Admittedly my last few posts have been long in promise and short on details. You see, there’ve been a lot of big happenings behind the scenes at Live/Work and between these developments and running Kinesis, updating the blog has taken the back burner. BUT, don’t despair…we’re making important changes, all centered around the theme of [...]
I’d like to send a quick shout-out to the Massachusetts Super Insulation Project. These guys are going all-out to make their home as energy-efficient as possible. Kudos!
One of the “issues” we have in the pacific northwest is water intrusion. I recently removed some drywall in my home to reveal dry rot and mildew. The replacement window (installed sometime in the 80s, I’m guessing) had leaked. Fine Homebuilding has a good article on “best practices” for installing a replacement window. Since I’ll [...]
Found this very interesting product this afternoon – 100% recycled brick pavers made from shredded tires and plastic bottles – Made by Vast. Seems like a great alternative to poured concrete or traditional brick. I’ll look into pricing to see what it might cost. One of the most exciting features of this product is that [...]
Well, we’ve officially moved into the painful, “lose the frills” phase of the project. Because the cost of the project exceeds our lender requirements, we’ve started hacking and slashing to cut costs. A big portion of these costs? Windows. Here’s how the math works out: Removing 8 windows saves us a total of $2400 in [...]
Well, to placate the city, we’ve removed our glass roll-up door. While a bit of a hit for the design, there are some functional benefits. Namely: Standard French doors are more energy efficient It would be easier to convert the lower level to a living space at some point in the future. It will help [...]
Check out what can happen when you’re committed to good design on a realistic budget ($51 per square foot!): As part of my never-ending quest to find affordable housing options, I stumbled across this interesting article in the New York Times. Here’s a brief excerpt: Mr. Flueckiger chose to build with industrial materials in homage [...]
* Please Note: Live/Work has moved! We’re now located at Portland Built. Please click here to see what it’s all about!* Here’s a great guide to designing a rainscreen system. Kudos to the guys at Build Blog for assembling the info!
I’ve always been a fan of Marmoleum. Not only is it a “green” material, but it’s incredibly durable and forgiving. We’ve got two dogs, and with our wet Portland winters, it makes a great buffer between our living space and the outdoors. Here’s a couple of neat options I just found on the web…can’t recall [...]
* Please Note: Live/Work has moved! We’re now located at Portland Built. Please click here to see what it’s all about!* I’ve been working with a new builder to develop a more accurate budget for the ADU project. One element of the design that accounts for a HUGE percentage of the overall cost is the [...]