Tweet Last month I was invited to participate in a Window Advisory Committee set up by the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission. This may sound a bit esoteric to many of you, but some important issues were discussed that pertain to our historic neighborhoods. Here’s some background. We have 35 designated historic residential neighborhoods in the City of Phoenix. You can find out where they are here. These neighborhoods fall under Historic Preservation Overlay Zoning meaning that they are subject to Historic Preservation Design Guidelines. So if you live in one of those neighborhoods and you want to make…
Posts Tagged ‘remodeling’
Tweet A lot of times designers and architects tend to dream big and forget about the budget. And important part of making realistic plans is to put numbers to the design as early in the game as possible, so you know you’re not way off track. So at Castaway House, now that we have solidified a schematic design for the house, both interior, exterior and landscape, we are getting bids from contractors. There are two reasons to do this early in the game rather then when the drawings are complete and into the city for permit review, which is the…
Tweet Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with historic preservation architect Don Ryden in his office to talk about his fabulous new book, Midcentury Marvels. In talking with Don, I also wanted to clear up some haziness around what historic preservation really is. In today’s post which is only the first part of our conversation, Don talks about why Midcentury Marvels is hopefully only the beginning of a movement, and then he talks candidly about why he would never consider Wendell Burnette’s remodel of St.Francis as historic preservation. Below is part I of our conversation… Blooming…
Tweet I was very excited when I got invited to an open house by Sunday Studio a couple of weeks ago to check out the eco-flip they did on McKinley and 16th St. in the Garfield Neighborhood. The photo of the end product was gorgeous and it intrigued me. I was duly impressed when I got a tour, it was a house that any downtown resident would be proud to call their home. When I saw the slide-show of the before and after pictures of the house, I knew we had a visionary on our hands, a person who cared…
Tweet Paul and I live in a 920sf unit with 3 cats. Does this seem small to you? No that’s not our place in the photo. That’s a luxury home in Queen Creek. Here’s what’s making me think that size does matter. Yesterday I wrote about the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium which highlighted the environmental, spiritual and social issues of our world today. One of the exercises of this event was to question our assumptions. The assumption I want to challenge today is about size. Here are some variations of the basic assumption that bigger is better: bigger = more…
Tweet The Cash for Caulkers bill, or the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, was approved by the House on Thursday May 6 and is expected to pass the Senate this summer. What is it? Cash for Caulkers is similar to Cash for Clunkers where you get an instant rebate for making energy efficiency improvements to your home. There are two levels of rebates you can get: 1. For the the Silver Star, consumers would be eligible for rebates between $1,000 and $1,500 for a variety of home upgrades, including adding insulation, sealing leaky ducts and replacing water heaters, HVAC units,…
Tweet Now that tax season is around the corner, here’s some information on what products are eligible for Tax credits under the ‘Stimulus Bill’ or The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Tax credits are available at 30% of the cost, up to $1,500 total, in 2009 & 2010 (ONLY for existing homes, NOT new construction, that are your “principal residence”) for: Windows and Doors (including Skylights) From June 1, 2009 – December 31, 2010 windows (and doors and skylights) must have a U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) less than or equal to 0.30. You do not…
Tweet How many times have you driven around in neighborhoods that are not quite there yet and when you see a unique and well-kept home you know that things will turn around in that neighborhood? At Blooming Rock, our goal is to positively impact the neighborhood we develop in. One of the most effective ways to do that is to improve the street presence of the home. We believe that improving even one home on a street will encourage better maintenance and general improvement of the other homes on that street and as one street gets better, the surrounding ones…