Update: 10/10/2013 - The AIA Homes tour is this Saturday. We're looking forward to showing people around one of our favorite projects.
We're very excited that our Cable Hill House project has been chosen by the AIA Portland to be one of seven houses included in the 2013 home tour: "Design Matters: A Tour of Exceptional Portland Homes". The tour takes place on Saturday, October 12th. Tickets are $40, and available from the AIA.
We're coming to the end of our work at the Skyline Residence, and it's incredible to look back and see the changes that have taken place since we began the process.
The living room was previously dominated by a stone-clad fireplace, which was high on the priority list of things the owners wanted to change. The first step was to strip the fireplace back to its concrete block structure. Drawing on ideas we first explored at the Cable Hill House, we then built a sheet steel fire surround and hearth extension around it, with a walnut entertainment center above it. This contains the audio/visual control boxes, and a sliding panel allows the tv to be hidden when not in use. By removing the dropped ceiling, we were able to gain another 15" of ceiling height. The carpet was replaced by new hickory floors, which run throughout the first floor of the house.
We added a new bar where a redundant second fire place previously existed. The bar employs the same language of walnut and plywood cabinets, with some tougher materials for durability. The countertops are a grey quartz from Cosmos, and the backsplashes and bar-front are made of the same sheet steel we used at the fireplace in the living room. We made a break from the hickory floors used throughout the rest of the first floor, and changed to tile, to make an appropriate transition to the pool immediately outside.
The hall was previously an unpleasant space, which felt dark and narrow. Without changing the width of the hall, we able to create a much more inviting atmosphere. New openings along the wall dividing the hall from the public rooms increased the amount of natural lighting getting into the hall, which is supplemented by new can lighting. In the stair, we expanded on the approach we first employed at the Walsh residence by building a fir screen to filter the light coming into the space. We demolished the partial height wall which was acting as a guardrail, and replaced it with a steel stair rail, which creates a stronger visual relationship between the two levels. The previously utilitarian stairwell is now one of our favorite moments in the house.
To avoid making major changes to plumbing and electrical system, we kept the existing layouts of the guest bathroom bathrooms, while making major changes to the finishes. We continued the use of the walnut and plywood cabinets, but drew a visual distinction from the kitchen and bar areas by having the vanities float 12" off the floor, with tile running underneath them all the way to the wall.
The layout of the bedrooms on the second floor generally worked well, so we only made minor alterations, primarily to create more closet space for the master suite. We installed new fir trim around the windows and ceiling beams, smoothed out and painted the walls, and installed new carpet throughout the second floor.
drw design build is about to begin demolition on a new renovation project in the Northwest area of Portland. The residence is beautiful and solidly built 1911 Tudor Home situated on a sloping site. The new owners have hired drw to expand and update the kitchen, as well as other improvements through out the home. The design will blend with the traditional elements of the home while providing modern amenities and generous work space.
As we near completion on the Skyline Residence, it's exciting to see the final items for the house being made. One of the last of these is a new steel guardrail for the existing stairwell. The guardrail is being fabricated for us by Greg Forcum Art & Furniture, whose shop we paid a visit to this morning. The rail is looking great, and we will be excited to see it installed on-site later this week.
The Skyline Residence is a project that we're really excited about, and it has been great to see it really come together in the last month. Since our last update, the cabinets and countertops have been installed, which has made a huge difference to the feel of the spaces.
Throughout the house, we have used a consistent language of walnut faced cabinets, with exposed birch plywood frames. We enjoy the way this celebrates the construction of the cabinets, and provides a nice tonal contrast between the two species of wood. By varying the countertop material, we have been able to give a degree of visual differentiation to different rooms: the kitchen uses Carrara marble; the bar and pantry a dark grey quartz; and the bathrooms use a white quartz.
Work is progressing well on our latest remodel, a new kitchen / pantry / mudroom / office near Council Crest. For the last few months we have been busy demolishing walls and framing new ones; moving mechanical ducts and equipment; installing new plumbing and electrical; hanging sheetrock; and laying new floors. It is an intense process, but always hugely rewarding to see a design leap off of the page and into reality. While we were doing this work in Portland, the cabinet makers in Eugene were busy building the cabinets, which arrived on site this morning.
Everything we do is totally custom, and designed specifically for the clients we are working with. Early on in the design phase, we will concentrate on general issues, such as overall layout and locations for major appliances. Once this is settled, we begin to get into more detail, and often work out what each and every drawer is going to be used for, and how large it needs to be as a consequence. While we are doing this, we are always thinking about how these cabinets will physically be built and transported to site. A good rule of thumb is that nothing should be longer than 8'-0", which is a standard dimension for a sheet of plywood. In at least one direction, the cabinets should be smaller than 30", so that they can fit through a standard width doorway.
Many banks of cabinets are larger than this though. At the Fairmount Boulevard house, the kitchen island, for example, will be 18' long and 4' wide. We therefore work out ways to break this down into smaller components, in a way that will look deliberate in its finished configuration. This is how the cabinets arrive on site, as seen in the photos above, before they are installed. As we have mentioned before, assembling these all on site is a bit like a game 'Tetris', and there's often little room to maneuver around the cabinets. There is a lot of work involved in the install, particularly when everything is designed for tolerances to an 1/8". The effort required, however, is worth it.
We recently commissioned some photos of our Cable Hill House, and are really pleased with how they turned out. Photos by Scott Larsen.
We recently got started on construction of a new kitchen / pantry / mudroom / office at a house off Fairmount Blvd, near Council Crest. Our cabinet makers, Skyline Fine Cabinets of Eugene, sent us some progress photos of the cabinets. The cabinet construction is a traditional face-frame style construction, with flush inset doors and drawers, which suits the traditional form house they are being installed in.
These walnut-faced cabinets will form part of the kitchen island.
These cabinets will form part of the pantry and the office file-drawers, and are due to go to the paint shop soon to receive their finish.
Since the last update on our progress at the Skyline Residence, we have finished the sheetrock work, and are now busy installing the hardwood floors throughout the main level of the house. The homeowners chose a rustic hickory, with a naturally large degree of variation in its color and tone.
We're delighted to have recently completed a small remodel of a guest suite in a house located on Portland's SW Humphrey Boulevard. Designed in 1932 by architect Roscoe Hemenway, the house is one of Portland's classic residences. The guest suite is on the second floor, at the end of what was originally as a service wing, with its own entrance from an exterior staircase. Prior to our work, the space had been used as a live-at-home care suite and had quite an institutional feel to it. Our clients approached us with the task of turning it into a guest suite, while retaining what we could of the existing building fabric. We began by dividing the existing "L" shaped space into two rooms, separated by a pair of glass pocket doors. The larger of the two rooms will be kept as a bedroom, while the smaller becomes a more intimate sitting room with a new wood burning stove and a dutch door onto the exterior stair. We removed the carpet in both spaces and refinished the existing fir floor that lay underneath. We placed a new pocket door between the bathroom and sitting room, which required building out a new wall adjacent to the existing wall to avoid disturbing the plumbing stacks. In the bathroom we added a new sink, toilet, bathtub and shower head, while keeping the existing tile in place.
We would like to thank our clients for giving us the opportunity to work on such a beautiful house, and hope that our work make it even more liveable as a home.
Staircase at the Walsh Residence.
Construction is ongoing at the Skyline Residence, which we last blogged about when we were beginning demolition. Since then, we have completed all the new framing, rough plumbing, electrical, and insulation. There is still a lot to do, but the difference in the quality of the spaces is already apparent.
Before
Now
In the living room, we have removed the dropped ceiling, a legacy of a remodel in the 1980s. This gives us an extra 15" of ceiling height, as well as creating a cleaner, more defined space. We decided to keep the fireplace in the same location, so that we could reuse the existing structure and flue. The stone cladding has been removed, revealing the concrete block structure underneath, which we can now re-clad in a more contemporary manner.
Before
Now
The existing kitchen dated from the 1970s, and looked like it. While the kitchen will occupy roughly the same location, we're starting from scratch with the layout, which required changing the location of some of the openings on the wall to the right hand side. The dropped beam has been pushed up into the ceiling, allowing for a continuous flush ceiling. New can lights have been installed in a neatly ordered grid.
The next steps are to sheetrock all the walls, begin installation of tile and wood floors, install new cabinetry, and begin finish carpentry. We're excited by how this project is turning out, and look forward to sharing more photos of it.
Since our last post about the Corbett Terwilliger residence, we have completed the roof framing for the building. It's now almost hard to remember what it used to look like.
2012 has flown by for all of us at DRW. We've been working on a number of interesting projects, brought to us by new and repeat clients alike. Thinking back on the year, a lot has happened.
We wish everybody a very happy New Year, and look forward to 2013.
Interior for our friends at Goodlife Brewing in Bend. They celebrated their first anniversary in business over the summer, and we can personally vouch for the quality of their ales.
Remodel of an existing mudroom and pantry, completed earlier this year.
Friday was our last day working on the Vista House Kitchen, which we previously wrote about just after the cabinets were delivered. The project was a complete remodel of the kitchen, which included the demolition of a bearing wall to allow the kitchen to expand into space previously used as a pantry. All the cabinets, tile, lighting, countertops and appliances are new, but were designed to compliment the 1925 house.
We would like to thank our clients, both for giving us the opportunity to work in their house, and for their patience while they were displaced from their kitchen. We're very pleased with how the project turned out, and hope that they will be equally happy as they use the kitchen for years to come.
Our latest project is a remodel of a house near Skyline Blvd. The house was built in 1970, and was given a very successful exterior remodel 5 years ago, but much of the original 1970s interior still remained. Our clients bought the house in the summer, with the intention of doing a complete remodel of the interior before they move in.
Demo at the Skyline Residence
Our design seeks to preserve the modern, open layout of the house, while making selective improvements to the flow through the building. By removing a wall between the hallway and an existing storage area, we were able to create a new mudroom off of the garage. Changing the kitchen layout creates a more efficient use of space, and creates a more logical relationship between the kitchen and the dining area. An entry area was added as part of the previous remodel, and made the old entry area near the back of the house redundant. By removing one of the walls adjacent to the old entry, we were able to create a new games room, which would also function equally well as a formal dining room.
We received a building permit last week, and got started immediately with the task of removing the existing finishes.
For the past couple months at our Corbett-Terwilliger remodel, we have been busy demolishing existing structure, excavating soil, pouring new concrete and reframing walls at the basement and first floor. Now that this work is largely complete, our framers are able to move up to the second floor, and have just started building the walls that will support the roof. It was a rare late-November blue sky day when this photo was taken yesterday, with clear views out across the Willamette, to Mt Hood in the distance.
The progress since our last update is most visible from the back of the house, where the addition is being built.
Corbet House from Sportcourt
And two days later, two of the gables are built.
Recently DRW Design Build had the opportunity to do some maintenance work on a wonderful mid-century modern house near Forest Park. The 1962 house has been sensitively remodeled over the years by our clients, a painter/designer and an architect, but after 50 years, elements of the building were in need of replacement.
Our work on the south elevation (pictured) included installing new windows, flashing and siding. The solar shading was originally supported by 18’ tall wooden posts, which had become buckled over time. One by one, we swapped out the existing for new galvanized steel columns. In addition, some of the exposed roof beams were experiencing rot, which required careful removal and replacement of the affected areas.
