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.

Stairs

Unless stairs are hidden away, they cannot help but be a visual focus. And a modern, custom built home is pretty much required to have visually intriguing stairs. As far as we can tell, building the stairs is also required to put the house behind schedule. Our home is no exception on either count.

We consciously chose to push the stairs into a prominent position that made them more functionally and visually central. The process of designing the stairs differed from much of the rest of the house. We were deeply involved with most elements of our home. For the stairs, we provided some inspiration pictures and some input, but largely trusted our builder to come up with something we would like.

Staircase as a Stage (133)

• Problem: A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart.
• Therefore: Place the main stair in a key position, central and visible. Treat the whole staircase as a room (or if it is outside, as a courtyard). Arrange it so that the stair and the room are one, with the stair coming down around one or two walls of the room. Flare out the bottom of the stair with open windows or balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming down the stair become a part of the action in the room while they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally use the stair for seats.
• In our house: We partially implemented this pattern. We placed our staircase in a central location, and we made sure that it was a space in its own right, with nice wide landings (which we plan to develop into window seats). However, a semi-translucent wall, and the way that the stairs protrude from the building keep the staircase from being fully integrated with the main living areas. A person coming down the stairs may be part of the action in the dining room, but they are almost completely cut off from the living room (although there is a "spy hole" that allows limited interaction).

Stair Seats (125)

• Problem: Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them inaction.
• Therefore: In any public place where people loiter, add a few steps at the edge where stairs come down or where there is a change of level. Make these raised areas immediately accessible from below, so that people may congregate and sit to watch the goings-on.
• In our house: Our stairs are not actually good stair seats. They are fairly wide, but not wide enough that they can be used for getting upstairs and sitting on at the same time. They are fairly deep, but not deep enough for most people to comfortably sit sideways on. A structural column keeps them from protruding into the room, so they don't provide a good vantage point. Thus, it speaks to the power of this pattern that even though our stairs were not designed as effective seats, they are still used as seats when we have large crowds over.

Staircase Volume (195)

• Problem: We are putting this pattern in the language because our experiments have shown that lay people often make mistakes about the volume which a staircase needs, and therefore make their plans unbuildable.
• Therefore: Make a two story volume to contain the stairs. It may be straight, L-shaped, U-shaped, or C-shaped. The stair may be 2 feet wide (for a very steep stair) or 5 feet wide (for a generous shallow stair). But, in all cases, the entire stairwell must form one complete structural bay, two stories high.
• In our home: Since we were working with a team of an experienced builder and architect, we were not in danger of doing anything terrible here. However, we did find that our initial estimates of square footage always forgot to account for the stairs, and the stair area on the floorplan always felt larger than they needed to be. There is, indeed, something about the three dimensional volume of a staircase that makes it hard to grasp intuitively.

Inspiration

Shortly after purchasing our property, we started to collect inspiration pictures (alas, this was before Pinterest, so our inspiration pictures were managed by a Google doc). Without trying, a number of themes emerged, and we worked them into our final stair case.

Although the most stunning stairs were the ones with little to no visible support of the treads, when it came to visible supports, a number of our inspiration pictures had dark supports with light treads. Others had light supports with dark treads. The contrast and rhythm provided by contrasting treads and supports would become a central theme.




One thing you may notice if you spend a lot of time on architecture blogs looking at modern houses is that they generally have impractical rails and balusters. These homes are clearly somewhere with less stringent building codes than Bellevue, WA. Fortunately, we were able to find some inspiration images that met the requirements imposed on us by the city and our desire not to have people fall through the stairs.


The vision which inspired us, even before we started thinking about the practical constraints, was long bars which spanned multiple levels of stairs. We liked how having a single bar span multiple levels tied the levels together to make the staircase a single sculptural piece.



We had other inspirations, but these were the features that stuck as we turned this into something real.

Actuality

There are a lot of practical constraints that go into stairs. Local codes constrain most of the distances between elements, available materials constrain what is cost effective to use, practicality of assembly constrains how elements can be put together. These practical constraints had as much influence on the final form of our stairs as our inspirations.


To complement the material choices throughout the rest of the house, we chose to contrast wood and metal. The railings, balusters, and supports are all blackened steel. Steel is also used for the bars between treads, which ensure that nothing too large, such as children, can fall through.


The treads are a 1" oak slabs, each made out of smaller pieces of oak, bonded to a dark stained piece of plywood. We ended up really liking the rhythmic effect of the alternating light and dark lines, but this was almost accidental. Brent, the onsite manager for the first part of construction, found some nice, relatively cheap, solid white oak treads at Home Depot. These needed to be made thicker to support the necessary span, so each tread was reinforced with a piece of high quality plywood. The plywood is set back and darkened to give a stronger appearance of floating to the lighter oak.


Codes and assembly also influenced the tread design. Because of the constraints on tread overlap, each oak tread had to be lengthened by about two inches. After that, each tread had to be precisely sized to work with the balusters. Overall, the additional labor balanced initial low expense of the materials, but the result is visually more interesting than solid slabs, and it is unique among the staircases we have seen.


Another practical difficulty was figuring out how to assemble the balusters, rails, and treads. The balusters are 16 foot steel rods which span three half-flights of stairs. By code, The maximum distance between balusters is 4.5", and they need to be attached to the stairs for structural stability. Because of the differences in floor-to-ceiling height between the main and lower floor, the number of treads per half-flight varied, making alignment of the balusters difficult. To make assembling this puzzle easier, Yuval and Brent decided to attach the balusters to the stairs using stainless steel standoffs. These standoffs screwed into the sides of the treads, which was easier, more stable, and risked less damage than drilling through the treads. The standoffs provide a nice contrasting visual element. Getting the standoffs in the right location was a puzzle that took Dave, who was leading the effort, several days. He had to mark each standoff location with masking tape, use a laser sight to figure out where the corresponding standoffs would go on the lower levels, mark those, and then move on to the next one. Occasionally, the max 4.5" distance between the steel rods would mean that a standoff would have to go in a position that could not be securely attached to a tread. At that point, that standoff would be adjusted, which led to all the other standoffs that had been placed so far needing adjustment. The precision paid off, and after getting everything marked up, they were able to install the standoffs and slide in the rods pretty quickly.

Overall, we are quite pleased with how the stairs turned out. The use of white oak and steel integrates them with the rest of the house, while the tread and baluster design adds a unique, sculptural touch.

Bathroom Finishes

We've already discussed some features of the bathrooms. The materials and colors were covered when we originally chose them. The master bath design was detailed when we finalized that. So the question is, how did everything turn out?

Radiant Heat (230)

• Problem: This pattern is a biologically precise formulation of the intuition that sunlight and a hot blazing fire are the best kinds of heat.
• Therefore: Choose a way of heating your space—especially those rooms where people are going to gather when it is cold—that is essentially a radiative process, where the heat comes more from radiation than convection.
• In our home: Both bathrooms have radiant heat in the floor. This gives extra warmth and comfort to these rooms. This type of heat works best with hard surfaces, especially tiles. It would not work for the carpeted rooms at all, and special care would need to be taken under wood flooring. Additionally, radiant floor heat has a fairly slow temperature adjustment for heating a space. A warm floor feels great on bare feet, but isn't as practical for full space heating.

The master bath turned out pretty much exactly as we imagined it. The sinks and counter spans less than the full width, but still gives us plenty of room. Next to that, we have a nice bench made out of a piece of live-edge maple. This provides a perfect space on the wall to hang towels above.

Built-In Seats (202)

• Problem: Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But most often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. This pattern tells you what to do to make a built-in seat that really works.
• Therefore: Before you build a seat, get hold of an old arm chair or a sofa, and put it into the position where you intend to build a seat. Move it until you really like it. Leave it there for a few days. See if you enjoy sitting in it. Move it if you don't. When you have got it into a position which you like, and where you often find yourself sitting, you know it is a good position. Now build a seat that is just as wide, and just as well padded—and your built-in seat will work.
• In our home: The idea of built-in seats was used for the benches in the bathroom; however, the details of the solution were completely at odds with the seats in the bathroom (padding isn't as good an idea in moist space). We plan to eventually add ones elsewhere that fit this pattern a bit more closely, such as in the office or stair landings.

The mirrors were custom-built to fit the space just right. The boxes were made out of white oak to match wood elsewhere in the house. Two mirrors were put in, separated by a gap in the middle. This was given a piece of frosted glass, backlit by LEDs, and then some small shelves were put in front of it. It is a very elegant detail, and really helps to define the space.

Bathing Room (144)

• Problem: "The motions we call bathing are mere ablutions which formerly preceded the bath. The place where they are performed, though adequate for the routine, does not deserve to be called a bathroom." --Bernard Rudosfsky
• Therefore: Concentrate the bathing room, toilets, showers, and basins of the house in a single tiled area. Locate this bathing room beside the couple's realm—with private access—in a position half-way between the private secluded parts of the house and the common areas; if possible, give it access to the outdoors; perhaps a tiny balcony or walled garden. Put in a large bath—large enough for at least two people to get completely immersed in water; an efficiency shower and basins for the actual business of cleaning; and two or three racks for huge towels—one by the door, one by the shower, one by the sink.
• In our home: This pattern was definitely not used in our home. However, it is a very interesting pattern, and worth a bit of discussion. The detailed discussion in A Pattern Language provides more context around the social experience of bathing, and the bathing room. In many cultures outside the United States, communal bathing is much more common, even with mixed genders. The pattern makes a lot of sense, and could result in a nice result. In the end, though, we are not familiar or comfortable enough with the use of communal bathing to integrate it into our house. It would also be a fairly large deviation from social norms in this country, which would've presented difficulties during design, construction, and permitting; and probably beyond.

Our countertop material ended up being another challenge. When we chose the materials, Deep Ocean CaesarStone was the preferred material — a nice dark blue. When it came time to order the countertops for cutting and installation, we were informed that the color had been discontinued, and there was no more stock available in the US! We looked at some alternative brands, and also considered a color in a new line from CaesarStone: Ocean Palace. This had some similar blues in it, but a very different look. It is made to look more like a natural stone, with cells of different color abutting each other. However, this material was significantly more expensive than their basic line. Since we had gotten no warning at all about this switch of materials, Yuval was able to negotiate a nice discount on the new material, and we ended up with Ocean Palace for our bathroom countertops. The end result may not be better than our original choice, but we are pleased with it.



This same countertop material was used to make a floating bench at the back of the shower. It works well with the other materials in the shower, and handles lots of water without problem. For the shower glass, we ended up choosing just a clear finish. We added a water repellent finish to make cleaning easier. We also had a pair of hooks embedded in the glass for hanging towels and robes. Finally, the shower got a built-in nook in the wall for bathing products. It gives a nice tiled space for storing shampoo, soap, and other items.



The second bathroom upstairs uses many of the same materials and finishes. It only has a single sink, which is offset to one side of the counter to make room for the door. It has a bathtub instead of a shower, and no benches for sitting. The mirror design is much simpler. It does have a large built-in set of shelves for storing towels and linens. One of the big changes to the design of that room was around the bathtub. Originally we had chosen a full bath/shower set with integrated walls. We decided we weren't really happy with the style of it, though. We decided to switch to just a tub, and tile the walls to match the master shower. This also worked better by allowing us to have a half-height partition (pony
wall) at the end of the tub. This separates it from the toilet without fully dividing up the space; and gives a nice shelf topped with the counter top material.

Overall, we're quite happy with the bathrooms. We really like the colors and materials. The unique pieces show off the custom nature of it, and provide better functionality for us. The only problem with the bathrooms so far is a temporary one: the floor heat in the master bath does not work. There is probably a short circuit between the controller on the wall and the connection to the floor. We're hoping to have it fixed soon; until then, we've suffered through the cold of winter with cold tiles in our bathroom.

Closets and Storage

Closets are boring, but storage is important.

Bulk Storage (145)

• Problem: In houses and workplaces there is always some need for bulk storage space; a place for things like suitcases, old furniture, old files, boxes—all those things which you are not ready to throw away, and yet not using everyday.
• Therefore: Do not leave bulk storage till last or forget it. Include a volume for bulk storage in the building—its floor area at least 15 to 20 per cent of the whole building area—not less. Place this storage somewhere in the building where it costs less than other rooms—because, of course, it doesn't need a finish.
• In our home: In addition to the closets described, we have some areas for bulk storage. The lower floor has an unfinished bathroom that can be used for storage. The ground level at the back door is a bare concrete floor that has little use besides storage. We also have a very large crawlspace under the house that can be used for bulk storage of items that don't need to be temperature-controlled.

The majority of our closets and storage shelving use the Elfa system from The Container Store. It is flexible, modular, and reasonably priced. We designed a fairly comprehensive storage solution, but it is easy to add on more functionality as desired.

Let's examine our storage shelving with a room by room tour. This won't cover all of the storage. There are other types of storage such as built-in bookshelves, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and garage storage. These will be addressed in more detail elsewhere.

The secondary bedrooms were the easiest. They each have a small closet and are currently unoccupied. In each closet, we added a hanging bar and shelf across the top, and then mid-way down, another hanging bar and shelf across half of the closet. Simple but functional.


In the laundry room, we added quite a bit of shelving to accommodate crafts, utility storage, and drying clothes. The original design had shelves above the washer and dryer, but after those were installed, we realized reaching above them would be difficult. It didn't help that the dryer vent pipe added an awkward bulge in the wall. Because the Elfa system is modular, we reconfigured things at install time and moved two of the tall wall supports between the door and the washing machine. The other side of the room has utility drawers and a craft desk for using a sewing machine or spreading out crafts on. We're also finding the desk useful for folding clothes.

The master dressing room has a corner full of shelves and hanging for our clothes. We have around 6 feet of short hang for each of us, and another 2-3 feet of long hang each. This satisfies the amount of storage space specified in the Dressing Rooms pattern. We added a couple short wire drawers for smaller clothes like socks, and some deeper wire drawers for folded items like t-shirts. One nice accessory was a set of belt hooks that attaches to the end of shelf, and has space to hang several items. We decided to go for open shelving here instead of a closed closet or wardrobe, and the platinum shelving plus walnut-look trim gives a bit of elegance to the design.

The media room uses the freestanding shelving from Elfa to avoid interfering with the sound isolation channel in the wall. The closet uses plain wire shelving to help with ventilation. It is fairly deep to accommodate the large media equipment. The open nook next to the closet is for more frequently accessed items like controllers, batteries, and video games. The shelves and drawers use wire shelving with walnut trim.

We also used Elfa in the pantry. The long wall has a series of shelves, starting at 20" deep at the bottom, going to 16" deep in the middle, and 12" deep on top. This provides easy access even to items that get pushed to the back. The short wall has a few more shelves, along with some drawers for items such as produce that may not sit so nicely on shelves.

We're quite happy with the system. We have a lot of storage space in the house, it is functional, and looks nice.

Moving and Initial Impressions

Moving day! It was a long time coming, but we finally moved into our house in mid-October. We hired movers to handle everything in the townhouse we had been renting. They came on a Friday. We then rented a U-Haul truck and had help from friends and family to empty out our storage unit on Saturday.

Moving went smoothly. Settling in was a bit more difficult. While the majority of the work was done, there were a lot of details to finish after we moved. For example, they were still finishing the wood floors the day we moved in, so that evening we went out to dinner and a movie to give the floors a chance to dry.

The biggest missing piece was the stair rails. This made it easier to move furniture and boxes up and down the stairs, but wasn't quite appropriate for a finished house. The next week was spent finishing the stair rails. Since then, there has been at least some work each weekday to finish up the remaining details. The remaining tasks are recorded in a punchlist, which is being checked off at a steady rate.

The first few days living here were exciting. Partly because this is a nicer house than any of the previous places we've lived. Mostly because we are finally living in this house that we designed ourselves and have watched every step of the way. Despite everything we've done, living here was still new. We knew the layout, the materials, the details, etc. It looked familiar and was designed around us, but living in it is still a different experience. We could really experience the advantages of the design, and appreciate the materials and construction techniques.

Reality set in fairly quickly, though. While all our stuff was within the premises of our house, we were a long way from "moved in". Unpacking was complicated by the fact that work was still being done on our house. Most of our shelving wasn't installed until a few days after we moved in, so we couldn't immediately unpack clothes. Paint touch-ups were still in-progress, so we were a bit cautious about blocking walls.

There were some bugs and obstructions to deal with initially. The master shower had a bug where the water was either fully hot or fully cold, with no temperature adjustment in-between. Our bathroom and dressing room held a pile of stair rails. The kitchen counter was mostly covered with construction paraphernalia.

These particular issues have been resolved, but there are still some inconveniences. The largest one is that the garage is not ready to have a car in it. It is full of our boxes that need to be unpacked and construction equipment belonging to our builder. All of that needs to be cleared out and the floor painted before we can park our car in there. Having always had access to a garage, it has been difficult seeing our poor MINI sit outside in the cold and rain for weeks at a time. More practically, it has prevented us from putting proper winter tires on the car.

Some annoyances derive simply from adjusting to a new place. The mini-split heating system seems to be working well, but we're still learning the proper adjustments to keep the house comfortable. The kitchen is wonderful, but we are still learning how to use the stove, oven, dishwasher, etc. and figuring out the locations of all the kitchen implements.

There are plenty of details to enjoy, though. The master suite is excellent — the bedroom is quiet and cozy, the dressing room is functional (even without chairs and a side table yet), and the bathroom is just right for us. The kitchen is working well, and the induction stove is amazing to cook with. The media room is everything we hoped for. We've already been enjoying movies and video games, and hosted a few gatherings that took advantage of it.

As time passes, we're increasingly enjoying our house. Items are being crossed off the punchlist, bringing the construction closer to complete. Boxes are being unpacked, bringing the house closer to moved-in. And we are becoming more used to living here, bringing it closer to feeling like home.

Despite this big step in the process, we're not done blogging! There are still plenty of areas we have not yet written about; and even once those are covered, we'll be writing more posts about our experiences using the space.

Lighting Fixtures

Once we finished the lighting design, it was time to pick fixtures. Light fixtures come in all styles and at all price points. They range from your everyday light bulb to pendants which cost thousands. They range from traditional to ultra modern. The choices are overwhelming and, since fixtures are largely a matter of taste, our builder was able to provide less guidance than for other choices.

Fortunately, we didn't have to pick out each of the approximately 100 built-in lights in our home. The majority of the lights fit into categories, and the category requires only a single choice.

Yuval recommended LEDs for our basic can lights. LEDs are expensive compared to other bulb types, but Home Depot offers a reasonably-priced LED can light that uses Cree LEDs. These are some of the best currently available. They provide light at 2700K (a warm white, similar to incandescent bulbs), they are instant on, dimmable, low power, and have a long lifespan (listed at around 50,000 hours).

CFLs, the other obvious low power light option, have similar light quality, but they take a while to warm up, are not dimmable, and have a lifespan closer to 10,000 hours. Despite the higher price, LEDs won out due to instant-on and a long lifespan (not having to change lights in our 10' ceilings will be nice).

Yuval made a number of suggestions for wall scones to go in the stair tower, upstairs landing, and media room. We settled on the third of the linked options because it was a nice balance of style and affordability.

After evaluating the specific recommendations from Yuval and browsing online, we visited a few lighting stores to see fixtures in person. At Home Depot, we spotted a nice brushed steel and glass track light kit that we liked. Since we had quite a few of these in bedrooms and other rooms, we didn't want something too expensive; this kit was perfect.

At one of the store, we found an adjustable arm lamp to use by our bed. We ended up using these same lamps in the master bath over the mirror. We have a fairly thick mirror box built out which would have mostly blocked a standard wall-mount vanity light. The long arms of these lamps allow them to be positioned however we like relative to the mirror. These lamps introduced us to other lights by George Kovacs. We loved a powder vanity light from this brand, and another offering inspired the vanity light in the second bathroom.

Because we are aiming for an energy efficient house, our exterior lights had to be surface mount. Normally the electrical box is set into the house, and the light mounts to that, but any penetration in the wall hurts efficiency. Because of this, we went mostly with the recommendations made by our builder and electrician, including these lights that mount on the exterior of the wall.

We wanted lights on the upper deck to provide soft illumination near the floor. We originally chose a small deck light, but this didn't work! Similar to other outdoor lighting, it uses a 12V electrical current. But these lights would be hardwired into our main 120V circuit. So instead we went with an inset step light in brushed nickel.

We have one light whose only purpose is aesthetic. We have a distinctive stair tower and our home is visible from a main boulevard down the hill. This inspired us to highlight the stair tower with light. After looking at a variety of options from Elemental LED, we chose this wall washer, which will be mounted in the backyard, pointed at the stair tower. It's very bright.

We have three pendants, each of which provides a major focus of it's location. Before construction started, Yuval found a stock clearance of some LZF lamps. We decided the Gea S looked nice, and purchased a large one in cherry. We originally planned it for the dining room. As work progressed, we realized we wanted a long dining table which would overwhelm the circular lamp. We also realized the lamp would compete visually with the stove hood on the kitchen island. We decided to move the Super Gea pendant to the living room.

After much searching, we stumbled upon this linear suspension pendant. We liked the minimal look and thought it would fit well with the linear table and kitchen. However, when we placed an order, it had been discontinued! There was one online store that still seemed to have stock, so we ordered it from them. It was not actually available, but could be specially produced in 9-14 weeks. This was longer than we were comfortable waiting for, so we switched to an alternative linear suspension lamp that was available sooner.



The remaining pendant is for the top of the stair tower. We were having a hard time finding something we liked that would look good above the stairs. But then Erika stumbled upon some inspiration. She decided to crochet a spherical lampshade to cover a simple pendant. First she acquired a rice paper lantern-style shade (made of nylon) to provide the shape for the yarn. Then we chose some bulky yarn in a burgundy similar to our bordeaux paint color. Finally I found a simple and cheap pendant that would provide the socket, cord, and ceiling mount. It has a simple attachment mechanism that will allow us to attach the shade to the pendant.

With those and a few other miscellaneous lights, our lighting is complete. We have good general illumination throughout, along with some distinctive lights to define spaces and add our style to the interior.