garage remodeling

books.gregvan.com If you’re planning on remodeling your garage or converting it into living area, you should watch this video to get some ideas on how to deal with the building department and building permits. Some building and safety departments require a minimum space, to park a car. Usually this space is 11 feet wide by 18 feet deep, but like I said earlier, you need to check with your local building department, because some building codes are different in different areas and cities. Garage conversions can be tricky and even if you don’t plan on pulling any building permits, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to build everything to code, just in case something ever happened.

Here’s a subject that’s rarely given enough thought in custom home design…the way you enter and leave your house.  We’re just talking about a door, right?  A hole in the wall, a way in and a way out; what more is there to consider?

It’s easy to overlook the design of the entrance to our houses.  We spend our time working on the design of the exterior and creating the spaces inside the house.   But the front door and the spaces connected to it occupy an important middle ground between indoors and out and set the stage for the success of the entire custom home design.  The entry begins to establish your home’s personality and suggests how the rest of the house should be.  The entry is a symbolic passage from the public realm of the street to the private realm of the family and tells the world something about the people within.

If Walls Could Speak

It’s a cliché to say that the front of a house “makes a statement”, but clichés usually have some basis in truth.  The entry can be a barrier or an invitation, obvious or concealed, pompous or humble; it can welcome you in or it can keep you at arm’s length.  The front door and the area around it can be a message board for the neighborhood – hung with wreaths and ivy during the holidays, festooned with red, white, and blue on the Fourth of July, and decorated with pumpkins and corn shocks at Halloween.

Each element that makes up the home’s entry has something to say.  The classic American front porch is a good example; it’s the outdoor social center, a place to watch the activity of the street, a place to meet and greet neighbors and friends.  A front porch is an outdoor room, neither completely public nor private and easing the transition into and out of the house.  A house with a big, broad front porch tells the world that the family inside values the social fabric of the street, welcoming neighbors and friends and inviting them to stop and visit.

The Entry Sequence

But the front porch is just one part of a sequence of spaces and elements creating a transition from the public realm (the street) to the private realm (the house).  That sequence includes walks, landscaping, steps, porches, overhangs, lights, doors, and interior entry spaces.  A successful entry sequence considers the placement and design of all of these elements and their relationship to each other.

The entry to a home begins long before you’ve stepped onto the property.  It starts in the street with the initial visual cues — where the entrance to the property is, and where the entrance to the house is.

At first glance from the street, the entry to the house should be seen or at least hinted at to provide a clear destination for our guests.  Our old friend the front porch is a great way to indicate clearly where the entrance is to be found.  A porch or overhang at the entry also keeps your guests out of the weather while they’re waiting for you to answer the door.

A path from the street or driveway to the front door should be direct – people look ahead subconsciously as they approach a building, searching for the shortest path to the entrance.  The beginning of the path should be well lit so that it can be found in the dark, and should be wide enough for two people to walk comfortably abreast.  This is also a great place for colorful landscaping.  In temperate and cold climates, leave areas open where shoveled snow can be piled alongside the walk without burying the planting beds.

A little mystery isn’t a bad idea here either – vary the direction of the path a bit so the scenery changes and the front door moves in and out of view.

It’s A House, Not A Greek Temple

Historically, the design of a home’s entry gave the public an indication of the wealth and status of its owners.  The entrances to grand homes are often flanked by huge classical columns, their doors framed by elaborately carved surrounds. But when more modest homes take up these motifs, they often feel out of place and forced.  An entry can be too easily seen from the street, announcing itself too boldly (as if it were an entrance to an office building), and draining all of the warmth from the entry sequence.

Better to design the entry on a human scale, using familiar elements that don’t overwhelm the visitor.  Benches, small windows, potted plants, brick paths and porch railings all contribute to the comfort we want our guests to feel as they are welcomed into our homes.

The human scale should continue on the other side of the door.  Although some larger homes are appropriately fitted with double curved stairs and four hundred square foot entry halls, these features overwhelm a typical family home.  Entry halls and foyers should welcome guests, allow them to get oriented to the house, provide a place to hang their coats, and direct them efficiently to the “public” rooms of the house.  There’s a place for splendor and majesty of course, but that’s best left to the grand homes.

Hey, I didn’t invent this stuff…

Other cultures also place a high value on the design of a home’s entry.  The Ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui dictates exactly where a home’s front door should be to attract good Chi (energy flow) and block harmful Chi. It’s a complex relationship between compass position, proximity to other structures, roads and paths, access to sunlight, and views to the outside.  According to Feng Shui, a well-placed and well-designed front door can enhance luck, promote business success, and increase the health of the occupants.  Although deeply rooted in ancient culture, much of Feng Shui is simply good design practice that we can apply to the design of the ways that we enter and exit our own homes.

Welcome Home To… Your Laundry Room?

Although the introduction of the automobile has had a profound impact on the way we enter our houses, it was the popularization of the attached garage in the mid 20th century that eventually relegated the traditional front door and porch to ceremonial status.  Ironically, we rarely use the impressive entries we build in our homes.  We’re content to enter our own house through the garage – often through a laundry room or mudroom.  Is that what we’ve worked so hard for?  Providing grand entry experiences for our few visitors or the annual holiday gatherings while we trudge daily through the dirty laundry?  The owners of the house should be welcomed into their sanctuary through a space designed to greet them, to acknowledge them, and to recognize them as the reason it exists.

On a recent pre-design tour through a remodeling client’s home, the client and I entered through the garage and laundry room, moving aside bicycles, toys, and baskets of dirty clothes to get into the kitchen.  She hadn’t thought about it, but I suggested we consider reworking the way she enters her house as a part of the remodeling.  She agreed, and the result is a small but well appointed “owner’s entry hall” directly off of the garage and connecting to the kitchen and breakfast room.  The laundry and mudrooms are adjacent to but closed off from this entry.  She’s already told me how much she enjoys the new space and how it brightens her spirits at the end of the day.

Knock, Knock…

But what about the front door itself?  The front door is at once a bridge and a barrier.  Should it be big, small, opaque, transparent, rectangular or arched?  I prefer a big door wide enough to make the furniture movers happy – at least 42 inches wide.  Because the front door will be used every day, durability and resistance to weather damage are important.  A bit of glass in the door allows permits residents to see someone outside without allowing the stranger a view of the interior.  A lot of glass in the door is less private, but brings in more light from the outside.

Although a wood door is susceptible to damage from the elements, it always looks better than metal or fiberglass imitations.  And if properly protected with an overhanging roof, a quality wood door should last the life of the house.

An Open And Shut Case

The front door is one part of many elements that make up an entry design.  A successful entry sequence starts in the public realm of the street and moves through a sequence of spaces on its way to the private realm of the house.  The design of the entry communicates with the neighborhood and is scaled appropriately to the rest of the house. 

That “hole-in-the-wall” is much more than just a way in and a way out.

We always feel the need to remodel our houses with latest and greatest material. Often the garage is the least looked after section during this process. Most home owners continue to have a garage built 10-15 years ago without any remodelling at all. If this sounds like your garage, maybe it is the time to give it a fresh look.

The garage door is the first thing that you can replace to significantly improve the market value of your house. If your house has an old fashioned steel hinge door, then replace it with a modern electric roller door. Also ensure that the colour of the new door matches the overall ambiance of your house.

The next thing that you can look into when improving the look of your garage is the floor. There are many new flooring materials out there which look great, affordable and easy to clean. You can even go for a new interlocking pattern with multiple colours. An option such as a polyvinyl floor is beneficial if you are considering other future uses of your garage, such as a home gym or a play area.

If you need some additional storage space with your garage, you can add some space saving storage cupboards and drawers. Most hardware stores carry a large rage of these space saving fixtures. However, to get the most out of your garage, talk to a home improvement specialist who can have a look at your floor plan and give you some expert advice.

For those who are living in an area with a hot and warm climate, you might need to consider insulating your garage. Depending on your budget, you can either do it yourself or hire a professional. Keep in mind that you will have to check with your local officials about the building codes in your area for this. Because of the possible storage of flammable liquids and the lack of smoke detectors may breach some fire safety rules. If you have such a doubt, hiring a professional will keep you out of trouble.

In Mark Oser’s world, light is art, and the most important design element in a house. A trained painter, he prefers white walls to showcase canvases and sculptures, and dramatic lighting to highlight the architectural details of his 6,000-square-foot modern home in Holland.

It’s not your typical Bucks County fare, but that’s not why clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida call on Oser, an interior designer for 20 years who now does many design/build projects.

His own home features glass for staircases, stainless steel for curved walls, granite for floors, and open spaces for paintings that make it feel like a modern museum or a slick movie set. A comfortable one, though.

“My main goal was to create an ultramodern [house], but warm at the same time,” says Oser, 44. “I softened all of the hard materials with warm lighting, thick carpets, and warm touches of color.”

Building his home from the ground up was a challenge, Oser says: “I have been exposed to so much over the past 20 years and had so many resources that I loved to use. How do I narrow it down to what I like?”

First, he had to find where to build. He wanted to be in Bucks County, but he didn’t think a big development would be right for him, his wife Lisa, and daughter Halie, now 9. He found a community of 10 homes where the builder would allow him to design and construct the interior.

Like the rest of us, Oser had to contend with that awful word budget.

“When I thought about all of the things I wanted in this house, I thought, ‘I can’t afford myself.’ If there was something I wanted that I could not afford, I tried to do it with more cost-effective materials.”

It took Oser a year to design the whole house and another year, after they moved in in May 2001, to design the lower level. He bounced ideas off his wife, who was involved in the projects.

“My most important requirement was that my home feel inviting while being warm – modern design sometimes has a cold feel to it. Mark blended a modern style with a sense of warmth,” Lisa Oser says, crediting his use of lighting with making that happen.

The basement that took so long to design? It features a six-seat theater with ticket booth, a bar, a seating area, a gaming area, and the requisite home gym. The rooms have a movie theme, and there is even a life-sized clay sculpture of a movie attendant in the ticket booth.

The soundproof theater has fabric walls and dramatic sconces, and a 125-inch movie screen behind remote-controlled curtains.

“This is my favorite room,” Mark Oser says, “because you feel so different here. It takes me away.”

“You can do anything using this screen: show family photos, play games, and watch movies, of course,” says Oser, who often hooks up his computer and works there.

Adds Lisa Oser: “My friends and Halie’s love this house. It is really set up for entertaining.”

The bar and seating area have fun pop-art touches such as puzzle-piece ottomans and chairs done in fabric that looks like film reels. Oser painted an “Al Pacino in Scarface” movie mural onto the wall near the pool table.

Upstairs, in the main living spaces, however, “I wanted to have an art gallery effect,” says Oser, who mixes his own work – his take on a Roy Lichtenstein is on one wall – with that of other artists.

For the kitchen, he wanted sleek and angular mixed with curved design elements. The granite floors match the countertops, and white custom cabinets conceal small appliances. The eating area has a Jetsons-like triangular table and colorful seats.

In the square family room, Mark Oser wanted curves. He created them with flooring cut in a wave shape. The room features a built-in TV over the fireplace and, on an opposite wall, an airbrushed sky effect with the words COOL in 3-D.

“Paint can be changed, so if I get tired of it, I can easily change it,” he says.

The master bedroom needed lots of storage. Oser tucked it away behind curved brushed-steel and lacquer custom cabinetry that looks like an architectural element. A fireplace and TV are built into a wall opposite the bed, which rests on a glass-block base, lit from within.

“The lighting and glass create a floating effect,” Oser says.

He painted the molded ceiling a warmer color than the walls, and tucked away cove lighting to give the space a wonderful glow. And he created a meditation area for his wife, who owns an insurance-brokerage agency.

Three years ago, Oser took his talents outside, adding a pool that transports visitors to his favorite state, Florida. He brought in sand from the beach and palmlike trees, worked his magic with lighting again, and dotted deck areas with art and sculpture from favorite artists.

“The best part of living in a modern house is it is open and airy, unique and timeless,” Lisa Oser says. “I feel like I am on vacation in Florida or California in my own home.”

Mark also thinks of it as a living portfolio.

“I could have a showroom,” he says, “but I choose to live in mine.”