The front yard landscaping is complete! I am really happy with the turnout. Daryle thinks it is too sparse, but I love the “white space” (mulch) that separates each plant. Slowly, all of the plants will sprawl out while remaining low to the ground. Instead of using lava rock as decoration interspersed with the plants; we used large pieces of quartz that were in the backyard. The flat pebbles that line the bottom of the hill above the side-walk were also from the backyard. It’s nice to use items from our house and not have to buy more of things.

The yard will be relatively low-maintenance. I do have to water it twice a week and fertilize it twice a year. The juniper and spruce will need pruning, but that won’t need to happen for more than a year. I think the hardest maintenance will be keeping the ivy from the neighbor’s yard out of ours. Alas, it is done. Now to the backyard!

A few days have passed, and wer'e ready to move into our new home! When I see it the first time, I actually like it a lot! It's not even far away from our old house, and it's so neat and modern... so plush!

From the outside the house doesn't look TOO big - not like buffed-up or anything. But inside it feels almost like if there was an endless amount of free space to run around! Maybe 'cause there are huge windows all over the place... and, well, mirrors - that's a downside.

I love it when it's modern, simple and tidy. It makes the atmosphere a lot...

...well, less creepy! I couldn't imagine anything spooky to happen in this kind of interior!

My new room doesn't have icky wallpapers, and it's HUGE!

Like... totally! All my life I thought that my room was of okay size, but now I start to feel a bit snobby, when I think about that booth were I used to live. I guess that moving away wasn't a bad idea after all!

After wandering around for some time like a beggar in a palace, I'm reminded, that it's actually Jeg's birthday!

We happily gather around him to cheer...

But then a totally unexpected panic attack strikes me.

“Poor Jeg!!! He’s friendly and humorous and everything, but he has never been given very much attention in our family! Even now we forgat to throw him a party and just quickly bought a cake! What if he’ll grow up to be neurotic or insane or grumpy, OMG!!! Or evil, OMG OMG!!!!!!!”

-Erm... excuse me. That was nothing, please just forget about it. Cough cough...

Jeg blows his candles...

...and I find it best to turn my back to the whole scene - I'm only ruining the feeling with my new, neurotic flairs! Geez, if things develop this way, soon I'm as neurotic as Kiwot!

Well, Jeg didn't grow up to evil or anything - instead he became flirty, and a total look-alike of our dad!!! I certainly will pressure him to change his hairstyle, or otherwise I hardly can recognize who is who! But in my opinion (dunno if he listens to that) he can keep that... cough... HANDSOME outfit, so that I'll get some laughs.

I go to bed with a somewhat tranquil mind.

But my sleep is a bit restless...

The noise of crying babies is intruding to my dreams...

...but I also think that I hear some other, disturbing noise.

It's like a gloomy cacophony of spooky whispers and laughs...

...but I'm certainly just dreaming.

A brand new house can't be haunted, can it? Hmm... I guess I just heard someone grabbing a plate. It must be mum or dad having a night snack.

I'll try fall asleep again - I'm not completely awake anyway, and my sleepy mind is playing tricks.

More Fi Ya

I think my favorite part of looking at wedding photos is the bridal dress. When done right, they just look so rich and luxurious. I also like invitations. Here are some of my most recent findings, and also some photos of a house that I like.

Also I feel like there’s a timeline for depression. If you are so depressed from an event that you express it as if the event just happened to everyone you know, months after the event has happened, you are either vying for attention or you need help. Maybe there are some circumstances where this isn’t the case. But several months after an expected event happening, most of your friends are sick of futilely trying to make you feel better. It does nothing but make people feel guilty for apparently not being able to support you. Be the change you want to see in yourself.

A small kitchen with a back pantry become big and airy space. Several windows and built-in shelves were also added to make the space more practical. Woodwork throughout the house was done in a dark ebony as were the floors on the first floor. The furniture around the house was chose in the way to create eclectic blend of modern and ethnic styles. Some of the pieces were custom made locally: the sofa that fits into the bay window; the living room chairs which are cozily upholstered in sheepskin; the blown glass sculptures; and so on.

Rural architecture often aims to lay as light a hand as possible on the land, and this Australian house by Max Pritchard Architect is a fine example. Bridge House spans a lush creek, its steel struts gently touching down on either side in an elegant and unobtrusive way. Its design works in harmony with the climate, with a single-room depth that allows for simple cross-ventilation and deep eaves to stave off too much sun. Further sustainability measures include rainwater recovery and both solar hot water and pv panels. The house is part-home, part office space, but I’m not sure I’d get much work done if this was my office: it looks like an excellent spot for watching the sunset, drink in hand, feeling at one with the trees and listening to the creek trickling by beneath.

Raymond Loewy had an amazing house in Palm Springs.  Check it out below.

Loewy in the pool with his family

The swimming pool goes right into the living space!

Loewy's bathroom

Raymond Loewy relaxing at home

Loewy at work in the living room

Loewy entertaining guests at the bar

The house was equipped with a custom Studebaker Avanti painted brown to match the house and parked in the driveway

Every weekend, just about when the house has become almost completely unlivable, I do the “BIG” clean. But each time it’s cleaning time, I have a nasty little habit of wondering off into home decor internet world instead. This time around, I found some wonderful pieces of people’s homes that I would really like to paste into my own home. Here is a peek at my procrastination inspiration.

FOUND IT: magazine bin – shopotto, PS Collection lamp – Ikea, amazing curvy table seen on Inhabitat, grass topped house in Big Sur – seen on Inhabitat, red print fabric – modgreenpod, bedroom w/ awesome cage lamps – outofvogue.

i’ve been working my way through this blog that covers the building of a modern house – it was syndicated in several places (including livemodern).

Found a great idea for flooring. We have oak hardwood on the main floor and i would love to repeat that upstairs, but i’ve gotten quotes ranging from $10 to $12/square foot for doing the upstairs. not in the budget! Laminate doesn’t do anything for me, cork was too pricy, concrete isn’t feasible. But I loved their solution – sheets of 3/4″ birch plywood cut into squares (i think we’ll do 2′ x 2′) and laid with the grain alternating.

This is their architect’s version (with 4′ squares)

You lay it down – the architect splinthed (sp?) the squares together (routed a groove on the side of one tile, added a sticky-out bit to the side of the next, stuck them together). The homeowner glued his plywood tiles to the subfloor and also nailed them down with brads. I’m not sure what a brad is. Then he finished the wood with multiple coats of polyurethane to protect it, since the veneer is only a thin layer. Plywood is supposed to be a greener choice, given that it uses lots of the less desirable wood as the inside layers of the “sandwich”. Also, shop birch is from the U.S., so lower transportation costs. Best of all? It works out to less than $2/sq foot. There will be an open study upstairs with a built-in desk, and I’m thinking that baltic birch plywood would be a great work surface.

I know I’m skipping ahead to the fun stuff, but I also liked his taste in faucets and door handles. For the kitchen – a pull-out faucet by Grohe (the Minta). It comes in water-saver version.

I looked at Faucet Depot and a few other online stores, but the cheapest option still seems to be on eBay (around $350 before shipping). I’ve had good experiences in the past buying taps online, as long as I had pre-researched in an actual store to check out the ‘feel’ of it and to make sure I had the model # correct. There always seems to be Euro-versions of the same models, and I don’t know if there would be problems with the connecting bits (cross-cultural communication), so figured it was best to avoid the issue altogether.

He also was keen on Omnia door handles. I checked out their website and found this puppy, which I really like.

Emailed them to ask for a local dealer, got a very prompt response. Called for pricing – $130 for a privacy set. Ouch. Of course, I have no idea what is reasonable for a door knob, but I’m guessing that’s way out of line. The store owner I spoke to was very nice and also suggested Linnea as another source of door hardware. I’m sure I’ll find decent handles somewhere. What I was more concerned about was hardware for the pocket doors. Everything I’ve seen in local hardware stores has been very boring and small. I want something easy to grasp (for small hands and big). So, for each pocket door, I’ll need two flush pulls and an edge pull. I like these designs by Omnia.

The rings range from $17 – $19 each, the rectangle is $28. Sounds like a reason for a field trip to me!

Back to packing. The movers are coming tomorrow at 9:00. ack!

My little piece of land is still a place I like to run back to, as it’s a place where only I and a selected number of close friends can get to, which in SL is a treasure indeed!  I had changed the living space over there quit  a bit, as I get bored with things after a while and like to try something new.  I had my last house, a free medieval house that I had picked up somewhere, for some time. and decided it was time for something different.   I still like the medieval house and will keep it safely in my inventory, although the floorboards inside did annoy me because they had not been scaled down enough and it looked like a giant’s floor! (one of my pet hates with builders not scaling things properly, doors with handles as big as your avatar!!).  I picked a shop from search and teleported over to look at the houses for sale.  I had thought about another period property but when I looked I was very taken with a modern design which was incredibly spacious inside and very light and airy.  It is quite difficult to judge the size of a house as the sim I looked at it in was a huge area, but I took a chance and thought it might fit my land.  It was only 500 Lindens too, quite a snip as it is all very well done and can be modified to suit my taste.  Well when I got back and unpacked the house, some of it rezzed onto the land and it was in two halves, the second half disappeared and was instantly put back into my inventory.   Because of the size of it, it had just gone over the boundary and that’s why it had been returned to me

I started again, this time shifting the whole thing over a bit and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts I got it together and the whole thing up.  Although it takes a lot of space  it is beautiful, it has two large bedrooms upstairs and a lovely balcony which overlooks the ocean, this will be my favourite spot!  The downstairs comes complete with the kitchen and has large floor to ceiling windows so you can sit in there and look out to sea as well.   I had a bit of fun choosing some wallpaper yesterday and I have furnished a little bit so far.  I will really enjoy sorting the rest of the house out, it’s true that changing things around really makes you feel better.  I invited Hibiscus and pixi over to see it and we had a good old natter on the balcony.

Hib and I went back over to the London sims after, and stood talking to Seany and Clive for a while.  Seany then declared that he had to go and get something to eat in real life, so went off and sought out a kebab, he did, however, decide to leave his avatar ‘in world’ and hoisted himself up on the belisha beacon to keep warm.  Quite a good idea on a cold evening!!!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted in this blog. I’ve been busy with some projects lately and I just came back from a very long Christmas vacation. Right after I got back from my vacation, I was faced with a lot of deadlines at the office and some projects. I had to work twice as hard just to meet the deadlines in the office, but what bothered me most was the deadline for the design of one of our residential projects.

We only had a week left and my brother and I still haven’t finalize our design proposal. What made things worst was I had a hard time coming up with a design maybe because I still had a hangover from my long vacation. No matter how hard I try to come up with a design I couldn’t even come up with a concept.

So I looked for inspirations in the net, thankfully I bumped into this website which featured a lot of incredible designs which made my mind start to work again. This was probably one of the best website I saw as a good source for architectural designs. It features a lot of Architects and designers and showcases their design in their website. The site is actually a magazines website and what I really liked about their site is that it is very easy to browse it. Trendir is the brand of the magazine and it has a lot of valuable sources for design trends. Another website I frequently visit is Architectural Record website.

Thanks to these two websites I was able to come up with a design concept to present to the client. All I need to worry right now is to refine my design and think of the details for the design.

The Wolfe Den is in it’s final stages. Little details are being completed like the front door handle and the landscaping is being installed. Becca of Rain Lilly Design has dubbed the front stone entry design “macho minimalism”. I really like that! I’m going to steal it;)

Enjoy, I am.

I wanna live here or here. Hand made fonts. A slideshow of the amazing Terminal 3 in Dubai’s International Airport.

Sample of drawing you will receive

Modern Design Doghouse - $20 Plans

“Savannah Cabannah”
Modern Design Dog House
Plans for sale $20.00

About:

Plans to build a beautiful dog house. Dimensions are 3′-1/2″ x 5′-0″. This is a very accomodating doghouse. I made this dog house for my 4 year old Australian Shepherd, Savannah who weighs 65 pounds.

I drew these plans/instructions up using a program called “SketchUp.” I put the work into them and just wanted to sell them and share my work. My dog and I have been very happy with this design.

Cost:

It cost me about $80 total when all finished. Price included: wood, box of screws, corrugated metal and refreshments. My money saving secret in building this was to go to Home Depot, Lowe’s or Menard’s. Find the scrap wood department and lay out your pieces on the floor. [Bring a tape measure and marker] Mark the cut lines, number the pieces [as I have drawn up in my drawings] and they will cut the wood right there for you. When finished, you just take the individually numbers pieces home and screw them together.

Using scrap wood or wood you have in your wood shop, saves LOTS of money!! This is a very quick and easy project and your dog will love you for it. This secret, saves you the mess and setup of your own, the improvement store will do it for you.

What You Get:

I will send you my copyrighted high quality PDF files and JPEG files with 100% accurate dimensions through your email for FREE. Or, I can print them on 11″x17″ and ship them to you for $4.00 USD [S/H + printing costs] within the United States and $6.00 USD outside of the United States.

Drawings Included:

Nine [9] sheets total, very simple and visually graphic instructions on how to put this dog house together. A few actual sheets are shown below for example [click on them to view at full size.]

Cover Sheet: Titled “Savannah Cabannah”
Page 1: Accurately numbered and dimensioned 2×4’s
Page 2: Accurately dimensioned 1/4″ plywood sheets [3 in total]
Page 3: Accurately dimensioned corrugated metal
Page 4: Complete layout of all materials needed to construction dog house
Page 5: Completely numbered construction sheet [Comparative to LEGO building instructions]
Page 6: Construction sheet [Comparative to LEGO building instructions]
Page 7: Construction sheet [Comparative to LEGO building instructions]
Page 8: Front and side elevation with dimension for final construction

How To Buy:

I accept PayPal payment sent to wright4design@yahoo.com or visit my Etsy.com store at Etsy.com

Plans are $20.00 and will be emailed to your personal email account for FREE.

OR

I can print them on 11″x17″ paper and mail them to you for $4.00 within the United States and $6.00 outside of the United States.

Please visit my online Etsy Store at Etsy.com to pay with PayPal and place your order online.

Please contact me for additional questions or inquires.

Email: wright4design@yahoo.com

[Please specify which you prefer, PDFs, JPEGs or actual printed 11x17 pages. Thanks for looking.]

I am PayPal certified and will work with you if you need other payment methods.
Design Images and Actual Pages:

[Click on image for FULL size view]

[Click on image for FULL size view]


[Click on image for FULL size view]

[Click on image for FULL size view]

[Click on image for FULL size view]

[Click on image for FULL size view]

dog dog house dog house plans dog shelter doghouse modern design doghouse modern dog modern dog house modern house plans modern dog house d

Built December 2008

sign

]]> http://mjnealblog.com/2008/07/19/twin-peaks-explained/ Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:09:04 +0000 mjneal http://mjnealblog.com/2008/07/19/twin-peaks-explained/

There seems to be a few questions about Twin Peaks on Apartment Therapy. I guess we can answer them here… Yes, the central piece seems to float off the walls. It’s structure is attached to the wall by brackets. Since the houses are not big, it allows for the eye to travel in between and it creates a much “lighter” feeling.

The finish on the center folding piece is a type of catalyzed polyurethane, it’s like a lacquer, though it is NOT technically a lacquer.

Here’re the pics we have and a wonderful article about the house by Kris Krager, a colleague, who wrote the article for an issue of Texas Architect, when the project won a State Award (TSA) I would link to the article but it’s not online anymore!

Urban/Suburban Hybrid by Chris Krager, Assoc. AIA

PROJECT: Twin Peaks, Austin ARCHITECT: M.J. Neal Architects PROJECT TEAM: M.J. Neal, AIA; Thomas Bercy; Powei Chen; Joseph Winkler; Justin Rumpeltes; Viviane Vives CONSULTANT: Jerry Garcia (Structures) PHOTOGRAPHERS: Viviane Vives; M.J. Neal

Two Austin townhouses defy increasing density and create space on a constrained suburban site.

Like many other American cities, Austin has seen a significant increase in central city development in the past five years. The realization that Austin cannot sustain the continued stretching of its urban infrastructure has led to such initiatives as Smart Growth and Traditional Neighborhood Development. These initiatives have led to relatively low-risk residential development guided primarily by builders erecting traditional housing or “soft-loft” projects priced at the top end of the market.

However, instead of relying solely on the high-end of the economic spectrum, cities such as Austin have the opportunity to deal with – economically, architecturally, and socially – the urban phenomenon of centripetal growth with innovative residential typologies. Moreover, placing suburban houses in quasi-urban environments is essentially irresponsible and results in a lost opportunity for more creative solutions.

With his Twin Peaks project, M.J. Neal, AIA, set out to challenge the unimaginative builder model with a “urban/suburban hybrid.” The problems he faced are neither unique to Austin nor without historical precedent (think of Arabian courtyard houses and urban townhouses): How to design stand-alone single-family residences with the amenities of the suburban home within neighborhoods of increased density, and how to provide residents a comfortable level of isolation on a constrained site while allowing controlled engagement with the public realm?

To successfully address these issues, a building must become an exercise in spatial economy. This Neal accomplished in Twin Peaks with choreographed movement around articulated service masses. The two buildings are essentially vertical tubes with which Neal has taken an additive/subtractive approach. Additive is service function (the central stair/storage element) and subtractive are the moments of respite (screened porches and decks). Surprisingly, while these are not large buildings (1,600 sf of air-conditioned space and 1,000 sf of exterior space), they accommodate much more than one would expect.

Neal assembled this new typology with innovative technologies – SIPS panels, steel/mdf cabinets, catalyzed polyurethane finishes, high-velocity HVAC system, and boat-building plywood, to name a few – and off-the-shelf materials that he customized to varying degrees. As a prototype the buildings were a working experiment, with all of the foibles one would expect with such a process. The buildings are at once complex and elegantly simple. (As anyone who has attempted to build “simply” is aware: simple must be careful, and is most often considerably more expensive.) Many times what Neal anticipated as being matter-of-fact ended up costing more money and taking more time. To his credit, Neal executed those tasks as originally planned rather than opting to cut corners.

When viewed on an initial approach, the exterior of Twin Peaks cuts a distinctive and striking profile in its southside Austin context. The houses, clad in copper and Hardiplank, are handsomely proportioned and nestle comfortably in the site’s mature trees. Each level has an adjoining exterior space which is as generous as the interior and provides a variety of perspectives–to the neighborhood, back to the building, and finally, through the trees. Garages located off the alley have studio apartments above, which provide the density this suburban typology requires.

The structures were intended to create sculptural spaces and are definitely experienced as such. The placement of fenestration emphasizes this through the figural nature of the windows and the consideration of light. Upon entering, one is immediately aware of the nested nature of the space and the layered procession that is about to unfold. The stairwell/furniture element dominates and vertically perforates the space. As a centerpiece it is striking. The material/structural logic of the building reveals itself often, partially a result of economics and partially as an architectural device through instances such as the exposed two-story SIPS panels in the living room and the delicate steel and perforated metal stair.

These are markedly masculine buildings with spare and minimal surfaces. Light is the arbiter and animator of the space, dynamically re-rendering concrete, steel, and lacquer over the course of the day. The material palette is bold and specified with a conscious eye toward juxtaposition: for example, the exposed OSB, a material rarely visible in finished buildings, set adjacent to the hyper-finished cabinet reinforces the presence of the central mass. The color and finish of this surface, which continues upward to form the third-level floor, lends a slightly whimsical quality to the space and gives it a pied-a-terre/bachelor pad ambience. Like the perforated metal that forms the stair, OSB is not the material experience the average person expects and I suspect this to be purposeful on Neal’s part. A necessary material uniformity is established with the trim and secondary cabinets through the use of a single paint color.

The fact that this endeavor occurred speculatively lends additional merit to Neal’s vision. At a critical moment in American urban development the initiative to act is unfortunately lacking in our discipline. Innovation and quality cannot be expected from builders responding to market forces. The Twin Peaks project is bold and assertive, and while its material and language may be challenging, it should be applauded as much for the model it suggests as its energy and dynamism.

–Chris Krager, Assoc. AIA, is a principal of KRDB in Austin.

RESOURCES

masonry units: Featherlite; architectural metal work: Crippen Sheet Metal; copper siding: Crippen Sheet Metal; copper screen: Howard Wire Cloth; aluminum: Alcoa; structural insulated panels: Creative Panel Solutions; siding: James Hardie Building Products; metal doors and frames: Alenco, Metal Craft; metal windows: Alenco; tile: Daltile; paints: ICI Dulux, Pittsburgh, Sherwin-Williams

————————————————————————

2003 Design Award Winners – TSA Honor Awards

It must be Twin Peaks month:-) 

Good Life Magazine and now Apartment Therapy

A house tour by Adrienne Breaux. Fantastic article and she took a bunch of pictures, there’s a pretty comprehensive slideshow.

Table designed by MJ Neal, AIA, Photo by Adrienne Breaux for Apartment Therapy

Wow, it’s SO great to see a good picture of that table. MJ can design furniture like nobody’s business. I keep wishing we had the time to start that line of furniture that’s waiting in the side lines:-). All in due time, I guess!

AT is a great site and it’s just wonderful to see the house posted there but it’s even more wonderful to see Kim and Paul enjoy and appreciate the house. We worked so hard on those houses, all of us, for over two years. We fended so much criticism, I have pages of emails of neighbors either loving them or hating them, there sure was no middle place, until… they came inside, most people fell in love with the places during the open houses, attracted by the sustainability, the light, the warmth of the materials and color, and our own love, I guess, it must’ve come through somehow… So, when Kim and Paul seem so happy there, it actually means something to us, I’m not just saying  this, we really worked so much in these homes that they are literally a part of us. Kim and Paul’s was the first in Bouldin, too… buf, I’m getting teary eyed… bleagh.

Amy Lemen wrote a wonderful article in this month’s issue of The Good Life Magazine.

Download the article’s pdf HERE.

And this reminds me of the .Inc article on the “other twin”, just to balance matters. That’s a pretty wonderful article too. 

If you happen to read these two articles you’ll get a pretty good idea of what’s like to live in the houses that come out of the studio.

And… if you happen to be wondering what it’s like to work with an architect, us for example, I’d recommend you read these two articles:

A Little Porn

And the sweet account from years ago, when I met MJ and he was working on Ron and Gina’s Lake house.

It makes me think of how much I’ve learned in these thirteen years, I’m grateful and lucky to be able to do what we do.  We create beauty for a living, what else can you ask for?

Posted by Viviane

When I started working for lazyanimation I wanted to update the samples for the website. Here is one of the samples I made and designed for our office.

Front View Rear View

When I started working for lazyanimation I wanted to update the samples for the website. Here is one of the samples I made and designed for our office.

Front View

Rear View

Interior View