Historic Remodel

One of my business associates has a rental home he bought a year ago. Last month the tenants unexpectedly moved out, leaving quite a mess. After we got the got the junk cleared out of the house, we decided to fix it up, and rent it out again. This home is part of a larger piece of ground he is looking to develop, and the plan was to demolish this home. Now we are looking to keep it, and rent it out again for awhile, and possibly convert it to a commercial use.

In the interim, my wife has put a tremendous amount of time into cleaning it. We don't think it was cleaned once in the 10 years or so the tenant was there. Structurally the house is in good condition, but it needs some TLC. The owner tore out the old kitchen floor, and I took on the painting.

In the spirit of sustainability and being green, we are going to attempt a green remodel, on a tight budget. Part of the picture is of course, saving the structure in the first place. For the paint, I selected Olympic paint since it is a low VOC environmentally friendly paint. The floor was purchased off of Craig's list as a left over piece of sheet flooring.

Over time we will have to replace the wiring, rebuild the back lean too addition that house the kitchen and bath, replace the roofing (structure is fine), replace the heating system, etc. I will keep you posted on the progress. For now, enjoy the picures of us actually working on the place!

Change is in the Air

As seems to be the theme this year all over the place, 2009 has brought a lot of changes to mine and my families life. With the tanking of the construction and development community (largely due to the collapse of the financial industry), I have been forced to make major changes in my business and restructure it. The sad side of all this, is having to significantly downsize our staff. I know I am not alone in this, as a lot of my clients have had to do the same thing. This economic downturn has been devastating to my professional community, and it is hard to affect the livelihood of people. However, it was either them or me, and since it is all in my name, I had to make the hard choices.

Of course, in the long term, this will allow me greater flexibility and the opportunity to explore new career directions. I am not sure if I will, but at least the flexibility is there now. Of course, I do love what I do, but I don't always enjoy the small business owner side.

The other significant change we are looking at this year is selling our home. Like a lot of other people, we wish to downsize and simplify. That we have yet to do. Change is never easy, but it can be exciting at the same time. Not to mention emotionally exhausting.

Oh well, Life goes on.

Note to Self

Ok, this past summer I built my daughter a beautiful Futon out of Knotty Alder. After the second major frame piece has cracked, I need to remind myself NOT to use Knotty Alder if something needs structural strength! OOPS!

Water Conservation

Well we did it! As we discussed in some of my June posts, we have been working hard this year to conserve water, both indoors, and more importantly in the yard. On our final water bill for the year, we came in 21,000 gallons below our allotment, or almost 9% below. While this is good, what is even more remarkable is that last year we were almost 40,000 gallons over our allotment, so in total we have cut our water usage by almost 22% Not bad if I say so myself!

We have also been cutting down on our electric useage, mostly on air conditioning. We only largely ran it for one month this summer, rather than the four months that we normally run it. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but our electric bills have certainly been lower. Now to create some goals for next year!

Happy New Year

To all my faithful readers, I hope you have a great new years eve, and lets all have a prosperous New Year!

Fugly December '08

I ran across this project awhile back in Grand Junction, and I was simply floored by it. In this day, with all the design professionals, stringent planning departments, and all, why do we continue to build such fugly housing? I understand the need to build homes that are affordable, but why on earth do we need to build multi-family housing straight as a Kansas Highway?

This particular building has 5 units in it, with the street facade dominated by garages, and hard to find front doors. Why not add on some bumpouts to break up the second floor, add a little ornamentation to the roof line, etc? There are simple things that can be done that adds dramatically to the character, without adding much cost.

What makes this even worse, is that these buildings are lined up barack style, and covered with a drab coloraed vynil siding material. Talk about going from bad to worse. I would have thought we would have learned lessons from all the 60's housing projects that are now being torn down. I guess not.

Where's My Bailout?

As a small business owner of Vignette Studios, I am amazed at all the money being thrown into the financial systems, banks, markets, and possibly the auto industry now. All this is supposedly to keep a huge meltdown of the system from happening, with the original theory of helping out main street. Well guess what? The meltdown happened anyway. But I often ask myself, where is my bailout? I have tried hard to keep my debt down, have refused to mortgage my house to the hilt, have always managed to pay my bills even in tight times, and have tried hard to keep people employed. In spite of all this, my industry, which has been slowing down for the past few years, has collapsed the last six months. I am worried that everything I have worked hard for, might all be lost. So why isn't the feds coming to my aid? Instead of handing out billions upon billions to a few key companies, where I will never see any of that money, and they are still shedding thousands of jobs anyway, which makes the economy worse, and we just continue to spiral down, why not send each small business owner a hundred grand or so? That would keep millions of people employed, keep small business doors open, and keep us from defaulting. I think the feds, if they want to throw out money, need to truly help Main Street.

That being said, I am optimistic that we are closer to the end of this mess than the beginning. My business is directly tied to the residential market, and the residential market will come back first and help to lead the country out of the mess. All markets are local, and many will come back before the national market will. Our market, in Northern Colorado, did not get the massive buildup and runup in prices that California, Nevada, and other places did, therefor we did not fall as bad. All the indicators are out there that we have reached bottom, and will start climbing our way out. All we need is some confidence.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Sustainable and Development

I have been working on a small 10 unit development, where our goal has been to create a sustainable community from the ground up. This development called Midori (see the sustainable development post below) has only 10 homes on 5 acres. While this is not an aggressive density by any means, it is all that is allowed per the zoning code. One of the big goals was to reduce our impacts on stormwater management. We were able to do this somewhat, by reducing our amount of hardscaping, and having plenty of open space. However, some of my other ideas were shot down by the reviewing jurisdiction. One of my thoughts was to use permeable pavement in our private driveways. I would be allowed to do it, but would not receive any stormwater credit because of fears that it could become clogged, or that the homeowners may choose to pave over it in the future. These are reasonable concerns, but this line of thinking does not allow any kind of creativity, especially in light of todays views of trying to leave a light footprint on the planet. To add insult to injury, in turns out that when the adjacent roadway was rebuilt a couple of years ago, an outfall pipe for the property was not installed, so now we have to account for double detention on our property. As a result we have gone from a barely noticeable detention area of only a foot or two deep, to a hole in the ground that is 6 feet deep.

At least I was able to achieve one of my goals and minimized the amount of piping, with most of the stormwater being carried in open swales. Oh well, maybe we can still make up for it in the landscaping and the homebuilding.

Grand Opening

Recently Standard Pacific Homes of Colorado opened a new project in the heart of Lowry, within the City of Denver. We worked with Standard Pacific for almost 18 months on this project, from initial conception, to project approvals and finally construction documents. We were responsible for the entire site design, streetscape renderings, and landscape design. At only 20 homes, this community is sure to be a quick sellout. Indeed it opened to strong reviews.


This is a project of small homes on small lots, designed for low maintenance living. The lots are approximately 36 feet wide by 85 feet deep. The lots can be small for this front, since they are accross the street from a community park. A driving design feature, was the desire to create outdoor living spaces. We incorporated use easements, where one homeowner gets the use of the side yard of the adjacent home. Careful attention was paid to the design of the homes themselves to ensure that windows do not face onto adjacent courtyards. We are proud of this design, and look forward to repeating it in other infill developments.

Sustainable Community

We have been working with Ecosphere Investments on a sustainably driven residential development. This development is featuring 10 homes that will all be built to meet or exceed built-green and/or energy star standards. To complement this, the site plan has been designed to foster community, reduce hard scape, and to be environmentally focused. We are incorporating things such as bio-swales, native plant materials, community, and very limited turf grass. Each home will be carefully sited to provide private outdoor living space in a tightly packed development. The developers are also exploring a community wide geothermal heating and cooling system, Photovoltaic power, and many other ideas. We created some graphics for them to use in the sustainable living fair where they are giving there first marketing exposure to the community. This is indeed, an exciting community that we believe will be the future of development.

Silver Lining

My daughter and I took a trip through Windsor last weekend to see how the progress was coming from the Tornado that wiped out the east side of town last May. I was pleased to see how much progress has been made in the last couple of months. It also occured to me, that even though this tragedy is awful for the homeowners and businesses that were damaged or destroyed, it is also providing much needed jobs for the construction industry right now. From carpenters, to drywallers, to painters to roofers, all are able to make some money and put food on there own tables in a time period that has not been kind to construction personal.

My hats off to Windsor for rising to the occasion and recovering from this storm!

Rain and more Rain

Don't know if this is global warming or not, but we have had a very dry spring and summer, with only about half of our normal moisture for the year. Until Thursday. It started with a bang Thursday afternoon with a major hail storm that flattened our garden and a good 1/2 inch of rain. Since then it has rained almost non-stop. So far, our own rain gauge has a total of 3 inches in it. That follows pretty closely to the nearest official rain gauge. Feast or Famine, at least I won't be having to water the yard for some time!

Thoughts on Las Vegas

I recently spent some time in Las Vegas for a conference. I have been there several times over the years, and have even done some work there, though it was about 15 years ago. It is fun though to go see those projects and see how well they hold up over the years. As everyone knows, Las Vegas is a study of contrasts. There is the mega resort strip, and then Las Vegas for everyone else. Of course, wherever I go, I like to stray away from the touristy areas and see how the real people live.
Thoughts On The Strip
The strip just simply boggles my mind. Each resort is basically a city unto itself complete with its own shopping mall! Each one must be able to support around 15,000 people. I can only imagine the infrastructure that it takes to support this! Can you imagine the size of the water lines and sewer mains? Not to mention the power that is required. To top that off, they are constantly rebuilding there. If a structure is about 10 years old, it is prime to be redeveloped. Currently they are building the City Centre project. This is one where a massive project has gone from conception to construction in only a few short years. Mind Boggling.

Thoughts on Las Vegas Suburbs
Most of the residential areas in Las Vegas are boring. There is no real design. Even the master planned communities are not all that exciting. They are all car centered, with no real pedestrian connections, or any real thought given to creating a sense of place. There are exceptions of course, and one in particular I will be writing about in a separate post. And then there is a lack of landscaping along most arterials. Las Vegans love walls, every yard has a masonry wall around it. Therefore, all the main streets are lined with walls right behind the walks. Pretty sterile.

Water Conservation
On the plus side, Las Vegas is getting serious about water conservation. In all of the new developments I visited, there was very little turf grass, and what little there was, was located where it would actually be used. They are even giving existing homes and residents substantial cash incentives to take out their lawns. This is something that we should all be learning from. The landscaping they are putting in is very drought tolerant, and for the most part pretty attractive. One nice thing I noticed was the lack of weeds like we get here, such as bind weed and thistle! Nice Job!

Mesquite Trees
One thing I am jealous of in Las Vegas is they get to use Mesquite Trees. I absoloutely love these trees. They are light and airy, have interesting texture and forms, and also provide some good shade to boot. I wish we could grow them here!

The Press - The Best Spin Doctors!

During these rough economic times, I am continually amazed at how the press can spin news. I have a link on my main home page (Igoogle) I use that shows the major headlines. One headline will say that a companies profits fell by 40%...and doomsday is near. Yet another one will say that profits did not fall as much as expected, and so the sky is not falling. Reading the articles, one is very glass half empty, while the other is a glass half full. It is this seesaw attitude that is helping to drive the housing crunch further down. The press (and media in general) has a very big influeynce on how people percieve things. They read about prices falling 20% in California, panic, and decide not to buy locally, where prices may have actually risen.

I fall into this trap myself. I read all the national stories and fear that we will all go out of business. Of course, I then talk to local people, and they see housing getting better locally. Of course, when things do turn around, the press will be all over the rebound, which will encourage people to get out and buy, thereby spurring it on even more. You have to love it and hate it at the same time.

If I had it 'My Way'

Over the years, I have formed my own theories on how planning should occur. Imagine if you will, we were just now pioneers in this area with a totally clean slate. The water was pure, wildlife was abundant, the air was clean....yet settlers were ready to move in. What should we do differently? This is just my opinion of course, and is based solely on environmental and social concerns, my top 10 list if you will, not in any particular order.

1) River corridors should be given a mile wide corridor. The only development allowed would be recreational such as trails and parks, the occasional street crossings, and some public infrastructure, such as water and sewer plans. I propose this to protect our wetlands, floodplain mitigation, and to allow the rivers to naturally meander.

2) Stream and creek corridors are given a half mile wide corridor. Again, for the same reasons as above.

3) Land Ownership and political boundaries would follow physio graphic features. I understand that our grid system of land ownership made sense...in some areas. That is why we have arterial streets on section lines that are more like roller coasters going up and down hills. Roads should follow the lay of the land. Or, I know of one parcel and the neighboring parcel that both have a creek running across them. They both end up with unusable parcels on the opposite sides of the creek...the property line should follow the creek. Of course following the creek violates my rule above, but you get the point. This also is important in watershed management, wildlife management, resource management, and a myriad of other things.

4) Comprehensive planning, and mixed use would be the norm.

5) Communities would be smaller, around 2 mile radius, everything would be walkable, with all the shopping and most of the jobs easily accessible, reducing the need for private vehicles. There would be more communities at 5-10 mile spacings, with the areas in between for agriculture, recreation, etc. These communities would be connected by mass transit.

6) High emphasis would be placed on architecture, sustainability, and usability.

7) Placemaking would be the starting point...not an afterthought.

8) Designing for the pedestrian environment and socialization would be a priority over designing for vehicular circulation.

9) There would very limited development with a half mile of highway corridors, such as interstates. This is to keep them as a pleasant driving experience. The only development allowed would be occasional service centers. Also, no residential development within a mile of interstates.

10) There would be no urban sprawl. Period. End of Story.

Water Conservation

One of the things that I vowed to due this year was to cut down on my outdoor water use. We have a xeriscaped yard, so I decided it was high time that it actually perform that way. Of course, one of our big water users was our corn garden. In years past we watered it with a rotary sprinkler hooked on the hose. Problem is, I would turn it on in the evening, then forget about it. In the morning I would find it still on watering away! Our annual water allotment for our lot size is 240,000 gallons. The last few years we have zoomed past that by early August...and of course have paid dearly.

This spring I reworked the irrigation system in the regular garden, and installed one in the corn garden, so no more overhead sprinklers. In the corn garden, I have hooked it up to the irrigation system, but havn't actually put it on the clock. I have discovered that all I need to is to turn it on for about 15 minutes every few days, and with the soaker hoses, that is all I need to do. I use that time to week the garden and do pruning, so I don't forget it. I have also put washers in all the hose bibs and hose connections, dramatically cutting back on the leaks. I have also cut back on the overall watering.

So far it is working. Yesterday we recieved our water bill. Last year we used 41,000 gallons in June, this year, only 14,000 gallons. I think, our running total for the year is about 100,000 gallons. I think we will have a good summer for water use!

Oh, we also made it all the way to June 25th before we turned on the A/C!

Gas Prices and Development

Well, it has finally happened. As we all know, gas prices have shot through the roof, and it is hitting us all in the pocket book. In my opinion, we have been living on borrowed time for a long time with relatively low gas prices, and it is finally time to pay the bill. People have been asking me a lot lately what this will mean for the development industry that is already down and out for the most part. To me, it basically means that most of the things I have been predicting for the last decade are finally going to come true, and we will have a paradigm shift in the way people live their lives. We are finally going to have to recognize resource conservation, and not just gasoline. Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts.

DOWNSIZING
No, I am not just talking about the empty nester's who don't need all that room now that the kids are gone. People are going to start realizing that they don't need the McMansion's on the hill, 5-6,000 square feet with 1 acre and more lots. Not only is this a lot of house to heat, cool, and maintain, but that is a lot of ground to maintain, water, fertilize. People are going to look for smaller homes, I say in the 1,800 to 3,000 square foot range on smaller lots. They might even become adjusted to raising families in townhomes, condos, or other high density living areas. The "Not so Big House" phenomena will become the norm, not just the latest fad.

But even more importantly, people are going to downsize there neighborhoods. They are going to want to live, work, and shop in relatively small geographical areas. People are going to become increasingly more willing to live in New Urbanism style developments with mixed income, mixed product, and mixed lifestyles all wrapped together. The one size fits all mega-burbs with the look-alike homes are going to be a thing of the past. People really want a sense of community and belonging. And the with cost of transportation, they won't want to drive 5 blocks to the pool, or 5 miles to the grocery store. They will walk or ride there bike.

Which leads me to my next point. I think we are going to see the rise once again of the corner grocery store...in the 10-30,000 square foot range. This supports the concept of sustainability and not having to drive for miles to pick up a gallon of milk. Of course, only denser development can support this kind of store.

This is happening now. As proof I offer up Stapleton, Lowry, and a host of other New Urbanism projects. In a down housing cycle, these projects are still selling well, and at a premium also. Stapleton is now about 1/2 built out, in only 6 years.

SUSTAINABILITY
Of course, this is hardly new, as being "green" is what it is all about. But there are multiple levels of sustainability. One level is building homes and commercial buildings that are energy efficient. This has been happening for some time now, and it keeps getting better. Of course, when I started building homes back in 2000, I was focusing on energy efficiency. Back then though, nobody wanted to pay the premium for that. I am always ahead of my time it seems.

However, another level of sustainability involves land conservation, redevelopment, higher density development, reduced sprawl, water conservation, etc. I think we will see community gardens become more popular. Maybe we will see edible landscapes. People are going to have to get used to more native and wild landscaping...and not the manicured lawns with lollipop shrubs.

We are already seeing recycling becoming a way of life...now people are getting into composting. All of this keeps stuff out of the landfill. I think we are starting to see a paradigm shift of quality versus quantity. People will buy things that will last for years, and not look at products as being disposable. If it breaks I will just get a new one. I know I have been guilty of that myself.

Anyway, I had some other thoughts, but at the moment they escape me. Of course, none of this will come about overnight, but I do believe that with the cost of transportation now, it will happen faster than it would have otherwise.

Woodworking

As some of you know, I thoroughly enjoy woodworking. Now I am getting into building furniture more and more. My current project that I just started yesterday is building my daughter a Futon for her room. Last fall, I built side tables for our bedroom (see the picture). I have also built a craftsman style columns and covered the beam that runs the 60 foot length of our house. So far I have only built stuff for ourselves, but would like to start building things for other people. If you know of anyone that wants something built, let me know!

New Computer

Have I mentioned how awesome the Mac's are? I am so impressed to be using a machine and operating system that actually works! Everything works together, and it is fast! Only a minute to boot up versus going out for a cup of coffee while windows boots up. Of course, I still have windows in order to run CAD....but even it is integrated!

Mac OSx...the only way to go.

June 2008 Fugglies

OK, this belong more in the WTF category than ugly. I found this playground in a New Urbanism community. Not just any community, but a very celebrated one that prides itself on its high end and well regulated architecture. So why on earth would they fence in a playground....much less with a chain link fence? I haven't seen chain link fences anywhere else in the community, so I didn't think they were even allowed.

Now I can understand wanting to keep kids out of the street...but there are far better ways of doing it...wrought iron fence comes to mind, with some openings to actually get into the playground. I don't know, all I do is shake my head.