Comments for A House By The Park

Comment on A short post about the fireplace, the stairs, and the awesomeness of Bart by Derek

Derek — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 01:27:25 +0000

This is a great design and love the look of the black steel. We are also looking at the Cosmos fireplace but are curious how the Cosmos frame is eliminated or is the frame covered up by the steel panels. Also have the same questions as Tom above. What a great house and project.
Thanks,
Derek

Comment on The bamboo floor saga by Samantha

Samantha — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:17:55 +0000

I just did a quick check to verify and saw that while natural bamboo darkens in the sun, caramelized bamboo lightens in the sun.

Comment on The bamboo floor saga by Samantha

Samantha — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:11:44 +0000

Put the new bamboo out in the sun and it should darken – just be sure to check it often when it is getting close to the color of your existing floor. UV that is filtered through windows will still darken the bamboo, but much more slowly than direct sunlight.

Comment on A Year and a Half After Moving In by Mike D.

Mike D. — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 20:12:54 +0000

April: Nope, we’ll be back up there at some point.

Comment on A Year and a Half After Moving In by April

April — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 17:23:24 +0000

Beautiful house. I checked your personal blog and it looks like you are living in San Francisco now. Did you sell?

Comment on Choosing a deck surface by Mike (also from Toronto)

Mike (also from Toronto) — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 19:50:30 +0000

Hi,

We’ve had the LockDry deck for over 3 years now. Couldn’t be happier with it. Because it is metal, it will expand and contract, so it will occasionally make the noises associated with this, however there have never been any leakage problems… as long as you seal between the deck and house properly. In the summer it is cooler than a hardwood. Installation-wise it slopes away from the house so water runs off from the house out. My joints were running perpendicular to the house, so I had to block in between them because the LockDry runs perpendicular as well. No big deal though.
As to why LockDry? A local distributor. Couldn’t find one for the LastDek waterproof product. The look is great, I went with the beige type colour… easy to maintain, doesn’t matter how much snow sits on there (it’s easy to clean off using a plastic shovel). I did the steps (24″ wide platforms really) going off the deck as well.

Mike

Comment on Choosing a deck surface by Park City skier

Park City skier — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 16:22:17 +0000

Eight years ago, we built a 200 sf deck using beige Trex. Today, it looks bad, with traces of water (melting snow) seeping down the vertical sections of the skirt and railings. What’s worse though, is that we use that deck for dinning three times a day, from June through September, and with barbecuing and handling food around, grease stains are frequent and can’t only be removed with sand paper. Forget about power washing or scrubbing with non-abrasive material! Today, as we’re building a new home, we’re considering NextDeck, but we can’t find anyone who’s installed it anywhere in the state of Utah. That’s the only thing holding our decision…

Comment on The bamboo floor saga by max

max — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 18:28:06 +0000

I have a problem with our bamboo floor that was blond but turned much darker aver 4 years. We also had some water damage that turned the floor along the water leak wall black. I had damged area removed and new planks installed but it is obvious in the difference of the light new floor and old floor. As an experiment I tried to stain some spare light bamboo after removing the clear finish but bamboo does not absorb the stain well. I tried various brands of stains but had the same result.
Anyone with same problem please let me know how you resolved your different floor colour. I don’t really want to sand 1100 sq ft of floor and go through the mess that sanding creates.

Comment on Final costs and stats by allan

allan — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 01:15:52 +0000

Not sure if this blog is still active but a quick comment on the construction costs. First of all, a beautiful house with a interesting and unique combination of materials. I am suprised but happy to see your total construction costs including landscaping come in under $250/ft; there’s hope for me and my project! I have spoken with the principal of a well known high end architectural firm in Seattle and he said his firms projects are coming in at $600-$800/ft. Well Done!

Comment on The Appliance Package by Lance Root

Lance Root — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:58:03 +0000

Hi Mike, a very cool blog — thanks so much for sharing. I love the house, too. I’ve bought my home in San Clemente, CA and am now working with a designer — he does the plans, but farms out the engineering. Anyway, like I read on your blog, somewhat clueless when it comes to a realistic budget and listening, so I’m glad to learn I’m not alone in that respect. Most helpful for me, is that you’ve included costs as that is very difficult to obtain when one typically sees a house in “Dwell” or other publications. Again, very cool — thanks for passing along the valuable nuggets.