Rejection #2

So sad...no approval even after adding architectural details to break up the mass of the second story's front facade. However, this time around, the city included a picture of what they would like:
- add corbels (an example) to the right and left upper story windows such that the roofs slope downwards there. We had gables there before.
- lower the gable of the middle upper story window
- add a gable over the front door
- remove the gable above the garage

Every change they propose is to draw the eyes downward so that the house won't look too large in the neighborhood. The only thing I can be grateful for is that they didn't ask us to change the interior floorplan. =/

Kitchen cabinets: layout

We discussed the layout for our kitchen cabinet:
- placement of the microwave, oven, warming drawer, and island sink
- sizes of the doors and drawers, approximately
- in the island, which ways the doors open
- special cabinet features such as lazy susans, spice racks, pullout shelves, etc.

The kitchen island will be 3' x 6' with a 1' overhang so people can sit at the island. The layout of the kitchen island cabinets is shown below. The arrows show which way the cabinet doors open.

Kitchen countertop and backsplash

We went to Integrated Resources today to look at granite. They have a warehouse in Brisbane where you can walk around and look at huge slabs of stones: granite, travertine, limestone, marble, etc. We found two that we particularly liked.
Artic Rainbow and Volga Blue

You can't see from the pictures but they both have glints of blue.

There was a beautiful backsplash we saw in The Countertop Store in San Carlos so we drove there to get the info on it. The backslash consists of 2"x2" brown/beige porcelain tiles between 12"x12" tumbled limestone tiles in a soft beige. The porcelain tiles were gorgeous but unfortunately the lady who made them stopped making them. (She had way too many orders and couldn't crank out the handmade custom tiles so she got out of the business.) We might go with a dark blue glass tile instead of the porcelain tile.

Here's a similar backsplash, except it uses smaller limestone tiles.

Feedback & resubmission

We received a letter last week from the city regarding our remodel proposal. The one criteria we failed to pass is the "mass" of the home. Our home looked too massive from the exterior. So our designer added some architectural details to the front of the home to break up the mass and resubmitted our plans.

Hopefully it won't take too long to hear back again...

Windows - finalizing

We met to finalize the type of windows we needed to order for our remodel job. The great thing is that we didn't spend any time picking out a window "look" since we were reusing our existing windows which dictates the style of new windows. Our existing windows look like this:

web page

Since wood windows are pricey, we'll be using vinyl windows with wood on the exterior to match the existing look. Basically, you would choose windows if a) you have that kind of money to blow or b) you want historic style windows.

Vinyl Windows
Cost: inexpensive
Look: cannot imitate historic looks (for older homes)
      cannot be painted or trimmed
Maintenance: none
Reaction to climate: in extreme weather, vinyl can expand and contract

Wood Windows
Cost: expensive
Look: traditional
      can be painted and trimmed
Maintenance: wood frames can crack, split, and the paint can chip
Reaction to climate: susceptible to environmental damage