Longer term plans and desires

I have already opened the topic by starting the discussion about "un-depressing". But perhaps I should just publish the list of things on my mind for change/improvements:

Overall concerns:

Whatever I do, I have to think hard about the resale value of the home: I could not afford living here without my nice salary - and who knows what may happen to Silicon Valley internet biz? It looks like homes out here in Portola Valley are priced around $1000/sf for a good house on a large lot, with a starting price of above $1.5 mill (i.e., price is the larger of 1.5 mill and sf*1000). The current house is undersized by local standards. Luxury homes may trigger higher prices. Thus, increasing its size could be a means of increasing its marketability.

But another concern is that I would want to create something I like for myself !!!!

A possible strategy for increasing the size is an assemblage of modular units linked by a "breezespace". I could build a unit each year and then tie them together... This would clearly be a task for a really good architect to design something as organic and still beautiful.

More detailed concerns:

- the roof is in need of a makeover within the first year; also, the roof is really a combi of three different roofs - with each its height. Only the LR ceiling is really open and spacious.
- the heater is old and noisy – also, I really prefer hydronic heating (not necessary floor heating, but radiators and convection "trenches" as we use in Scandinavia). I truly dislike the noise and radical dryness of forced air heating.

- all the large windows are single-pane, and they are not safety glass. Also, there is really no insulation to speak of in this house.

- oppressive entryway – and no headroom in garage

- the arrangement and sizes of the bedrooms and bathrooms are awkward, and there are way too many doors in awkward places

- all bathrooms are in need of renovation.

- the laundry area is currently in the garage and may be better located in the house near the bedrooms.

- the kitchen is too small and enclosed.

- I would like a library - rather than having all my books in the living room or use a bedroom-made-into-an-office

- I want to have the patio (and the rest of the outside) better integrated in the home. I want a deck at floor level; possibly leading down to a shady area in the middle of the redwood grove.

There are short term problems with the existing house whose solution must coordinate with any long term master plan.


I made a quick design of a new floorplan that better separates the public from the private, provides more generous space and also allow for a more emphasized entryway -- with free visual access to the outside on the south. But the extra "cost" is that I reduce a 3BR/3BA home to a 3BR/2.5BA - which may make it less worth. Who knows? It could also be more worth because it would have more generous spaces. Here it is:

Un-depressing the front of the house

The house looks somewhat depressed - or oppressed? As if it doesn't really think it should be there.
It has some resemblance to Eichler-homes, built in the same timeframe (late 50s-early 60s), in the sense that it has the exposed beams, and the huge glass walls towards the garden (away from the street. And it has a similar non-descript presence towards the street as the eichlers. But it lacks the lift that many Eichlers have from the slanted roofs that open up and make the rooms feel more spacious. My house has completely flat roof -- with all the problems of leakage.

In the outset I was not very keen on the flatness, hogging to the ground. I want something that raises up...

My first thought has been to lift the roof line, possibly providing northfacing clerestory lights. I was thinking of Michelle Kaufman and her Sunset Breezehouse

I also think the entire entry should be made more prominent and opened up, possibly allowing a view to the redwoods on the other side.

However, I found a house that sports a flat roof but doesn't look like it has graduated high in extreme modesty: it is Sarah Nettleton's "sustainable modernist" home. For more details, see http://www.sarah-architects.com/portfolio/sustainable-modernist.html


But "her" house has the advantage of clear lines to begin with. My house is deeply troubled - from a design point of view - by the odd 45 degree angle of the garage and the 3 different roof levels.

Touring the rest of the house

There are three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. Let's name them after their colors: oatmeal, bluegray and mocha.
I am using the oatmeal bedroom as a study, and its bathroom is the guest bathroom.

The blue-grey suite has far the best views - towards the meadow and the redwood grove.


The mocha bedroom is really the master bedroom (it has w-w carpet whereas all the other rooms have hardwood floors)

It all looks a bit barren because I just had everything painted and I haven't gotten around to put up mirrors, drapes etc.

Tour, Living room: full sweep

If you stand in the middle of the living room, facing the fireplace (which is east), and then do a pan clockwise, you will see something like this -- though depending on what drugs you are on hopefully without the distortion ;-). Click on the image and a large file will load in a separate window.

Then if you walk over to the opening to the kitchen, look out and then do a pan clockwise, you will see something like this.

If you click on the picture below you will get to another humongous file in a separate window.

One of the challenges is the fireplace.
It has a very rustic 50's look: it is a combination of concrete painted blocks and brick, and something about the proportions is just off. Anyway, I don't think it fits my style at all, so I am considering some changes, most likely covering the cement block with drywall and using slate in stead of brick. I have been playing around with designs. My current favorites are these two, but I really prefer the one that goes all the way up: I think it makes the room look taller.

The outside

The home is basically a long, narrow structure - 84' x 15' - with two "things" protruding from it: there is an addition with a bedroom and a bathroom in the west wing, and a garage angling off at a 45 degree angle in the east wing. The length of the structure faces south, and provides the most incredible view towards the Skyline Ridge. My lot is sloping down from the street, with the house up at street level and the other end of the lot some 300' SW, perhaps 40' down.
Most of the lot is a kind of meadow. Here is one of the "view" photos again, this one catching the view from my bedroom.
The lot has many trees, between the house and the street is a large oak grove. Right in front of the house, towards south, is a redwood grove, but otherwise a great view to the Skyline. This is what you see from the living room.


And there is another redwood grove further down in the side of the meadow.

Emergency work

Of course there were some things that needed to be dealt with right away.

(1) Like a mal-functioning septic system (I am paying a fortune to have the house waste connected to the city sewer; it will supposedly happen this coming week)

(2) And removal of sad concrete slabs (patio) and junipers seem to be my destiny: I had tons of concrete and loads of ratty junipers hauled away from the lot on Alameda de las Pulgas back in 1998, and the story is repeated here in 2007. I will soon need to reexamine the shape of the driveway: it has this oh-sooo 50s, tired flare form.

(3) The house had an identity problem. Everything was white'ish and bland: inside and outside. It was hard to discover any structure in all the monochrome. As an emergency I decided to paint the outside brown and carbon (not the best choice: too dark), and use a lot of colors inside to emphasize and lift up the ceiling and exposed beams.

(4) Also, the kitchen felt so enclosed and confined - and the plastic/formica countertops and backsplashes seemed an affront attack on my aesthetic sensibilities. I had my friend Tony do a quick makeover of the kitchen, i.e, tear out the formica, remove the raised bar that made the kitchen seem even smaller, thus allowing a more direct/smooth flow from the kitchen towards the gorgious outside. And an Ikea beech butcher block is always a help agains eye-sores ;-)
Finally, the cabinets and walls got a couple of coats of paints to help them out of the bland whiteness of their past.

My new home!

On 2/28/2007 escrow closed on my new home in Portola Valley, a very modest and honest 1680 sf house that had been declared a tear-down by the previous owner: it was to be replaced by a 4400 sf pastiche of a Tuscan villa. However, their plans changed -- and that was my opportunity to venture into a delightful new challenge.

Here is a floorplan of the house. In case you are reeeeeally interested, you can click here to download the dwg file.


While the realtors' web site is still up, you can go and see how the property was presented:
http://www.plansandtours.com/1055

The most prominent quality of the property is the view! Here are two examples; the first is the view from the living room; the other is from my bedroom (and also the view from the driveway, looking along the right side of the house).



For those interested, here is a repro of the survey, and if you click here you can download the dwg file.

And finally, here is the Google map of the property. What I really love about this place is that it is out in the hills, but I don't have to drive for hours on narrow winding roads. As you will see I am close to main roads and even shopping: Alpine is the nearest cross street, there is a great little shopping strip on the corner of Alpine and Portola, featuring a small hardware store where I usually find at least two out of three things I am looking for, and in the other direction Ladera shopping center isn't far away - with Bianchini's market, coffee shops and several restaurants.