Coats, shoes etc. room

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The first post about this, was creating an area for coats, shoes etc.

I’ve put feedback on these ideas at the bottom of this post >>

The plans are evolving this to a room for coats, shoes etc.

It looks like this is called a Mudroom in the US.

Have a think of what else to add into this room:

  • A safe, as it’s where you might want to leave car keys, wallets etc ?
    • There could be an additional safe for passports, jewellery etc. elsewhere in the house.
  • Black board or other family notice board.
French Country - custom built mud room traditional entry

I like the cushion / lip, so that those who want to, can site down to put on shoes, boots etc.

kitchen eclectic kitchen

I like the lower shoes area is straight onto the floor and not a drawer. This should make it easier to clean /tidy.

 

cubbies and desk traditional hall
traditional hall design by
It’d be good to have a coats, shoes etc. area for the office. 

Carpenter Gothic Mudroom traditional entry

Having multiple slots, means you can hang coats on the back and side walls of each “slot”. There could be a per person slot (well it could start like that).

ASID Showcase House traditional entry

Or everybody uses one shared space ?

Tudor Addition Mudroom traditional entry
2011 Showcase - Hillside Retreat modern hall

Does this one nail it. Thin walls to segment the spaces and give extra hanging hooks on the separators?

Mudroom Ideas: Locker Room

Baskets for up above, so it’s easy to pull down your basket of stuff. eg wool hats and beanie’s.

mudroom storage traditional entry

Get in multi tiers for shoes. But make sure there is also space for taller boots, wellies etc. too.

 

Farmhouse Revival traditional entry

Getting lots of shoe storage here.

Chez Larsson- Shoe cubbies

and here.

 

better flow - the mudroom / laundry room eclectic laundry room

May as well build storage right to the ceiling !

Mudroom hall

Feedback on these ideas:

  • There is a danger of the ‘compartments’ being too school like. I prefer maybe 2 large ones, rather than lots of individual ones.
  • Yes to the wood panelling.
  • Should defo go up to the celing with top level shelf/ baskets
  • Keep it simple- maybe half of shoe space double height for wellies & other half 2 shelves
  • Like the sitting bench.

Utility room

  • In my view should also have hanging space for your washing- perhaps like our laundry at home, we have a hanging thing above the washing machines etc .

Mirrors to catch the view.

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OK, there are plans for bathroom mirrors, but how about mirrors to reflect the view ?

For example 1 or more mirrors on the south side of the living area or bedrooms that have a northward view over the sea and beach, so that when you look away from the sea, you get these reflected views of the sea.

In the living area, this could be a mirror on the corner post opposite the stairs +/or on the sliding door to the boot room.

from lounge towards the entrance - mirror

With a half height wall between the bed and bathroom area for the 2 sea side bedrooms, the idea is for mirror(s) that are in this open space:

front bedrooms from outside

The above photo from the SketchUp model shows how you can see from the bed, back into the bathroom areas.

The current idea is mirrors that are on supports from above and below:

double sided mirrors - from inside - mockup

The sinks and storage will probably be different from the above mockup.

From in the bedroom, these can be mirrors on the other side, so that in the bedroom area, they are mirrors of the view out to the sky and sea:

double sided mirrors - from outside

Winter Driving Rain May Increase

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OK, we know that man made climate change is here, but don’t know how much the systems will tip it to being worse or to self regulate (or stay on the current trajectory).

But it does mean, that on top of it being a very exposed site, there is the potential for driving rain to increase. See the map below, taken from www.innovateuk.org (PDF).

Talking to surrounding residents, that also look out over Perranporth beach, they all say the site gets a full weather beating on a regular basis. The www.innovateuk.org (PDF) recommends the following detailing, that I’m sure ra-studio are already on top of:

  • recessed window and door reveals
  • projecting cills with drips
  • render finishes
  • extended eaves
  • greater laps and fixings to roof and cladding fixings
  • avoidance of fully filled cavities.
There is also (apparently) the issue that materials may behave differently. Again, I’ll leave that to Robert at ra-studio.

Choosing a builder

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The Housebuilders Bible outlines how to choose a builder on page 88.

This will, in part be determined by the building method.

Simon Crabb (planned project administrator) has suggested that in terms of managing the project cost, to get each of the contractors to provide a separate quote for the groundworks as this could be done by an additional separate contractor.

It seems to make sense to get builders / contractors to break down the quote, so that they can be compared with others.

Contractors / Routes

There are a LOT of companies that have a variety of full service or part service systems to consider:

Homebuilding & Renovating magazine are piloting a new service within My Building Project, and have teamed up with HBXL to create a unique network of builders local to you to help build your dream home. So when looking for estimates, a local builder etc. could be worth looking at http://www.mybuildingproject.co.uk/en/builder-network.html

Have a look at this blog post, on companies that will off-site build the house (usually with SIPs).

Suppliers:

  • The Cornwall Sustainable Partnership (www.csep.co.uk) provided initial information on local energy experts and green roof suppliers.
  • The Association of Environmentally Conscious Builders (www.aecb.co.uk) is a British-wide network that promotes sustainable building; find local professionals and product suppliers via its website.
  • The Green Roof Centre (www.thegreenroofcentre.co.uk) is an independent research hub founded by the University of Sheffield that has excellent general information about green roof uses.

Partial Builders Short List:

Also see this post re What to do, with who.

Portloe house visit

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Today, Robert from ra-studio, took to visit a house in Portloe that he worked on before he set up his own practice.

Rob, post visit dropped this in an email to me:

I hope you found the trip over to Claire’s place useful yesterday – it’s sometimes good to experience spaces in a more physical sense / situation, and perhaps helps you to visualise how some of your spaces could feel. I think there are obvious parallels between Sea House and Silver Spray (connection / views / relationship with the sea), and seeing how it has been handled there, I hope was helpful for you.

Yes, well worth the visit. It was fantastic to meet such an obviously happy client (and her cool, crazy young dog, Zola).

Their project was serialised in the Telegraph:

So many things about the house, that I hope to include in Silver Spray. The feeling of space, the flow through the house, the views, the natural materials ……

The house looks over the village and was designed to fit into the slope. Without the red circle, it’d be a chunk less obvious !

You drive up the drive and see the studio on your left with the house a bit beyond.

The cladding on the studio is the same as on the house, but it hasn’t yet worn to the same more grey colour / tint.

The house has an amazing central “spine” so that as you walk up to the front door, you see through to the view.

Although the stone detail of the wall below the cladding looks stunning on this house, it’s not something I feel will work for Silver Spray. Except !!!!! maybe for the rear wall of the courtyard. Well something needs to go on that wall. Perhaps it’ll be a retaining wall held back by Gabions (steel cages of rocks). But a quick on-line search suggests the life of Gabions, which is down to the life of the steel holding them together is 50 to 60 years. I suspect less in Silver Spray site, so close to the sea. Damn, as they’d be great.

The slate flooring runs from around much of the house, straight into the house, where it’s apparently super easy to clean. The texture it gives was fantastic. The same slate was used for the external window sills.

Almost all of the windows are by Velfac, with thin profiles, nice colours etc.

This upstairs window has a piece of glass over the front to create a “Juliet Balcony”. Which will work great for the second bedroom.

I’m still not a fan of the idea of wooden decking. Here there was a mixture of slate and wooden decking.

Coat room to the left as you walk in 🙂

Lovely doors, floor and wooden stairs:

Nice detailing on this sliding door that can close over the entrance to the kitchen.

Wide, light floor boards. Interestingly, wooden floors upstairs. I was thinking carpet, but this did work well. OK they have light coloured tiles in the bathrooms upstairs. The bedrooms had good integrated storage.

The above white TV makes it less dominant on the room. Also a superb idea that it pushes against the wall, but is on an arm that can come out and so be viewed from the seating etc. This could be a great idea for in any bedrooms. Although I’m not planning TVs in the bedrooms, it’d be good to allow this future option.
Having a TV in the 2nd bedroom for guests could be a nice touch.

Pebbles in a gulley outside the door, to prevent splash up from rain onto the windows and also to drain away water flowing down the windows.

A photo from when the studio was being built:

The house has solar heating and solar electricity.

External Layout

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Rob from ra-studio is continuing to come up with amazing architectural and design solutions for the project. Successfully converting my “living requirements”, tear sheets,  thoughts and ideas into something that is really coming together.

As the house layout gets closer to something that will need to be costed up, we need to add in the context of the space in front and behind the house, so I went through my notes and found this magazine page and sketch:

I like the low wall from the patio, for sitting on, then a flower bed, instead of a wall. Central steps that’d go down to the flat grass over the garage roof. I don’t like the drop in height from what will be the lounge.

Interesting to find this early days sketch layout:

  • The idea of the external hot shower being under the stairs down from the rear parking, so you can look out through the stairs at the view. This assumed the stairs wouldn’t be in the ground behind the rear courtyard, which is the current likely and sensible plan.
  • Suggests downstairs utility to include a shower.
  • Small side walls to the living space courtyard. I wonder if these will now be included or not. I’ll leave that for Rob’s input.
  • I’d forgotten the idea of a space for bins on bin day. The current idea, is that there could be a side door from here into the garage.

There is also the “Droskyn Development” planned for the land to the south of the house. Below is an annotated illustration from the thus far proposed plans. This means there will be properties, across a road to the rear of the property.

Proposed Droskyn Development plans - impact on Silver Spray

Light and ventilation tunnel ?

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With the stairs going from the floor of the house, to the top and being capped by a sky-light, and also a south facing window (or two) at the top of this “column”, I was reminded of the Potton Lighthouse, with it’s “wind catcher / light funnel”.

I’m wondering if these windows could be an automatic, intrinsic way that the house heats and cools itself down?

Below is a screen shot from a PDF about the Potton Lighthouse.

Dressing room

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A nice article at http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1154483? on things to consider when creating a dressing room: