SO… I guess it’s time I get right down into it. Down and dirty as they say… :) You don’t know it, but my in-laws gave me this awesome project at Christmas. I’m just NOW getting around to thinking about it! O my. “Lazy butt” – did you just you say? geez. give me a break. It’s been a crazy couple of months. BUT. I can’t believe it’s MARCH already! Holy cow! And time change on Sunday? What?! We’re just starting to see the sun before I leave for work in the morning! I’m so bummed that it’s going to be dark again next week! …now you’re saying “come on Kim…remember that the reason we’re changing time is because summer is coming!” i know i know… but i’m so addicted to the sunshine…especially waking up with it. Don’t you just love lying in bed and feeling the sun streaming through the curtains and hear the birds singing? Well… if it’s dark on monday morning when i have to get up for work there ain’t gonna be no birds singing and no Kimmy singing either. hah.

again i digress. geez. i’m good at that. anyway! back to the point of this blog.

My new little project I’m going to share with you! :)

When I start a project I start with a list of goals of what I want the project to accomplish. I also start with looking at the context. So we’ll get to that. Let’s look at goals first.

studioH____________________goals

So… the story: My In-laws, Doug and Pam,

live in the beautiful city of Seattle. Since their two sons have moved out of the house (mostly) the needs of the family for the house have changed. Pam has always wanted an art studio but has managed until now with sharing the office space with Doug.  Their desire is to add an addition to their house of 25 years or to move into a new place.  They have a lot of property and are not sure they want to keep taking care of it. They like the location but they could move closer to a city center which would be really fun but they might loose some space.

My job is to come up with an idea that will help them live the way they want to in their current house but also to add value to the home. It’s important for everyone to realize that sometimes the best idea is to just sell the house and find another one that has what you need. But sometimes it does wonders to just add a couple spaces to an existing home. I hope that together we can figure out the best solution.


So here are the goals that I have come up with:

(please Pam and Doug, let me know if there is anything else I can add! )

  • Art Studio Addition over the garage
  • Connection to the Studio from stairs or 2nd floor hall
  • Optional redo of Master Bath
  • To create a beautiful light filled space
  • Within a budget
  • LOTS of table space and LOTS of storage
  • Don’t overwhelm the front facade which is very cute and well proportioned.

Context:

you can see the outline of their property in the dark green. (i know it’s kind of hard to see, but i wanted to get the surrounding context as well as their property) I covered up the address for all of our safety.

Things to notice:

they have a long driveway, so they are away from a busy street. This is very nice!

The house is close to a lake.

It has a beautiful, large backyard and side property.

It faces northeast.

There is a lot of shade on their property.


Images + Ideas of existing House:

the existing front facade

so: as you can see, the house is adorable. I don’t want my design to compete with it. My first idea is to match the existing roof line of the 2nd story. The red arrows show that i want the connection to the new space to be from the 2nd or stair. I want lots of windows for lots of daylight which is what I’m trying to explain with the yellow arrow and sun.:)

The existing back facade of the house. I LOVE This view. It’s so romantic! :)

So this shows my idea for the studio over the garage from the back. You wouldn’t see much of it because it would be better to keep most of the new space in the front of the house. I like the roof lines in the back so I don’t really want to bother them! I love the cute little gable on the left in this image. That is another way I could design the studio space, but I’m afraid that it would conflict in the front.

***

So. There you go. It took me this long to give you this much information. Can you believe it? Anyway. Hope you get an idea what I’m thinking, especially Pam and Doug. O wait. This is basically what you said you wanted. :) ha. Now I’ll get started on the floor plans. I have to put the existing drawings into my computer to be able to understand it enough to add the new design. I need to get on that asap! :)

Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas for this plan! What do you think of my ideas? All comments are constructive and helpful, so don’t be afraid to comment!



xoxo -kimberly renee