Provided by Networx.com

When you’re building a house from the ground up, you have a lot of important choices to make, and you get to make some key decisions that will affect life in the home for the rest of its existence. Most people don’t think about the fact that a home is likely to be remodeled at some point when they build, and that means they don’t think ahead when it comes to designing a home that easily accommodates remodeling. One architect, Robert Lesnett, created an innovative home in the 1950s that’s continuing to grow and expand, all on a minimal budget. His design ideas are worth taking note of for those preparing to build.

His reasoning was that while he was going to start small because of funds and his current needs, he’d probably want to grow his house over the years. So he deliberately designed it to be easy to remodel. The load of the structure is carried entirely on supports running along the outside walls, with no load-bearing walls inside the house. That makes it a cinch to move partitions around inside the house to reconfigure it, in a way similar to traditional Japanese home design (for more wild Japanese home design, take a look at these architectural gems).

Not just that, but the Y-shaped structure lends itself to knocking out end walls and extending the house to a desired length. More structural supports can be added along the new external wall, distributing the increased load without necessitating internal supports, and the process can continue for years, as it has for Lesnett and his family. As his family has grown, shrunk, and shifted, his house has moved seamlessly with it, making it into a home to raise children in and grow old in.

This draws upon the universal design ethos to create strong, beautiful homes that will last people a lifetime, even as their needs change. Unlike homes that aren’t built with remodeling in mind, his Los Angeles home is cheap and efficient to remodel. Changes don’t require major disruptions for the occupants or huge expenses to move load-bearing walls and reorganize the home; and making the task easier for Los Angeles building companies means they can focus on what’s important in the build.

His beautiful home has lots of natural, earthy decor and a blurred line between inside and outside. That’s thanks to elegant arrays of windows, seamless landscaping, and the use of lots of natural materials in the construction of the structure, like gorgeous tiling throughout. It blends naturally with the land, illustrating why he fell in love with the lot when he found it in the first place, and demonstrates that innovative architecture can have a variety of looks, feels, and styles. Nothing about Lesnett’s home feels modular, but he’s effectively built a modular home that can be endlessly reconfigured.

Innovative design like this cuts housing costs and reduces long term maintenance costs. It should also be appealing for home builders and buyers; a home that is easy to remodel is more valuable, both intrinsically for people who want to be able to grow within their homes and financially, in terms of what it will fetch on the open market. For those considering new construction, add-as-you-go should definitely be on the table, but make sure it’s designed for the local climate conditions!

Katie Marks writes for Network.com.

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Rooted in solid design

Saturday, September 14, 2013

© The Cairns Post

 

The best gardens in the world have evolved over many years but they all started with the same thing: good design.

Planning a garden makeover isn’t about heading to the nursery, filling your car with plants and simply plonking them in the ground.

You need to start with a plan and the best way to do this is to get your thoughts on paper. 

Most houses have some sort of base plan to scale, and if you get this copied you can jot down all your ideas and work out if they will work in the space you have.

It’s important to work to a scale when you do this so you have a realistic idea if certain features will actually fit in your garden.

Get yourself a scale ruler and for large gardens go for 1:100 or 1:200 and for smaller spaces 1:50.

You then need to work out what you want to get out of the space, so trawl the internet and magazines for inspiration.

A good starting point is to think “what is the purpose of this garden?”.

Is it a garden for children, an entertainer’s paradise or simply to make it clean and tidy and ready for sale?

Drawing your areas of hard landscaping (paving, pergolas, paths, etc) and making use of the space is the easy part about landscape design but it starts to get a bit tricky when you come to picking plants.

There are two very important stages of research when it comes to plant selection: the first is the easiest and it involves spending a day in the garden and watching where the sun moves around the space; and the second, digging a hole and taking a look at what soil you have.

Once you are armed with this information you can research what plants are best suited to your aspect and soil type.

Again, the internet and magazines are a great place to look to work out what style of planting you want.

Once you have your spaces and plants sorted out, you need to get into the detail of the plan: what will your paving material be? How will the deck level and the grass meet up? What will the finish be on the water feature?

Spend some time talking to as many experts as you can to ensure your garden has a high-quality look and feel to it.

 

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Think ahead: Planning makes a good garden flourish.

The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce is proud to host and produce the 2013 Lakeview East Festival of the Arts. The Festival, now in its ninth year, takes place Saturday, Sept. 14 and Sunday, Sept. 15 in Lakeview, from Belmont Ave. to Hawthorne Street. The Lakeview East Festival of the Arts requests a $5 donation upon entrance and those who donate may be entered to win round-trip tickets to any scheduled destination serviced by Southwest Airlines. The hours are Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, September 15 from 10 a.m.  – 5 p.m.

The 2013 Lakeview East Festival of the Arts showcases more than 175-juried artists featuring world-class original paintings, sculpture, photography, furniture, jewelry and more.  In addition to the artists’ booths, the Festival features live music and beer and wine gardens, live cooking demos by FlavorCity, the Inspiration Garden by Patch Landscaping, interactive children’s area featuring a puppet show, a mosaic mural making booth and much more.

New to the festival this year are live, interactive cooking demonstrations led by FlavorCity, a cooking video and fresh recipe website led by chef Bobby Parrish. He teams with guest chefs from Waffles, Revolution, Bar Pastoral and Hutch on the live cooking demonstrations from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. All demos will be interactive and will take place outside in a tent located at 3344 N. Broadway.

The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce also welcomes back Patch Landscaping with their Inspiration Garden.  Patch Landscaping will be creating an outdoor oasis filled with inspiration for the everyday gardener.  From bicycles and cinder blocks being used as planters to a user friendly outdoor fire pit, Patch’s outdoor garden will have great ideas to inspire the “DIY” gardener in all of us.  The garden will be located on Broadway from Roscoe to Hawthorne Streets.

SCHEDULE OF STAGE EVENTS AT LAKEVIEW EAST FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

The Lakeview Festival of the Arts also presents live music during the festival. The performers and bands represent a wide variety of styles and influences for attendees to enjoy as they tour the numerous booths and vendors or relax while sampling the variety of food and drink.

Saturday, September 14

Main Stage

11 a.m.                           Ellen Miller and Liz Mandeville

11:45 a.m.                      Classical Blast

1:15 p.m.                        No Love For Linus

2:45 p.m.                        Las Guitarras de Espana

4:15 p.m.                        Jonas Friddle and the Majority

5:45 p.m.                        Band Called Catch

Garden Stage

11 a.m.                           J-Bomb

12:05 p.m.                      Claudettes

1:30 p.m.                        Shake ‘Em On Down

2:50 p.m.                        Safe Haven

4:30 p.m.                        Liza Day

Sunday, September 15

Main Stage

10:30 a.m.                      Urban Gateways Drum Circle and March

11:30 a.m.                      Conjunto

1 p.m.                             Vic and Gab

2:30 p.m.                        Grood

4 p.m.                             Panda Riot

Garden Stage  

11 a.m.                           Steve Hashimoto Pat Flemming

12:15 p.m.                      Las Guitarras Acoustic

1:30 p.m.                        Spare Parts

3  p.m.                            Good Ground

4:30 p.m.                        Cameron McGill

Festival hours are Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, September 15 from 10 a.m.  – 5 p.m. For Festival information visit http://www.lakevieweastfestivalofthearts.com/or call 773.348.8608.

Water Is Flowing in Adam’s Garden

Water is flowing in the Adam’s Garden, which was dedicated in a special ceremony Saturday, Aug. 31. The small children’s memorial garden, located in Lower Blackburn Park on West Osage, contains a grief angel, benches, picnic tables, the descending stream, a flagpole surrounded by a veterans’ display, a light that illuminates the park all night and a cave opening cleared of debris. Most of the labor and material for the park were donated. Missourian Photo.

Posted: Thursday, September 12, 2013 1:00 pm

Flowing Stream Helps to Transform Small Pacific Park

By Pauline Masson, Pacific Editor

The Missourian

The small stream that resembles a creek flowing downhill was installed in Lower Blackburn Park/Adam’s Garden largely with volunteer labor and donated supplies.

The water was turned on Saturday, Aug. 31, in a ceremony honoring Scott LaMar.

Work included lining the streambed with stones, installing an underground water line and pump, and landscaping beside the stream bank.

Organized by Gina Pingleton as part of the memorial to her son Adam and other parents who lost a child, the project has attracted a group of loyal volunteers, including firms that donate material and the use of earth-moving equipment.

“It’s come together pretty fast,” said Alderman Walter Arnette, an immediate supporter of the park.

“Anyone who has lost a child knows how important good memories are,” he said.

The park originally was designed as a contemplative location with a grief angel and park benches, but was expanded as people came forward.

It now contains the grief angel, picnic benches, the descending stream, a flagpole surrounded by a veterans’ display, a light that illuminates the park all night and a cave opening cleared of debris.

Although the work was completed with donated materials and volunteer labor, Adam’s Garden is a city park open to the public.

“This park is an example of what we’ve been able to do with partnerships and support from the community,” said Mayor Herb Adams. “We welcome people to come forward with ideas to enhance our parks.”

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Thursday, September 12, 2013 1:00 pm.

AUSTIN, Minn. — All summer, MnDOT’s commissioner has been traveling around the state to talk transportation.

Topics range anywhere from past improvements to the future and what citizens see happening there.

Thursday’s trip involved a stop in Austin.

Those in Austin have a grand plan to get people to stop in town instead of just driving by on the interstate

“Create a landscaping theme to improve on the landscaping on I-90, because right now there’s no visual appeal there,” said John Gray with Austin’s Vision 2020.

When it comes to improving an area bridge, they want it to be more than just concrete.

“Looking long-term as to when the bridges are going to be replaced or taking existing bridges and maybe improve on the attractiveness of the bridges,” Gray said.

Those are just some of the ideas commissioner Charles Zelle is hearing as he travels across the state. He is meeting with chambers of commerce, elected officials and listening to citizens.

“This is more than just building transportation roads and bridges, it’s about how do we make it both aesthetic and support the qualities about Minnesota that our citizens most admire and most want,” Zelle said.

He said they are finding out what the vision is over the next 20 years for the state.

“How do we create a great sense of community, incorporate art, allow great health through pedestrian and bicycle interconnections and yes, provide access for our businesses,” Zelle said.

He said that may involve a gas tax or an incremental increase in registration fees.

“We want to make sure we’re prudent and MnDOT especially, is smart about what we’re investing in, make sure it’s a high return on investment. In other words, we don’t want to squander taxpayer funding, but we also want to be competitive with other states and other regions,” Zelle said.

He also met with leaders at Hormel food in Austin before stopping in Rochester for a town hall style meeting with area residents.

By
• J.S. MARCUS

The Swedes curse their long dark winters, but for Johan and Anna Gorecki, a house-hunting couple in Stockholm, the season turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Winter Light

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Mattias Hamren for The Wall Street Journal

The Goreckis transformed a closed-in, 4,842-square-foot, 1930s villa in the Stockholm suburb of Djursholm into an open-plan, five-bedroom home.

In October 2008, a large 1930s Functionalist villa in the prime Stockholm suburb of Djursholm went on the market with an asking price of 16 million Swedish kronor or $2.45 million. At 4,842 square feet, the eight-bedroom, five-bathroom house was big, but its most important rooms—including the kitchen and the living room—had a closed-in feel, worsened by the low ceilings preferred in Swedish modernism. In Stockholm’s winter gloom, the house was a hard sell.

“Nobody was interested,” says Ms. Gorecki, a 37-year-old interior stylist, who creates images for advertising. “Only us.”

The couple, who have three children between the ages of 3 and 8, paid about $306,000 less than asking price—and went about remaking their new home. Work began in early 2009, and the couple moved in later that year. The family now lives in a five-bedroom, four-bathroom home, with a redesigned two-bedroom, one-bathroom guest apartment—plus new landscaping, a brighter facade and a design-rich, user-friendly interior.

Some of the structural interventions have been dramatic. The living room and an adjoining unheated conservatory have been transformed into a continuous space by cutting through a shared wall. The cramped living room now has the feel of a light-filled gallery, and the conservatory contains a heated, sunken living area with plenty of natural light.

“When we first came here, I thought the living room was boring,” says Mr. Gorecki, a 39-year-old entrepreneur. Now—outfitted with an app-controlled sound system and a Spotify hookup—it is an ideal place to listen to music.

Off the dining room, the newly purchased villa had a small kitchen along with two downstairs bedrooms and a bathroom. The Goreckis decided to convert the four smaller rooms into one big kitchen. “This is where we put in a lot of effort,” says Ms. Gorecki.

The idea came from her husband. “Johan isn’t into design,” says Ms. Gorecki, “but he has good ideas.”

Enlarge Image

The new L-shaped kitchen has limestone floors and wall trimming to echo the vintage 1930s limestone fireplaces elsewhere in the house. Designer touches include orange fiberglass Eames chairs around the extra-long kitchen table, two Bauhaus-era Wassily lounge chairs, and a large brass light fixture by Swedish modernist designer Hans-Agne Jakobsson.

Ms. Gorecki, who designed her new home’s interiors, found the gray leather Wassily chairs at a local auction house, and the Jakobsson fixture at an antique store. The SieMatic kitchen fittings came with Miele appliances. The warming orange and brass tones contrast with the sleek cooking area, with white cabinets and counters and black light fixtures.

The rest of the downstairs is similarly eclectic. The dining room features a 1920s conference table, first designed for office use by the Stockholm department store Nordiska Kompaniet, that Ms. Gorecki bought at auction. It is complemented by a 19th-century gilded chandelier. In the living room, she has set off austere Danish Modern furniture with a playful pinkish neo-rococo dresser.

The house is an early example of Functionalism, the boxy architectural style that held sway in Sweden for much of the 20th century. But it contains a few crucial elements of an earlier neoclassical style, known as Swedish Grace, which is most commonly associated with early 20th-century Swedish glass design.

The cool geometry of the house is softened by a pillared portico in front, and by a curved staircase leading from the entryway to the upstairs bedrooms and family room.

Carpenters installed a new oak staircase in place of the earlier one covered in green carpet, but left behind a distinctive railing, wrapped in leather ribbon—now a fashionable add-on in high-end homes.

“It costs so much to make those new,” says Ms. Gorecki, “so we were happy it was already there.”

The house’s third major intervention took place around the master bedroom, which originally had a small en-suite bathroom and a nearby additional bedroom. The couple turned the bathroom into a walk-in closet and converted the bedroom into a new bathroom, lined with green Swedish marble.

After the interior was finished, the couple slowly got around to working outside. Inspired by the slate floor in the former conservatory, they replaced the villa’s surrounding gravel with matching slate paving stones. Standard suburban bushes were replaced with roses and lavender. And this summer, after much consideration, they have finally finished painting the house, which was lightened from terra cotta to salmon.

Up next: a swimming pool, set to replace an outdoor sitting area.

The couple aren’t without regrets. They installed a high-tech geothermal heating system, which uses an underground pump, but didn’t extend it to the new kitchen, equipped with new electric-powered under-floor heating. “In winter, electricity bills are terrible,” says Ms. Gorecki.

But cold weather is still the couple’s friend. The home, built on a ¾-acre lot, rests on a slope and the views down to the Baltic Sea are obscured by foliage for much of year.

“The view is nicer in autumn and winter,” says Mr. Gorecki, looking out on a sunny summer day. “There are no leaves and you can see the water.”

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Will walkers have a place to stop and take in the Mississippi River Valley while strolling over the new Winona bridge? What will Winonans see as they walk beneath the new structure? A new local group put in its two cents on Tuesday. Made up of Winona Area Chamber of Commerce representatives, citizens, and local government staff, the Winona Bridge Project Visual Quality Committee (VQC), met earlier this month and will meet throughout the fall to provide input on aesthetic details of the new bridge.

The group is an advisory committee to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), meaning that the VQC has a voice, but it does not have authority. Mn/DOT will make the decisions. Nevertheless, this fall the VQC will discuss overlooks, bridge piers, railings, landscaping, lighting, and signage. Mn/DOT officials made it clear that the topic of different bridge types — such as the concrete box girder Mn/DOT intends to build or the more expensive arch or cable stays that were considered — is off the table. “The VQC is not going to be allowed to really make any changes to the concrete box girder. All we can deal with are the amenities,” explained VQC member Tom Choinski.

In past public discussions, some of the committee members made it clear that the bridge type was their primary aesthetic concern and that they favored an arch or cable stay bridge type. The Chamber, on the other hand, supported the box girder bridge. At the VQC’s first meeting, some confusion arose over whether the bridge type was a “a done deal.” A recent Winona City Council decision contributed to that confusion. The council gave municipal consent to the bridge project, but attempted to exclude the bridge type from its approval. While Mn/DOT Project Manager Terry Ward advised the City Council they “could do that,” just before the vote, afterward he explained that it does not work that way. The council effectively approved the box girder bridge.

There is only one other approval Mn/DOT needs to build the box girder bridge it wants: a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) following a federal Environmental Assessment in the fall. Aesthetic concerns are included in the catch-all assessment and opponents could lobby against federal approval on those grounds.

When asked about the limits of the VQC’s role, Choinski said, “They’re alleging that we are a valuable committee and they will listen to us.” He hopes the committee’s work can tie into efforts to revitalize Levee Park, downtown, and the riverfront, but the former St. Paul lobbyist does not have much patience for Mn/DOT’s claims that it did not have enough money for an arch bridge. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he added. “We need more support from the top.”

Piers and overlooks

The Winona Post went to press before the VQC finalized its recommendation on overlooks and bridge piers. However, there was broad support for overlooks, and Mn/DOT representatives indicated that including the overlooks is a real possibility.

“I don’t think anyone is opposed to it,” VQC member Colleen Bremer said in an interview. VQC member and Chamber of Commerce affiliate Jordan Hoel agreed. “The visual quality of the bike path and having an overlook into the water” are his top priorities for the new bridge, he said.

Bremer supports concepts to feature artwork or interpretive signs explaining the geology of the river at the overlooks, she said.

“Just to have a nice walk along the river and stop at an overlook would be really nice,” said VQC member and Chamber of Commerce affiliate Vicki Englich in an interview.

The group also discussed aspirations and limitations for the design of the new bridge’s piers at its first two meetings. Members asked if the piers could be sculpted to look like steamboat smokestacks or other shapes, but Mn/DOT representatives informed the group that the shape of piers cannot be changed, only its surface relief, texture, and color. Several other ideas ran up against structural impossibilities. VQC member and Levee Park committee member Mike Kennedy suggested including embossed images of smokestacks if a flow-blown sculpted pier was not an option. Sometimes, “it is the unwillingness to do it that is the barrier, not the engineering,” he told designers.

Pier design is an important decision, Bremer said, because it will affect the aesthetics under the bridge. “There is quite a bit of area under that bridge,” she added. “Hopefully that will be something beautiful where people will want to sit,” not a place to throw trash. Future discussions of landscaping will be important to that area, Englich pointed out. The under-the-bridge aesthetics may be particularly important if the city follows through on hopes to obtain condemned land west of the bridge for a new park. Whether those hopes will be realized will not be known until after construction, so the VQC will have to make its recommendations without knowing how the area will ultimately be used.

In general, committee members expressed hopes that the new bridge will fit in with the historic bridge and the historic feel of downtown. They want to see “cohesion” as Englich put it in an interview. “I think it should reflect the history and the nature and the feeling of Winona,” Bremer said.

What Mn/DOT does with the VQC’s recommendations remains to be seen, but the bridge project offers a real opportunity for the VQC to work with the city’s Levee Park committee and make “to make the riverfront a real vibrant area,” said Choinski.

 

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• HAVE YOUR SAY: The closing date for feedback and submission on the new Narooma roundabout closes on Friday, September 20.

AS the closing
date nears for submissions and feedback on Eurobodalla Shire Council’s
landscaping ideas for Narooma some residents have expressed their concerns.

The Draft
landscape design plans for the $4.4 million Narooma Streetscaping Project has
been put together following community consultation back in March.

Long-time Narooma
resident Kathie Thackray believes that the recommendations resulting from the
consultation are largely being ignored and is hoping people take the time to
consider the plans.

Noticeable in the
recommendations was the desire for soft landscaping to be prominent with a
natural and vegetated approach, avoiding large expanses of hard materials.

“The proposed
landscape is not soft with all those concrete garden beds, seating and paving,”
Kathie said.

Furthermore,
Kathie is keen to draw attention to the lack of additional seating, picnic
areas and shelter.

Drawing a fair
bit of attention is the fence erected only one year that is to be replaced with
a lower white plastic picket variety which raises concerns by dog owners and
the Animal Welfare League who conduct regular dog training activities.

Check out the
plans at www.esc.nsw.gov.au/publications/on-exhibition/ and be sure to throw
your opinion into the mix.

The closing date
for feedback and submissions is Friday, September 20.

September is here, and with that, comes a new line up of Business After Hours (BAH) Socials for chamber members (and anyone who is thinking of becoming a member) to enjoy.

To kick-off this season of get-togethers, the BAH committee invites members to a Mini Trades Show, where products and services for the home will be showcased at the Port Elgin Curling Club.

“It will feature many local businesses focused on providing you with all of your home products and services,” said BAH member, Kaitlyn Shular.

Some of the vendors that will be at the meeting include: Retire at Home Services, Truly Nolen Pest Control, All in One Landscaping, K interiors, Bruce County Custom Cabinets, Port Elgin Curling Club and Nicol Insurance Inc.

Those in attendance will enjoy food catered by Ribey Catering.

“Come on out to see our vendors, try the food, have a drink and win some prizes,” Shular said.

The BAH meeting will take place Sept. 19 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The BAH is the Chamber’s premier networking event allowing members to meet, exchange ideas, make important long-lasting bonds in a comfortable setting, while giving the hosting business an opportunity to showcase their workplace and gain valuable exposure.