I'm starting to have serious doubts about this whole process. I'm not sure how helpful it's going to be, and since it's totally unfindable by anyone other than those who know about it, so it's not going to help anyone else. But who knows, maybe by the end I'll be able to do something more with it. M would love to get a book out of it, but considering my track record for thesis, I can't say it's altogether likely.

Guestroom
www.mobelform.com - really interesting couch/Murphy beds. Really expensive but maybe possible in ten years who knows. Or maybe just steal the ideas and figure how to make them for ourselves.

General
www.delinear.com - banana fiber material. Need I say more.
www.moormann.com - bookshelves that don’t need tools or screws into wall, can be free standing. Minimalist, could be room dividers.
www.flooringalternatives.com - just what it says

Other interests
www.worldhandsproject.org - building pallet houses in Mexico

Kitchen
www.kraftmaid.com - Venecia kitchen and storage, European styling. The Mirra collection is really nice, with handle-less option with lots of storage options.

Architects
www.jmastudio.com
well, really there's only one plan at this site, House D which is interesting although I'll have to check the size of the livingroom/dining area. It's nice that the upstairs could basically be a master suite - bedroom bath and studio/office.

Dwell April 2005

Kitchen
www.jennair.com - really nice double oven plus warming tray
wolfappliance.com – another beautiful oven set

Bath
www.vitrakaro.com - still makes white hex tiles
www.coveringsetc.com - cool eco-friendly recycled tiles

General
www.northamply.com/lite-ply.html - a light siding of poplar that can be stapled up, very nice finish, with no drywall
Galvanized grating for the decking, so it lets rain and snow fall through to plants can still grow underneath and decks are not piled with snow, plus a better traction with ice.
www.flatpackhouse.com - interesting modular housing, not sure how affordable or adaptive to snowy places it might be.

Dwell review June 2006

Now I'll be going through my backlog of Dwells and pull out all the ideas and items that I drooled over when I originally read them. Just in case anyone was wondering we're a long way off of any actual decisions being made, so you may want to check back much later if you want to see actual results rather than ponderings.
Flor carpet tiles would be a good sustainable option, they can be changed and moved and if a bad spill occurs you can just change the one or two tiles rather than having to re-carpet. They have cool colours and textures, and you can mix and match for an effect that looks more like a rug than a monotonous carpet. Also, they can be put in the places you want say just in front of the couch or as a path from room to room or just around the edge of a bed. www.florcatalog.com
Noritz hot water heaters, aaahhh the lady in the bath looks like she's really having a nice time. Plus a $300 tax credit. noritz.com/dwell
Oooo, a very nice looking soaking tub, not very traditional. And maybe it's just square and deep and not really all that comfortable but it's a place to start. totousa.com/dwell6
Aaaahh a beautiful Italian kitchen island made of recycled materials, a dual sink and movable counter/cutting shelf. www.schiffini.it
Hanging a 4x8 sheet of stained plywood from a railing to be used as either a door for the bathroom or the closet without taking up any extra room. www.mcmaster.com for the railing to hang it from.
Dining table needs to be long and wood and probably have benches that can be pushed under for when it needs to be used as a work space. Maybe add some cushions or chairs that can be hung out of the way like the Shakers did. So there also needs to be room around the table for moving benches, chairs, serving trolleys etc., also for people to stand around and chat with those that are sitting. Perhaps several benches so as not to trap the people in the middle.
A dutch door for the kitchen to open outside without letting everyone out.
And the indoor outdoor window wall, folding glass doors, so you can really open the full space up and out. www.nanawall.com

Dog interlude

So there we were at the dog store to get a couple treats, and what do we come across but the Holy Grail of Finn toys, a squeaking tennis ball. Admittedly he is only fleetingly interested in balls, mostly to chase them and that's it, not much interest in bringing them back, or really in chasing them with any regularity. But the squeak, now that is the gravy, the money shot as it were. He can just sit there and squeak and squeak for hours, and he actually gets a pretty wide range of tones and length of sustaining of notes. And for awhile there were two balls, but one has mysteriously disappeared almost immediately. So now Bella is driven mad by the fact that Finn has this ball and all he wants to do is squeak it. To her a ball is for kicking or throwing, if it squeaks, well that's interesting, but the innermost purpose of a ball is movement not sound. To Finn to whole point is that it squeaks, who cares what shape it is. This has caused a conflict of epic proportions. Finn will sit and squeak with Bella tensely watching and waiting for him to drop it, which he inevitably does. Then she swoops in, snatches it and brings it to the nearest person for them to kick. In doing so she puts in on the floor in front of this person, enabling Finn to come over and recover it for more squeaking. And so the circle turns.

The story so far...(Part 2)

Some other land considerations:
Needs to be in a fire district if it's rural. - I'm willing to have a pond for water retention and do the defensible space thing, but I'd still rather have a fireman show up, even if it's just a volunteer who makes me leave so I don't burn to death.
It needs to be within half an hour of a hospital. - M has somewhat of a propensity to need an emergency room a couple times a year. As long as he's on the blood thinners and still wants climb rocks by himself, a-hospital we'll be going.
Could be an in town lot if its big enough and well positioned enough not to be too close to neighbors. - I've had a lifetime of neighbor interaction in the last three years. Yelling, drunkenness, crying, dying, but especially the yelling. It seems like every time I go out and try to get some work done in my garden someone's calling someone a whore. And not just the people that live there, other family members actually come over and have arguments and always on the front lawn.
A dog park would be nice.
Needs to be non-covenanted or with progressive rules, i.e. can't have an issue with modern design. - Hell this is the West, I don't want you telling me nothin' about nothin'. If I wanted people telling me what to do, I'd be livin' for free at home.

The house itself:
Modern design, open plan, high ceilings, big windows, hot tub, decks, fireplace.
So basically, yes, I want a NY loft in the mountains with lots of sustainable features. A hippie in a black turtleneck, smoking cloves and listening to John Coltrane, while cross-country skiing.

Green features:
masonry heating unit, solar hot water, radiant heat, on demand hot water, composting system.

Thoughts on the kitchen:
BIG, BIG, BIG
industrial/ proffessional - I know a lot ofpeople do this to a degree but we would really use it. We both love to cook and eat and to have the space to really stretch out and do it right would be wonderful.
6 burner gas stove with high BTU capability
2 ovens with at least one convection
open under cabinets with roll out units, so they can be additional counter space or can go out to the deck
open/metro shelving
dishwasher, disposal, double sinks
stove on the wall side with big hood
double door refrigerator
double door freezer (see Standard Restaurant catalog)
rolling floor bins for flour/oatmeal
large pantry
kitchen/dining/living all in one big long room

Bathroom features:
walk-in shower - no curtains
japanese soaking tub - I don't think I've ever taken a bath in our present house. The thought of sitting half in water, looking at tiles is not that appealing to me anymore. I grew up taking baths so it's not that. But a soaking tub, where you can sit upright and be fully emmersed and have a window or two with views and feel part of the outside too would be great.
wood slat floors with sloped concrete floor under to floor drain - I love the idea of wood in the bathroom, like a sauna, but with an easy way to drain water under it. It would have to be movable at the drain end for cleaning.
double sinks - I've had enough toothpaste encrusted sinks to last me a lifetime also. Not sure what is about M that makes it so hard to get the paste to go down the drain, but it's everywhere. I even switched to gel thinking that would help, but no. This way we can have our own sinks and then it'll only be my mess to clean up. Also we do seem to need an inordinant amount of bathroom cabinet room. So many vitamins, soaps and samples of various things that we'll probably never use, but are too good to throw away.
maybe steam shower or better sauna - this would be such a great luxury. I'd love to see if I could build one, possibley wood burning. But I'm not sure how you regulate the temperature if it's wood, maybe just crack the door. Same for a wood hot-tub, at what point are you just a big pot of stew waiting to happen. Ahh yes, succulent M was braised over two days before being placed on top of a bed of truffle infused risotto. C'est manifique!
radiators/ towel heater - There is just nothing better than getting out of a shower in winter and grabbing a hot towel. I LOVE the radiators in our house now, especially the majorly oversized one in the bathroom. Cold towels are for suckers.

More "other" features:
green wall - saw this in a french condo in Dwell and it looks pretty spectacular, and it would definately introduce some much needed humidity into the house. It could also be used for summer shading if we put a trellis up a south facing window and grew vines.
green roof - although we'll have to see how that would work with solar, not sure if you can sucessfully combine the two
roof issues - hhhmmm, not at all sure what this means now, perhaps how to do a green roof or flat roof in probably a pretty snowy area perhaps. I'll have to go back and look at mynotes to see if I can decifer anything else.
wine cellar - this will probably be a necessity since we'll be moving so far away from Applejacks. We'll have to down once a month ans stock. So I guess it's not so much a wine cellar in the traditional sense, but more of a wine storage area.
3-4 bedrooms - we have two now, which is OK, but when people come to visit is kind of a pain because it's really an office, so furniture has to be moved, and the dogs try to sleep on the blow up bed since we've now invaded their floor space, or alternatively they feel free to lick you and make you get up early since you're on their level. And we always have to move into the spare room because I'm embarrassed to make my family sleep on the floor, so there's a lot of shuffling of things. So if we could have another bedroom or two that could function as looser space and easily turn into a guest room, with a futon couch say, I'd be happy.
separate guest house/studio/reading-writing room - I think mostly I'd just like to build something myself and this seems like a manageable project, maybe 10x10 or 12x12, simple shed roof, lots of windows perhaps salvaged, small table or dresser, futon couch. And it gives us the opportunity to perhaps take advantage of a special view on the property that can't accommodate a full building. And it might be nice for guests to have a little more privacy, in the summer especially, since I don't plan to plumb it, just maybe electricity for lighting and minor heating.
green house - this seems like a simple thing especially good for growing herbs over the winter, or maybe a cold frame, good plans in Mother Earth magasine
ability to shut off part of the house. - Heating zones so we only have to heat what we're using especially if we are going to have multiple extra bedrooms, perhaps an upper floor without plumbing for guest bedrooms that could be closed off at the stairs when not in use
study/office on the second or third floor - M seems to think that this is very important for the right writing atmosphere. I do enjoy the view from the ninth floor office much more than the second floor closet I was in before, but I can't say it helps me get more work done, despite all those studies about how much natural light improves productivity. It hasn't helped me much but I think that probably has more to do with the low workload that I currently have. Hard to be more productive when there is less and less to do. Hence you may see blog entries which seem to suspiciously appear during what should be "working" hours. But I wish to make clear for Big Brother that I will not be using company equipment to do this!
pond
xeriscaping - I guess this goes without saying, but I guess it will depend on where we are as to whether I will bother to do any gardening at all. If all that's going to happen is me feeding the deers nice tender HomeDepot plants, then I'll try to stay native and plant in containers for decks etc.
built in shelving to the ceiling with a rolling library ladder - this is pretty self explanatory
observatory with 12 ft diameter - this is a long off project which seems a bit iffy to me, but M seems to think he can do it, so what the heck. The plan is definately to have enough land to be able to do some experimental type out buildings, and this is small enough that if it didn't work out it would probably make a good garden folly, we could plant it up and distress it and make i a bird habitat.
wood burning stove in study for heat and kettle - again, M thinks this is a good thing for the writing mood, plus being a nice source of heat and tea. I personally think it makes you sleepy and not just from the carbon monoxcide.
fireplace in master bedroom - this makes more sense, sleepy is good for the bedroom, iunless it's that permanent sort of brain damage sleepy.
picture rails in all rooms - this is from our experience with our present house. It's hard to figure out where a picture will hang here. Some walls are solid masonry and need a serious masonry bit just to get through the plaster, others are lath and plaster, so seems solid but anything put into them just pulls back out, then there's the more modern gyp board assembly that may or may not hold depending on where you hit it.
dog run with access to mud room - again, experience with the dogs is that if they aremad or bored or a bit more hungry than you thought, all sorts of dishes and cups and plates end up on the floor. Sometimes miraculously nothing gets broken, but most likely not. But we are bad enough parent that they are often left at home 8-10 hours when we're at work, so I don't want to have them have to hold anything for that long or clean up the consequences. So if they could have an outdoors area with access to a room with water and a couple dog beds, less guilt, less mess, less yelling, less hiding, good news all around. Plus it would be good to have a real dog door since the open window we now employ is, I think, how the mice got in.
breakfast bar - as part of the kitchen island there should be space for people to hang out if we're actively cooking or just to hang out with a smaller group, or just how people like to hang out in the kitchen
under the stairs or cupboard bedroom with single bed, bookshelf,drawer under bed, wall light - I'm not quite sure how this might work itself into the plan or if it will, but it was really quite cute. It looks like it would be really good for a kid to stay in, small and cozy, although it might be scary to have people going up and down the stairs right over your head.
peaked windows with nook for chair or bench - this is specifically stolen from the designs for the modern plan/steel houses. It uses light nicely without adding too much square footge to the house, also adds to the range of views.

The story so far...(Part 1)

We're contemplating building a modern house, probably in some manner prefab or a kit to make it affordable. The thought is kind of terrifying. Having overseen hundreds of building projects, I can probably count the number that have come in on time and on budget on my hands. M is a lot more optimistic, perhaps because he has no experience and maybe because he thinks my experience will cover us. We'll see. There's a lot of information floating around and a lot of decisions we have to make, so in order to corral it into a reasonable format, as well as chronicling our journey, here's our blog.

We are presently thinking of mountain towns. They need to have a good balance of outdoor activities, as well as some good food and cultural opportunities, and a reasonable year-round community. And of course, some career opportunities that don't include offering people "fries with that?" (I am in no way degrading service workers, I've done it, I think it should be required for everyone for a year, there's nothing like putting up with people's thoughtless rudeness to make you treat others with at least a modicum of civility at all times, but that's another blog)

My ideal place would be Durango, but it's so far away. Great scenery, wonderful food, biking, running, hiking, skiing, climbing, a youngish, active community, and possible job opportunities. But a 7-8 hour drive to Denver, so probably not a lot of visitors. And it is getting more expensive by the day.
We both love Estes Park, the scenery is awe inspiring, and there is something so comfortable about the town, plus we got married there, so it has a lot of great memories for us. But in the summer the town is a mess of schlubby tourists and in the winter it's dead, hard to find a restaurant open after 8. And even on a good day the food there is mediocre at best, unfortunately catering to above mentioned tourists. But the climbing is world class. It's also probably a little too close for people to consider coming to stay. I think that we should probably keep it as a place we go to vacation rather than a home base. Having Rocky NP right in the backyard is great, but then again we can't enjoy it with our dogs.
Steamboat is another possibility. A nice historic dowtown, pretty good food, a good bookstore, a couple coffee shops, a movie theater, again stunning scenery, hiking, biking, running, skiing. There's no climbing, not even a gym that I know of (possible business opportunity). The community is a little older than I'd like, just upon casual observation. And it's a little more expensive than I'd like because of the resort affect. There are job possibilities here and it's close enough to Denver to make a day trip if you had to, but far enough and with enough draws to have people come up for the weekend. At the moment it's the top runner, but we need to keep looking.
I'm also drawn to Salida, a great downtown, good hiking, biking, running and skiing close by. It's an artsy community, has a college which can be a plus and a minus, and some decent restaurants, from the brief times I've been there. Plus I think the land around there is still fairly affordable.

As far as land goes I think we want about an acre or more. Enough
space to be able to site the main house optimally and also be able to
add other outbuildings as we go. Guest house, studio, garage, duck
shed, abatoir, that sort of thing. Some trees, a big rock for M to
boulder on, a view, hopefully south facing so we can get some solar
benefits. Needs to have access to electricity. It would be nice to have
public water and sewer, but not a must.