This kitchen was closed-up, dysfunctional and dated and the homeowners were ready to bolt into 2022 without ever looking back! So, we gutted the kitchen and tore down the dividing walls in order to create a modern, edgy kitchen that’s ready to entertain! To create our work triangle, it was necessary to remove one set of double windows. It was an easy choice to keep the windows facing the back yard view and close the set facing the neighbor’s house. As a result, we could relocate the fridge and remove both kitchen walls to provide a large island with a cooktop and a prep sink. The original sink location remained the same — centrally located in front of the window. We tucked the rarely used microwave into the corner of the kitchen. Drama is naturally created by using high contrasting colors. Therefore, we chose a black and white combination to offset the warmth of the flooring and trim. A palette featuring blue was created through the wall color and picked up in the Volga Blue Granite. Black stainless, state-of-the-art appliances complimented the modern edgy vibe. With all the dividing walls gone, we added patterned carpet, Anderson Tuftex chateau, to enhance the now open and bright stairway. With light now pouring in from all directions, we kept the lighting plan simple. We placed a chandelier over the table, LED’s in the kitchen, and undercabinet lighting to illuminate the work surfaces. This design is spot on. With the prep sink and cooktop in the island, the cook’s back is rarely turned toward the guests. Now these empty nesters who love to entertain are ready to welcome their family and friends for good times and great food!

This bright and sunny addition is a Year Round Betterliving Sunroom in Rochester, MA. After their neighbors added a sunroom to their home – this family had to have one too (and they aren’t the only neighbors who followed suit)! We turned an open porch into a year round enclosed porch to keep the bugs and inclement weather out! These windows and doors are custom manufactured to fit under the existing porch roof. This type of sunroom is also referred to as a fill-in sunroom because it was built into the already existing porch structure. Fill-in sunrooms are easy to install and take less time to install since we can usually use the existing porch to build on. Manufactured for year-round enjoyment and comfort – the entire construction and glass panels are fully insulated and can be heated or cooled for added luxury. White beadboard ceilings are a beautiful accessory that gives a classic look to the sunroom. Betterliving year round sunrooms also come with reinfored vinyl construction, build in gutters, color matched handles, a heavy duty roof and a fifty (50) year manufacturer’s warranty!

Located in a neighborhood characterized by traditional bungalow style single-family residences, Orange Grove is a new landmark for the City of West Hollywood. The building is sensitively designed and compatible with the neighborhood, but differs in material palette and scale from its neighbors. Referencing architectural conventions of modernism rather than the pitched roof forms of traditional domesticity, the project presents a characteristic that is consistent with the eclectic and often unconventional demographic of West Hollywood. Distinct from neighboring structures, the building creates a strong relationship to the street by virtue of its large amount of highly usable balcony area in the front façade. While there are dramatic and larger scale elements that define the building, it is also broken down into comprehensible human scale parts, and is itself broken down into two different buildings. Orange Grove displays a similar kind of iconoclasm as the Schindler House, an icon of California modernism, located a short distance away. Like the Schindler House, the conventional architectural elements of windows and porches become part of an abstract sculptural ensemble. At the Schindler House, windows are found in the gaps between structural concrete wall panels. At Orange Grove, windows are inserted in gaps between different sections of the building. The design of Orange Grove is generated by a subtle balance of tensions. Building volumes and the placement of windows, doors and balconies are not static but rather constitute an active three-dimensional composition in motion. Each piece of the building is a strong and clearly defined shape, such as the corrugated metal surround that encloses the second story balcony in the east and north facades. Another example of this clear delineation is the use of two square profile balcony surrounds in the front façade that set up a dialogue between them—one is small, the other large, one is open at the front, the other is veiled with stainless steel slats. At the same time each balcony is balanced and related to other elements in the building, the smaller one to the driveway gate below and the other to the roll-up door and first floor balcony. Each building element is intended to read as an abstract form in itself—such as a window becoming a slit or windows becoming a framed box, while also becoming part of a larger whole. Although this building may not mirror the status quo it answers to the desires of consumers in a burgeoning niche market who want large, simple interior volumes of space, and a paradigm based on space, light and industrial materials of the loft rather than the bungalow.

These homeowners came to us wanting to update their property with new plantings at the street, which matched the existing landscaping of the neighborhood, as well as update the various beds around their foundation. The existing beds throughout the property became overgrown and needed a bit of breathing room to allow space for the new plants to fill in. The old vegetation was ripped out and replaced with both native, and adapted plants. The wooded area in the backyard was rid of debris, and a drainage system was added using the rocks that were in their previous landscape design. Not only were the materials able to be recycled, they are now used to help prevent continued erosion of the hillside by taking the water from the sloped driveway and giving it a path toward the woods. Limestone was the chosen replacement because it is cohesive with the neighbor’s landscaping and the pre-existing stairs in the backyard. Blocks of limestone were used to line the new beds and build a new fire pit to accessorize the beautiful view!

Our client recently purchased a newly-constructed home in order to downsize and have a low- maintenance home and yard. The existing side yard/back yard was undeveloped by the builder, leaving the homeowner with the huge challenge of creating a great outdoor entertaining space for family and friends, while creating privacy and overcoming the over 8-foot steep drop from the existing back porch down to the alley. The grade was the largest challenge because the space was so narrow with such a large fall from existing porch to the property line. The second largest challenge is that this residence is located in a semi-private community where HOA approval of plans and materials is difficult, as all the residences here share a similar look and feel with a very clean and contemporary aesthetic. We had to precisely shoot grades to know what kinds of retaining walls would need to be constructed along with how much backfill soil and dirt movement would need to be done. After that the design had to carefully consider the space with maximum functionality for outdoor entertainment with newly constructed walls to ensure it would last for many years to come. All of this was done with multiple meetings with the homeowners who are a retired engineer and active architect themselves. Once a design was settled upon, then submission to the HOA board of approval had to be completed and signed off on with all questions and concerns answered for the community by-laws. The two biggest difficulties within the construction phase were that the neighbor next to the back yard had a large retaining wall not properly backfilled up to the property line. That neighbor wouldn’t allow us proper access and control to help alleviate the issues, so we had to skillfully work around this to ensure what we constructed would last, despite their property not being properly addressed. We also had to go through multiple shipments from the manufacturer due to large variances in the material’s appearance on the steps and another shipment that was broken during shipping. These two things delayed the project we were working to complete before the spring so the homeowner could have the maximum use of the space this year. Topping off this challenging construction was a beautiful palette of native grasses, rosemary, groundcover, granite walkways, and synthetic grass to ensure year-round, practically effortless beauty.

This hillside home in Piedmont, CA was remodeled to change the style from a 1940's rancher with eight foot ceilings and dark interiors, into a modern geometric composition with vast white interiors for casual living and generous daylighting for displaying the artist-owner's works. In a city known for rigorous and difficult design review, an addition, two variances, and a full stylistic change were unanimously approved on the first round. All sloped roofs and attics were eliminated and replaced by a series of stacked and overlapping flat roofs. This made the house taller on the inside and shorter on the outside, which helped earn design review cooperation in the community. Windows were concentrated toward the rear yard views or moved up high on the side walls for daylight and privacy, benefitting the owners as well as the neighbors. At the start, the owner husband was so enthusiastic and engaged in transforming his house into something modern that he presented the architect with a scaled foamcore model, rather than the usual magazine clippings and wish list. He participated in the design decisions throughout the process. The owner wife is the artist who did all the artwork in the house. She had been craving a display space with large walls and good natural light. Both of them loved the location and great views. The project was an opportunity to transform the style of an older traditional home into a modern one, while solving numerous problems. By rebuilding the 1800 ft2 top of the 3-story home it was possible to change the style of the whole building, since the lower floors were a neutral base, and also to change the lifestyle of the owners, who wanted to move their master suite upstairs and live primarily on the top floor as empty nesters. Going into the project, the architect knew there were multiple encroachments into the setbacks and potential privacy issues with close by neighbors. He approached this as a complex puzzle made up of architectural and political pieces which all had to fit together elegantly. It took many careful moves, small and large, to arrive at a serene and cohesive result that tied old and new together seamlessly. The design-build contractor worked closely with the owners and handled all of the construction phase documents and design adjustments, adding ideas of their own to make the project really sing. The project was a collaboration in three acts. The owner had a strong design concept from the start. The architect developed it into a realistic project and garnered the design approvals. Then the contractor executed brilliantly.

This Gold-LEED home, selected for Domus Best Houses award and nominated for Frame House of the Year Award, it is called Cocoon because its round walls form a Cocoon shape towards northern and western neighbors. This rounded enclosed half of the house provides shelter and privacy. The other glass side of the house, facing south, takes in ocean breezes and open views. The cedar shingle cladding blends in with the historic neighborhood and benefits from local craft traditions. By tuning in to given site conditions, and with the help of environmental technologies such as photovoltaic panels and reflecting rainwater cistern, architectural design serves both the environment and wellbeing.

2011 NATIONAL NARI COTY SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AWARD Baby boomers residing in single family colonial in Mclean were tired of their old ragged wood deck and wanted major changes to their outdoor facilities. The backyard was consist of big hill from left neighboring yard that took most of their backyard and create a huge run off and were never able to grow any lawn or plant. They also never got to enjoy their backyard and letting their grand kids and dog out. We Excavate the entire yard to a flat level, Designed and built a 5’x 40’ retaining wall covered with ledger stone between their yards and neighbor yard. Put in place underground drain system to get all most water runoff away from patio Install new shrubbery, plants and lawn tastefully in parameter of new patio. Poured in concrete slab and covered with Flagstone patio in backyard and under deck installed all new Synthetic material deck system with matching railing with larger footsteps than old deck. Connection stairway to back patio. Installed a 12’x18’ screen porch with maintenance free materials, cedar beaded ceiling panels and connection French doors into dining room All siding has been changes along with gutters and down spouts.

This Flemington, NJ landscape and free-form pool was carefully designed on a property with a rolling hill to extend as much usable outdoor living space as possible while simultaneously adding privacy from the neighbors, and the side street. Key to this space is the large retaining wall built at the back end of the yard after the hill was excavated out and the land leveled. The pool deck extends far to the one side to provide sun bathing chairs and furniture; also to tie in the views from the deck and back of the house to the pool lounging area. The planting scheme also was designed to keep the pool open to the house and privacy kept from the neighbors and other surroundings. The pool features a sitting bench or cozy corner for kids to take a rest on while playing in the pool. Overall the design of this space really transformed a hilly tight backyard with not much usable space into the perfect scene for entertaining with friends or family.

This Flemington, NJ landscape and free-form pool was carefully designed on a property with a rolling hill to extend as much usable outdoor living space as possible while simultaneously adding privacy from the neighbors, and the side street. Key to this space is the large retaining wall built at the back end of the yard after the hill was excavated out and the land leveled. The pool deck extends far to the one side to provide sun bathing chairs and furniture; also to tie in the views from the deck and back of the house to the pool lounging area. The planting scheme also was designed to keep the pool open to the house and privacy kept from the neighbors and other surroundings. The pool features a sitting bench or cozy corner for kids to take a rest on while playing in the pool. Overall the design of this space really transformed a hilly tight backyard with not much usable space into the perfect scene for entertaining with friends or family.

Privacy is always a challenge when your neighbors are close by—even when you like them. Our challenge in this particular Plymouth detached townhome environment was to provide exceptionally attractive privacy screening from the neighbor on one side while maintaining the view of a park trail on the other side. We did all this on a second-floor deck while maintaining the existing footprint.

Their South Minneapolis home was built in 1917, and while the home received lots of care and updates over the years, updating the garage had been put on the back burner for way too long. The original 14 X 20-foot garage, of unknown age, was just big enough for a single car. The owners jokingly called it a “Potato House,” as it was built into the ground, similar to a farmer’s out-building to store root vegetables (see before photo). As an Architect, the owner wanted the garage to have a more unusual design than the usual symmetrical gable roof of Minneapolis garages. The simplest way to construct a garage roof is with wood trusses. By simply altering the angles of the wood trusses allowed the structure to have a distinctive, asymmetrical roof design. The new 20 X 20-foot garage easily handles two cars. A single double-wide garage door makes parking cars in the busy alley quick and easy. To meet local construction codes, the South facing wall – five feet from the neighbor’s garage - is constructed with enhanced fire protection. The exterior siding is LP Smart Siding – a pre-finished wood product that is easy to install, durable, and looks great. The rear of the garage (facing the back of the home) uses the original front door of the main home built in 1917, adding character to the project. Three Andersen double pane windows let in ambient light. Although the garage is not heated, a new 120/240 Volt electric service and panel was installed, ready to recharge an electric vehicle. The result: a new, big, easily accessible garage that looks so much better than a “Potato House.” Note: Photos & design by Ken Stone, AIA.

The project called for a semi-detached dwelling to be completely rebuilt, while also remaining attached to the neighbouring house in midtown Toronto. The new building was designed to support the neighbouring one, both during and after construction, with a series of steel moment frames.

These homeowners came to us wanting to update their property with new plantings at the street, which matched the existing landscaping of the neighborhood, as well as update the various beds around their foundation. The existing beds throughout the property became overgrown and needed a bit of breathing room to allow space for the new plants to fill in. The old vegetation was ripped out and replaced with both native, and adapted plants. The wooded area in the backyard was rid of debris, and a drainage system was added using the rocks that were in their previous landscape design. Not only were the materials able to be recycled, they are now used to help prevent continued erosion of the hillside by taking the water from the sloped driveway and giving it a path toward the woods. Limestone was the chosen replacement because it is cohesive with the neighbor’s landscaping and the pre-existing stairs in the backyard. Blocks of limestone were used to line the new beds and build a new fire pit to accessorize the beautiful view!

These homeowners came to us wanting to update their property with new plantings at the street, which matched the existing landscaping of the neighborhood, as well as update the various beds around their foundation. The existing beds throughout the property became overgrown and needed a bit of breathing room to allow space for the new plants to fill in. The old vegetation was ripped out and replaced with both native, and adapted plants. The wooded area in the backyard was rid of debris, and a drainage system was added using the rocks that were in their previous landscape design. Not only were the materials able to be recycled, they are now used to help prevent continued erosion of the hillside by taking the water from the sloped driveway and giving it a path toward the woods. Limestone was the chosen replacement because it is cohesive with the neighbor’s landscaping and the pre-existing stairs in the backyard. Blocks of limestone were used to line the new beds and build a new fire pit to accessorize the beautiful view!

This couple desired to expand their horizon and maximize their outdoor living space. Their back yard was part of a big hill and a major amount of excavation needed to level up the ground for any kind of flat space use • The homeowner’s goals where to have a big lower level patio to be able to walk out of their basement into stone patio • Space for outdoor jacuzzi • Space for outdoor wood burning fireplace and seating wall • Outdoor lower bar • Second floor large scale deck with a cooking bar • A walkway ramp for wheelchair access (covered with roof) • Lots of seating and entertainment space Challenges: The big backyard hill and big ground. Big stone retaining walls needed. Major excavation. Run utilities, such as gas and water and sewer for bar area. Resolve drainage. The project started with breaking ground, and haul away major amount of dirt from back yard, implementing over 300 ft of retaining wall covered in stone to sunk in the patio Cutting concrete walls in basement to create walk out into new patio New flagstone patio over concrete slab was designed with outer radius to own a wood burning fireplace and seating walls. Right side was covered with tall stone wall and raining to adjacent neighbors Under the deck area is a covered area for bar with stool seating wrapped with ledger stone and granite top and a secluded area for jacuzzi away from neighbors’ view A double-sided staircase was built connecting lower patio to wrapped around upper deck, The new Azak covered deck with listed rail system was equipped with cooking island, natural gas grill, sink and faucet, microwave and outdoor beverage center. A covered walkway ramp has given an opportunity for elder mother in wheelchair to be able to visit them and spend time outdoor with them. Beaded ceiling panels and hanging chandeliers has lid up this veranda. This three-story addition into back of this dwelling stand tall in this community and now more than ever this family get to enjoy their backyard and outdoors with friends and family The harmonizing choice of decking colors with ledger stone, granite tops, flagstone and veneer wall stones has given this outdoor project a standing ovation.

At Herman Remodeling, we are professional general contractors in Sunnyvale offering a complete range of home ADU Construction in Sunnyvale and neighboring cities to ensure that you get your dream home without any hassles. Our designers and home ADU experts in Sunnyvale and neighboring cities are well-specialized in new home construction, home extension and home addition services. Contact us today and discover how we help you with your home construction in line with your needs and desires. ADU Contractors in Sunnyvale, CA - https://www.hermanremodeling.com/

At Herman Remodeling, we are professional general contractors in Sunnyvale offering a complete range of home ADU Construction in Sunnyvale and neighboring cities to ensure that you get your dream home without any hassles. Our designers and home ADU experts in Sunnyvale and neighboring cities are well-specialized in new home construction, home extension and home addition services. Contact us today and discover how we help you with your home construction in line with your needs and desires. ADU Contractors in Sunnyvale, CA - https://www.hermanremodeling.com/

The #LakesideLeisure Project was a comprehensive redesign of a lakefront property that transformed various challenges into stunning solutions. Initially, the property featured a small, high-maintenance cedar deck with minimal lake views, poorly placed stairs, limited flat yard space due to extensive tiered landscaping and excessive plantings, obstructed lake views, and privacy concerns from a neighboring home. The client’s vision was clear: they wanted a large, flat yard for family activities and hosting, enhanced outdoor living spaces for dining and lounging, increased privacy from neighbors, more shaded hangout areas, improved “curb appeal” from the lake, and reduced maintenance.