You need more space. Your mother in law is moving in to torture you and/or help with child care and there isn’t any space in the house. Or maybe there is space but there isn’t enough ‘space’. Or maybe you are finally ready to go out on your own and start that software company. As it really is customary to do this in the garage you are all set as you a have an underused one sitting out back. The problem is that we don’t live in California and working in the garage in winter is less than ideal. Wouldn’t it be great if you could convert it to a nice heated office? It would! But……

We recently had the pleasure of remodeling a kitchen in a mid century modern house here in Seattle. Sometimes we work on a whole house remodel but partial remodels are more common (although occasionally these end up as whole house jobs anyway). Usually the task is to bring the kitchen or baths up to date with modern appliances, fixtures and layout.

Recently we were contacted by some friends of ours to design a house for them in Maun, Botswana. We certainly enjoy working on projects here in Seattle but a little variety is always nice, especially if that variety involves hyenas.

Seattle is not a city known for its large bathrooms. Many of our clients with older houses have bathrooms that range from small to tiny. Some of these are guest baths, but often they are the main or only bath in the house, meaning they have to serve the whole family including adults, kids and visitors. It can be a challenge to make a small space work for so many different functions.

We just wanted to share a quick recap on the recent Northwest EcoBuilding Guild's Green Home tour a couple of weekends ago. Our most recently completed project, a remodel on Phinney Ridge was featured on the tour and we had a great weekend sharing the house with tour goers. There were tons of people! It was a great crowd, full of folks with excellent questions and comments.

It’s a fairly common scenario. Fresh off the plane and ready to get started on a project. On the way out to the project site you start to get a funny feeling in your stomach. No, it’s not that. You haven’t eaten anything other than airline food so far although Continentals ‘snack packs’ could certainly present a risk. What is making you nervous is the fact that none of the buildings here are built out of wood. Not a stud in sight. All you see is…. Confined Masonry.

One of the benefits of an ongoing relationship with a non profit, or any other client for that matter, is the ability to visit past work and learn from it. Stephanie Ingram, Court Harris and myself, Geoff Piper, had the opportunity to do just that when we were in Nicaragua this past month.