Posts tagged "Drawings" | Show All

15 April 2010

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Updated Drawings, Long Overdue

We recently scoured our site looking for floor plans and sections to email to a friend. After a fair bit of digging, it came as quite a shock (and point of embarrassment) when we discovered the last time we posted drawings was August of last year. Yikes!

The drawings below represent not only the latest, but also what we are considering “final” versions.  ”Final”, such a bold world in architecture, should of course be taken to mean solid enough to base a budget on and submit for permitting. Such are the caveats of being a perfectionist architect.

FYI, we have adjusted our nav on the right of the page to provide easy links to the latest plans, sections and 3D images (to save us all time digging for them).

Anyway, here are the plans…

Merida Hideaway Renovation Floor Plans

…and two sections.

Merida Hideaway Renovation Section Looking East

Merida Hideaway Renovation Section Looking West

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31 August 2009

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The End of (What Feels Like) an Era

We can finally say we’ve hit a significant milestone. After months of work, the core design of the house is now complete.  There are still a ton of little details to decide upon (like lighting placement, door patterns, and such), but the heavy lifting is behind us.

Posted below is a set of the key plans and sections.  Let us know your thoughts.

We now have to take the next (scary) step and hire a builder! To that end, we met with someone this morning to get a feel for their process. It’s kind of like dating, except that at the end of the relationship, we’ll get to keep the house.

The Plans:

Ground Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Some Sections:

Section A-A

Section B-B

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23 May 2009

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Plans, Plans, Plans (and a Section)

Finally, we have a plan! We posted some 3-D images a couple weeks back and have been promising a plan ever since. Things, however, were a little disshevled and delays ensued. Today, you find us tucked in and ready to go.

Interestingly enough, the latest plan is not that different to the previous one. Sometimes design feels like a roundabout in that you expend tremendous amounts of energy only to circle back to where you began. Maybe this should tell us something?

A few walls have been removed since we posted the 3-D images (specifically the one north of the outdoor living area), but it’s all pretty minor. Maybe, just maybe, our base design is complete… scary!?

The plans:

Ground Floor Plan.

2nd Floor Plan.

For those of you who are interested, here’s a section:

2nd Floor Plan.

Updated: We added a section of the house as it exists today to better illustrate what is changing.

2nd Floor Plan.

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8 April 2009

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Ground Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

Download a pdf of the plan

We’re finally posting an updated version of the house design. Since the previous plan posted back in February, quite a few things have changed to coincide with our evolving thoughts about our house and living in Mérida.

We have moved the kitchen/dining into the center building that was previously designated as “grand living”. Doing so has anchored eating, drinking and cooking squarely in the center of things and allows us to service the pool and the (new) living spaces equally.

We also created a large thoroughfare through the central building.  This opens up views along the western length of the site, from the front room all the way to the back boundary. Not only great for drama, it significantly improves natural ventilation along the south/north axis of the site (more on this tomorrow).

The living space has been relocated between the main house and the central building. We imagine large sofas and comfy chairs that form a truly outdoor living room with direct views to the garden and easy access to the kitchen and dining rooms.

Finally, we pushed our guest bedroom upstairs making way for a new media room/office in the downstairs space. This air-conditioned room will be our escape when the heat becomes too oppressive. We won’t mind cooling it as the cost of doing so will be significantly less than the living room.

As things generally go, now that we’ve posted this, we are seeing some issues that will need to be addressed. Most significantly, we have to tackle the gardens and truly make them shine. We’ll blog about these as well as some additional information on how these changes will work and look in the next few days.

Stay tuned.

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†11 February 2009

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Download a pdf of the plan The renovation concept is to create an urban hideaway with all the modern amenities while remaining respectful of the house’s (and city’s) colonial past. As the house is located on quite a busy street, our plan is to turn our back to the street and sheild the living areas from the bussle and noise of traffic. The building currently located in the center of the site will be converted into a grand living room.  It will become the central pivot point around which indoor and outdoor living flow. To the north will be a large and shady courtyard with the kitchen, outdoor living and dining rooms.  A covered pathway will connect the courtyard to the front house. The front house will contain the entrance parlor as well as two bedrooms.  A new second story will make way for the master suite, while an existing room below will be converted to a guest bedroom.  Both bedrooms will be sheltered from street noise by facing inward to the courtyard. To the south of the grand living room, a new garden and 12m pool will extend the living space toward the back of the property. We will continue to tweak the design in the coming months as we realize the error of our ways.  For now, we’d love to hear your thoughts before we go out and spend a huge chunk of cash.

Download a pdf of the plan

The renovation concept is to create an urban hideaway with all the modern amenities while remaining respectful of the house’s (and city’s) colonial past.

As the house is located on quite a busy street, our plan is to turn our back to the street and sheild the living areas from the bussle and noise of traffic.

The building currently located in the center of the site will be converted into a grand living room.  It will become the central pivot point around which indoor and outdoor living flow. To the north will be a large and shady courtyard with the kitchen, outdoor living and dining rooms.  A covered pathway will connect the courtyard to the front house.

The front house will contain the entrance parlor as well as two bedrooms.  A new second story will make way for the master suite, while an existing room below will be converted to a guest bedroom.  Both bedrooms will be sheltered from street noise by facing inward to the courtyard.

To the south of the grand living room, a new garden and 12m pool will extend the living space toward the back of the property.

We will continue to tweak the design in the coming months as we realize the error of our ways.  For now, we’d love to hear your thoughts before we go out and spend a huge chunk of cash.

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†10 February 2009

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Download a pdf of the plan Here is the existing floor plan of our house. We have yet to measure it with a fine toothed tape measure and as such, the dimensions are estimates.As you can see, our house (the bit in white) is actually 1/2 of a larger house. This is very common as many old colonials were divided into smaller units allowing multiple families to occupy them. We are very tempted to purchase the other half and convert the entire building into a bed and breakfast. But that’s going to be well in to the future (if at all).For now, our lot measures approximately 9m x 52m on which sits two buildings. The front building has four rooms plus a kitchen and bathroom that were added relatively recently. The back building has one room with a makeshift bathroom attached to it. This building sits in the center of the property.Apart from the kitchen and bathrooms, all rooms are generic and as such there are no obvious bedrooms and/or living spaces. We’re not sure where we will camp out (yes, this is not an exaggeration) when we take possession of the house. Maybe we’ll try out a different room each night and go from there.

Download a pdf of the plan

Here is the existing floor plan of our house. We have yet to measure it with a fine toothed tape measure and as such, the dimensions are estimates.

As you can see, our house (the bit in white) is actually 1/2 of a larger house. This is very common as many old colonials were divided into smaller units allowing multiple families to occupy them. We are very tempted to purchase the other half and convert the entire building into a bed and breakfast. But that’s going to be well in to the future (if at all).

For now, our lot measures approximately 9m x 52m on which sits two buildings. The front building has four rooms plus a kitchen and bathroom that were added relatively recently. The back building has one room with a makeshift bathroom attached to it. This building sits in the center of the property.

Apart from the kitchen and bathrooms, all rooms are generic and as such there are no obvious bedrooms and/or living spaces. We’re not sure where we will camp out (yes, this is not an exaggeration) when we take possession of the house. Maybe we’ll try out a different room each night and go from there.

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