What were they thinking?! Bad Design Layouts

When you buy a home, you don’t expect everything to be the way you want, but you expect some thought to have gone into the planning. How about a home on the lake with no bathroom in the walkout basement? That’s right – everyone has to run through the basement and up the stairs to the bathroom or up through the deck, through the dining room and kitchen to the bathroom.

The bathroom, because it would be in the basement or walk out part of the house, meant that the toilet plumbing had to flush up rather than the typical gravity fed systems you find in homes. A great deal of research was done and pricing was obtained. The most recommended suggestion was the breaking up the basement concrete floor to put in a sewage ejector system, which means you break up the concrete basement floor and put in a plastic pit to use a sewage ejector pump to remove the waste. I was uncomfortable with this idea. And then we found the “Saniplus” system. It handled the toilet and sink. (In fact it handles four fixtures – toilet, hand basin, shower and bathtub.)

The pump, which was in a box fastened to the back of toilet, had to be connected. The toilet tank had to be connected to the water supply. The sink was connected to the pump using a 1 ½” plastic pipe, and the pump had an air pipe connected with the other end being put through the wall. It was connected to the electrical supply.

The “Saniplus” system is activated when the toilet is flushed. The micro switch within the pump box starts the motor, ultimately pumping the slurry up to a maximum of 12’. As soon as the water level in the pump box goes down, the micro switch deactivates and the toilet is ready for use again. It takes about 15-18 seconds for the entire flush process.

It was a day and a half job to get a toilet installed in the basement. It uses only 1.6 gallons of water per flush, so it uses less water than older toilets. Have you ever had a need for a bathroom in a lower level? What about any “What were they thinking?!” design problems have you run into?

When is a Cornice a Lighting Fixture?

Remember that cornice that my husband and I wrote about that we created for our super long window?  Well, apparently we hadn’t thought ahead to far. When the cornice was up, we then wished we had thought of adding light to it!

We began the process of trying to find a small fixture that would work. We had a hard time finding a fluorescent fixture that was small enough not to protrude about the top of the cornice. There were a plethora of problems: should have recessed another inch; if you put the fixtures end to end, you had black spots between them; not exactly the look we were going for. Then we staggered the fixtures and that created hot spots and dimmer spots. Again, not the look we wanted. So far, we were not finding the solution for the perfect accent light we strived for.

When visiting a friend, we saw the soft glow of light we wanted at the top of their kitchen cabinets. They told us they had used rope light. Rope lighting would be an excellent solution because it is made up of LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting.

LED’s are all the rage now because they do not get hot like the ballast system for the fluorescent. They are less than an inch in height so they wouldn’t show over the top of the cornice. They use very little electricity and they last for almost forever. Hmmm, rope lighting easily comes in the length we have hanging on our wall over the windows. Now how to get electricity to the cornice…

Sometimes even we get lucky. There was an electrical switch box below our cornice end that turns on the outdoor flood lights. My husband (being the electrical engineer that he is) gave me a smile and went to work. After a lot of attempts, he was finally able to “fish” the electrical line up the wall and into the top of the cornice. He then hard wired the rope lighting.

In the evening when we want “mood” lighting, we can turn on the lighting over the cornice and we get this really cool glow. How do you create “mood” lighting in your home?

What Was I Thinking?! My Bathroom Building Experience

We have the basement bathroom toilet installed. We could have just done a pedestal sink, but oh no. I wanted to have a cabinet so there could be storage for soap and toilet paper, some hand towels, you know the drill. And it couldn’t be just any cabinet; it had to be the one we used as our dry sink in the dining room before the new furniture because I am all about recycling and reusing everything I have. So we moved that bad boy to the basement and began the reworking.

There is the drilling of the hole in the top so the sink can discharge. Then there was the plumbing from the “Saniplus” system at a slight incline so we could determine where the plumbing would come up inside the cabinet. Then there was the connection between the bottom of the sink to the outflow pipe. Sounds easy right, well that part was, but because I wanted a glass sink to sit on the dry sink and a faucet that came out of the wall…things got a little tricky.

First, basement walls are typically poured concrete, so we built a fake wall. Now the wall couldn’t be a typical wall thickness because that would have made the room too narrow, so we built a 2” fake wall (just thick enough to hold the water lines). Because I wanted a faucet that came out of the wall, we had to figure out how to attach the faucet to a finished wall while having part of the wall unfinished to do the plumbing.

We dry walled only the top half of the wall. We attached the faucet to this part and dropped the flexible water lines down the wall. Have I told you how much I love flexible water lines? We would be still working on this job if we had to use rigid lines.

We then hooked up the water lines in the not yet dry walled area of our wall and proceeded to dry wall the lower part of our wall. That only took us a couple of weeks to figure out all of the parts and pieces to make it work.

The plumbing goes through one of the drawers in the dry sink, so we took the face off the drawer and permanently attached it to the dry sink.

Now I have 1 drawer and ½ of the dry sink for storage. It looks great and we have had a lot of complements on it. Have you ever thought up a project that ended up  taking a lot more effort and time than you originally thought it would? Tell me one of your “What was I thinking?!” projects.

Stairs That Double as Storage – Why Have We Not Thought of This Before?

I am all about planning for more than one purpose. Recently I was reading through some articles and I saw this great image of storage and stairs combined. I know that currently in my apartment, the space under my stairs to my loft is a dead space – I actually have my TV sitting underneath as if it was a cubby. When I saw this creative use of storage, I was awestruck and found myself asking “Why have I not seen this before?!” This is a smart solution that can also look beautiful. Just don’t let it become a junk collector! However, this could almost do away with a console table by the front door. Save money and save space!

Often enough, in a lot of living situations, the stairs can be found close to the front entry – in this photo you can see a good use of a drawer for immediate show storage. One of the “greenest” things you can plan for is reducing your overall building footprint – so why not save the space. Also, if this encourages your kids to put their shoes away and out of site, more power to you! I would just make sure to include a mat or at least clean it out often… I just would not want a pair of stinky tennis shoes to smell up the joint. Every time you open the drawer you would want to enjoy it, not dread it!

I also remember growing up and having a small closet that was built under the stairs – this is another great way to incorporate storage and stairs. If your space is built, this could be accomplished by a local millworker. The inside of the closet does not even necessary have to be finished – but if there is dead space under your stairs, why not put it to use?

It is important to keep in mind that if your stairs are “stacked” in your home, meaning the stairs from the basement are directly below the stairs from floor one to floor two, that most of these solutions will not work – but that is OK. It just means your space was planned well to begin with! But, if you live in a ranch, or in a space like mine, there is only one floor to travel to; you should be set to make your best attempt at smart storage.

How do you use your space efficiently?

Have you Considered How Daylight Can Help You?

Are you looking for a new home or office? Have you taken into consideration how daylight can help you in your space? It may be more important than you realize. First of all, it provides a connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces for the occupants. Secondly, it has been proven to increase occupant productivity and comfort which can lead to increased production and better retention. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building rating system believes that daylighting is so important that up to two credits can be earned for proper achievement.

So are you convinced you want to look for a space with daylighting yet? Remember to take the building orientation, size of openings, floorplan, courtyards, atriums, clerestory windows and/or skylights into consideration. Also, the buildings and trees next to yours can help or hurt your ability to achieve proper daylighting.

If daylighting has been implemented correctly, it has been estimated to help reduce the need for interior electric lighting energy by 50% – 80%! Talk about saving money! But be careful because if it is not designed properly, there can actually be heat gain or loss and that may end up costing more in the long run. Hiring a professional architect or engineer can help make sure you are getting the best design for your space.

One other way to control the interior electrical lighting energy would be through daylighting controls installed in your space. This automatically turns the lights on and off depending on the lighting levels needed for you space. These are great if you live in an area where the weather is unpredictable!

Other problems that could occur if not designed correctly would be glare and visual quality. Ways to reduce unwanted glare would be through interior light shelves, louvers, blinds, fins and shades. Each window needs to be looked at to determine the best glare control. Exterior controls can also help reduce glare, including exterior shading devices and etched or fritted patterns on the glass. This will help prevent the occasional bird flying into your large window also.

And let’s face it, nothing makes you jump more than an unexpected boom behind your head coming from the window!

Finally, remember to look at the interior elements in your space that may enhance the occupant’s thermal and visual comfort. This includes furniture arrangement, wall partitions, surface colors and textures. An interior designer would be a great person to help guide on this.

Enjoy the sunshine in your space!

Space Planning for the Classrooms of Tomorrow

If you were to look at an interior of a house from 1950 and then compare it to the interior of a house today, do you think you would be able to tell which era was which? If you look at a car from 30 years ago and a car that comes off a production line today can you tell the differences? If you traveled in time and went to a department store in the 1970s, could you tell the difference in the design aesthetics compared to today’s fashions?

Hopefully you said yes to all of these questions. Now think about classroom styling from the past 80 years. Most likely you are picturing individual desks, in rows, facing the front of the room that consists of a teacher’s desk and either a whiteboard or a chalkboard if you are really thinking old school. SO when you visit a grade school of today, does it look substantially different? If so many aspects of our lives, cars, home and office interiors, cloths have evolved, why haven’t learning environments? For the number one environment that is supposed to encourage “thinking outside the box,” it really has not “thought out of the box” for itself much over the years.

So what will the classrooms of tomorrow look like? Many furniture manufactures have been asking that same question for a few years now. And in short, from my reading, I can answer that with a single phrase – “in the round.” Many good things happen “in the round”; rock concerts, kitchen islands, small group conferences… so why not classrooms? One of the top things employers look for in their work environments is a capability to “make work visible” – by placing classrooms in the round, all work can be seen. If a student is struggling, slacking or just getting lost, the instructor can be more aware. So now we can see more classrooms with mobile/flexible tables on wheels – and seating that can house multiple postures – versus desks that are attached to chair that only offer one position.

Also, the biggest change is the addition of more technology. Lots of technology. If you think of the square classrooms being made “round,” this can involve adding projectors, mobile smart boards and a mobile teacher stand that allows the instructor to be at home anywhere in the classroom. As our society becomes more paperless, why not start young??

So next time you find yourself in a learning environment, don’t just accept the space for what it is. Think about the next generation of learners – and what do you think the results of such changes in the learning environment will bring?

If you’re interested in learning more, check out Steelcase’s website.

You Want the Cornice How Big??

Hate the look of curtain rods? My solution has been to put a cornice over them. The cornice can be more architectural or a fabric covered box. When you use a panel of fabric that hangs over the rods, it is called a valance. I prefer a padded cornice that has simple lines with plain fabric. As our home is an eclectic blend of antiques, comfy (which defies description) and modern, my first foray into cornices was going to be simple.

We have 22’ window on the south side of our home. I did not want drapes. I just wanted a detail element on that wall that hid my honeycomb shades. Ever talk to someone about building a 22’ long cornice? They sort of snicker at you, if not outright laugh. I priced a custom-made cornice, hold on…$3.00 to $7.50 per inch. Yep, per inch (22 x 12 = 264 inches x $5.00 = $1,350.00).

So, how hard could it be? Once again my husband and I set about to figure out how to build a cornice. We drew out the length and then determined how far it needed to project from the wall and how we wanted the face to look.

We made our cornice out of pine planks to give it the stability we needed. Once the pieces were cut, we screwed the returns to the face and for added measure added metal L brackets on the inside. We also used these to connect the recessed top to the face and sides.

The fabric we chose matched our wall cover and we laid it face-side down on the floor. We then put our padding on top and set the face of our cornice on that. We now had a sandwich!

I don’t like to cut the fabric until everything is stapled on, so I set the top near the edge of the fabric, leaving about 2-3”. I began in the center top and stapled. I then pulled the fabric towards the edges and stapled every 2”. I only moved 6” in one direction and then moved from the center in the other direction. This keeps the fabric taunt on the cornice for a smooth finish.

If your fabric has a pattern, you will want to roll the cornice up and check to make sure the pattern does not become skewed. Once the top was completed, I repeated the process for the lower edge, making sure that it stayed tight.

Once the top and bottom are done, I then pulled the sides and staple them. It’s just like wrapping a present – you want the paper to be tight against the sides of your gift, so you should have a nice snug fit. I then used a box cutter with a sharp blade and cut the fabric, leaving about 2” beyond the staples.

We placed metal L brackets across the recessed top and sides and then we invited a couple of friends over so we could get this bad boy placed on the wall. We drew a line where the horizontal board would go with a level and up it went. A few screws later and it was attached to the wall.

Have you ever built a cornice? What type did you build, fabric or wood? Do you prefer cornices, curtain rods or something else?

What is Home Staging?

In the past, home staging was done for builders who were getting ready to show their models to the public and wanted the interior to be so perfect that they sold their homes. Most of the time interior decorators would be hired to choose the color scheme for the rooms. They would choose the color for the walls and a complementary color for the trim. They chose the kitchen cabinet wood grain colors and the counter top. They would also choose all of the accessories, window treatments and upholstery pieces to make the model gorgeous.

With the downturn in building these days, many people are beginning to look to home stagers when they are trying to sell their home. Many times you can ask your real estate agent for the name of a home stager. Your favorite shade of lavender may work for you, but people coming into your home may not be able to see past the lavender and in turn, may not make an offer on your home. Or the furniture arrangement may not make the home look roomy so again, you loose a potential buyer.

The home stagger looks at your home and then works to show off the highlights or special aspects of your home while downplaying it’s flaws. Staging usually has a tight budget because none of us want to spend a fortune on a home we are leaving, but it must be done immediately.

We have all seen the DIY shows when a home stager comes in and has all the comments from the potential buyers before they work on the home. After they finish their “repairs”, the stagers have the potential buyers come back in and they can’t believe it’s the same place. Many times the real estate agent says that the home asking price has actually increased because of the staging.

Unlike when we choose to decorate, which is something we want to do, home staging is, at many times, absolutely necessary if we want to sell our home for our asking price. Have you ever had your home staged? Do you know an interior decorator that does home staging? What kind of tips have they given you?

Installing Drywall

General Steps in Installing Drywall:

This has been very much a learning curve for me and my husband. Like any new project, there are things that are uncovered as you move along in progress. Living in this old home, we have plaster walls, and in this case, they needed to be hammered away and removed (what a mess!). Behind the plaster we discovered wall framing created with backerboard running horizontally across the wall and attached to the studs.

Now that we could see the wall studs, we were ready to measure. Normally in newer construction, studs are spaced 16” on center. However, in our case, they varied. Some were 14, others 18, and only a few at a perfect 16. This can become complicated when you are attempting to cut, hang and drill into after you are holding a huge sheet of drywall up over the wall framing.

Measure twice, cut once! I can not stress this enough! We have variations of archways and different heights of drywall needed due to the tile walls and various niche enclosures in the bathroom. This made our drywall cutting more like a jigsaw puzzle, or as my husband would say, a game of tetras! Another important aspect is selecting screws to adhere the drywall and the actual drilling. The drywall screws should be on average 2 ¼” in length depending on the thickness of the drywall and the support system in your wall cavity. No matter what, make sure that the screws exceed a great deal of the thickness of the sheets.

When screwing in the drywall, it is important not do puncture the surface by screwing in too far. This is called a nail pop and no matter how much mud and tape you apply later, it will always be a little bit of a divot in the wall.

Next, it is time to mud using compound over the screws, which should been in a 8-10 inch sequence apart from one another in rows down the entire sheet.

After mudding comes sanding (with the finest grain you can find). Lightly go over the mudded areas 24 hours after drying. You will mud again! And maybe a third time too!

Then you need to tape on your final mudding layer while wet. Using flexible composite tape offers strong benefits as an off angle solution. Center the drywall tape over the joint and press it firmly into the compound. Because some compound will squeeze out, make sure that there is still a good bed underneath. When you get the tape embedded into the compound all along the joint, smooth it with the taping knife. The flexible composite tape offers strong benefits as an off angle solution.

Let the walls dry for up to five days, following the recommendations of the joint compound manufacturer. Give the surface of the drywall a coat of primer made for paint or wallpaper.

Installing drywall may not be the easiest home improvement project around, but it’s a lot simpler than it looks and it can be done with help from the tips that I briefly summarized in this article!

Next, the fun part PAINT! Happy drywalling!

Have a drywall horror story?  Tell us here!  And also let us know of any helpful tips you have of your own.

Why is Carpet More Sustainable Than We Think?

There is a common misconception that carpeting is not green and is very bad for the environment. That is not necessarily true – the carpet industry has made great strides to become more environmentally friendly. In my opinion, they are one of the leaders in the interior design industry when it comes to sustainability! Here is some important information that would be great to think about and research before purchasing your next carpeting.

Pre-consumer content and post-consumer content can be found in carpeting. Pre-consumer content is often in the fiber, yarn, backing, and sometimes even in the padding and/or cushioning

Post-consumer content can be found in the fiber, majority from PET beverage bottles, backing systems, which is often glass, and padding/cushions.

Much waste is generated during the manufacturing process but they have come up with ways to help reduce it. Backing waste may be used to make carpet cores used during shipments along with the PET bottle caps that are left over when the bottles become the carpet fiber. Yarn waste may find it’s next life in the carpet padding, filler used in building materials or lawn furniture. The high-end carpet pads that include polyurthane foam may have gotten scraps recovered from new mattresses or furniture.

Don’t forget that carpet tiles are becoming more common than broadloom in commerical environments and allows for less waste generated during installation. Replacement when stains occur is easy because you will only need to replace a couple tiles verses the entire carpet in the room. Now that’s sustainable and saves you money!

Some companies have even gone as far as looking at the waste of adhesives used during installation for carpet tiles. This new trend is called Spray-Lock adhesive. It allows for installation that will be instant and troweling is not necessary. A simple spray can contains the adhesive to be sprayed on the floor for an instant bond. It does not allow for shifting of the carpet tile but you are still able to peel off the tiles for replacement. When the adhesive can is empty, it is even recyclable!

Finally, it’s time to think about the carpeting after we are finished with it. The majority of carpet companies have a reclamation program. For a small fee, your carpeting can be hauled away for you and recycled. Most companies will take back the carpeting regardless of who it was originally manufactured by. This helps the carpet companies from having to produce raw materials during production and protects us from filling up landfill space and possibly causing other negative consequences to the environment.

So what do you think?  Do these facts make you re-think what you formally thought about carpeting?

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