LED can lights and undercabinet lights are only a couple of the many technological upgrades that have emerged over the last 40 years. Back when this kitchen was initially constructed, the microwave drawer hadn’t even been invented yet! This neat appliance has recently become a popular choice among our clients, as it provides convenient, easy-access use and creates a streamlined look by reducing countertop clutter. By wrapping the counter around the corner to the laundry room door, we were able to provide the clients with some additional counter space as well as a cabinet and 3 more drawers. Final Photos by Impressia.net

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

The site is a single-story mid-century residence that fronts Urbana's historic Carle Park. The owners are an academic couple with a young family who originally wanted to replace their dilapidated garage with one that would also contain a family gym. After discussing their priorities, we decided to eliminate the garage altogether, and replace it with a two-story tower. On the ground floor is a fully equipped gym, with a power rack, Peloton bike, treadmill, and bike storage. Above the gym is an office for Professor Clancy. The raised office has a striking view of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape. Proximity to their university jobs allowed the family to reduce their vehicles to a single electric crossover. The tower includes an EV charger adjacent to the driveway

Gib-San built this families pool almost 20 years ago and they loved it! However, as their children grew and moved out of the house... the homeowners were looking to update their backyard. They still wanted a pool but were looking to carve out a bit more entertaining space. We essentially built a new pool within the old pool and reduced the space by almost half to offer the couple more outdoor living space. The gorgeous new pool is flanked by an overflow spa and centered with a beautiful fire and water feature.

Another fun Crestview project! This young couple wanted a back yard that reflected their bohemian-eclectic style and could add additional privacy from the ever climbing construction around them. A place for “hanging out and drinking coffee or beer in the backyard.” But what was most exciting, was the air stream they had just purchased and were in the process of restoring. With the end goal of using it as a guest home for family and friends, we were challenged with creating a space that was cohesive and connected this new living space with the rest of the yard. In the front we had another quark to fix. The sidewalk from their front door to the street suddenly stopped 5 feet from the curb, making a less than inviting entry for guests. So, creating a new usable entryway with additional curb appeal was a top priority. We managed the entertainment space by using modern poured concrete pad’s as a focal. A poured concrete wall serves as a bench as well as creates a visual anchor for the patio area. To soften the hard materials, small plantings of succulents and ground cover were planted in the spaces between the pads. For a backdrop, a custom Cedar Plank wall and trellis combined to soften the vertical space and add plenty of privacy. The trellis is anchored by a Coral Vine to add interest. Cafe style lighting was strung across the area create a sense of intimacy. We also completed the fence transition, and eliminated the grass areas that were not being utilized to reduce the amount of water waste in the landscape, and replaced these areas with beneficial plantings for the wildlife. Overall, this landscape was completed with a cohesive Austin-friendly design in mind for these busy young professionals! Caleb Kerr - http://www.calebkerr.com

Gib-San built this families pool almost 20 years ago and they loved it! However, as their children grew and moved out of the house... the homeowners were looking to update their backyard. They still wanted a pool but were looking to carve out a bit more entertaining space. We essentially built a new pool within the old pool and reduced the space by almost half to offer the couple more outdoor living space. The gorgeous new pool is flanked by an overflow spa and centered with a beautiful fire and water feature.

The site is a single-story mid-century residence that fronts Urbana's historic Carle Park. The owners are an academic couple with a young family who originally wanted to replace their dilapidated garage with one that would also contain a family gym. After discussing their priorities, we decided to eliminate the garage altogether, and replace it with a two-story tower. On the ground floor is a fully equipped gym, with a power rack, Peloton bike, treadmill, and bike storage. Above the gym is an office for Professor Clancy. The raised office has a striking view of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape. Proximity to their university jobs allowed the family to reduce their vehicles to a single electric crossover. The tower includes an EV charger adjacent to the driveway

Independent Home just completed a walk in tub installation for a couple in West Chester. Check out how our installation process works and how a walk in tub could benefit you. Our installation process starts with a pre-installation meeting. Our experts met with Allison and Greg to find out what type of walk in tub would best fit their needs, the best location, and what type of finish they would want. At the meeting, our experts learned that Allison and Greg already had a walk in shower. However, it wasn’t providing them with what they needed. They both suffer from arthritis and restless leg syndrome and were looking for relief. The Supreme Walk in Bathtub model was the perfect solution for Allison and Greg because not only do they suffer from arthritis and restless leg syndrome they also are bariatric clients and needed a wider tub. The Supreme model is large, has a non-slip floor, two safety grab bars, and hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy is what will help reduce Allison and Greg’s pain. Their pain will decrease each time they enjoy a deep soaking massage that is provided by the air and whirlpool jets. The jets work in a greater range of motion that causes an increase in circulation. As Allison and Greg’s circulation increase, their muscles will begin to rehabilitate and reduce the pain. The installation only took a couple days to complete. That included taking out their old shower along with removing the foundation, bringing in the new bathtub, making sure the legs are level, hooking up the new plumbing, and making sure that there aren’t any leaks. The last part of the installation is building the finish. Allison and Greg had wanted our experts to maintain their bathroom tile.

The site is a single-story mid-century residence that fronts Urbana's historic Carle Park. The owners are an academic couple with a young family who originally wanted to replace their dilapidated garage with one that would also contain a family gym. After discussing their priorities, we decided to eliminate the garage altogether, and replace it with a two-story tower. On the ground floor is a fully equipped gym, with a power rack, Peloton bike, treadmill, and bike storage. Above the gym is an office for Professor Clancy. The raised office has a striking view of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape. Proximity to their university jobs allowed the family to reduce their vehicles to a single electric crossover. The tower includes an EV charger adjacent to the driveway

Gib-San built this families pool almost 20 years ago and they loved it! However, as their children grew and moved out of the house... the homeowners were looking to update their backyard. They still wanted a pool but were looking to carve out a bit more entertaining space. We essentially built a new pool within the old pool and reduced the space by almost half to offer the couple more outdoor living space. The gorgeous new pool is flanked by an overflow spa and centered with a beautiful fire and water feature.

The site is a single-story mid-century residence that fronts Urbana's historic Carle Park. The owners are an academic couple with a young family who originally wanted to replace their dilapidated garage with one that would also contain a family gym. After discussing their priorities, we decided to eliminate the garage altogether, and replace it with a two-story tower. On the ground floor is a fully equipped gym, with a power rack, Peloton bike, treadmill, and bike storage. Above the gym is an office for Professor Clancy. The raised office has a striking view of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape. Proximity to their university jobs allowed the family to reduce their vehicles to a single electric crossover. The tower includes an EV charger adjacent to the driveway

The site is a single-story mid-century residence that fronts Urbana's historic Carle Park. The owners are an academic couple with a young family who originally wanted to replace their dilapidated garage with one that would also contain a family gym. After discussing their priorities, we decided to eliminate the garage altogether, and replace it with a two-story tower. On the ground floor is a fully equipped gym, with a power rack, Peloton bike, treadmill, and bike storage. Above the gym is an office for Professor Clancy. The raised office has a striking view of the park, as well as the surrounding landscape. Proximity to their university jobs allowed the family to reduce their vehicles to a single electric crossover. The tower includes an EV charger adjacent to the driveway

Photo: Danielle Sykes © 2016 Houzz
Example of a mid-sized cottage light wood floor kitchen design in Boston with shaker cabinets, white cabinets, wood countertops and an island

This photo changes the perspective providing the viewer a view from the entry way. The main focus being the lovely double bowl vanity top. This design is perfect for a couple who loves doing things together but don't necessarily like to share. The vanity top is constructed from granite and the cabinets below are Wolf Saginaw cabinets in dark chestnut. These not only give the room fantastic aesthetic value; they are also practical for storage, providing lots of space and reducing clutter on the granite vanity top. Above each sink are beautiful mirrors.

This new 1,700 sf two-story single family residence for a young couple required a minimum of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, packaged to fit unobtrusively in an older low-key residential neighborhood. The house is located on a small non-conforming lot. In order to get the maximum out of this small footprint, we virtually eliminated areas such as hallways to capture as much living space. We made the house feel larger by giving the ground floor higher ceilings, provided ample natural lighting, captured elongated sight lines out of view windows, and used outdoor areas as extended living spaces. To help the building be a “good neighbor,” we set back the house on the lot to minimize visual volume, creating a friendly, social semi-public front porch. We designed with multiple step-back levels to create an intimacy in scale. The garage is on one level, the main house is on another higher level. The upper floor is set back even further to reduce visual impact. By designing a single car garage with exterior tandem parking, we minimized the amount of yard space taken up with parking. The landscaping and permeable cobblestone walkway up to the house serves double duty as part of the city required parking space. The final building solution incorporated a variety of significant cost saving features, including a floor plan that made the most of the natural topography of the site and allowed access to utilities’ crawl spaces. We avoided expensive excavation by using slab on grade at the ground floor. Retaining walls also doubled as building walls.

Design ideas for a transitional landscaping in San Francisco.

Photo credit: Scott McDonald @ Hedrich Blessing 7RR-Ecohome: The design objective was to build a house for a couple recently married who both had kids from previous marriages. How to bridge two families together? The design looks forward in terms of how people live today. The home is an experiment in transparency and solid form; removing borders and edges from outside to inside the house, and to really depict “flowing and endless space”. The house floor plan is derived by pushing and pulling the house’s form to maximize the backyard and minimize the public front yard while welcoming the sun in key rooms by rotating the house 45-degrees to true north. The angular form of the house is a result of the family’s program, the zoning rules, the lot’s attributes, and the sun’s path. We wanted to construct a house that is smart and efficient in terms of construction and energy, both in terms of the building and the user. We could tell a story of how the house is built in terms of the constructability, structure and enclosure, with a nod to Japanese wood construction in the method in which the siding is installed and the exposed interior beams are placed in the double height space. We engineered the house to be smart which not only looks modern but acts modern; every aspect of user control is simplified to a digital touch button, whether lights, shades, blinds, HVAC, communication, audio, video, or security. We developed a planning module based on a 6-foot square room size and a 6-foot wide connector called an interstitial space for hallways, bathrooms, stairs and mechanical, which keeps the rooms pure and uncluttered. The house is 6,200 SF of livable space, plus garage and basement gallery for a total of 9,200 SF. A large formal foyer celebrates the entry and opens up to the living, dining, kitchen and family rooms all focused on the rear garden. The east side of the second floor is the Master wing and a center bridge connects it to the kid’s wing on the west. Second floor terraces and sunscreens provide views and shade in this suburban setting. The playful mathematical grid of the house in the x, y and z axis also extends into the layout of the trees and hard-scapes, all centered on a suburban one-acre lot. Many green attributes were designed into the home; Ipe wood sunscreens and window shades block out unwanted solar gain in summer, but allow winter sun in. Patio door and operable windows provide ample opportunity for natural ventilation throughout the open floor plan. Minimal windows on east and west sides to reduce heat loss in winter and unwanted gains in summer. Open floor plan and large window expanse reduces lighting demands and maximizes available daylight. Skylights provide natural light to the basement rooms. Durable, low-maintenance exterior materials include stone, ipe wood siding and decking, and concrete roof pavers. Design is based on a 2' planning grid to minimize construction waste. Basement foundation walls and slab are highly insulated. FSC-certified walnut wood flooring was used. Light colored concrete roof pavers to reduce cooling loads by as much as 15%. 2x6 framing allows for more insulation and energy savings. Super efficient windows have low-E argon gas filled units, and thermally insulated aluminum frames. Permeable brick and stone pavers reduce the site’s storm-water runoff. Countertops use recycled composite materials. Energy-Star rated furnaces and smart thermostats are located throughout the house to minimize duct runs and avoid energy loss. Energy-Star rated boiler that heats up both radiant floors and domestic hot water. Low-flow toilets and plumbing fixtures are used to conserve water usage. No VOC finish options and direct venting fireplaces maintain a high interior air quality. Smart home system controls lighting, HVAC, and shades to better manage energy use. Plumbing runs through interior walls reducing possibilities of heat loss and freezing problems. A large food pantry was placed next to kitchen to reduce trips to the grocery store. Home office reduces need for automobile transit and associated CO2 footprint. Plan allows for aging in place, with guest suite than can become the master suite, with no need to move as family members mature.

This Siteline Cabinetry tall storage cabinet has roll-out shelves at a height that makes it easy to access. Deep shelves offer ample storage. Photo credit: Dennis Jourdan

Left: Doors open/Right: doors closed. Yet another chase to work around... I hid this one in a broom closet! The back part of the kitchen, once you get past the breakfast table, is more of a mudroom/laundry room than anything else. Designing the pantry and broom area as closets rather than cabinets reduces costs in an area much less visually important than the rest of the kitchen. I angled the broom closet to make room for a couple of vacuums.