More pictures of our prototype in Idaho
Recently I received from our house designer, Trent Roman, some new images of the Stanley, Idaho museum which is the prototype for the Blizzard Gulch “Ranger Station”. Gretchen Roman was down that way recently and, knowing that I’d never taken pictures of this side of the museum, took these nice shots.
Stanley Museum (Valley Creek Ranger Station) from the highway.
This view, of the gabled main entry, is one I did not have when designing our log house. Had I known about this gable I might have felt obliged to copy it instead of drawing a hip-roofed dining porch. For our setting, though, I think the side gable entry might have been too grandiose and not located in the right place anyway. Due to the slope of our land it would have required a lengthy staircase.
Originally the “new” Valley Creek Ranger Station, replacing a 1909 ranger station, the building was completed in 1933. Ranger Merle Markle cut and hauled the logs, his wife Kathleen helped with peeling them, and a crew of men constructed the building. It had nine rooms and a bathroom. (I’m glad I didn’t know that, either.) Other outbuildings that still remain are a log garage/telephone office, log-sided barn, and woodshed/cellar.
I believe the building at left, with some replacement logs showing, is the garage/telephone office. It could also be the barn. Maybe someone can tell me.
All information about the Valley Creek Ranger Station (Stanley Museum) is from Les Joslin’s book, Uncle Sam’s Cabins: A Visitor’s Guide to Historic U.S. Forest Service Ranger Stations of the West.
Here are the pictures that I had when designing the house:
View from the parking lot. This side entrance became our main entrance.
Rear view of the Stanley Museum, from the parking lot.
At the time we were there, in the spring of 2006, the museum was closed and drifts of snow made looking around difficult.
Let There Be Color!
Diogenes (a Greek philosopher) once said, “Blushing is the color of virtue.” As I work on building a house, I pause to visualize the metaphor of a house “blushing.” How might this house wear its virtue as a color? Unfortunately, I am artistically challenged and lack the vision for an answer to such a question. So, I called on the services of a professional designer. True to form, I think she hit the nail on the head. She made it possible for this house to “blush” so to speak, and to go from the bland an monotonous look of primer to the glowing and attractive look of a house that is displaying its virtue. As you can see in the pictures below, its virtue is in its historical detailing and its confident presence in the neighborhood:
Exterior w/ Paint
Living Room w/ Pocket Doors to Dining
Family Room
Master Bedroom
Master Bath
It seems that the trend in colors these days is to go after any and every shade of taupe imaginable in the endless pursuit of neutrality and appeal to the widest possible audience. Personally, I get tired of taupe pretty quickly, so I am very pleased to have a masterful selection of colors in the house that are calming and inviting while also not being taupe. All I have to say is thank goodness for interior designers.
Vist the project web page to see more pictures and project info.
“Do I really need to design before I build?”
blueprint by caryn urata © 2009
The next two topics are general in nature. They are not specific to the 1915 Bungalow Remodel project as I executed design work, but the questions of whether to design at all and how to hire an architect might be interesting to some.
“Do I really need to design before I build?” I have been asked this question many times by friends and relatives, and the answer is always a resounding “yes.” I have designed during construction in the past, and the projects have always been more expensive, taken longer and were less elegant in design. It’s extremely frustrating and stressful when you’re forced to make last-minute or on-the-fly decisions in order for the tradesperson to install the fixture or finish that afternoon. By designing first, you have the opportunity to:
- Consider the project as a whole as well as the fine details.
- Establish a game plan.
- Create a more realistic construction schedule.
- Investigate different schematic layouts and finish possibilities.
- Select the best design solution.
- Anticipate concerns and address them before they become issues.
- Develop a strategy to minimize construction impact.
- Get a more accurate bid or construction cost.
- Determine what the finished project will look like prior to construction.
The results are a more thoughtful design, coherent finish palette and cleaner details, shorter construction time, less construction cost, better execution and fewer headaches. Although it is impossible to foresee everything, this holistic approach prepares you for the questions that arise during construction, creates a good foundation for the work to be done and sets the bar for the quality of construction. All-in-all, it’s time and money well-spent.
Tune in next time for how to hire an architect!
Little things mean a lot
I suppose this is the part where it seems as though I have a heart too soon made glad: some of the things that make me happiest about our new spaces are things most people wouldn’t even notice. And I wouldn’t have bothered fixing them, or trying to, if they weren’t part of a larger product. But here they are, and they delight me.
The air conditioning vents in the attic used to blow out on either side of the bed. I like sleeping by an open window, but an icy Freon-based blast is not a good substitute.
Bed goes between vents. Occupant with XX chromosomes freezes.
Now the AC vents are in the ceiling. The patronizing previous owner, who kept pointing out that warm air rises, never mentioned that cold air sinks. I don’t know why; it certainly wasn’t because he thought we’d be able to work out that particular corollary. Still, I’m excited about next summer’s climate control.
If I sleep standing up at the end of the bed, I guess I'd feel a draft.
I used to keep knives in a drawer across the kitchen from where I did most of my chopping. I’d seen some nice butcher blocks with knife slots, and then I saw this arrangement (scroll down). In our kitchen, there’s some dead space in the corner of the counter run near the fridge, so I bought an insert and Dan Stone, Wondercarpenter, made it happen.
Reach over, grab knife, cut what needs to be cut.
The work on the bathroom has not only given us a place where we can brush our teeth without falling through the floor, but a place where both the air and our towels will be warm and cozy:
It's a towel warmer and a radiator. And shiny.
Ignore the toilet, ignore the TP. That little screen is the display for the tile thermostat. The thing tucked behind it is not a tiny newpaper, it's the directions. I thought we were ignoring the toilet, anyway.
I’m looking back at the things that make me happy, and I’m realizing I must be part lizard, because I don’t seem to be able to regulate my own body temperature very well. So although the photo above seems kind of film noir to me, maybe it should be something with a little more of a science fiction vibe to it.
Waterproofing the Basement
future wine cellar
future bedroom
existing stairs
future wet bar
The first concern was that the almost one hundred year old home had the usual porous concrete foundation walls. The original builders had used unclean river rock as the aggregate and no reinforcing as was customary at the time. Over the years, this type of wall weakens, as evidenced by the hairline and large cracks in our foundation walls. There were also a few areas where the wall was soft and crumbly due to poor drainage from the gutters and downspouts. Although the amount of water coming in was never substantial, it was enough to raise concern for the basement build-out.
We interviewed several water mitigation contractors. Each proposed a different method of addressing the infiltration. Our preferred choice was to install an exterior french drain and drywell, but we could not locate the drywell without the undue cost of tearing out trees and digging up an oil tank or ripping up a deck and paving stones.
In the end, we chose to seal the larger cracks with expanding foam, patch all cracks, skim-coat the walls, replace the exterior drain lines that were clogged with debris, install a sump pump with interior drain along the perimeter walls and apply a two-part epoxy paint on the foundation walls and floor. We then waited for the heavy winter rains to test the system. Last year, Mother Nature complied with record snow- and rainfall over the holidays, and the basement remained dry. We were finally ready to start! Whoohoo!
Tune in next time for the benefits of design prior to construction!
Old stonework in Beulah — and ours
Pine Drive and Curtis Lane
Valley View Ranch
Pennsylvania Avenue
Near Middle Creek
Pennsylvania Avenue near Squirrel Creek
Grand Avenue at the Songbird Cafe and Music Hall
Cascade Avenue
Blizzard Gulch
All right, so the little deck piers in the last image aren’t quite as elegant as the previous ones, but it’s our first stonework project. The other pictures are just a sampling of the dozens of stone gate, entry, and fence posts that Beulah ought to be famous for. Many of them were built decades ago for by a fine stonemason named Anderson. Others, perhaps not as refined but just as interesting, were built by ordinary people. Some are incorporated into low walls around yards. Once you start looking for the posts you become aware of rocks everywhere in Beulah architecture.
Methodist Church
Pennsylvania Avenue
This week at Blizzard Gulch: snow, mud and stairs
If October’s weather is any indication, it will be a cold and snowy winter this year. After the recent dry years the forest could use the moisture, and sufficient cold may help kill off some pine bark beetles. However, it makes outdoor house work nearly impossible. The metal roof is too wet to walk on so the dormer siding won’t be completed. As the snow melts, mud surrounds the house because we don’t have gutters on yet. Trenching for water lines has been put on hold. And I had to go and hurt my back bending over to pet a cat.
There’s no lack of things to do indoors. We light up propane and kerosene heaters. Some days, if it’s warm enough to turn the heaters off, I can get another coat of varnish on the exterior door that’s camped on sawhorses in the dining room for weeks now. At these temperatures it takes at least three days for the varnish to dry enough to sand and turn the door over.
Nearly a foot of snow on the scaffold. No window trim work will get done now.
John decided to build stairs from the main floor to the basement. Stairs aren’t the easiest things to calculate and build, so he ordered a couple of books from Taunton Press. The one with the yellow cover is more basic and probably provided the most help but John found useful information in both books. Confusingly, the titles are almost identical.
Taunton's For Pros By Pros: Building Stairs, by Andy Engel
Taunton's For Pros By Pros: Building Stairs, Stairbuilding Advice from the Experts
Stringers, the notched boards that underpin the stairs, were traditionally cut from 2×12 lumber but, following advice in these books, John instead chose engineered lumber. It won’t shrink and leave the notches out of square, nor is it full of knots that, if located along a cut, would reduce the stringer’s strength.
The books all say that no stairs are ever perfect, but using the first stringer to carefully trace the rest helps assure that they match.
Engineered lumber frays when cut with a circular saw but this won't show in the end. A handsaw completes the cuts to make a sharp corner.
Stringers in place, ready for risers and treads.
Adhesive helps assure squeak-free stairs.
Star drive screws make the stairs strong. Unlike nails, they are easy to back out and relocate if you make a mistake.
John screws the final riser into place.
A job well done! Someday these stairs will be covered with "nice" risers and bullnose treads but for now these plywood subtreads and risers will be fine.
Not an “It is finished!” post
But, at least, a “We have our kitchen back!” post.
Today I handed my punch list to Lou and he sent the cleaning service to make our remodeled space habitable.
The punch list seems epic to me, who has never done a remodel before. And I don’t know when the furnishings for the third floor will arrive, so moving in there has to wait, but still. Cooking! We redid the kitchen, and it became a place where we can cook. Cook food. And then eat it. All in our very own house. It seems amazing.
Not the first time it's been in the niche, but this time it gets to stay.
Until we cook that food, we can store it here:
Ever tried to find a large fridge that doesn't have ice and water through the door?
As much as I missed cooking, what I really missed was having a kitchen sink. This, however, was definitely worth the wait:
Only the finest liquids will be dumped down this sink.
Not every item on the punch list is the result of workflow. The decisions keep coming. Our electrician thinks we should have a black line painted on white switchplates. My middle child and I like the plain black. All opinions are welcome — vote now!
Remodeling allows you to become someone who cares a lot about switchplates. A LOT.
Index to my posts
From oldest to newest:
Building and blogging 9/17/2009
No well, no water service – what do you do? 9/18/2009
Floor plans 9/23/2009
This week at Blizzard Gulch: plumbing, cellar door, lighting 9/27/2009
Where to get good stuff for renovation and log homes 10/1/2009
Basement pitfalls and plans 10/2/2009
Globe finials: an old roof detail you can revive today 10/6/2009
Rough plumbing inspected and approved 10/20/2009
Log set Part 1 10/21/2009
Log set Part 2 plus a log building bibliography 10/23/2009
Useful web links for new old houses and log homes
I’ve got the linoleum loonies 10/28/2009
This week at Blizzard Gulch: snow, mud and stairs 10/31/2009
Old and new stonework in Beulah 11/1/2009
I’ve got the linoleum loonies
Why does everyone use vinyl flooring instead of linoleum, even though the latter lasts longer and is “greener”? Because vinyl is cheaper? Maybe, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that you can actually go to a store, see it, and buy it! Installers are everywhere in case you don’t want to lay it yourself. I’m finding out this is not the case with linoleum, at least in these parts.
The Colorado Forbo Marmoleum rep gave me the name of a company in Pueblo West that sells Marmoleum. We make a trip out there today to check the place out and, after much driving around, find the address. It’s a little warehouse-type building hidden back off the street in an industrial area. There’s no name whatsoever on the building and the door is forbiddingly steel and windowless. And it’s actually a painting business. Hmm! This doesn’t look right. Looks like it’s just a place where they keep their equipment.
So I call another Forbo telephone number and get the name of another Pueblo dealer. They have a display of Marmoleum Click, a different kind of linoleum tile that we don’t want. No, they can’t get what we want, not even by special order. Why? Because they don’t have a certified installer on their staff. What difference does that make, since we’re going to install it ourselves? Because they don’t, they can’t, they won’t, and they are about ready to get rid of the Click display anyway. And that’s that. Ye gods, how many sales do they lose because they haven’t gotten around to sending someone to the installation class?
Now what? Are we going to have to go to Denver or Colorado Springs to find someone who will sell us this stuff? Or buy it online from heaven-knows-who? In frustration I call the painting company, expecting to get an answering machine at best, and to my complete amazement a nice man answers and says sure, we can get it for you. He will call Forbo to make sure the colors we want are still available and let me know. He acts like he understands what I am talking about.
I should point out that we are nowhere near ready to lay linoleum. So why the rush? Because it’s getting close to the end of the year and very soon Forbo will discontinue some colors. You and I know exactly which ones those will be! They already got rid of Cool Green, a nice 1930s color, in their heavier weight linoleum but I think — and this has to be confirmed — that it’s currently available in a lighter weight material suitable for the upstairs bathroom.
Edit: I waited and waited for the painting company to call back. I had to call them twice before I got any help at all, and it was meager help at that. So in the end I ordered tiles by phone from Building for Health Eco-Center in Carbondale, Colorado. The owner, Cedar Rose Guelberth, was immensely helpful and tracked down everything I wanted. She even contacted Forbo Marmoleum and found out that they do recommend, and have instructions for, the use of their product as a countertop material. I’ll be ordering from Cedar Rose again.
These will be the linoleum schemes for the Blizzard Gulch “Ranger Station”. (Sorry for the fuzzy images. I haven’t figured out a way to make them sharp once they’re loaded into the blog post.)
First floor linoleum plan, all in the heavier-weight Marmoleum Dual tile. Moraine (gray) in the bathroom. Checkerboard of Moraine and White Marble (off-white) in the utility room and kitchen, except for a little "rug" of Bleeckerstreet (red) and Butter (soft yellow) in the kitchen.
Second floor linoleum. White Marble and Cool Green (both in the lighter weight Marmoleum MCT tile) in the bathroom.
In the windowless basement half-bath that we recently decided to add, a cheerful checkerboard of Bleeckerstreet and Butter.
