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Designed by Growsgreen Landscape Design: growsgreen.com.
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2010 NATIONAL NARI REGIONAL AWARD WINNER Project Scope The owners of this 7,000 square foot colonial in Oakton, Virginia, were seeking a multi-level Mediterranean-style indoor/outdoor living space off the back of their home. They turned to Michael Nash Design, Build & Homes for a design solution that would include a stone patio, a second-story deck, a screened-in porch and linking staircases. While the structure was designed primarily for family dining and entertaining, it also had to accommodate periodic social gatherings of one hundred guests or more. To meet these needs, the project would include a fully-equipped outdoor kitchen, several serving counters with permanent refrigeration, and well-delineated socializing and dining zones. The existing home’s setting offered several impressive assets the new outdoor living area was designed to exploit. The sprawling acreage features old stand trees, wooded paths and a private lake. Beautifully landscaped, it unfolds as an idyllic panorama that naturally draws people to the outdoors. Challenges Since the rear elevation was situated on a slope that drops away from the house, the Michael Nash team had to raise the grade two feet within in a 2,000 square foot area extending out from the back of the house. Infrastructure plans also called for a sophisticated drainage system that had to accommodate a whole series of water “runoff” considerations to be integrated into the decking itself. Excavation included constructing retaining walls to bolster the elevated grade—which also had to support a concrete slab, the primary foundation for the entire complex. Solutions The ground level decking consists of a 2,000 square foot flagstone patio level with the home’s lower level doors. There is a decorative water fountain mid-patio—an ornate collectible acquired in Florida. Food preparation is concentrated within a specially designed semi-circular wall that creates an “outdoor kitchen” equipped with a 60” Viking barbecue grill, a prep sink, a warming drawer, refrigerator and appropriate storage. There is a granite surfaced dining counter with seating for eight. Wrought iron railing and approximately 20 decorative columns (some encasing steel vertical supports) are incorporated into the design scheme. Many of the columns house accent lights. The top level—supported by horizontal steel beams– is a 2,500 square foot deck constructed entirely of Trex decking. The open air decking is, again, directly accessible from rooms on the second level of the house including the kitchen, sunroom and family room. The platform’s most prominent feature is a U-shaped “kitchenette” with cedar shake shingle roofing. Like its counterpart one level below, the facility is equipped with grill, refrigerator and stainless steel cabinetry. One portion of the deck has been allocated for a 16’ x 16’ octagonal screened-in porch crowned by a pair of 2’ x 4’ skylights. The porch can be accessed from the home’s conservatory via a set of French doors. With its mosaic tile flooring, stained cedar panel ceiling and honed granite counters, the interior is elegant and calming. Hand-painted stenciling and a wall-mounted water feature provide distinctive detailing. Finally, the design introduced elements to highlight and reinforce an awareness of the lovely bucolic setting. Fountains and water features combined with textured surfaces and mosaic tiling and backsplashes to present a villa-like ambiance well-suited to the Virginia countryside.

lisa pétrole
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Treve Johnson Photography
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Our Gracie Modern Arbor is used as stunning rose-covered moon gate, an entry to a cutting garden and raised herb bed. Garden design by Sarah Warto of Boxleaf Design. Photo: Hoi Ning Wong © 2014 Houzz

Photo: Heather Banks © 2015 Houzz Design: Brandi Hines
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Basement support post wood molding detail. Home built by Rembrandt Construction, Inc - Traverse City, Michigan 231.645.7200 www.rembrandtconstruction.com . Photos by George DeGorski

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The site's privacy permitted the use of extensive glass. Overhangs were calibrated to minimize summer heat gain.
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Parry Manzanita / Arctostaphylos manzanita Photo by Pete Veilleux, East Bay Wilds
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This elegant home by Alair Homes, Nanaimo, features our timber work in the main living area/great room, and the exterior covered deck. In the great room the timber system is structural, in that it supports the conventional truss system above, but it is not the primary roof structure. The exterior deck cover is a fully self-supporting timber system. We also provided the timber posts and braces to support the deck. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Builder: Alair Homes This elegant home by Alair Homes, Nanaimo, features our timber work in the main living area/great room, and the exterior covered deck. In the great room the timber system is structural, in that it supports the conventional truss system above, but it is not the primary roof structure. The exterior deck cover is a fully self-supporting timber system. We also provided the timber posts and braces to support the deck.

Over the years, the deck of this large executive home had been slowly pulling away from the house. Many of the 2 ft. x 2 ft. masonry support piers had begun to sink and lean in various directions. Unfortunately, the problem wasn’t isolated to just the deck support columns. An inspection of the columns supporting the adjacent Sunroom confirmed that the same structural failures were occurring to all of them. An excavation of one of the piers and its concrete footer revealed that the Sunroom and half of the Deck columns had been built on soil fill, and were slowly sinking and tilting away from the house. The only permanent solution to keep the Deck and Sunroom from collapsing was to replace the piers and the underlying footers. The Sunroom and a portion of the Deck were jacked up and supported by wooden cribs until new 2 ft. x 2ft. solid masonry columns could be built to replace the failed ones. In order to create enough bearing support under the footers, galvanized steel helical screws were driven under each column footer to an average depth of 26 feet. Concrete footers were poured on top of the screws, and each footer was tied into the adjacent footer and eventually back into the foundation of the home by a series of stabilizing rebar and concrete cross-tie footers. Once all 14 of the failed columns were rebuilt, the Sunroom was lowered onto the new support piers. A new deck was built to replace the compromised section, and the rest of the original decking and railings were removed and replaced. After the new wood had been acclimated to weather for several months and allowed to dry out and stabilize, the deck and railings were stained and sealed.