Session Two: Maximizing Your Home's Usable Space
February 22nd, 2003by Mary Swanson
Explore the possibilities that lie in your basement, attic and log and develop inspired approaches to creating or redesigning bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and laundries in the unused spaces in your home.
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Starting OffTher are various ways to start off a new project. It is important to measure everything. Taking pictures from different angles gives you more ideas as to how you want the new plan to look.
Brainstorm solutions, and figure out what you need. List all solutions possible, not just the best ones. Then evaluate solutions: the cost, time, and effort.
DraftingThere are two types of scales that are available to use when drafting:
When drawing out plans, there are many options with paper and scales. Triangles help us draw straight lines, while templates help us draw household items such as showers, bathtubs, sinks, and so on.
KitchensThere are four basic shapes to a standard kitchen:
Gala - most efficient space-wise kitchen.
The "L" shape(seen on the right) - There is a dead corner, making it not that space efficient.
The "U" shape - Two feet corners where you lose space.
Single straight wall - very long, mostly seen in apartments
A standard kitchen counter is about 3 ft. tall. It is good to have toe-kicks under the counters, that way you are closer to the counter when working. The space in the toe-kicks are adjustable. Cabinets above counters can also be adjustable. Standard counters are 2 ft. deep.
Dishwashers should be opposite side of the way you are coming from with the dishes. This is because when a dishwasher is open, you would not want to hit your shins.
You can be very flexible kitchens aesthetics. People like to have windows in the kitchen, mainly above the sink. It is important to have good lighting. Florescent lights are the most energy efficient and produce more light than heat. Incandescent lights are easy to use, however, produce alot more heat than florescent lights(10% light, 90% heat).
BathroomsYou will save money by stacking the plumbing when putting in a bathroom in your home. There can also be limitations as to where you decide to put them.
Ventilation is very important. Regular dry wall falls apart when wet, even with something in front of it. Windows are nice to have in a bathroom, but can be a problem. Placing it anywhere near the shower can cause the wood to rot. And using a block glass can slow the ventilation in your bathroom.
Lighting is a great aesthetic feature to put in the bathroom. It looks the healthiest when placed in front of, or behind the mirror. Lighting is also nice to have inside the top of the shower.
When installing a toilet, it is important not to violate or ignore local code restrictions. Toilets must have at least a 30" space around them. Make sure that the pipes poperly fit. When turning the water back on in your home, always run the outside hose valve or flush your toilets to bleed dirt and air from the lines. This debris can cause problems in your sink faucets and other plumbing trim.
When you install a medicine cabinet you add storage space and style. Flush-mounted cabinets are the easiest to install, however, they do stick out of the wall. Make sure that when installing a medicine cabinet, that it fits in the stubs.
RoomsThe largest room in a house can be 70 sq. ft., and the smallest room can be 6 sq. ft. If you have a slumping ceiling in the room, half of the square footage of the room has to be 7ft. Room windows in the basement have to be at least 44" in order for firemen to be able to enter.
Case Study - 225 Rumsey
For this project a 15x15 attic space was created. The steep pitch of the attic accomodates the loft area.
Before.. this project, there was a typical plaster and lath inside of the house. The trim was carefully removed, labeled, and stripped.
Work began January 2000
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