) will contain two functional areas: sleeping, and dressing.  In most bedrooms these areas are combined into one large room; we are considering having them a bit more separate, but we haven't decided for sure yet.  Clothes storage is part of the dressing area, but this does not mean we'll have a traditional walk-in closet; instead, we may look at built-ins along the wall which would conserve floor space while still providing plenty of storage.  One of the areas should accommodate some quiet activities that require light — for example, reading a book, or writing a journal before bed.

Attached to the master bedroom will be the master bath, with most of the normal pieces: shower, sink and toilet.  We will probably skip a bathtub, as neither of us use it regularly; instead, we'll just have a larger shower and still save space.  We do want two sinks so we can share the use of the bathroom.

The other main area for upstairs will be bedrooms for children (we want children; but we prefer to have only one major life change at a time, so we'll wait until the house is done).  Planning ahead for children can be a bit tricky, and the needs of children change over time; building in one particular way might not work even if we already had kids.  We're thinking about starting out with a shared room (with private bed alcoves) for when they are young. We would design it in such a way that it could be divided as they get older (especially if they end up being different genders).  This could possibly be accomplished with dynamic walls that allow us (or them) to join or separate the rooms as desired.

We think that the convention that adults should have elaborate master suites while children should have simple boxes is backwards. The rooms for the children should accommodate sleeping, dressing, play, homework and many other activities that we, as adults, would use the office or living area for. They will also need a bathroom, which will have a combined shower/tub, since it is much easier to use a tub when kids are young.

The laundry room will be upstairs, near the bedrooms, as that is the most convenient place to use it.  We will probably have space for both machine and hand wash (a large sink, for example), and machine and hand dry (racks and lines for drying).

There will be various storage upstairs — for linens, towels, clothes, kids toys, books, etc. Don't tell the kids, but we also want to design a small "secret" storage place into each child's room (different in each room, of course).

We will also have some space for pets upstairs.  Right now this is a pair of cats, and all their associated litter, water, food, toys, etc.  We would like a space that is semi-private for them to feel secure in; and that is easy to clean up messes (hairballs), food spills, litter, hair (i.e., not carpet!).

Public Spaces: First Floor

Our first region is the "public" region. Since we are designing a home in the community, it is worth pointing out that these are the "private public" regions of our home, not the shared community spaces. We will talk about those later.

We want the public region to be the heart of our home. This will be where we conduct many of our day-to-day activities and welcome and entertain our guests. These spaces include the entry way and areas for socializing, dining, cooking, and entertaining (i.e., media usage).

The entryway is the most public area of the home and the place where people enter and leave the building. It is rarely designed as its own room in contemporary homes. In fact, the area as a whole is often sorely neglected; in many homes it is little more than whatever space was leftover near the door with a closet thrown in for storage. However, the entry way is important both functionally and socially. It needs to pack a lot of functionality into a small space. It should connect well with the rest of the public area, both carefully revealing the home and welcoming visitors into it. We will likely have our entry open into the living area or some space between the kitchen and living area.

We want the social, dining, and cooking areas to be closely integrated, so we plan to have a fairly open plan that includes the kitchen, dining area, and living area. These areas will not have walls between them, but they will be differentiated by changes in flooring type or height, ceiling height, room shape, furniture clusters, and for the kitchen, the appliances and counters. We are inspired by the Farmhouse Kitchen pattern. This does not refer to the decor of the space but rather to the connection between the spaces.

The living area will be focused on socializing, not media usage, so there will be no display screen. The focal point will probably be a view through a window. The emphasis will be on interacting with other people — chit-chat, serious discussion, board games, etc. This area will hopefully be connected to a patio where we can move our socializing when the weather is nice.

The kitchen should accommodate the two of us cooking and baking together. It will have to handle prep, cooking, baking, clean-up, and serving — for simple dinners for the two of us; for nicer dinner parties; for our weekly potluck with friends; for parties where there is not much cooking or baking, but lots of food set out for snacking; and for special holiday gatherings with tons of food and people. It should be well-placed to serve both the dining area and living area.

The dining area should be able to hold a table big enough for a large group of people (at least a dozen), and it should be well-placed to serve or dish food from the kitchen. We do not feel the need for a formal dining room, and are happy to have it open to the kitchen and other areas.

We often entertain with the aid of digital media, but integrating a TV into a social area is difficult. Although these two activities are often combined in contemporary homes, they have different goals. For entertainment, you want everyone focused on a single point — the screen. For socializing, you want everyone focused on each other, which usually means some form of a circle or other convex shape. Additionally, when both activities might be happening at the same time, isolating the entertainment area (and its attendant noise) provides a benefit for everyone.

We plan to have a dedicated media room that can be better acoustically and visually controlled than a common room, and can have a more focused setup that helps optimize the number of people who can comfortably consume media together. This allows us to optimize the living area for socialization, in turn. Some ability to link the two would be nice — perhaps via french doors or a moveable wall, but that is still speculation at this point.

A guest room is a semi-public space. It does not quite belong in the private family spaces, but it should not be open to the rest of the public space. An office is also a semi-public space. It should allow isolation when needed, but we will often want to remain connected to the public areas of the home while we are using it. To address both these concerns, we plan to have an office that can be converted to a bedroom on the first floor. Having the guest room and a full bath on the first floor will also be useful as our relatives get older. It will give us the option of moving our own room downstairs as we age.

Finally, there must be some access for the stairs to the upper level. This will likely be towards the back, away from the entry and (at most) on the very edge of the public spaces. There is a balance needed here between being a dividing line to the private spaces that keeps away visitors, but also welcoming residents to the more private areas of the house.

Next we'll move on to the upper floor and private spaces.