Overview of the house, looking S. Still so many piles of material to move around!
I like this angle ...
I love the house ...
It was a difficult lot.
No lawn to water!
Overall, considering it was my first attempt designing anything, much less a house, I'm pretty happy with it.
At the far end there is an herb garden and back patio with an ipe bench on top of a low gabion.
Looking S along the E side of the house. The hardscaping around the culvert planters is crusher fines - basically a waste product from making gravel.
Looking SW. Corner lots are terrible for shoveling snow!
The gabions forming a sweet right angle.
Looking across the bark chips - you can barely see the London Plane tree. Lundstrom Park is across the street.
Looking downhill - here you can see the dark color of the cocoa beans used as mulch in the planters.
Close up of the house numbers.
A view of the block planter by the entry and culvert pipe used as planters.
A view of the massive ore-crushing cogs I got from Smith & Edwards. They must weight 500 pounds each and were a huge challenge to move and install.
Landscaping finally coming together. Edging is just 1x8 trim pieces of trex or some similar product spliced together with 3' shorts.
The main entry - a concrete slab sitting on metal b-decking inserted into heavy duty angle iron. Then rectangular tubing with bar grating. No part of the entry touches the ground.
Columnar oak in the courtyard. It should provide excellent shade - in about ten years!
Looking down from the roof deck.
Culvert pipe planters with wee bunch grasses.
The ipe bench by the future herb garden.
Back patio.
Interior courtyard is still a work in progress.
The roof deck. It look a lot nicer on a sunny day when the plants are growing!
Ipe is spaced with river rock and buffalo grass.
Shot from the taller roof of the main living room.
Thyme lawn growing in.
Good overview, here with the mailbox installed.
I designed the mailbox. Welded by RC Welding and then powder coated locally. The holes on the right are sections of copper pipe that happened to be the exact diameter of one of Craig's hole saws. The vertical perforations were cut on a plasma saw. Very smooth and even.
Looking SE.
Here you can see how the mailbox pipe perforates the two trapezoidal plates.
It is "floating" on protruding j-bolts with nuts and washers above and below the bottom plate of the mailbox.
The mailman likes it!
Looking past the pantry to the living area.
Ceiling above the kitchen.
Looking N.
Looking S.
View from the mudroom.
The table is on casters so we rearrange a lot.
The window seat with bypass plywood and 3form doors. Very comfy, great reading spot.
Lots of the handles I made from square tubing and standoffs cut from round pipe.
Detail of the insanely time-consuming door: custom Finland birch jambs w/ Fry Reglet reveals.
The island area.
Looking into the kitchen.
Here you can see how we repurposed rubber flooring and extra concrete to trim out the island.
Living room, before moving in
It's possible that at some point in the future I will add some insulation and sheet the ceiling in pine or cedar T&G. But I doubt it.
Sweet! Castor Canadensis made the light and also make the sauna box but it was 20k.
A view of the 1/2 inch Finland birch floor trimmed out with aluminum H-metal pieces.
Another view of the floor. Shown here with the window seat, bypass doors, and custom cushion.
Stephanie in one of the bunkbeds. We only have one bedroom but the basement is pretty big and there is sleeping for six guests upstairs.
I really shouldn't have so many shots of the light.
But I can't help myself
Oh! The inside.
The steel table I designed and had welded and powder coated. Craig and I build the table top of Baltic birch and black laminate.
Pico de Gato!
Open shelving
The kitchen rock. Tons of light sources from recycled industrial can light, halogen cable lighting, under cabinet xenon lights, and halogen hood lights.
Rail made from 1/4" flat strap.
Concrete counters.
Custom made open plywood shelving with two colors of laminate. Galvanized steel backsplash.
Grohe fixtures.
Blanco sink
We made Finland birch plywood cabinets to take up space on the sides of the kitchen cabinets - here with 3form shelves dadoed in. Nothing was simple!
Integral drain board.
Appliance & espresso nook
Integral knock hole for espresso pucks
Shot of the mudroom entry with the oak shelving and rubber wall covering.
The small coat closet and desk area in the mudroom.
Looking in from the front door area.
The mudroom desk and built-in filing cabinets.
Looking in from the living room.
The long cabinet with filing, speakers, reclaimed oak top.
You can see some more of the gridded floor pattern here.
Looking east across the short axis of the main room. You can see the broom closet in the middle.
Looking N from the kitchen.
Looking SE at the island and window seat.
Looking W into the bedroom.
Looking from bedroom into closet/washer/dryer room.
View from bedroom to kitchen.
Mudroom, with one of the sunscreens 1/2 way down.
Window sills from scrap plywood.
Looking E across living area.
Looking from bedroom wing at the small 3form pantry door.
Looking into the powder room.
Custom concrete sink, Grohe fixtures, 3form door.
Handmade walnut table top in small desk area near bedroom.
Amazing figuring.
Looking into bedroom
I rigged up a steel bed frame.
The Flor carpet and nice aluminum registers. Recycled oak shelf in background.
A simple relaxing place to read.
Looking into closet/washing area.
Front loaders.
Looking back into kitchen from bedroom.
Steel shelving.
All the vanities have a floating appearance - no legs.
The vanity in the main bath.
Looking up at the cedar ceiling.
Lots of black slate.
Shower is very spacious. Floor has heat mat under the tile.
A view of the shower with glass installed - the window shown is actually a reflection from the other side of the room.
Here you can see a bit of the Finland birch vanity with 3-form translucent blue door and one-piece concrete sink with Grohe fixtures. The cedar T&G ceiling was Stephanie's idea.
A small bench. Note the penny rounds on the shower bottom, the installation of which was my personal nightmare.
Grohe tub filler.
The separated toilet room.
Lots of details like this penny round transition into the bathroom.
The staircase w/ cable rail.
Insanely cozy queen sized bed nook.
Reading lights and shelf.
Recycled oak stair treads and risers.
Sliding door for downstairs bathroom: 3form panels, maple, walnut.
You can see the custom paneling system here: no-VOC MDF, high gloss white paint, exposed fasteners. It was an adventure.
Looking up the stairs.
Detail of the basement paneling and aluminum angle trim system.
Looking into basement. More Flor carpet tiles.
The cover of the electric panel
It's one big open room and could easily hold two kids with room for study/lounge area.
The ceiling has different levels and materials: birch plywood trimmed with clear pine, dropped soffit, and exposed ductwork.
My homemade picture hanging system: unistrut, 7x19 aircraft cable with a button stop on one end.
The other end adjustable with a tiller clamp.
The area of the basement where we may put in beds for guest. I love the green - Stephanie not so sure.
basement overview.
Shelving under the stairs made from scrap materials.
HUGE 5-6' crawl space.
Basement bathroom: walnut entry trimmed with aluminum angle, cedar walls and ceiling.
Handmade concrete tiles, Grohe fixtures.
Looking in from the basement.
The bench/counter.
Slate, unglazed Japanese porcelain, and penny rounds.
3form doors, countertop sink, Grohe fixtures.
Small but very nice bathroom. Aluminum channel shelf.
All the exhaust fans in the baths are wildly expensive and very very quiet.
Everything is on a timer.
The first of a lot of construction photos.
The cabinets at N end of living room.
Window seats.
I was giddy.
Me installing the Schluter membrane.
Ikea cabinets I brought back from CA. Pretty easy to build.
Small galley-style kitchen. No corner cabinets, which I hate.
All the oak in the house is reclaimed from the old USU Merrill Library. It was cheap but took a HUGE amount of processing. Here you see black walnut plugs in some of the many holes.
Jamb saw to cut the plugs off.
Painting.
Looking into the bedroom. Here you can see the Finland birch and aluminum reveal I cooked up for the door frames. It's very nice.
The mudroom floor.
Flor carpet tiles. Great product.
Dave, the electrician.
Making the concrete sinks and countertops at Craig's shop.
This is a sink.
Vibrating!
More vibrating - gets out the air bubbles.
We call it the stinger.
Bending the wire mesh.
The labor on building these things is insane.
I spent a lot of time in Craig's shop.
We mixed the concrete in the driveway.
So thoughtful ...
Are we out of beer?
Paul, the floor guy.
Garage. Painted, fully insulated, with a gas line brought in.
Matt Baker supervising construction - I was in California.
The footings ...
More footings ...
Using a crane to fill the wall frames.
Building the rock wall on the west. I hate it and wish I'd known about gabions then!
Freshly poured concrete in the basement.
The high part is the future courtyard.
Framing. I provided some dumb labor on this.
Eric Rose was incredibly fast.
Truck used as ladder.
Tyvek'd.
The masons hated working in the cold and we had to spend a lot on propane heaters and blankets.
I don't like these doors from Weathershield. They don't seal very well and the handle hardware feels flimsy.
Lifting a wall. Heavy.
All the headers are doubled LVL. Way beyond code.
Sheeting.
Tyvek - not needed with the metal siding but we did it anyway.
Roof sheathing. It was cold!
Living room ceiling.
Garage. Huge amounts of rebar.
Initial metal siding!
Setting some of the tile. This was my first tile job. The natural slate and penny rounds on the shower floor were a challenge.
Kohler Tea for Two tub. Stephanie likes it.
I installed the polycarbonate panels. What a pain that was! Freezing cold and the glazing stops were like steel.
Looking into the kitchen with the galvanized backsplash installed.
The shower - you can see the orange Schulter membrane on the pony wall.
The tub with slate surround.
This took me days.
A view into the half bath. Blue 3-form doors and concrete sink.
Working on the shallow kitchen pantry.
This was all of spring break.
Took forever!
Checking
Checking again - is it square? What! How could it not be square - pass me the hammer.
Drilling the ipe decking at Craig's shop.
So many holes to drill.
I was running out of beer at this point.
Building the pallets for the roof deck.
Leveling
View of the pallets sitting on the TPO membrane on top of the garage.
Making progress.
You can see it coming together.
Wee!
Almost done.
The metal planters going into place. I designed these and Jeff Webb built them. He's amazing.
Grading for the gabions. DKS did the grading and sold me most of the rocks.
A small pile of rocks. The first of many.
Check out the rusting on the siding.
Here you can see the layout of the empty gabions.
Looks simple?
It wasn't too bad really.
I hand loaded a lot but also borrowed/hired/rented machines a lot.
Much easier, let me tell you.
Ah! It looked so great when done.
The culvert pipes I got down in Salt Lake. The neighbors were curious about this operation! Brought them back in a U-Haul.
Craig sealing the block
I love this light!
Made by some mad Canadian artists - a company called Castor Canadensis. They're great.
Plugs into a standard fixture.
Made from reclaimed tubes.
The stairs to the roof deck.
Rolling the huge cogs. From Smith & Edwards.
Ugh!
Craig and I building the frame for the mailbox wall.
I had to hand dig the hole as the gas line was down there somewhere. What a pain!
