A room for two

The great room is the heart of our home. Since we entertain frequently, it must serve two purposes — purposes which are sometimes at odds with each other. This is the place we spend time together and the place where we welcome others into our home. Today, we'll focus on how we designed a perfect place to spend time together as a couple.

We wanted a space that would be comfortable, functional, and beautiful. We wanted a space where we would love to spend time. By honoring how we use space together and by using patterns from A Pattern Language, we were able to build a space that filled our needs.

The obvious pattern to start with is Common areas at the heart (129):

• Problem: No social group — whether a family, a work group, or a school group — can survive without constant informal contact among its members.
• Therefore: Create a single common area for every social group. Locate it at the center of gravity of all the spaces the group occupies, and in such a way that the paths which go in and out of the building lie tangent to it.

The heart of our house is the great room: a single large area consisting of the kitchen, dining room and living room. This open space allows easy interaction when Jeff and I are doing different activities and provides spaces for us to be together for cooking, eating, reading, crafting, or, well, whatever. Although we think of this space as a kitchen, living room, and dining room, the layout and the fact that over half the space is dedicated to the kitchen and dining room makes it essentially a Farmhouse Kitchen (139):

• Problem: The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient, but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants; and from the more recent days when women willingly took over the servants' role.
• Therefore: Make the kitchen bigger than usual, big enough to include the "family room" space, and place it near the center of the commons, not so far back in the house as an ordinary kitchen. Make it large enough to hold a good big table and chairs, some soft and some hard, with counters and stove and sink around the edge of the room; and make it a bright and comfortable room.

Even though the great room is a single large space, it allows for intimacy. The L-shape allows each function to have its own well defined space. Such functional differentiation also lends itself to the generation of a Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142):

• Problem: Every corner of a building is a potential sitting space. But each sitting space has different needs for comfort and enclosure according to its position in the intimacy gradient.
• Therefore: Put in a sequence of graded sitting spaces throughout the building, varying according to their degree of enclosure. Enclose the most formal ones entirely, in rooms by themselves; put the least formal ones in corners of other rooms, without any kid of screen around them; and place the intermediate one with partial enclosure round them to keep them connected to some larger space, but also partly separate.

Each area has its own level of intimacy. The seating in the living room, which looks out over the whole space and is visible from the entry, is the most social and public but even with in that space, some seats — the one facing toward the outdoors, the end of the couch half hidden behind the fireplace — feel more private. These are the seats we gravitate to when it's just the two of us. The dining table is a bit more intimate; people sitting there are, by the arrangements of the seats around the table, more closely connected to each other than the rest of the space. Although we don't use them when it's just the two of us, sections of the bench around the fireplace are most intimate. These are the places you go to have a 1:1 conversation or to get some time alone.


We can't ignore the functional aspects in a space like this. Of course, we made sure that spaces like the kitchen are highly functional. We also included a fair amount of storage for our games and books and the projects we are working on. With laptops and phones and tablets, a office is not necessary as often as it use to be, but when it is, we have a space that is near enough to still feel connected to the life of the home. For when we do need a little more isolation, we built a Half-Private Office (152):

• Problem: What is the right balance between privacy and connection in office work?
• Therefore: Avoid closed off, separate, or private offices. Make every workroom, whether it is for a group of two or three people or for one person, half-open to the other workgroups and the world immediately beyond it. At the front, just inside the door, make a comfortable sitting space, with the actual workspace(s) away from the door, and further back.

Our office does not (yet!) have comfy seating, but it is connected to the rest of the home when we use it, by virtue of a large opening and a sliding glass door. For those times when we need a bit more privacy, it is a Solid Door With Glass (237):

• Problem: An opaque door makes sense in a vast house or palace, where every room is large enough to be a world unto itself; but in a small building, with small rooms, the opaque door is only very rarely useful.
• Therefore: As often as possible, build doors with glazing in them, so that the upper half at least, allows you to see through them. At the same time, build the doors solid enough, so that they give acoustic isolation and make a comfortable "thunk" when they are closed.

The space also works well because it connects us to the outdoors. This is helped by windows with Low Sills (222):

• Problem: One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off.
• Therefore: When determining exact location of windows also decide which windows should have low sills. On the first floor, make the sills of the windows which you plan to sit by between 12 and 14 inches high. On upper stories, make them higher, around 20 inches.

Although our window sills are not as low as Alexander recommends, they are low enough that the sill is just above the seat of our couch. This means that whenever we glance aside, we are connected to the outdoors.

Of course, some of these are Windows Which Open Wide (236):

• Problem: Many buildings nowadays have no opening windows at all; and many of the opening windows that people do build, don't do the job that opening windows ought to do.
• Therefore: Decide which of the windows will be opening windows. Pick those which are easy to get to, and choose the ones which open onto flowers you want to smell, paths where you might want to talk, and natural breezes. Then put in side-hung casements that open outward. Here and there, go all the way and build full French windows.

The connection to the outdoors is even more direct when we use our deck as an Outdoor Room (163):

• Problem: A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging, croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball for the dog. But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all.
• Therefore: Build a place outdoors which has so much enclosure round it, that it takes on the feeling of a room, even though it is open to the sky. To do this, define it at the corners with columns, perhaps roof it partially with a trellis or a sliding canvas roof, and create 'walls" around it, with fences, sitting walls, screens, hedges, or the exterior walls of the building itself.

Our deck is just such an outdoor room. Enclosed by the building and a rail, it is a pleasant place for sitting and relaxing, reading, or cooking and eating a meal. Of course, it wouldn't work so well if the details weren't right, so we made sure to have a Six-foot Balcony (167):

• Problem: Balconies and porches which are less than six feed deep are hardly ever used.
• Therefore: Whenever you build a balcony, a porch, a gallery, or a terrace always make it at least six feet deep. If possible, recess at least a part of it into the building so that it is not cantilevered out and separated from the building by a simple line, and enclose it partially.

At 10' x 12', our deck is about the same size as our living room, and we have just enough furniture to make it really work as an outdoor space.


All of this together leads to a space where Jeff and I can do things together or do things separately while still being together. We have privacy when we need it and companionship when that is what we want. By being sensitive to how we use our space and by taking advice from A Pattern Language we were able to design a space that works well for two people. As the next post will show, it works just as well for ten or twenty.

Appliances, Redux

Way back when we finalized the kitchen design, I wrote a blog post about the appliances we had chosen for the kitchen. Well, all but one of those ended up different from what is actually in our kitchen.

The biggest difference was the cooktop. We were originally planning on a gas cooktop with appropriate vent hood for the exhaust fumes from the combustion. During the early parts of construction, we switched to a heat pump for our HVAC needs. This allowed a tighter (and therefore more efficient) sealing of the house envelope. When it came to rough-in, however, Yuval realized that this caused problems for the cooktop. In particular, the vent hood we had chosen was too powerful — the air volume it could move at max was much higher than would be replaced by natural leakage and the HRV system of our house. The end result was that we would need to switch to a lower-powered vent hood, add an extra makeup air-exchange unit, or open a window whenever we wanted to use the fan on high.

The less-powerful vent hood seemed the easiest choice, but we weren't comfortable with that plus the high-powered gas cooktop. We investigated some alternatives, and found that we could get a quality induction cooktop plus lower-powered vent hood for a similar price to the previous configuration. The only trick was that electrical wiring was nearly done, and the cooktop needed a 50-amp circuit. Luckily that fit within our capacity, and the wire was run for the stove. We did end up with an unused gas pipe also run to the island, since that was our original plan.

Induction cooking is an electric-powered cooking method that combines many of the benefits of gas (quick heat-up and immediate heat adjustment) with the smooth, sealed surface of a ceramic-top stove. We chose a Thermador induction cooktop. It has a nice, easy-to-use interface, and an auto-shut-off timer on a per-burner basis. We've been very happy with it. We had to replace about half of our cookware, but the result is very impressive. It boils water faster than anything we've used before (I estimate it takes about 30 seconds per cup of water to bring to boil). The heat adjustment is instant (a pot of water that is boiling will stop within seconds of adjusting the heat down). It is easy to keep clean (much easier than a gas stove or electric coil stove with lots of parts; and has a lot less of burned-on food than a standard electric ceramic stove). After using it for eight months, we vastly prefer induction over gas and standard electric units.

For the vent hood, we chose the Zephyr Europa Roma hood, which is a simple, quiet vent hood with good lighting. It has worked well for us, and looks good in our kitchen.

The combination microwave and convection oven from Bosch is the one item that remained the same. We've been mostly happy with it. The convection oven works well, and has a lot of nice options. The combination microwave-oven is in reality mostly a microwave, that can also do a little bit of oven functionality. We've used the oven function a bit, but it is not as useful as we had hoped. The interface is also a bit awkward for consumers used to modern touch-screen technology — the buttons on the oven are touchy enough that it can be annoying to use.

We ended up switching to a higher-end fridge from Bosch. It got better reviews, including much nicer LED lighting inside. We have been happy with it so far, although the water filter needs to be changed every 6 months, and isn't all that cheap.

Partly to take advantage of a rebate on higher-end Bosch appliances, we significantly upgraded the dishwasher. We went with this unit primarily because of the silverware tray. Instead of a basket that takes up space in the lower rack, it has a third shelf at the very top that holds each piece of silverware individually. We really like this, especially because it frees up more space on the bottom rack (though there is an optional silverware basket that can be used there). The dishwasher has been fantastic: great cleaning power, and very quiet. We have occasionally mistaken it for rain outside or a shower running upstairs.

Our appliances came from Frederick's Appliance in Redmond. They were very friendly, had all the brands we were looking for, and very reasonable prices. The came in only slightly higher than buying from online stores (which wasn't even possible for the Thermador cooktop), and offered much more flexibility in delivery. They were also running a special that gave us a free InSinkErator garbage disposal which is nicer and more expensive than the one we were planning to buy.

Due to a recommendation from a co-worker, we switched to a washer and dryer from Samsung. We chose a front-loading washer with a nice variety of options and features. Along with the matching dryer, we've been very happy with these. They do a great job of cleaning, and seem reasonably gentle on clothes. The dryer has a nice auto-dry feature that figures out how long it needs to run to get a load dry. It also has a wrinkle-prevent feature that works very well.

Overall, we ended up upgrading a number of our appliances from the original plan. We are very happy with everything we ended up with, though. The cooktop, dishwasher, and washer and dryer are particularly outstanding. The long-term maintenance and life-span is something we will have to wait and see; but after eight months of regular use, everything is doing very well.

Green Features

Our home is officially 5-Star Built Green rated. We even have a certificate! In this post we'll explore some of the features that went into making our home certifiably green. For more background on some of these topics, you can check out some of our earlier posts about green building.

Intangibles

The largest impact green features of a home are not, in a traditional sense, features. Some of the most important decisions came before we even had a floor plan. First is location. Urban infill lots, like the one our home is on, help preserve farmland and undeveloped wilderness areas. By choosing a site that had already been developed, less new infrastructure was needed.

From location we move on to size. By only building as much house as we need, we used less materials and will save energy. At 2700 sq ft, our home is not small, but it is significantly smaller than the 3500 - 4000 sq ft homes we were considering to get similar functionality.

The greenest house is the one you don’t build. The next best thing is a house that will last a long time. We built a high quality, beautiful house because that’s the what we want in a home, but we also hope that it means this home will be used and loved for many decades. In the nearer term, high quality materials and equipment lead to less frequent replacements which means less waste and resources used in manufacturing.

Heating and cooling

The energy used to heat and power a home constitute the bulk of the ongoing environmental cost of a building. Computer models which analyzed our architectural plan predict a HERS score of 56 for our home. That means it should use only 56% of the energy of a standard American home.

Much of this rating is based on how efficiently our home can be heated, and many of the green features of our home aim to decrease the amount of heat transferred between the interior and exterior. High quality insulation, including spray foam at junctions and foam board against foundation walls, increases the R-value of our home. Triple-paned windows with inert gas between the panes also provide better insulation. Our windows have an average U-value of around 0.21. A special coating decreases the amount of sunlight that gets through. The heating system we chose allowed us to have a ventless roof design. Our roof is essentially a foot of solid foam with no holes in it.

Spray foam was used to seal off any leaks that were discovered during our blower door test. We never got official numbers, but the preliminary numbers we saw indicated that after sealing, our house had less than two air changes per hour (ACH) under pressure. For reference, we were told that a house is considered green under about 5 ACH, standard new construction is around 10 - 15 ACH, and older homes without good sealing or insulation can be over 50 ACH. A house is considered passive once it gets to be less than 0.6 ACH. Our house is not there, but it's close.

To heat our home, we decided to use an air source heat pump. Instead of producing heat, air source heat pumps move heat from the outside to the inside. Even though they are electric, they are highly efficient. Heat pumps made it easy to have have different heating zones, so we can use just the heat we need when we need it. We also take advantage of the efficiency of heat pumps in our water heater. It combines a heat pump and electric heating element. The pump provides efficient heating, while the electric backup provides extra heat when lots of hot water is needed.

Lighting and appliances

Energy Star® appliances reduce the amount of electricity we consume, but other than the Energy Star rating, our appliances are pretty standard. When it comes to general electric usage, most of our green investment went into lighting. Well-placed windows, especially on the southern wall, allow us to use daylight for many of our lighting needs. Taking advantage of natural light saves electricity.

Of course, you can't use natural light all the time. Especially in the winter, we are dependent on artificial lighting. All of our can lights are LED bulbs. LED lights use less energy. They also last longer which means less waste. Early LED light bulbs produced a harsh light. Newer models provide a soft, warm light that is perfect for general lighting. Well placed light switches are another green feature, although in a subtle way. When the light switch we need is at hand, we are more likely to turn off lights when we leave a room.

Water efficiency

Right now, energy efficiency is the big focus in most parts of the US. As populations grow, our water resources are going to be an increasing challenge. Areas like California and Colorado are already seeing water pressure, and in those regions, green necessarily involves water efficiency. In rainy Seattle, water is less of an immediate concern, but we wanted to plan for the future.

Water from the sinks and showers runs through separate pipes to allow for future greywater collection and distribution. We'll use the greywater for irrigation once the local laws catch up with the fairly recent Washington state standards.

In the meantime, we use less water because of our low flow toilets. The dual flush option saves even more water by letting the user choose how much water they need. Low flow shower heads also decrease water usage.

Outside the home, our small section of green roof does its part to slightly decrease the amount of runoff that enters the sewer system. Our landscape plans also involve a lot of plants to help decrease runoff. Both green roofs and conventional landscape plantings also help include regional air quality.

Air quality

With such a tightly sealed house, it's important to ensure good air quality. A heat recovery ventilator ensures that the air in our home is filtered and refreshed regularly. It transfers heat from the outgoing air to the incoming air to save energy.

We also improve indoor air quality by reducing the air pollutants inside. Because they don’t burn anything to produce heat, induction stoves produce fewer combustion products than gas stoves. Even with a well sealed door, exhaust fumes can seep inside from the garage. Eliminating a direct connection between the indoors and the garage further improves air quality.

Conventional paints, finishes, and insulation can make indoor air quality worse than outdoor air quality. Our paint, carpet, cabinets, insulation, and other materials are low VOC. This improves air quality by eliminating chemicals that smell bad may have harmful health effects.

Materials

Being low VOC isn't the only thing that makes many of the materials used in our home green. Environmentally responsible building materials reduce the strain on our natural resources. Focusing on renewable and recycled resources produces the best long term outcome.

All of the wood for framing was FSC certified. Our SmartStrand® carpet from Karastan contains 37% material that comes from sustainable, plant-based sources, and the whole manufacturing process is designed for sustainability. The CaesarStone® countertops are also manufactured using sustainable practices. The Quartz Reflections finish used in the kitchen is made from recycled content. The Ecotech® tiles we use for our flooring and fireplace are made of over 50% pre-consumer recycled content.

Forward thinking

Technology is constantly improving, and we wanted to take advantage of this in our home. Everything in the house except for the fireplace runs on electricity. Even though electricity is currently more expensive than gas and can be less sustainable, by standardizing on electric appliances we’ll be able to take advantage of the gains as renewable energy replaces non-renewable resources.

We don’t have solar panels, but we did pre-wire for solar. Once we decide the cost/benefit ratio is good enough, we will be able to install them easily. We wired our garage for an electric car charger. We also wired our house for home automation. This will allow us to programmatically control lighting and heating, leading to further electricity savings.

One thing that we hope the list above makes clear is that green building does not have to embody any particular style. All of the strategies applied above could apply just as well in a traditional Craftsman style home or country cottage as in our Pacific Northwest modern home. Most of these things don't require custom construction either. Many features add very little incremental cost to the home and could easily be integrated into spec construction. Pre-wiring for solar, to take the most extreme example, added only a couple hundred dollars to the cost of the house. Higher quality insulation also didn't add much cost. While not all new construction is going to be able to reach 5-Star on the Built Green scale, spec homes can do much better than they do right now. If consumers start demanding it — and if builders can start selling homes at a bit of an extra premium if they are labeled green — these improvements will one day be common.

Media Room

A dedicated media room is an unusual feature for a house, especially one of this size. But we felt it was worth it, and designed the room to have the right balance of cost and features.

Why a media room? Because it's awesome! The home theater experience is amazing, and a popular feature of our house. But, at a deeper level, why did we choose to put the extra cost, design work, and square footage into it? The first reason, and the obvious one, is that we've have viewed dedicated media rooms with envy for awhile. We do a lot of entertaining, including watching shows and movies and playing group video games. Having a separate space dedicated to this activity gives a superior experience, while leaving the main living room free for entertaining more people.

Patterns
You might think there would be a number of patterns to use for this kind of design. However, A Pattern Language was written before televisions were present in every living room. Instead, we worked based off general ideas from patterns and our observations of social gatherings.

The second and stronger reason for adding this room was space usage: we did not want a television in the living room. We wanted the living room to be a social space, where people could gather and socialize. A circular set-up is best for this, as it easily allows everyone to focus on other people in the room. The focal point is towards the center of the room so that everyone feels included. This makes it difficult to fit a television into the room. It isn't reasonable to provide a single focal point on the wall that all the seats can use. This is made even more difficult by the design of our living room, which has no normal walls at all. Two of them are full of windows to allow in lots of light. One of them is covered with a bookcase backed by the stairs. The last boundary of the room is the open space to the rest of the main floor. The media room gave us the opportunity to divorce the singularly-focused activity of television out of the social space of the living room.

Room Layout

Decision number one was the size and shape of the room. We wanted a couple rows of seating focused on a screen against one wall. We wanted enough space (if chairs were removed) to play Kinect games such as Dance Central and music games such as Rock Band. A rectangle of ratio 3:4 or 3:5 would be best for these functions. The ideal size for us would've been about 15 feet wide, and 20-25 feet long. With the realities of the land and form of the house, we were able to fit in a 12-by-19 foot room downstairs on the north side of the house. This was a bit tight, but fit very well into the layout.

The short wall on the east side was under the house and partially dug into the ground, so that was the perfect wall to put the screen on. The opposite wall on the west side could then fit a row of seating. The door was in the middle of the long south wall, which put it right where the second row of seating would go, giving easy access to both rows. To make the two rows of seating useful, we built up a stage against the west wall so the first row of seating against the wall would be elevated above the second row.

The other main item to figure out was an equipment closet. The various equipment for powering the speakers, routing the sound and video, and the players for games and other media needed to be accessible (for changing discs), but covered up (to prevent light and sound from the equipment leaking into the main room). We also wanted to use this space for other computer equipment: a server for file storage and internal services, central networking, and a wireless access point. It ended up being most convenient to put this on the east side of the south wall, taking space out from the storage/bathroom next door.

Details & Finishes

Lighting

For lighting we didn't want anything that would intrude into the wall and disrupt the sound isolation. We added sconces on the wall for general lighting. Then we added two sets of track lights to light different portions of the room: one for the rear seating (which could be used without interfering too much with the screen); and a second one near the equipment closet to provide task lighting when dealing with anything in that location. To control the equipment lighting, we recessed a switch near the closet and away from the door. By the door, we added switches for the sconces and rear track lighting, as those are the general lights for the room. We also added dimmers to those two switches to give us more control over exactly how much light is in the room. Eventually we would like to hook the lighting up to an automation system so that it can be controlled from our universal remote that controls all the equipment. This would allow us to do things such as automatically dimming or turning off the lights when hitting Play for a movie; and then bringing them back up when hitting Pause. That is a fairly easy addition later, so it is relegated to the list of long-term improvements.

Seating Stage

The stage for the second row of seating was framed up against the west wall. The dimensions were very specific. We wanted to make sure it would be deep enough to comfortably fit a couch with enough leg room/walk-way to make people feel comfortable. But we also needed enough space on the floor for the first row of seating to not be too close to the screen. We also didn't want the stage to extend into the doorway, as that would complicate the entry. We decided 7 feet of depth would satisfy the requirements, ending shortly before the doorway. To decide the height, we used some calculations based on the size and position of the screen, and the position of the seating to determine that 8-12 inches would be the minimum needed to give everyone a clear view. Since we had the room height, we bumped this up to 16 inches high to give a comfortable clearance. This also divided nicely to give a single 8-inch step to reach the platform. We spent a while discussing if the step should run the whole length of the platform or not, and whether we would need a railing. It was determined that we didn't need a railing, and a 3-foot wide step right by the doorway would be enough to get up, and the rest would be flat to give more leg room and walkway.

Soundproofing

Soundproofing was covered more extensively in a previous blog post. So far, we have not had a problem with sound leakage from downstairs as long as the door is properly closed. We have found that it works the other way, too — we can't hear the doorbell if someone arrives while we are downstairs. That is another addition to the home automation list, so that we can have our cell phones notify us when the doorbell rings.

Closet

An area on the east edge of the south wall, next to the door, had been framed out for a closet. We then spent a while designing the enclosure for it to properly support everything we wanted it to handle. Part of it needed to be enclosed to isolate the lights and sound from the equipment. However, we also wanted part of it open to make the basic remote controls, lights, and media more accessible. The enclosed area would have all the internal wiring for the media room, plus the whole house network panel. Because of all the equipment that would be connected to these, we wanted to ensure there was enough cooling in the tight space.

The end result was that about two-thirds of the space was enclosed, while the remaining one-third nearer the door was left open. The enclosed space had two hinged closet doors, set about 6 inches from the floor. This allowed a vent to be placed at the bottom to draw in fresh air. We used freestanding shelves from Elfa to avoid drilling into the sound-isolated walls. The bottom shelf on these also started about 6 inches from the floor, ending up level with the bottom of the closet doors. Within the closet we just used plain shelves and various heights to hold different sizes of equipment. In the space next to the enclosed area, we mixed a couple shelves with several draws for holding game controllers and other small items.

Part-way through construction we realized there was an air-flow problem with the room. It was designed with a heat-pump unit that would control the temperature of the room. However, that would not provide any fresh air. With a tightly-insulated room and a weather-sealed door, practically no air would be able to circulate into and out of the room. Once you put 10-12 people in there and close the door, the air would be become stale surprisingly quickly. We only realized this well after framing was completed, and most of the the rough-in was finished. The solution was to use the HRV, which already required a pair of vents on each floor to circulate fresh air. On the lower floor they had been located in the future bathroom and main landing area. However, they were right next to the media room, and we were able to move both the supply and return vents into the media room. We had them both moved into the ceiling of the closet; but the supply was in the open area (providing fresh air to the whole room), while the return was in the enclosed area, drawing air from the vent at the bottom, up past the equipment, and then out. This coincided nicely to provide a free cooling solution for the equipment closet without extra noise.

Paint & Carpet

To help with light control, we wanted dark colors in the media room. The walls did not need to be a solid black, though, which might have made the room a bit too depressing. The most obvious choice was to use the dark red color from our palette. It would've looked sophisticated and echoed the tradition of dark red velvet curtains in theaters. We also had a dark teal in our palette, though. Combined with a black carpet, it would provide a more modern, striking color scheme to the room without feeling too suffocating despite all the dark color. Applied in a matte finish to diminish reflected light, it was a wonderful result that has received many compliments.

We decided to use Karastan SmartStrand carpets throughout the house, which included the media room. These are eco-friendly carpets made from corn instead of petroleum. But we chose them because they were also the most comfortable of the carpets we looked at, and some of the most stain-resistant. They were easily the nicest carpets we looked at for the price. Their Indescribable line of SmartStrand Silk carpets had the Black Velvet color, which was exactly what we were looking for, giving us the color combination we had originally conceived.

Equipment

Electrical and sound wiring was discussed in detail previously. The only wiring we had to run ourselves was pulling an HDMI cable through the conduit to the projector. Long high-speed HDMI cables are not common, but we lucked out because Monoprice released a new slim, powered HDMI cable shortly before we needed it. This was more flexible than standard cables, making it not too difficult to pull through the conduit.

Choosing a projector ended up being a lot of research and reading. In the end I decided on the Panasonic PT-AE7000U. It was rated as one of the best projectors for color, black levels, sharpness, etc. The closest competitor was the Epson PowerLite 5010, which had longer lag times, making it worse for video games.

The ceiling mount for the projector was a bit easier. Chief was a well-rated brand for ceiling mounts, so I first acquired a simple plate that was mounted onto a block that was fixed between studs in the ceiling, giving it a secure base. A short post was then attached to the plate, and the drywall was installed around it, hiding the plate. Then the primary mount attached to the post in the ceiling, and the projector. It has adjustments to help align the projector; and a quick disconnect when I need to take the projector down to replace the bulb. Getting the projector attached to the ceiling took two people, but it worked! Almost. The distance from the projector to the screen hadn't been calculated quite perfectly, and the projector didn't have quite enough distance to fully fill the screen. It was only off by a little bit, though, so a shift bracket was added to slide the projector back a few inches, filling the screen just perfectly.

There are a lot of options for home theater screens. The first thing I knew was that I wanted a fixed-frame screen. This kind is assembled once, and then fixed to the wall permanently. It does not retract or move, but usually is a flatter, more even canvas. A nice, thick frame covered in black velvet (or similar material) provides good focus on the screen, absorbing any light that might stray off the screen. A widescreen 16:9 format is standard for most content now, though many movies are still in a 2.35:1 format. We watch more than just movies, so we chose the 16:9 format as the primary size of the screen. At this aspect ratio, a 106-inch screen was about the largest that the room could reasonably support. While there are many companies that provide such screens in a wide range of prices, Monoprice recently introduced a low-priced series of projector screens that are quite high quality. In addition to the items listed, they also offered multi-format screens, which are primarily a 16:9 screen; but have a manual mask of black velvet that slides in from the top and bottom to perfectly frame the screen at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio for movies.

Years ago I had discovered SalkSound, a small speaker manufacturer that sells direct to consumers. They provide very high-quality custom speakers at a reasonable price. At the time, I had ordered a pair of SongTowers with upgraded ribbon tweeters, and a matching SongCenter. We decided they shouldn't stand out too much, and got a simple black satin finish with aluminum baffles on the towers. We had enjoyed these for a number of years in our previous home. With the dedicated media room here, it was time to round this set out into a full 5.1 system. A pair of SongSurrounds was ordered for the rear speakers, and a 12" Salk/Rythmic subwoofer was added to complete the set, all in matching black satin.

Most of the remaining equipment we already owned: a Pioneer receiver paired with a 7-channel Emotiva amplifier. We had three gaming consoles: a Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, and a Microsoft XBox 360 slim. A Sony PlayStation 3 was added primarily for Blu-Ray and streaming video support. For music throughout the house, we acquired several Sonos components, and the media room received a Sonos CONNECT to play music through the Salk speakers.

The last bit of equipment was the universal remote. After having a Harmony remote that stopped working several years ago, we switched to a URC MX-450, which feels much higher quality and is programmable without any additional software. When we moved all our equipment into the closet in the media room and out of IR range, we were easily able to add an RF base station that was compatible with our existing remote. This receives radio signals from the remote, then translates them into IR signals that are sent to a specific piece of equipment, allowing complete control even when the equipment is hidden away. The only complication was the PlayStation 3, which is only controllable via Bluetooth — IR is not available. An IR adapter was acquired, resulting in the remote sending an RF signal to the base station, which translates it into an IR signal sent to the adapter, which then sends commands to the PS3 over Bluetooth!


After all this time and money spent on layout, design, details, and equipment, the end result is amazing. The media room never fails to impress, and is a wonderful room for enjoying electronic entertainment. We use it regularly with and without friends, and the focus of the room really shines through. It may not be a worthwhile room for everyone, but it was a great decision for us.

Six month review

It's already been six months!

The house feels like home at this point. We're mostly unpacked. Furnishings are mostly in place (although there are, of course, things we want to add or upgrade). We're making good progress putting up art. We've even been part of a couple home tours (that's a normal part of setting up a new home, right?).

Six months in, we have a feel for what works well and what could have been better. Overall, we love the house. It's a great place to live: comfortable, beautiful, and functional. It just feels right — it's the right size, has the right functions, and supports our life in positive ways.



The great room is compact enough that people in the the kitchen, living, and dining rooms can interact comfortably, but spacious enough to hold large crowds. When the crowd gets too large, the large open space can get loud, but furniture and carpets have helped decrease the noise.

The kitchen is highly functional. It's one of the first things people comment on. We love the large amount of counter space, the induction stove, and the general layout. The bi-fold cabinets get out of the way just like we hoped — and they look really cool. A shelf under the sink provides a place for necessary but unsightly sink accessories. We're not finding the combination microwave / convection oven as useful as we hoped; its controls are just awkward enough to make it a bit of a pain to use as an oven.

So much counter space!

The media room also elicits exclamations. It must be something about walking into a teal cave with two rows of seating and a 106" screen. It's been a great venue for watching movies and playing video games — Rock Band is easier when everyone can read the screen clearly! Although we find the room itself quite large enough, we do wish that we had been able to add more storage, especially for large objects such as Rock Band drums and DDR pads.



The house is filled with natural light. Even on cloudy days, we don't bother turning on lights most of the time. We do use the lights in the kitchen, partially because it is further from the windows and partially due to the fact that work done in the kitchen often requires more light (e.g., chopping).

Separating the master suite into separate sleeping and dressing rooms has made it easier to get up and dressed without disturbing the sleeping partner. We haven't had an opportunity to test the dressing room's fitness as a sitting room — when just the two of us are in the house, there isn't much need for another sitting room.
We love the master bath and don't regret forgoing a tub in favor of a smaller room and larger shower. Although the high (36", standard kitchen height) countertops took some time to get used to, it's rather convenient. We'll see how well this height works if we have kids. =)

It took awhile to figure out exactly how to tune the heat pumps. We initially set the temperatures too high. We didn't initially understand how the presets worked. We had to learn how to tweak the settings to maximize efficiency when it was really cold out. Now that we've figured all that out, we appreciate the ability to set the temperature differently in different rooms, especially the rooms we don't use as often. The heat pumps don't dry out the air, which makes for lovely feeling air. In retrospect, heat distribution would have been more even if we had put the second main floor unit in the great room rather than in the office.

We have had some annoyances, but they are mostly small things. We had initially planned the dining room so that the table and pendant could be centered relative to the island and the adjacent wall. When we actually accounted for the space needed for chairs and cabinet access, we realized that the table would need to be about a foot off of centered on the wall. We were able to move the pendant, so that is centered, but when you look at the table head on, you can tell it's not centered on the wall. A small thing, but something that we could have fixed with a little more forethought.

100% natural light!

Another thing we might have changed in retrospect is our exterior color scheme. The grey-on-grey color scheme is gorgeous on sunny days, but on cloud days it looks a bit dour. And in Seattle, it's often cloudy. While on the topic of paint, the matte finish paint that was used in the interior looks good, but is a maintenance pain. It mars easily and can't be cleaned.

Another thing we need to fix — the house number is just above a downward pointing light. Oops.

The angle of the driveway is steeper than we would like. It's a constraint of the site, so there's not much we could do about it, but it does make washing the car less convenient.

That's about it for the things we wish were different. We also already have a list of improvements that we want to make over time, starting with...

More built-ins! If I have my way (and I will eventually), we'll have built-in furniture added wherever it is practical (and some places where it's not). In particular, we want to build a daybed with bookshelves into the office with a custom desk on the opposite side. This would provide a private, quiet place for reading or working on a laptop. We want to add window benches on the stair landings and add some built-in bookshelves in a few places.

On the topic of storage, we need to get some in the garage (and get rid of all of the give-away items stored in there, but that's another topic). Right now, everything in the garage is either still packed in boxes or is sitting on the floor. It is neither organized nor space efficient. Getting shelves in the garage is on our short list of important projects.

Even higher on our short list is landscaping. We moved in six months ago, but winter isn't the best time for putting in landscaping. It would have been a great time to start planning then, but we didn't. We've finally started to work on plans for improving our exterior. More on that later!

All in all, we are still glad that we decided to take on our house building project. There's nothing quite like living in a home that was designed to fit your life.

South Wall and Other Built-ins

The south wall on our main floor was one of the most heavily-designed spaces in the house. We knew early on that we wanted to do something interesting there. This space is not attached to any room and is part of the pathway for entering the house. It is distinct from the dining room, so it would be awkward to use it for tasks or storage related to eating. The south wall of the house also provides some of the best light, which we wanted to take advantage of.

Alcoves (179)

• Problem: No homogeneous room, of homogeneous height, can serve a group of people well. To give a group a chance to be together, as a group, a room must also give them the chance to be alone, in one's and two's in the same space.
• Therefore: Make small places at the edge of any common room, usually no more than 6 feet wide and 3 to 6 feet deep and possibly much smaller. These alcoves should be large enough for two people to sit, chat, or play and sometimes large enough to contain a desk or table.
• In our home: The south wall is one of the primary places we considered this pattern. We built a long bench that wraps the fireplace, and is also divided by a planter box. This gives it several small sections and corners of bench for one or two people to sit. The west edge of the bench by the fireplace can be joined by a small table to the open end of the couch, giving a comfortable two-person spot for a game or drinks. These spaces are not exactly full alcoves, but they provide similar uses.

The Fire (181)

• Problem: There is no substitute for fire.
• Therefore: Build the fire in a common space—perhaps in the kitchen—where it provides a natural focus for talk and dreams and thought. Adjust the location until it knits together the social spaces and rooms around it, giving them each a glimpse of the fire; and make a window or some other focus to sustain the place during the times when the fire is out.
• In our home: This is a pattern that we followed almost exclusively for the reasons described in the pattern, instead of the physical value it provides. With our modern construction, a fire is not needed to heat the house. But the social value and psychological comfort it provides is valuable.
  
  We located our fireplace to draw together rooms and provide a single focal point. It is at the convergence of pathways from the entry, and to the private spaces. It is also on the edge of the living room and dining room. We chose a two-sided fireplace so that the longer side could be seen from the dining room and pathways, while the short side could be seen from the living room. It is not exactly the primary focal point in the living room; we have more prominent windows, and we are setting up this room to be a sitting circle for everyone to focus on each other. But it can be a focus from the living room. It also is wrapped by a sitting-height bench to allow people to gather around the fireplace and absorb its warmth.

We decided to use the southern light to support an herb box. An indoor well-lit space to provide fresh herbs year-round would be a very nice feature. So a 3-foot by 3-foot window was added to the wall.

The next step was to figure out the fireplace. We were fairly certain that we wanted to wrap the corner of the living room in windows to take advantage of the great southern and western exposure that we have. That didn't leave a lot of room for a fireplace in the living room. Putting a fireplace in the living room also has the disadvantage of adding a strong focal point, which we didn't really want. A fire is comforting, but is not useful for three-quarters of the year in the Pacific Northwest. We also wanted to encourage a social circle in the main living room. Looking at various positions, a fireplace on the south wall, just east of the living room seemed like a good location.



We now had two strong elements on the south wall, so the next step was to bring them together. We wanted a bench in the entry, as we'll describe in another post, and the south wall of the entry seemed the best place to put it. It was natural to extend that bench into the main area of the house, and continue it along the south wall to connect herb box and fireplace. It also makes this area a valuable space in its own right, instead of just left-overs. The bench is interrupted by the herb box, dividing it into sections. Around the fireplace, it juts out to provide seating all around the fire and some extra corners. It also brings a nice end to the bench on the west side of the fireplace without it feeling cut-off.



Once we had decided on all the elements, the next step was to figure out the materials and colors to make this area a feature, with just the right amount of focus. We didn't want to make it the primary focal point on the main floor and overwhelm the living or dining rooms. But if it didn't have the right amount of contrast and interest, it could easily feel flat and fade away. The first item we noticed was the two strong elements of the herb box and the fireplace. Making those dark would help them stand out against the light floor and walls, and make them similar to each other. We could emphasize the planter box by making it go all the way to the floor from the window, seeming to penetrate the bench. The column around the fireplace would provide a contrast and start at the bench, going all the way to the ceiling. We chose blackened steel to form the herb box, contrasting against the natural plants and rocks it would contain. The fireplace would get dark stone-like tiles, giving it a still sharp but more natural look.

The rest of the work was figuring out important details. We decided not to paint the wall behind this area, instead letting the physical elements provide the contrast. We wanted a material which would contrast the bench with the planter box and fireplace; so we chose a light, smoother version of the same tile used to wrap the fireplace. The edge of the bench was done with a thick wood edge to relate to the floor, and dark hardware to give it a bit of interest.



Throughout the house, we used built-ins to provide storage and comfort. The south wall had a couple obvious opportunities which we took advantage of. The area under the bench could provide a lot of storage; the best area for this was under the bench jutting out from the fireplace. By adding several wood dividers, we added a nice amount of storage space, while also providing structurally-necessary support for the bench. In the east side of the fireplace column, we set in an area to use as shelving, providing a display area visible from the entry.

The biggest opportunity for built-in shelving was along the north wall of the living room. This was built as an open space connected to the stairs. We wanted to put in shelves, along with a translucent backing to get light from the stairwell into the living room, and vice-versa. We looked at a variety of materials, including some really beautiful panels from 3form. In the end, though, we decided on a simple translucent plastic panel with some wood dividers to give it structure. For the bookshelf in front of that, we looked at a variety of different ideas and designs, including a lot of custom-built options. We ultimately chose a modular shelving system from ISS Designs, which has the option of some higher-quality materials at a reasonable price.



There are several more areas where we planned for future built-ins. In our office, we would like to convert one side into a day-bed with shelves above it. This will give a smaller, more private space to relax and read (compared to the more open and public living room). To accommodate that, we will add a custom desk on the other side of the office that both of us can share. We also plan to put a bench/day-bed on one or both of the stair landings. The windows were designed to be at the appropriate level for someone reclining by the stairs. We will also add more shelves underneath those benches to handle our large (and ever growing!) collection of books. For now, both of these areas have furniture we brought with us. It is not the best fit for our home, but it is functional until we can put a more permanent solution in-place.

The built-ins, and especially the south wall, are special features in our home. They increase the quality and functionality of the space. Just as importantly, they personalize the house and make it unique. The south wall adds interest and personality to the house, instead of just leaving a large, blank wall. It adds an aspect that wouldn't be found in most spec houses. It was also designed with functionality in mind, giving extra space for seating, display, growing herbs, and gathering around a fire. Ultimately, the built-ins took more effort than many elements of the house, but they are what make it special to us.

Kitchen, Finished

Cooking Layout (184)

• Problem: Cooking is uncomfortable if the kitchen counter is too short and also if it is too long.
• Therefore: To strike a balance between the kitchen which is too small, and the kitchen which is too spread out, place the stove, sink, and food storage and counter in such a way that:
1. No two of the four are more than 10 feet apart.
2. The total length of the counter — excluding sink, stove, and refrigerator — is at least 12 feet.
3. No one section of the counter is less than 4 feet long.
• In our home: The folks at Pedini who helped us design our kitchen emphasized the importance of functionality in kitchen design, and their guidance is consistent with this pattern. A back counter runs parallel to an island. This gives plenty of counter space. The stove is on the island and offset from the sink and chopping station on the back counter. The fridge and oven are on the wall that runs perpendicular to the island and counter (floor plan). Overall, this has resulted in a kitchen that is compact without being crowded.
  
  Having spent nearly five years with a spacious U-shaped kitchen and having only lived with galley style kitchens in apartments, we worried we would be unhappy with the layout. Seeing the kitchens in the other houses reduced that concern, but it was not until we started using this kitchen every day that we were converted. A galley kitchen that's open at both ends and wide enough for two people to work comfortably without obstructing the walk way is quite efficient.
  
  We did worry at first that four feet between the island and back counter was not enough, but we have found that it is plenty for passing each other. Since the workstations are not back to back, people can even walk through the kitchen while we are both working in it, although it may require some weaving. Overall, we are quite happy with the convenience and functionality of our kitchen layout.

Story time! A custom built house will rarely be done on time. Like software engineers (and probably most other professions), builders tend to estimate based on expected case timing, not worst case timing. For the first two houses in our neighborhood, the final delay was the design and installation of the stairs. We wanted our home to be different. We assumed it would be delayed, but we didn't want it to be the stairs that delayed move in. In this, we found success!

Detailed kitchen design comes early because it affects electrical and plumbing. We designed the kitchen before submitting construction permits, and we ordered it two months into construction. The cabinets required a large lead time because Pedini manufactures their kitchens in Italy and ships them to the US.

A December order provided sufficient lead time for an end of April delivery. By March, our project was a bit behind schedule, so we had Pedini hold the kitchen a bit longer so it would arrive at the end of May. This was, perhaps, our vital mistake.

Fast forward to May. No kitchen. June, still not here. July, still missing. The only detail our builder learned from Pedini was that a labor strike had delayed the kitchen in Panama. As best we can tell, the kitchen was lost during that time. In August we finally got a new shipping manifest indicating that the cabinets were to ship out of Italy (again) in mid-August to New Jersey and then shipped across the US — no going through Panama this time.

Four months after we originally wanted it, the kitchen arrived in mid-September, and installation started soon after. By the end of the month, the cabinets were installed. This unblocked installing the appliances and ordering and installing the counters. In the end, the kitchen was done less than a week before we moved in. Packing boxes and hiring movers when you don't even have counters installed was uncomfortably exciting, but it all worked out in the end.

Onward to the kitchen itself! You can read about our design (post 1, post 2) and our appliances in earlier blog posts. In this post, we want to focus on how our decisions worked out (and share pretty pictures, of course).

Half-Open Wall (193)

• Problem: Rooms which are too closed prevent the natural flow of social occasions, and the natural process of transition from one social moment to another. And rooms which are too open will not support the differentiation of events which social life requires.
• Therefore: Adjust the walls, openings, and windows in each indoor space until you reach the right balance between open, flowing space and closed cell-like space. Do not take it for granted that each space is a room; nor, on the other hand, that all spaces must flow into each other. The right balance will always lie between these extremes: no one room entirely enclosed; and no space totally connected to another. Use combinations of columns, half-open walls, porches, indoor windows, sliding doors, low sills, french doors, sitting walls, and so on, to hit the right balance.
• In our home: In an open floor plan, differentiation between spaces can be difficult. This is especially important for the kitchen. The functionality of a kitchen can be hindered if it is too open to traffic, but if it is too shut off, then the people in the kitchen feel isolated. In our home, we use the island as a functional "wall" between the kitchen and the dining room. This defines the space as distinctly separate while still allowing interaction between the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

We are incredibly pleased with how the kitchen turned out. The discussion with the patterns covers the high level features. Now we'll spend some time on the details.


We love the induction stove. It's easy to control, easy to clean, and heats pans quickly. We probably would have been just as happy with a gas stove, but now that we're used to induction, it would be difficult to switch. Our favorite feature is probably the per-burner timer that allows us to set a timer on a particular burner. When the timer runs out, the burner turns off. This is perfect when using the pressure cooker.

Open Shelves (200)

• Problem: Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else.
• Therefore: Cover the walls with narrow shelves of varying depth but always shallow enough so that things can be placed on them one deep — nothing hiding behind anything else.
• In our home: The main area where this pattern inspired us is the pantry. Because of the constraints of the elfa system, we pretty much ignored the advice about shelf depth. In practice, we have found that moderately deep shelves (12" or 16", mostly) work well when they are fairly low and ample enough to keep things from being crowded. Shelf depth aside, we love having open shelving in the pantry. Everything is visible and accessible. There's no remembering where things are and digging through a cupboard. It's lovely.

Between all of the cupboards and the huge pantry, we have plenty of storage space. After our previous super-tiny kitchen — where we had to store some of our kitchen gear upstairs in a closet despite having put half of it into storage — the storage here feels endless. We're trying not to fill it up too quickly.


Jeff's favorite small feature may be the bi-fold cabinet doors — they get out of the way and look really cool. Erika's favorite small feature is a wire shelf that mounts under the sink and provides a place to hide away all of the ugly necessities of a sink.

The kitchen isn't perfect, but the problems that actively bug us are small. One example is the appliances. Despite the refrigerator, oven, and microwave all being in the same 800 series from Bosch, they have completely different user interfaces — both functionally and aesthetically. It drives Erika crazy! One particularly silly example is that when the microwave is being used as a small convection stove, you can only enter minutes on the timer. The timer on the full sized stove requires you to enter seconds every single time you use it. Why, oh why do we need to enter seconds when using the oven?! And why is the oven mode on the microwave different?!

Small rants aside, we are really enjoying the kitchen, and we look forward to preparing many joyful meals there.

Sunny Counter (199)

• Problem: Dark gloomy kitchens are depressing. The kitchen needs the sun more than other rooms, not less.
• Therefore: Place the main part of the kitchen counter on the south and southeast side of the kitchen, with big windows around it, so that sun can flood in and fill the kitchen with yellow light both morning and afternoon.
• In our home: We don't have windows directly into our kitchen; it did not work out well with the layout of our house. Instead, our whole main floor is flooded with light from the windows on the west and south and those windows are visible from the kitchen. At certain times of day, the kitchen gets natural light strong enough to work by, but most of the time it requires the supplement of artificial light. We would have liked more direct light in the kitchen, but given the constraints we had, some natural light is turning out to be a reasonable compromise.