Raising a House

 

 

I was first contacted by Alem and Nigisty, the owners of  a small 3-bedroom bungalow in the Temescal District of Oakland a bit over a year ago.  They were referred to me by Kifle Zereat, a contractor who had completed a small commercial project for me a few years ago, also in Temescal.  These clients purchased their home over twenty years ago and raised their children there.  It’s a small house…three small bedrooms and two little baths.  They wanted to renovate and discuss options for adding a second unit.  The kids were either off at college, or would be heading there soon.  Alem and Nigisty wanted to remodel their current space, provide a long-term affordable living situation for their kids, and create a source of income for themselves in the future.

I’ve worked on a number of Accessory Dwelling Units in the past.  But, Alem and Nigisty wanted a larger space and their zoning allowed for multiple units.  They’re also on a city lot with a two-car garage in the backyard.  They didn’t want to lose their garden to another structure.  There were two options: adding on a second story or lifting the house about nine feet into the air and building beneath it.  The second option is what we went with.

Design work started with figuring out their wants and needs for their personal space.  Nigisty wanted an open plan kitchen, living and dining room.  They also wanted a bathroom that was accessed from their bedroom.  Alem spends a lot of time out on the front porch and wanted to maintain a similar space.  They planned to live upstairs.

On the new lower level, they wanted an open plan two-bedroom apartment.  It also needed a laundry room and full bath.  At the back of the house, adjacent to the rear garden, they requested a flexible studio space.

We spent a few months working on the design, with Kifle, the contractor, working with us to help control construction costs.  Then the engineers got involved, designing a new foundation and determining the structural modifications that would be necessary to open up the existing house, as well as, designing the new first floor structure that would support it.  We navigated through Oakland’s Design Review Process, notifying neighbors and getting the exterior design approved.  Final plans were submitted last summer to obtain the building permit.

Once financing was in place, construction could begin.  Of course, by the time everything was lined up we were entering the rainy season.  Kifle took a chance and started work in January.  Utility lines were cut, the chimneys removed, and the house was released from its foundation.  The house movers arrived and jacked the house into the air.  Then utilities were hooked back up and Alem and Nigisty returned.  Until work starts on the second floor interior, they’ll remain in residence.  I was unsure how that would work, but they seem to be doing fine.  Alem is loving his new second floor balcony (formerly the front porch).

Wall framing should start this next week, with structural steel following soon after.

I’ll post updates periodically!

 

The A-Frame is Complete

This was an incredible project.  You can see some before pictures on my web site at http://www.r-a-design.com/modern-a-frame.  I think the results are stunning.  When I first visited this Rockridge house, I wasn’t sure what we would end up with.  The homeowner told me about his vision for a modern, yet rustic, home that would have some cool details like a steel and wood staircase and railings.  And he showed me some photos of a traditional San Francisco home he’d renovated.  I knew he did beautiful work.  But this was a different kind of house.

The original A-frame had a ladder in the dining room that went up to a loft.  Nordic-style beams stuck out everywhere.  Shed roofs seemed tacked on in odd locations and all had different pitches.  The floor plan was so confusing that I wasn’t sure how the previous occupants had actually lived in the house.  It was sort of set up like three efficiency apartments, but they were all connected.  A commune maybe?  To top it off, caution tape was stretched across portions of the exterior decks.

The homeowners wanted to transform it into a family home with three bedrooms, two and a half baths, as well as, an in-law suite.  My goal with every project is try and make a house feel like it’s always been that way.  In renovations I hate to see the odd details or the floor plan that doesn’t quite work.  I want people to walk in and say: “That’s a great space.”  I don’t want to hear: “That’s a pretty good remodel.”

With this project, like most that I work on, my main focus is always on the space…the architecture.  I was lucky on this one that I had a client who had a good aesthetic.  I could focus on creating the volumes and connections that make the house feel dramatic and unique and didn’t need to worry too much about the finishes.

The construction process took eight months.  During that time I visited the site four or five times.  The house was in bad shape and what we thought was going to be a renovation turned into a reconstruction.  The only original parts of the house that remain are the foundation and what remains of the great room A-frame.  On those visits, I would always leave feeling sort of astounded by what was happening.  On one visit I stood on the upper floor landing and looked down into the living room and thought: “This is exactly how I imagined it would be.”  For me, that means success because the design that I had in my mind and drew on paper ended up being that way.  The volumes of the spaces felt right to me.  The entry worked the way I intended…a smaller space opening up to this grand volume under the A-frame.  The upstairs bedrooms have lots of windows that open up to the trees.  You feel like you’re in a forest.  And yes, there is a view from that curious interior window above the kitchen…its through a skylight on the opposite side of the A-frame.

A few weeks ago, I got the call from my client that I’d been waiting for.  The house was done.  I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves.  It’s definitely not a house for everyone.  It has a certain amount of rustic charm.  And A-frame architecture is a niche.  But, the space is really cool, if I do say so myself.  And it feels like it was built that way from the beginning.  The new and old spaces compliment each other.

Ultimately, the credit for this project goes to Tsering Denma and his wife Yangchen.  They had the faith when they saw this house that it could be turned into something extraordinary.  And they trusted their structural engineer when he recommended me for the architectural design.  Tsering and his team executed fabulously on the project.  His eye for detail is fantastic.  The steel railings he fabricated and topped with cedar woodwork that you just want to touch because it looks so velvety is exquisite.  The decorative wood panels he inset into niches in the stairwell and that bedroom window overlooking the living room added a charming, yet sophisticated touch that you just don’t often see in contemporary homes.  His landscaping transformed an ivy-covered hillside into a terraced series of spaces that is nestled among the oaks on the site.  I mean, who builds an outdoor kitchen around a massive oak branch?  Or a bonsai garden into the front porch?  He deserves the credit for all of that.  You can see photos of what I’m talking about on my website: www.r-a-design.com.  Just click on the featured project.

Moving Beyond the 1970s

UPDATE: December 5th, 2018.  The Building Permit has been issued and construction should begin just after the first of the year!  This is going to be a fun one!

I love a big challenge….especially when it involves bringing a mostly original 1970’s A-frame into the 21st century.

A few months ago I started working with Yangchen and Tsering Denma on a new design project.  Tsering is a Bay Area contractor who does landscape work.  But, he’s also renovated a few houses for his family, and even built one from the ground up.  The Denmas were in escrow on a house in Oakland’s Upper Rockridge neighborhood when I first met them.  The neighborhood was beautiful, but the house wasn’t.

It had that Tahoe A-frame cabin feel.  The interior walls were all wood.  A mish-mash of low of shed roofs gave it a home-made feel and low ceilings in the upper level rooms.  It had the original kitchen and bathrooms.  A couple of illegal kitchens had been added over the years to create sort of communal living arrangement.  It was like stepping back in time…to a place you didn’t really want to go.

Yet, this house had great potential and new owners with vision!  We started by figuring out what their needs are.  First, they’re a multi-generational household.  They have both their parents and their small children living in their household.  While they didn’t need an in-law for the parents, they did want a separate area that would allow for privacy.  They also needed a total of four bedrooms, a laundry that was in the house rather than detached, a spacious open kitchen, and improved flow between the rooms.  Also key was preserving the core architectural element: the A-frame living area.

After a couple of months of design work, we’ve come up with a great plan for the Denmas.  We’re adding on about 700 square feet.  The area where the master bedroom will be located is getting a bump out.  We’re adding a family room on the lowest level that will have a roof deck on top.  The location of the stair is moving and we’re demolishing the original shed-roofed entry to clean up the exterior.  And the series of shed-roofed dormers at different heights and angles have been cleaned up.  The roof pitches now all match, and the overall roof is vastly simplified.

I’ll try to update this blog on the progress as this will be our most dramatic project yet.  And we have a talented and enthusiastic pair of clients working with us on it!  We should have building permits by the first of the year and construction will begin soon after.

An Open Plan Kitchen??

We see lots of beautiful kitchen renovations these days.  It’s easy to spend over $100K building your dream kitchen, installing commercial-grade appliances, removing walls to create that dreamed of “open plan”, as well as, adding all of the other bells and whistles that seem so necessary.  But, we recently completed a project that shows that you can have your dream kitchen and it doesn’t have to look like the ones you see on TV or in magazines.

One of the first things I tell my clients is to think about how you actually use your kitchen and live in your house.  One of the lessons I learned early in my career is that homeowners will adapt a space to their life rather than vice versa.  In other words, if you currently use a space a certain way, you aren’t likely to change that in a major way, even if you completely transform it.

When it comes to kitchens, it’s important to consider how much the space is at the center of your home and what your daily routine looks like.  The idea of the open plan always is the first thing that seems to come up when talking kitchen remodels.  The “idea” of an open plan is wonderful if you feel that you’re separated from your family when you’re in the kitchen.  You think: “I don’t want to be away from the kids when I’m cooking”.  Or, “This space seems so small and closed in.”  In today’s day and age where food preparation may be an integral part of family life, those feelings are certainly valid.

But, what if your family life is different.  My recent clients certainly like to eat.  They have two young boys who also like to eat.  But cooking elaborate meals that are at the center of family life doesn’t really happen in their household.  They share their meals around the dinner table every night.  But with two working parents, meal prep is often quick and then eating is more leisurely.

Our initial plan for their space was to remove the wall between their kitchen and dining room to create an open plan.  Questions started to come up.  Is removing that bookcase (that the clients’ grandfather had built 70 years ago) really necessary?  It was, since it was built on the wall that was going to come out.  What if we don’t want to clean the kitchen right after dinner?  How do we hide the mess from the living room?  It became clear that the open plan we’d initially discussed (and that they initially requested) wasn’t a great fit for this family.

The other thing we found is that our clients really liked how the original kitchen functioned and they didn’t want to significantly change it.  They needed some counter space on both sides of the range, which the original lacked.  And they needed more efficient and additional cabinetry.  Otherwise, they liked the plan of the kitchen as it was.

The focus of the design shifted from creating a space that they thought they wanted, to creating a space that actually works for the way that they currently live.  We made the kitchen a comfortable place to cook in for one or two people.  We added a built-in desk under a window so that the boys could do their homework when mom or dad was in the kitchen prepping dinner.  We gave them some extra cabinetry by integrating the breakfast room into the kitchen work space.  It’s a compact house, so two dining areas right next to each other wasn’t really an efficient use of their available space.

By not creating an open plan and keeping plumbing and appliances mostly in their existing locations, we significantly reduced the cost of the renovation.  This allowed the homeowners to spend more on cabinetry, tile and counter tops.  I’m not sure whether the custom tile from Sonoma Tile Works that we used on the walls (in that gorgeous herringbone pattern) or the countertops  (with the leather finish that make them so nice to touch) make the bigger statement.  But those two items probably would have been eliminated had we needed to do structural work to open up the space.

What we ended up with is a kitchen that is really functional and pleasant to cook in, with wonderful finishes and spaces that fit the clients’ needs.  It didn’t end up being an open plan.  But, an open plan isn’t for everyone.

Next up for them will be a bathroom renovation that takes a non-traditional approach.  Stay tuned as that project develops over the coming months!

If you have a project you’re considering at your own home, we’d love to hear about it and help out!  You can email us at info@radesignbuild.co or check out our web site at www.r-a-design.com.

 

Accessory Dwelling Units: A Growing Bay Area Trend

Here at RADesign, we’ve had several recent inquiries about adding second units to existing single-family homes.  It’s a growing trend and there are a multitude of reasons that clients are asking about it.

While I’ve designed numerous accessory structures over the years, my first Accessory Dwelling Unit Project was built last year in El Cerrito, CA.

Matt, my client, had spent over twenty years in his house, and raised his kids there.  But they’d grown up and moved out and he found himself alone in a four-bedroom house that was too big for his needs.  Selling his house was an option, but the residence is conveniently located just a few blocks from downtown El Cerrito and a BART station.  He also had years of great memories that were tied to the house.

I ended up designing a 650 square foot one-bedroom apartment for Matt.  If you’re interested in seeing photos of the project and finding out more about what we did, click here.

Matt ended up living downstairs in his new bachelor pad.  It’s sized just for him and has all the features that he requested: an open plan, a spacious kitchen, a bathroom with a big tub, an office space (he works from home) under a sunny window with a view to the garden, and an outside terrace with access from a wide sliding glass door.  He loves the space and now rents out the main residence to tenants.  The rent he collects covers his mortgage payment and pays for the brand new apartment that he’s living in.  Downsizing into a second unit on his property turned out to be a great financial and quality of life decision for Matt.

But there are a multitude of other reasons to add second units to an existing single-family home.  I hear a lot about Aging-In-Place these days.  If you’re not familiar with the term, it just means having the ability to remain in one’s home as you get older.  This term often refers to adding features like accessible bathrooms and kitchens, ground floor bedrooms, replacing outside stairs with ramps, and widening doorways and hallways for wheelchair access and to make caretaking easier.

An Accessory Dwelling Unit can also be an ideal option when it comes to Aging-In-Place.  For older folks living alone, a smaller one-bedroom space can be a welcome relief from the maintenance and expense of a single-family residence. This goes hand in hand with the idea of Downsizing.  A second dwelling unit, however, can also serve as a place for live-in caretaker.  Or, the rent collected from a second unit can be used to cover the costs of a caretaker or other expenses when other options are limited.

Multigenerational Housing is another thing that I hear a lot about from my clients.  Many of them have aging parents or grown children.  But the cost of housing in the Bay Area is high.  Parents can’t afford the cost of maintaining their existing home, retirement housing or assisted living.  Children find it difficult to find or afford a place of their own.  An Accessory Dwelling Unit can be an ideal option in these cases.  A second unit can provide a bit of independence for its occupant (and the resident of the primary residence), but also keep them near family or friends.

In the coming months, I’ll be posting about some past and present projects that involve Accessory Dwelling Units or Multi-Family Housing.  I love working on these types of projects!  If you’ve been considering building a second unit, or modifying your existing residence to include a second unit, I’d love to discuss the options with you.

You can contact me, Rich Depolo, at 510.717.0728 or click here.

El Cerrito ADU Under Construction

We’re getting close to finishing up the Accessory Dwelling Unit project in El Cerrito!  We’re adding a 650 square foot one-bedroom apartment to an almost daylight basement.  The aparment is almost complete and will be ready for occupancy within the next few weeks.  It was imperative to the owner that the space not feel small and dark.  We installed lots of windows and a big sliding glass door.  A sunken terrace will be installed to provide exterior space at the same level as the apartment.  Stay tuned for the completion photos!

View of Living Room and Kitchen from the Bedroom toward the Terrace

View of Bedroom from the Living Room

Temescal Square nears Completion

RADesignBuild Co. has been busy!  We currently have three projects under construction and a few others at various stages.  The Temescal Project has been under construction for quite a while.  The structures are basically complete and now landscaping is going in.  We hope to have the space usable within a few weeks.  We did both the overall site planning and the design of the two structures that were added.  The location of the structures are shown in grey and appear at the top of the site plan.  The drawing below displays the overall landscape plan and the site lines across the Campo from the end of the alley.  The two small structures shown in the photos will serve utility functions at this point.  The larger of the two includes an accessible restroom for the use of visitors.

Temescal Square Campo Site Plan

An ADA restroom and office space occupy the structure shown in the top photo.  The use of the second structure is still undefined.

 

 

The Campo Under Construction

A few months ago I mentioned a small commercial project in Oakland that’s been in development for quite a while.  Sometimes things take just a bit longer than you expect them to.  My Campo Project, which included the design some utility buildings at the end of Temescal Alley, as well as, some site planning for an area they call the “Campo”: the plaza at the end of Temescal Alley. is in construction.  The foundations, framing, electrical and rough plumbing are complete.  The roofs are on.  Siding should be installed in the next week or so.  While I dropped by the job site yesterday, these photos are from a couple of weeks ago.  Our contractor, Kifle, is doing a fabulous job.

Right now, they look like very simple shed structures.  These are utilitarian buildings.  The one that is fully visible will serve as a workshop for the time being.  With Temescal Square’s inventiveness and repurposing of what were once garages along an alleyway into one of Oakland’s hottest little shopping and dining areas, who knows what it might ultimately become.  The one shown in the photo below houses another utility space and a public ADA restroom.  The structures sit behind Pizzaiolo Restaurant at the end of Temescal Alley.  Currently, the restaurant has a dining patio that’s adjacent.  Once the buildings are completed, the courtyard will be relandscaped, patios will be installed and the two structures should integrate nicely into their surroundings.

 

 

Another Project Nears Completion in Berkeley

We started working on the design of this total renovation about a year ago for Oakland-based Urban Homestead.  What began as a run down little Berkeley bungalow, with a single bedroom, partial kitchen, and half bath is now a 1500 square foot 3-bedroom, two bathroom residence with an open plan.  We opened up the upper floor by removing some beams and columns that divided up the space, as well as, the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  The crawlspace was excavated out an additional 4 feet or so to create a full-height lower level with large windows to bring in an abundance of natural light.  We put two bedrooms, the master bathroom, a laundry, and a utility space down there.  While it’s partially below grade, it doesn’t feel that way at all.

The goal with this renovation was to create a family home that is modern, but still retains its vintage charm.  The multi-paned windows in the living room were restored. Original trim and moldings were retained, where posssible.  The banister, while new, is similar to what might have been installed in a house of this vintage originally.  The cabinetry, while painted in contemporary colors, is still a classic Shaker style.  Modern quartz countertops resemble white marble, a timeless material.  In the guest bathroom, hexagonal tiles were used on the floor, but in a contemporary matte black finish.  In the master bath, the owners got creative by repurposing a West Elm credenza as a double vanity.  The tile also provides a contemporary vibe in this new area of the house.

Throughout the design and construction process, we worked with the homeowner’s contractor to streamline the process.  This was an old house with a lot of surprises.  But, it’s turned out nicely and is a now a nice addition to its downtown Berkeley neighborhood.

Temescal Square Campo Project

Just down Temescal Alley, past the ice cream shop and the barber shop is “The Campo”.  It’s currently used mainly by Pizzaiolo Restaurant as an outdoor dining space.  If you’re in or near Oakland and haven’t been to Temescal Alley, you should check it out.  There are a variety of cool shops along the Alley, and a few great restaurants, including Dona Tomas and Pizzaiolo that line Telegraph Avenue and back on to the courtyard at the end.  If you’ve visited in the past few months, you may have noticed a burlap-covered fence running down the middle of the Campo.  On the other side of that fence, our newest project will soon begin construction.

The Campo space is quite large, and felt more like an extension of the restaurant, Pizzaiolo, on Telegraph Avenue, than a destination point at the end of the Alley.  This project is the first in a series that aims to change that.  Our goal with this project was to create a series of intimate spaces along the edge of the large courtyard, as well as, a couple of interesting accessory structures for utility.  If you’ve never been to Temescal Alley, the cool thing about it are the small shops lining each side.  They’re all independently owned businesses, and each shop initially started out in a space about the size of a one-car garage (which is what the spaces once were…and stables before that.).  Many of the shops have expanded into adjacent “bays”, but still maintain that intimate feel which makes it so cool.  We’re trying to carry that same feeling into the courtyard and create connections between both the Alley and the restaurants.

I met with an inspector from the Oakland Building Department, the contractor, and the client this afternoon to discuss a few details.  Progress!

It’s a small project, just a couple of outbuildings totaling about 500 square feet.  They replace a large storage shed that once stood there and was falling down.  Their importance is derived more from the effect they have on the courtyard as a whole, rather than their specific size or purpose.

It’s exciting to take on a commercial project in a very vibrant part of Oakland and be working again with these clients!