How should I design my concrete from driveway to shop?
Jenna Bordelon
2 years ago
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Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoJenna Bordelon
2 years agoRelated Discussions
How to fill the bare strips along my driveway?
Comments (15)My first thoughts were of heathers and heaths that will flower in summer, fall and winter instead of spring since you mentioned your yard is heavy to spring bloomers. They are evergreen, low maintenance too. There may not be enough sun for heathers though..However if roses thrive and bloom, heather would be fine. Personally, I'd mix it up rather than plant one thing and I would plant ground covers to unify but then I hate bare dirt. I'd be tempted to yank the roses since they are very cottagy and your house and rest of landscaping is classic Pacific Northwest. I'd add ferns and dwarf rhodies, azaleas, dwarf Pieris, there are several, Skimmia would provide berries (if you plant a male with females) and likes shade too. The Cotoneaster would be fine but I have seen them collect trash as mentioned. Ajuga is my current favorite ground cover but I know it is very common and some don't like it. I like 'Chocolate Chip' which is at least different than most. I have a lot of Scotch and Irish moss around my yard too but they want sun, they aren't really moss. There aren't a ton of plants with summer, fall or winter blooms that really fit your house and current landscaping as well as the spring blooming ones I mentioned do but you may not care what I think! You could do some ornamental grasses, my Oriental fountain grass blooms from July to November but it looks awful from January to May. Blue Oat grass or fescue are more evergreen than fountain grass is. I love your house and neighborhood. Those mature trees on the skyline. Gorgeous. My neighborhood just has a lot of butchered Doug firs. Yours looks like the wonderful one my brother lives in in Everett. What have you got planted in the rest of the yard?...See MoreHow should I mark my little dog's grave?
Comments (16)First, my heart goes out to you. I am so sorry for your loss of your loyal friend, Cutter. Our dogs that have passed have been cremated as they are just too large to bury. I recently lost my old gal and her ashes are in a beautiful box placed on on one of the shelves of a bookshelf in my office. She has entire shelf to herself. A picture, her nametag, a glass heart dish with hair they cut for me when we had to put her down, a footprint, two different Christmas card pictures from years past. I have a memory candle and some other things friends sent me when I was grieving, a literal entire shrine. Sounds crazy, but I love the shelf and it helps me honor her. We have buried two cats in our back yard as we too live on a wood property and have a creek that runs past our property. Like some of the other posters, we had family ceremony. They were both buried in wooden boxes (friend owns a liquor store and was so kind to give them to us). My daughter was very young when both passed, so they were wrapped in a blanket and placed into the box along with a favorite cat toy, one was buried with a piece of the door trim DH has to replace because Tig had shredded it.)). Any event, we mark the spot with a stone purchased at the local garden center. Many of the homecenters and garden centers now carry the markers. I planted dyanthis (sp) which comes up every spring/summer so we know where they are buried. I can relate to not wanting to accidently dig and disturb a dear friend who has already been buried....See MoreShould I fire my arch. designer or make the best of it?
Comments (12)kirkhall and engineerchic - thank you for the advice. palimpsest - I agree with many of your points. Believe me I have really struggled with how little additional space we can get and whether the flow is right and worth the money. Our goals were to have an updated and more social kitchen and a kid bath (we have 3). And this plan does that for our budget. But the word "cobbled" feels apt. I just can't figure out how to improve the plan substantially (without tearing the house down to studs and spending $400K). We did look at a bigger option (turning stairs, putting kitchen where right bedroom is, etc) but it is not affordable. Here are some answers to your questions. I appreciate any and all ideas and don't apologize for being a downer. I wouldn't be here if I didn't want feedback. Front entry is used by guests/dh - garage by me. Kitchen entrance is rarely used (take garbage out there and get to grill and back patio down steps). I hate the lack of entry too. But the space is such I can either have an entry or a dining space it seems. 2 kids share the bedroom behind the kitchen and it is roughly 10.5x12.5 plus the closets. I am open to moving door and shrinking bedroom a bit but I think there is some sort of code about a doorway that close to an open stairwell down? Were you thinking of trying to get the bath between kitchen and bedroom? And, front and side setbacks are maxed with latest plan. I was attempting to set the kitchen back a bit with an archway or header and some stub walls so it wasn't so prominent from the front door? For the hall bath I think we would put a shower in there due to space. And for the master we could close the existing door and put one in on the bedroom wall so there is not a view issue from the living room. Let me know if you see any way to improve the plan or if you are simply voting no go on the whole thing. I am terrified of screwing up the house. And have thought I should just update/open the kitchen and leave the rest. But then again we don't really want to share a bath with our 3 kids anymore. Thanks again to everyone......See MoreWhat should I expect from my architect? Long!
Comments (22)Omelet's right. All architects are different to some degree but no different than that of any other profession. But as others have noted above, most successful design results come from a highly collaborative effort with the client involved every step of the way. A couple of weeks later I asked if we could meet and he showed me his preliminary plan. To be honest, that scared me a little bit. I'm a believer that the best designers are fast on their feet. Coming up with the basic concept, or "big idea" ("Parti" in architect speak), should be highly interactive with all the conceptualizing done right there. Depending on project complexity, we all have to go "back to the shop" to some degree to fine tune up the "big idea" but if a guy/girl ALWAYS has to do that, IMHO he/she is probably not that creative. I do these sessions all the time, call them design “charrettes” and they typically last 4 or 5 hours and at the end of that time we have a house conceptualized. And no spectators are allowed as everyone there is an active participant! And you’d be surprised at the number of great design ideas a builder or owner can come up with. I do all the drawing freehand and if a “straight” line is needed, I just use the edge of my scale. A computer drawing may show what I know but a sketch will show what I’m thinking. To remove some of the mystery and to give you an idea of what you should be shooting for, here’s a recent charrette and it’s interesting in that the sketch in the photo I'm working on is the first floor plan (first sketch photo) and you can see how close the final “hard line" is to that sketch. There's usually dozens if not hundreds of sketches. This highly condensed explanation might make it appear there's one per floor!! I put a little star in a circle on the ones that are important so I can find them later in the debris field! That’s the builder in the grey shirt flanked by the owners and me with pen in hand. We started at 8AM and by noon we had the freehand sketches below. I hardlined them later so everyone could understand what we did but most of the designing was done in that meeting. And here's the actual charrette sketches, the fine tuned sketches (done later) and the final. Hopefully you can see the concept is all carried forward from the first "big idea" to the final. And also, everything is thought of simultaneously. We're not coming up with a floor plan and then "tacking on" elevations. And we're stopping design at the property lines, not at the exterior walls, like most posted plans in this forum do. This sketch is the actual one I'm working on the the charrette photo: First floor "Big Idea": Second Floor "Big Idea": Elevations and plans interposed Fine tuned up Final....not much different from the freehand conceptuals that were developed interactively:...See MoreJenna Bordelon
2 years agoJenna Bordelon
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2 years ago3onthetree
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