Reading room

We love our peace and quiet. Or, at least, we imagine that we'd love it if we got to know it. Toward that goal, we proposed to James and Neha that the balcony overlooking the courtyard be redesigned as a small reading room.
This certainly won't further our other goal of lowering the cost of the addition. And I worry that enclosing that section will hurt the overall design, but we'll see what he thinks.

The Third Dimension

I've been working up a 3D model of the addition using Maya and rendering it with mental ray. Here is a view of the rear of the house as if you had displeased a knotty old witch, she had turned you into our garage, and you had opened your eyes and looked to your left a little bit. (What'd you say to her anyway?)

Construction begins

Not really. This is a photo of a house being built with giant styrofoam/particle board ice cream sandwiches. They're called Structurally Insulated Panels. They are built at a factory to measure and then assemled on site -- no need for traditional framing. We're looking into this because we've heard that they can save on construction time/cost, as well as being very energy efficient.

Everybody Wow

James and Neha (designer on the project) came over on Friday to show us the plans. In three words: Greatly Exceeded Expectations. We are in awe of the design they developed. I'm going to post cleaned up versions of the plans and elevations based on the CAD files soon, but here's a grainy, stitched-together scan for now.

I love the incorporation of the existing house with the modern style of the addition. Clean lines, lots of light, tons of added functionality.

Everything on the left-hand side of the image beyond the chimney is new. Two steps down from the (larger) living room take you to the activity room, laundry, storage closet, small bathroom, and the guest bedroom. The guest bedroom will have a rear wall made of sliding glass doors that pocket into the wall, allowing for indoor/outdoor living. Please sign up early to stay with us in these lovely accommodations.

I'll write more about the interior once I post images. I'm also busy building a 3D model of the plans so I can shoot some QTVR movies or a flythrough to put online.

I recall James once saying that "this is the fun part" of doing a house addition, and I couldn't agree more. I'm sure the heady excitement we feel now will be neatly counterbalanced by the realities of construction. And paying for it. But for now our only job is to request small design adjustments here and there and start researching materials, finishes, hardware and colors. Yay us!