The plans

James is coming by today to show us the plans he's drawn up for our addition. To use the vernacular, w00t!

Park Oak House

This is another house recently completed by our architect, James Meyer. Maybe we can scrap the whole addition idea and just move into this place. It's in the Hollywood Hills, so it shouldn't cost much.

Vladimir's mosaic

vladimir
Originally uploaded by japunto.

My friend Vladimir at thinkforward.org has written an algorithm for generating a variety of beautiful mosaics. This is my favorite.

Erin's screens

Here is the quick model I did of the type of screens we were thinking of getting for dividing the living room. I'm not sure what kind of materials we'd go with, but maybe some kind of dark wood frame with a plexiglass-made-to-look-like-rice-paper interior would work. That or chicken wire.

Just some pretty pictures

open02
Originally uploaded by japunto.

I'm uploading some scans of a house I like. We've got to get off our butts and call the architect to see how the plans are coming. Hopefully that'll make for more exciting news than this lazy post.

The gift of speed

I saw this posted on daddytypes.com and knew I had to have it. Or, rather, get it for my son's second birthday, that is. So I did. Can't wait for it to arrive. It's called likeabike.

3D Shape Wallpaper

I saw these 3D wallpaper tiles over on Mister Shape's blog, and am going to make the full court press with Erin to get some for the living room.

Partitions

Lofts always get the coolest partitions. Must be a side effect of living in a big giant cube. We'd like to consider sectioning off the project room into two areas with some sort screens or sliding walls.

Meeting Today

James (the architect) is coming by today to talk with us about the design direction. We've been clipping out pretty pictures of houses from magazines to show him, as well as these photos online. He's also going to take measurements of our house and lot -- I wonder if he'll use some high-tech sonar/laser based device. That'd be neat-o.

Signed

exterior
Originally uploaded by japunto.

We signed the contract with our architect, and put it in the mail. This makes it feel official, and I'm glad to have forward movement.

This is a nice exterior, with a mix of natural and modern that I like. If I recall correctly, it's the house that contains the stylish staircase below.

Exoskeletal Staircase

backbone stairs
Originally uploaded by japunto.

So, we've gotten our questions answered by the architect about the proposal and we're signing it. Scary bags.

Here is a staircase I really like. A lot. As in, I'm going to find this house and burgle them of it. It looks like the spiny exoskeleton of some benevolent giant bug alien.

Regulations

A couple I know are also doing an addition here in Burbank. They're a year into the process (having stalled for a while when they ditched their first architect). I get to hear all sorts of scary stuff from them about local regulations. For example - if you move your garage back you also have to move it five feet away from the edge of your property and into your yard.

Another -- if you increase your square footage beyond ~50% of your original home you have to install fire sprinklers in the ceilings of your home and your garage. Apparently the fire department does this for you and charges a lot to do so. Yikes.

Notes to self: Don't move the garage. Add < 50% to sq. footage.

Proposal is in

We got the proposal yesterday, but I barely had a chance to look at it. I did read ahead to the ending wherein the author tries to kill off the homeowner with the cost. It was very exciting!