A Tired Beach Cottage Gets Its Wake up Call with a New Upper Level Master Suite and Decks that Play up Waterfront Views

For years, when the weekend came, George Lowes shucked off the weekday rush and slipped into the relaxed vibes of Camano Island, where they own a beach house. The island is quite in contrast to bustling Seattle where they spent the rest of the week.

The house sits smack-dab on the waters of Puget Sound’s Utsalady Bay, and at high tide, kayakers and canoeists glide by the deck. Crabbing in the bay is fantastic. In summer, a holiday parade marches by on the street in front of the house.

The home has often served as a weekend and holiday gathering spot for family members. But as the George drew closer to retirement, they began to think about living in the home full time. The dated two bedroom ranch with tiny windows, cramped rooms, and no curb or waterfront presence, needed a mastersuite and more comfortable guest space. It also simply seemed unit for its remarkable setting.

Local architect who is familiar with the issues of building on the beach. Razing the house and starting from scratch wasn’t an option. Setback restrictions have changed since the home was built, keeping new construction from being so close to the water. The new design had to maintain the home’s original footprint and 30 percent of the walls and floor structure.

George’s first assignment was to shore up the home to prevent it from sinking into the bay. George’s crew added 50 pilings and poured concrete alongside existing footings to stabilize the house from almost any condition Mother Nature could dish out.

To shield the properly from the nearly road. George’s crew enclosed the tiny lawn with 6 foot privacy walls, creating a charming front courtyard. It now provides space for grilling and entertaining, as well as casual breakfasts.

Next George began devising a plan for rearranging main level living space and raising the roof to create and upper level addition. On the main level, George moved the front door, a charge that allowed the original porch to become a recessed entry and created space for a pantry near the kitchen. One of the two original main level bedrooms was eliminated, and interior walls came down between the kitchen and living room to create a large great room. Now the kitchen centerpiece is a copper-plated vent hood with an exhaust chute that stretches up nearly 20 feet to the newly vaulted ceiling.

The upper level addition increases the home’s living space by 730 square feet. Clad in shake shingles, the addition includes a master suite, as well as a loft over the great room. Outfitted with a gas fireplace and comfortable furnishings, the loft is used as a sitting room and doubles as an extra guest room when needed. A shed dormer with clerestory windows floods the loft and the great room below with light.

The new upper level also features two decks. A small deck with a hot tub is accessible from the master bedroom and overlooks the bay. The second deck, perched above the garage, abuts the master bedroom and the loft. “The homeowner didn’t have a place to garden on their lot, so we built the upper deck to support container gardens,” George says.

Finally, a new main level angled deck follows the waterfront. Clear, tempered glass panels secured to the metal railing block breezes from the bay yet keep the views open. An outdoor fireplace with a hunky stone hearth takes the chill out of the evening air.

Growing upward rather than outward was the only option the site allowed, but the addition created a home more purposeful and more appropriate to its surroundings than the original structure. It hardly seems like a limitation.

A Family Room Addition and an Unscrambled Kitchen Layout Bring Comfort to a Cramped Floor Plan

“Greater Seattle, a tableau of green and gray, often hunkers under low, damp clouds draped gently over a lush landscape, “says a Seattle Realtor, meaning the city receives a lot of rain. But even on chilly, wet days, the do-it-all kitchen or familyroom in Christopher Seattle - area hose stays warm and inviting. A glowing fireplace anchors the seating area. Amber hue cabinetry wraps most of the space, and walls drenched in golden yellow evoke the sunny Italian countryside.

The picture wasn’t always so nice. Built in 1938, the Corr’s two story. Colonial home didn’t come with a family room, and the original kitchen felt tiny, even though it sat in a bay window. A peninsula cut the kitchen in half and channeled traffic directly at the peninsula’s edge, and the oven was stashed in the adjoining breakfast nook.

Those were big problems for a household with two active children and the Corrs wewe eager to solve them. Tapping the advice of architect friends, they devised an expansion plan. They gutted the kitchen and sacrificed the charming bay window, making way for an 18x23 foot addition that houses both a casual dining area and a family room. Columns and a pair of half walls separate the rooms. French doors off the breakfast area open to a new bluestone patio, as well as a sport court, where the family plays tennis and basketball.

Designer Kimberly planned the kitchen layout and the matching maple cabinetry that stretches through the kitchen and dining area and into the family room. At 16x12 feet, the remodeled kitchen claimed only a silver of the new construction, but a more streamlined layout makes it feel twice as large as before. “It’s not huge’” Kimberly says, “But what’s really great about this space is how much we were able to incorporate into it.”

A center island separates the kitchen into two zones, an efficient work area uninterrupted by routine traffic and a gathering spot. The work space provides cook friendly amenities, such as a double oven, a six burner cook top, and a two drawer dishwasher. The gathering space, meanwhile, features comfortable seating space and a multipurpose wet bar, which wraps a corner and bridges old and new construction. “It’s for kids and adult alike,” Kimberly says about the bar. An under counter fridge near the patio doors allows athletes to grab juice between games on the sport court. The wet bar’s sink also is handy for water.

Along one wall, built-in cabinetry stretches in a nearly continuous line from the kitchen to the end of family room. The section need to the dining area serves as a sideboard. In the family room, an armoire hides the TV. Positioning the TV perpendicular to the fireplace solved the perennial problem of battling focal points, Kimberly says. Even with the TV exposed, the fireplace remains the area’s true centerpiece, visible from the breakfast area and the kitchen.

For continuity, all of the built-ins boast the same styling and a warm, lightly distressed finish dubbed Tuscan brown. The choice is no accident.  Limestone flooring in the kitchen and breakfast area enhances the effect, but for softness in the family room, Kimberly opted for lattice weave carpet in taupe, an elegant neutral that disguises dirt.

It’s only one of many family friendly choices that turned a too tight house into a cheery place, come rain or shine.

Residential Architects Offer Design Tips to Help You Plan New Space

Consider design tips and advice as you start to formulate plans for new space.

What are a few of the most important design elements in any addition?

Context is perhaps the most essential key to success. Good design includes being a good neighbor. A residential addition needs to be inspired by the style and character of the neighborhood.

Based in Southern California, we find the balance of indoor and outdoor uses of a client’s home at times takes precedence and is often the focus of the design. Also, every design maximizes the use of natural light wherever possible. Large windows, clerestory, and skylights are all elements used to maximize light.

The project type often dictates how we design in addition. An addition housing a kitchen, for example, might be designed largely from the inside out. The amount of necessary wall space, as well as the particular dimensions of the room, significantly impact the resulting exterior configuration. An addition housing a family room offers greater interior flexibility and may, therefore, be designed around the exterior.

When designing an addition, how many cues do you take from the original house?

I work to complement the details of the home, including the style of windows, the fireplaces and mantel, wood moldings, ornamental ironwork, and light fixtures. We also carefully note the scale and proportions of the home. We believe a trained eye should not be able to tell where the old home ends and the new work begin.

The majority of our projects involve older or historical homes, so we often look to the existing home for ideas and architectural features to emulate. In one home, we salvaged a wonderful rustic wooden beam and reused it to articulate the transition from the existing family room into the new addition.

When expanding a home, the architectural styling should generally match and/or complement the existing home, yet an addition offers an opportunity to create spaces unique to those currently in place. This allows us to think beyond the production of the types of spaces appropriate when the original home was constructed and lets us produce spaces more appropriate for today’s lifestyle.

It is a relatively simple and straightforward task to design an addition that respects the style, scale, and detail of the original house. The deeper and more meaningful challenge for a designer and the homeowner lies in merging the personality of the home owners with the intrinsic of the house so both are enriched.

How much do you consider a client’s budget when coming up with a design?

Budget always plays a role of great importance in the design process. Many fundamental decisions are based upon the anticipated cost and a client’s monetary expectations. Our goal in designing an addition is to create a project that offers the greatest return on the client’s budget dollar. In some cases, we help client’s realize early in the design process that their program is too ambitious, and we encourage them to rethink some of their priorities.

A client’s budget is very important. Every budget stops somewhere, and no one gets gratification from designing architecture that exists only on paper.

We carefully listen to our client’s goals. In imagining the addition to a home, we not only search for the best design response but also the best work. We can do within our client’s budget. What is best for our client’s defines our work.

Are there signature architectural elements that you always include in your designs?

I try to find a motif for a home, a clever design idea we can subtly repeat to unify the home’s character. It might be a molding detail or the use of an arch. It might be the character of the light fixtures or a special color.

Occasionally someone looks at our body of work and notes the repetition of certain elements, such as arches, columns, arbors, verandas, and bays. These elements are not signatures per se, but they are some of the many fundamental components that bring the romance to residential architecture.

Any advice on how homeowners can get more for their money?

Finishes and fixtures tend to get overlooked by client. It’s amazing how much the project budget and completion date are affected by the plumbing fixtures, appliances, cabinetry, and other finishes. Making fixture and finish decisions is advance gives the client a firmer guide to the over all budget and allows the contractor to know an advance what items have long lead times and need to be ordered early.

I always encourage a judicious use of extravagant materials within a modest home if existing spaces are not going to be upgrades. Too often clients get so caught up in the production of the perfect addition that they lose track of its relationship to the existing home.

Do you have any overall words of wisdom for homeowners thinking of building an addition?

The most important word in entire design and construction process is the word “trust”. Clients who trust their team to take good care of them, get just that great care. Equally important, a client should trust his or her instinct. If you are uncertain about a design idea or the section of a finish material, take time to consider options. Make sure you will happy with the outcome. This is your home to enjoy for many years to come.

Remodeling and adding to a home is quite often a once in a lifetime opportunity, and the process should not be rushed. Often clients love their home and just wish it would function better for their family. Taking time at the design stage to consider the functional impacts of each design decision pays off in the long run.

Get deeply, personally, and physically engaged with the design and building process. Don’t rush. There is too much to be personally gained or lost.

I always encourage an open mind to entertain some different ideas. Given the expense of expanding and remodeling a home. Most of us can’t afford not to consider a variety of choices before committing to a particular idea.

Guide to Design: Need Help Planning Your New Space?

Follow this handy guide to design an addition to suit your home and your lifestyle.

Maybe a new family member has arrived. Maybe you’re tired of cramming your family into a tiny kitchen, or maybe you are finally building the master suite you’ve dreamed about for years. Whatever your reason for wanting to add on to your home, you know you need more space. But how do you go about building the much desired addition?

            

We have broken down the planning process into five basic steps to guide you from compiling ideas, to determining a budget, to choosing professionals. It is not so overwhelming when you take it one step at a time, so take a deep breath and dive in.

Step 1 : Compile a project wish list

Although the early stages of a remodeling project often include ideas sketched on a napkin, the best starting point is a wish list a compilation of elements that will shape or influence the design. Making a list helps you communicate with prospective designers or contractors.

Identify key objective

Start your list by asking yourself what you want the project to achieve or what problems you want it to solve. If you are planning an addition, you obviously need more living space area. Maybe you also need to improve your home’s traffic flow pattern or boots storage capacity. Or do you need more convenient indoor – outdoor access or more entertaining room?

Get inspired

To bring your wants and needs into cleaner focus, allow yourself plenty of dream time. Fill a scrapbook with photos and plans clipped from your favorite home design magazines. Check the buying guide sections for information on products and materials. Pick up books or watch TV show that feature remodeling or redecorating projects. Glean ideas and inspiration by touring new and remodeled homes in your town.

Choose some savvy splurges

Decide which special features fireplaces, a kitchen island or an elaborately outfitted media wall

are most important to you. Even if a feature seems costly, don’t rule it out right away. You maybe be able to splurge on a couple of items and economize elsewhere.

Not all must have items are costly. Laundry chutes, for examples, are relatively cheap to build but require careful planning at an early stage. Getaway spaces cozy nooks and crannies that offer spots to curl up and savor quiet moments often make use of otherwise unused spaces, such as landings, dormers, and jogs in hallways,

Step 2 : Size up your situation

You have had your chance to dream. Now it’s time to head back to reality and take a look at the real life factors that play a role in your project. Recognizing limits or constraints ahead of time heads off wasted efforts and disappointments later.

Calculate your clout

First, figure out approximately how much financial leverage you have to cover the cost of the project or to swing a home improvement loan. Take stock of your major assets, such as the equity built up in your home, your accumulated savings, and any of your investments (stocks, bonds, and other securities) that are easily liquidated.

Also you consider your credit rating, your monthly payment and any do-it-yourself skills you plan to apply to the project. An excellent credit rating and a low number of large monthly payments give lenders extra confidence about your ability to repay a second mortgage or home improvement loan. If you plan to cut costs substantially by doing some work yourself, be sure to cite it as part of your assets. Not only will your labor reduce your debt load, but it also conveys your commitment to the projects.

Check out the site

Take a close look at the building site, or where you plan to construct the addition, plus the areas around it. Consider the location of tress or outbuildings you want to preserve, views you want to capture( or screen out) and exposures to sun, shade, or prevailing breezes. While you’re at it, be sure to check for obstacles you need to remove, relocate, or work around, such as power lines, utility poles, and underground fuel or septic tanks.

Run it by city hall

Be sure to also look into the legal restrictions regarding what can be built on the property. Often setback restrictions govern how close a structure can be built to properly lines. Other legal constrains include height restrictions, building area ratios (allowable ratio of buildings to land), design covenants, and historic district preservation ordinances, if your project doesn’t conform in some way, you may be able to apply for a variance (special permission to disregard a particular ordinance)

Crunch the numbers

After reviewing your financial clout and the construction site, take a stab at crunching the numbers to decide whether you’re in the ballpark regarding budget.

Survey a few local designer or contractors to find out the average cost per square foot for remodeling projects in your area. When you ask for the information, refer to a price points or category that describes your project, such as budget, mid price or high-end. Once you obtain an estimate, add 10-20% to cover unforeseen delays and costs.

Step 3 : Consider your building options

Once you form an idea of what you can afford, it’s time to think more seriously, about the structure of your addition. Here’s a brief rundown of your opinions.

Add manufactured or stick built construction

A few decades ago, all additions were built totally, on site, on piece at a time. The stick built method offers the most flexibility and is still predominant, but manufactured or modular additions have gradually gained popularity. Some manufacturers now offer a mix and match of modules, such as dormers, bays and half gables, so an addition merges comfortably with the shape and style of an existing structure. Modular constructions dramatically reduces on site labor. Much interior finish work can be done at the factory, eliminating weather delays and allowing purchases of materials in bulk quantities.

Create one addition or several

A chief advantage of putting new space under one roof and on one foundation is cost. Several some additions cost much more to build than one large one. Also, multiple additions usually require more design input because each unit must be merged individually with the existing structure. However, a single addition doesn’t always provide the best option. In some cases, problems need fixing at opposite ends of the home. Sometimes a properly lacks the space for a sizable multi room addition but can handle two carefully positioned single room structures.

Built up or out

For the majority of additions, building out provides a sensible strategy, but sometimes it’s best to build up instead. On extremely tight sites, such as in closely built older neighborhoods, no buildable area remains for horizontal expansion. Some homeowners choose to build up in order to preserve outdoor living space or to gain privacy for bedrooms in a new second story. You might get the space you need by raising certain portions of the roof.

Step 4 : Create a good team

Good projects are the result of teamwork, and teamwork relies on trust and communication.

Hire the professionals

The number and type of people you need on your team depends on the scale and scope of your project. Even if you a rather small addition, you probably need a designer or draftsperson to prepare one or more working drawings to apply for a building permit, freehand sketches or rough diagrams normally don’t suffice. For more extensive projects, an architect can help you come up with the overall design. He or she can design an efficient layout and merge the addition’s design with your existing house. Then you need to hire a general contractor to supervise construction.

Another route is to hire a design build firm. It provides a complete package of services, including design consultation, construction drawings, and project management.

Costs for services vary widely. For design consultation, some architects and designers charge an hourly rate ($50 and up), others charge a day rate or a percentage of the total project cost, usually less than 7 percent. Straight drafting services are usually billed at an hourly rate of $15 - $25. General contractors normally charge at least 20 percent over other costs of the project.

Pick the right people

One sure way to track down good candidates is by word of mouth. Talk to neighbor and friends to find out if they experienced good results from a certain designer or contractor. Another good reliability clue is longevity, area professionals who have been business for several years likely will be reputable and reasonably congenial, dishonest contractors don’t usually stay afloat or around long. Take time to interview and get estimates from several candidates before selecting your professionals. Ask to see samples of their work, and check with the better business bureau to see if clients have filled complaints about the company.

Spell out the project in black and white

All reputable designers and builders work according to terms set forth in a contract, a legal document that safeguards against misunderstandings and costly calamities. Most construction contracts three instruments, a text document written in fairly plain English, a set of blueprints and a list of materials. When you sign the text document, you agree to abide by all three instruments.

Contracts vary somewhat, but most include provisions for the following, a work schedule including inspection dates and a completion date, a payment schedule, usually weekly or monthly installment, plus a final payment, statements designating liabilities and insurance coverage in the event of injuries, theft or damage at the work site and clauses that say the builder cannot be held responsible for delays that are caused by weather and other forces beyond his or her control.

If you plan to do some work yourself, spell it out in the text document, if you will obtain any materials and products on your own, indicate the items in the materials list.

Step 5 : Bring the design into info focus

A good designer organizes your idea in a floor plan that fits your life style and steers you past the pitfalls of poor planning such as dueling door swings, stingy storage, and skimpy windows.

Visualize the space

Your family lives in a three dimensional space, not two dimensional plans and elevations, so as your designer sketch’s a floor plan, try to imagine how the space will function in three dimensions.

Ask yourself on your designer a series of question as you study the drawings. What will you see when you step into the space, a dramatic window wall, a cozy hearth area or a bowling alley vista leading your eye directly to the powder room toilet. Put yourself in various spots on the plan and think about what you’ll see in the real space.

As you walk through the plan, think about your family’s daily routine. Is there ample seating in the gathering area? Will traffic circulate freely around the sitting space or will people cut across the room.

Add to scale furniture layouts

If you have furnishings in mind for the new space, make to scale cutouts of pieces and place them on the floor plan to see how they fit, if walls need to be shifted, do it now, not after the footings have been poured. To allow room for large breakfronts or media cabinets, ask for elevations of the walls and mark off the heights and lengths of the piece to see if they seem proportional to the space. Check to see if your furniture arrangement requires electrical outlets in special locations. Think about placement of phone jacks and cable hookups.

Request 3-D sketches

If you fins an area hard to visualize and think it might pose a problem, ask the designer to create a three dimensional sketch. A 3-D drawing shows how the space will appear when built. Even the most talented pro can’t predict the appearance of every cubic inch and occasionally discovers minor goofs during rough framing, dry walling, or finish work.

Crunch the number again

Once you are satisfied with the design, it’s time to take another look at the numbers, this time, a really hard look, because you’ll be dealing with real numbers and you’ll be expected to make a go or no-go decision fairly quickly. If the numbers seem manageable, you’re all set to put plan into action.