So I had to prepare some construction drawings to pass along to the contractor who will be building this playhouse. His name is Barry Buford and he has his own construction company – Buford Builders, Inc., and he and I have collaborated on projects before. Barry has successfully bid and built some of our best projects and he built one of the playhouses I designed for CASA last year (surprise – it was the ORIX USA Japanese theme playhouse). Since I put together the AIA/ CASA playhouse competition event, I wasn’t going to design a playhouse this year; but ORIX USA asked for us specifically I couldn’t say no – it’s a good cause.
Since I basically used my sketchbook to work out the concept and beginning geometry, I did most of the fine tuning in a modeling program called sketchup which I use all the time and have been for the last 10 years. I could have exported the sketchup model straight out to AutoCAD but I am fairly particular about the pen weights in my drawings so I like drafting out my own details. It is important to me that on these intrinsic playhouses that all the fine details be worked out and that everything is resolved. This is important in all my projects but particularly so on a project of such small scale.
When these playhouses get built, it’s easy to think of them as things instead of a collection of parts. From the earliest stages of design, I think about what materials I want to use while keeping a budget in mind. The materials I select and the design I try and put together is intended to reflect all the actual joints and patterns that the materials will make when they are used in the construction of this particular playhouse. I think about things like:
- If I move this pattern to this spacing, I can get all the pieces I need from a single 4×8 sheet of material, or
- I can layer this assembly and use fewer 2×4′s for structure support and create the imagery needed with lighter members (which will cost less), or
- If I put a batten pattern on running horizontally, I can protect the playhouse from people entering it while it’s on display (CASA playhouse requirement), which will be more cost efficient than installing plexiglass around the bottom.
So here are the construction drawings I prepared for Buford Builders. I realized that because of the time left to get this built, and the fact that I am leaving for Paris in a few days, I needed to get these drawn and over to Barry pronto. I spent about 4 hours drawing these – I don’t know if that seems like a long time or not. I like to think I draft really fast but these were a little fussy. I will go over them with Barry to discuss options and some of the finer details we need to get right but I’m lucky that I have Barry building this for me (and so is CASA and the eventual owner of this little beauty). Barry is one of the very best contractors I have ever had the pleasure to work with – maybe the best. If I won the lottery and was able designed my own house from scratch, there is no doubt that I would get Barrry to build it for me. I have seen him go out of his way – to his own financial detriment – to make sure a client is happy. I have never met a more honest, direct, and genuinely considerate person in my life. If everybody’s experience with a builder was like working with Buford Builders, contractors would would have a fantastic reputation.
I will come back through later and post some progress photos and certainly some final construction photos. I am really happy with how this playhouse is shaping up. I hope everyone else is as pleased as I am.
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“Music and the creative process”
“Architecture and Music”
These are phrases within questions that I have been getting asked since I was 18 years old but I should probably provide you with some of my musical background first. Everyone in my family is pretty musically gifted and despite the tales my father would tell you about his trumpet playing, most of our natural abilities most likely came from our mother. My mom graduated with her college degree in music education and had herself a sweet little recording career (even if it was short-lived). She was in a singing group in college called “The Chordettes” who recorded such timeless classics as “Mr. Sandman” and “Lollipop, Lollipop” and I would bet that no matter your age, you are familiar with these songs. Yes, I know – that is pretty cool.
I grew up with literally musical instruments in every room of my house; we had a multi-tiered organ, a baby grand piano, an upright piano, multiple violins, a french, horn, an oboe, and at one time or another, a clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone and a marimba (and no, we didn’t moonlight as stand-ins for the Partridge family). This was all for me and my two sisters, and it was pretty cool until I got to high school and it wasn’t really that cool anymore. Other than the french horn and oboe, I played all the others. I started on violin in 4th grade, moved onto clarinet in 5th grade, than bass clarinet in 7th (clarinet’s were for girls…and adding bass to the front made it more masculine) and when I learned that I couldn’t be in the jazz band with my rocking cool bass clarinet, I taught myself saxophone during the summer before 9th grade so I could be in the jazz band in high school. It was a grade requirement that we try out for All-City bands but I also tried out for All-Region band and All-State band. I made All-City and All-Regions every year starting in 7th grade and All-State my junior and Senior years in High School. Sounds great right? I HATED band more than I can possibly describe without working blue; it had a serious impact on my social life as I perceived it. So why did I do it? Those who know me know that I have a teeny-tiny competitive streak and while I hated what the perception of band did to for me, I didn’t actually hate the music part.
This pattern continued into college where I was in the Marching Band in the Fall semesters and Jazz Ensemble in the Spring semesters. I could only manage to keep up with it for 3 years before it starting creating problems with my architecture studios. Anyone who has gone to architecture school will understand what I mean – studio is incredibly demanding of your time and I couldn’t afford to have a extra curricular activity that required so much attention and dedication, so I finally quit. To this day, I think my mom was a little disappointed that I didn’t pursue a musical career. A little known fact – I made it through 3 years of roommates in college who never knew I was in the marching band – pretty impressive feat I’d say.
I told you all that because being around that much music for that long has broadened my understanding and appreciation of music. I generally believe that I listen to music differently than most people. I break it down without thinking about, pulling apart bass lines, rhythm patterns, etc. and then I put them back together. When I was in my formative teenage years, I had already put a lot of time in listening to classical, big band and more traditional jazz standards. Despite the wasteland of music that the early 80′s provided (sorry Whitesnake, but you sucked), I was still pulling out albums from my parents collection of vinyl and listening to BB King, Stan Kenton and Tommy Dorsey. Once I realized that I wasn’t helping my street cred in high school, I started going more indie (e.g. the Cure, Depeche Mode, Yaz, etc.). I still liked all that other stuff, I just kept it to myself.
In design studio, where you are trapped for 12+ hours a day, I was the one who played my tapes for the room. Since I didn’t listen to just one type of music, I generally covered the collective musical tastes of everyone (although we did institute a rule that if 1 person didn’t want to listen to what was being played, it got changed). Just like back then in studio, I still listen to a lot of music while I work – probably like a lot of architects/ creative types. Music can help set a mood, bring energy to the process, or act as white noise when focus is needed. There is a lot of research being developed that evaluates the development of your brain when exposed to music; both playing it and listening to it. A particularly interesting article that I came across mentioned that “studies had shown that the brains of adult musicians have structural and functional differences from those of non-musicians”. And “…ongoing study, led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School,…found no difference between the music and non-music groups on skills unrelated to music performance, such as language, perceptual reasoning or abstract reasoning. However, a separate study has found tight correlations between music training and mathematical reasoning, suggesting that continued longitudinal research and cooperation with educators may yet uncover definite links.” Hmmm….interesting…not really.
As I have aged, my musical tastes haven’t changed as much as I like to think they have but they are still pretty broad. I also feel like I’m getting old person music taste because a lot of today’s music all sounds the same to me – that and I remember when the original version the hooks that everyone is using came out. I’m lucky I have a private office so I can stream music all day long and listen to whatever, whenever for however. For me, music is a big deal and whenever I need to get a lot of work done, I have to have music playing. Even when I sat down to write this post, it was almost impossible to select the album covers I was going to use. In the end, I just selected what was on my iPod nano that I use when mowing the lawn.
People always want to associate musicans, or at least people with musical tendencies, with architecture; that one was directly associated with the other. I never did associate one with the other and don’t really think that they are directly related – otherwise, why was I the only person in architecture school that played in the band? Shouldn’t the program have been lousy with musicans? It wasn’t – but everyone up there wanted music playing in studio, all the time. I just thank my lucky stars that I got to pick the music.
Dwell - Photo by Jack Thompson
I really used to love getting Dwell magazine but now …ehh. When I hear the beeping of the magazine truck backing up to our office to unload the 5 metric tons of magazines that we get, I still look forward to getting my hands on Dwell, but not for the same reasons as before. The projects have become so silly that it is bordering on irrelevant. Sorry folks, but Dwell has jumped the shark.
I like modern residences probably more than your average person; I have hundreds of books on modern architecture, I know the rules, I understand it’s objectives, and I get to design and build modern architecture. But none of my projects will ever get in Dwell magazine because:
- they aren’t 700 square feet (or less),
- they aren’t made from recycled wood pallets,
- and I don’t use shipping containers
Dwell - Photo by Matthew Williams
Bottom line, my projects are too practical and normal. Please don’t mistake my observation as sour grapes, rather as a primer for a conversation about relevancy. When I receive my issue of Dwell at the office, the projects are becoming so extreme and fringe that they have little practical application to the readers. I look through the projects searching for the handfull of details that are clever and exciting. You can find them, you just have to get past the ridiculous bits.
An on-going storyline appears to be what’s the smallest modern house we can find. Without much trouble, and with about 5 minutes of looking, I found three issues to illustrate my point;
- Jan/Feb 2005 issue – Small is the new big: Homes under 2,200 Sq. Ft.
- May 2006 issue – Think Small: Homes under 1,700 Sq. Ft.
- March 2008 issue – Small Wonders: Homes under 1,000 Sq. Ft.
These were the on the cover page, who knows how many more stories there were on even smaller houses? Even in this months issue (June 2010) you can find the following article and caption -
‘Mind the Gap: On an eight-foot-wide site in London, architect Luke Tozer cleverly squeezed in a four-storey home equipped with rain-water-harvesting and geothermal systems’
Ooooh…that’s a double whammy – 8 foot wide and sustainable. Awesome….and so obvious.
I’m not really sure why the magazine is searching for examples of projects that their readers can’t don’t need to appreciate. It seemed to me that Dwell originally was a magazine that supported the exposure and promotion of modernity. Modern houses were highlighted between the covers and the ads exposed the readers to the resources and vendors that were available. And as a result, people could wishfully imagine their lifestyle onto the projects. As modernism became more mainstream, Dwell seemed to lose it’s way and started to focus it’s attention on a lifestyle suppported by the consumerism of modernity. Gone are the articles that explained and educated the masses on the modern style – now replaced by tragically hip dual income metrosexuals and photos full of bizarre and self-important props. With the rise in popularity of the Unhappy Hipsters, it’s no doubt (despite being such low-hanging fruit) why it’s so much fun to poke fun of the photos.
According to Foliomag.com, Dwell saw ad dollars plummet 43.4 percent and ad pages decrease 46.4 percent in the first half of ’09 versus the same period in 2008 – something to which the recession undoubtly contributed. We have already seen other once-popular shelter magazine’s disappear (Metropolitan Home, In Style Home, Blueprint, Home, Cottage Living, Country Home, and Domino).
Yes, advertising dollars steer the magazine – I know this – but the bumbling around trying to find new sources for missing ad revenue has turned Dwell into a carnival freak show of projects and I’m kinda sad about it.
When I was looking up some information, I stumbled upon this article in the Washington Post about the demise of shelter magazines due to the lack of advertising dollars in the middle to lower markets – the demographic Dwell seemed to originally target 6 years ago.
So last week I conducted an interview with my daughter where we discussed many different aspects of being an architect and all that entails. I received a great number of really amusing emails where other architects had conducted the same interview with their children and I thought it would be fun to post two of the more interesting ones here.
Archer Pann (son of architect Neal Pann)
Architect Neal Pann with ‘Neal A. Pann’ in Livermore, Ca. interviews his son Archer:
Before starting my interview with my almost five year old son, he was coloring with pens at my drafting table in my office that looks out into our backyard where our detached garage is. The following is a transcript from our 7 minute conversation about architects conducted on Saturday morning, May 22, 2010.
Dad: Archer, I’d like to ask you a few questions about what daddy does for a living. Archer: Ok. Dad: Do you know what daddy does for a living? Archer: <Shakes his head no.> Dad: Daddy is an architect. Do you know what architects do? Archer: They draw stuff. Dad: What do they draw? Archer: They draw homes. And they draw pictures of the homes and they use different colors with pens. Dad: Do you need any special skills to be an architect? Archer: <Nods head yes.> Dad: Such as? Archer: Artists color trees and houses and garages and plants. Dad: Do you think its easy being an architect? Archer: Uh huh. Dad: Why do you think that is? Archer: Because we draw great pictures. Dad: What are some of the jobs that are more difficult than being an architect? Archer: Drawing stuff. Dad: Do you have to be smart to be an architect? Archer: Uh huh. Dad: How do you know that? Archer: You draw stuff and pictures of houses. Dad: Do you think being an architect is a difficult job? Archer: Yes. Dad: Why do you think that is? Archer: Because we draw pictures on paper. Dad: Do you think it’s a fun job? Archer: Yeah. Dad: Why do you think it’s a fun job? Archer: Because coloring is so fun. Dad: Do you need any computer skills? Archer: Yeah. Dad: What sort of computer skills do you need? Archer: I want Hulk smash. Dad: Are architects mostly men, women or a mixture of the two? Archer: Number 5. Dad: Number what? Archer: Number 5. Dad: Number 5? Archer: Daddy number 5 is Hulk smash. Dad: Ok. Archer: He’s the red Hulk smash. The red Hulk smash is number 5. Dad: So, are architects Archer: And, Daddy, the green Hulk smash is number 7. Dad: Ok. Archer: And the purple one is number 18. Dad: There’s a purple Hulk smash? Archer: Uh huh. Dad: Oh, ok. Archer: And there’s a black Hulk smash. The black Hulk smash has the number 65. Dad: Ok, so, Archer, do architects need to lift heavy things? Archer: Yeah. Dad: Like what? Archer: They go into cranes and the cranes hang up walls and they fix houses. Dad: Do architects have to work a lot of hours? Archer: Yes. Dad: Does daddy have to miss anything because I have to work a lot? Archer: Yes! Dad: What do I miss? Archer: You miss the…you miss…you don’t get to…because you miss. Dad: Do architects have to go to school? Archer: No. Dad: No? Archer: <Nods yes.> Dad: Ok. How do people know if you’re a good architect? Archer: Because you color so great. Dad: What does daddy color? Archer: You color a garage and a robot. Dad: How long does it take to design a house? Archer: fifteen dollars. Dad: No, how long? Archer: You work so hard with it and you get tired of doing it. Dad: So, how long does it take to design a house? Archer: Sixteen fifty. Dad: Not how much, how long? How much time? Archer: I don’t know. Dad: How long does it take to build a house? Archer: you get tired of building a house. Dad: How long does it take? Archer: I don’t know. Dad: Do you think being an architect is a good job? Archer: <Nods yes.> Dad: Why do you think that? Archer: Because they color garages out of robots. Dad: Do architects make a lot of money? Archer: One hundred. Dad: One hundred. Is that per house or for the whole year? Archer: The whole year. Dad: Ok. Thank you very much. Archer: I have to go color now. Scarlett (Archer’s three year old sister): It’s my turn..
Architect Keith Parma with ‘cogitatedesign’ in Raleigh NC, interviews his daughter:
I recently sat down with my 6 year old kindergartener and contemporary of prodigy and future renown veterinary explorer Kate Borson to discuss architecture. I thought it could be interesting to see the current themes and contrasts of architecture in Texas verse North Carolina.
Daughter: DAD! Not that one, that’s the one with the bamboo garden I want the one with the pools and columns Dad: Oh, sorry:
Dad: Do you need any computer skills? Daughter: yes because you have to print stuff Dad: Are architects men, women or a mixture of the two? Daughter: both Dad: Why do you think that’s true? Daughter: because men and women can do anything Dad: Do architects need to lift heavy things? Daughter: no Dad: Do architects have to work a lot of hours? Daughter: Yes, like if you do a house in one day it’s a lot of hours and you may need to take a break for some quiet time Dad: Do I miss anything because I work a lot? Daughter: yes, you miss me Dad: Do architects have to go to school? Daughter: yes, because school is like a meeting Dad: And do all architects go there? Daughter: no, some go home Dad: How do people know if your a good architect? Daughter: the people see your buildings Dad: How do they know it’s good after seeing it? Daughter: if there correct and match what you drew on paper then there good buildings: Dad: Does it take long to design a house? Daughter: yes Dad: How long? Daughter: very long Dad: How long does it take to build a house? Daughter: 100 minutes Dad: Do you think being an architect is a good job? Daughter: yes! It’s fun! Dad: Do architects make a lot of money? Daughter: yes Dad: How much? Daughter: I’ve no idea but if you work a lot you make a lot of money to give to the poor and people who don’t have stuff Dad: Thank you for allowing me to ask you these questions today; you did a great job. Daughter: okay, now my turn “Can I watch Noggin since I answered all these silly questions?” Dad: I guess, channel 74……”The phone, the phone is ringing….an animal is in trouble, this is serious……what’s gonna work? Teamwork! Teamwork!” Daughter: thanks dad, you’re the best Dad: (muttering under my breath) damn wonderpets, they’re not so wonderful…I mean they have a flying boat yet whenever an animal is caught in a tree they land on the ground and devise a plan to get up to the animal……wonderful my ass! more like mediocre pets…..I’ll tell you what will work, common sense! Daughter: what did you say? Dad: huh, oh I was just saying that Lenny sure has a plan for this one!
Pillows to throw
Architects vs. Interior Designers
Interior Designers vs. Architects
Can’t we all just get along? I have been repeatedly asked to take a side in this on-going battle of the perceptions and have been keeping this post at bay with a long stick. But the time has come… (crows cawing off in the distance) … and I think you’re going to be disappointed.
I like interior designers. I think that they make my projects, and by extension me, look good. Sure I have my issues but they aren’t systemtic to interior designers as a group of professionals. Just like with all things, there are some good ones and some not so good ones.
I will admit that I did not have a very high opinion of interior designers when I didn’t actually know any and had never worked with any. But along my career development, I worked as the in-house architect (re: the only architect) for a interior design firm that had a lot of people who had a lot of skill. This particular firm focused on projects in the high-end hospitality market sector and we worked on historic projects all over North America. One of the first things that became apparent is that interior designers have to be well organized because the amount of paperwork they produce is staggering, I mean really, really staggering. Every single item has like a reams worth of paper of information associated with it. For example, take a typical sort of chair: it has a model number, a wood species, a stain, a fabric selection, a finish brad specification, a finish on the brad specification, a custom size (width, height of seat, height of arms, height on the back), the cushion has a spec, what type of fill, does it have springs, what kind, etc. It literally goes on and on and attached to each on of these pieces of paper is a swatch or little plastic baggie stapled to it as confirmation of the order. Backing this paperwork up is the order information, the order confirmation, delivery paperwork, installation paperwork, location paperwork, etc. Have I made it clear that there’s a lot of paperwork? Just because most of these designers couldn’t draw their way out of a paper bag (or even draw a paper bag) doesn’t mean that they are doing real work.
Speaking of drawing, this was the major point of contention with me and probably one of the few things that I never got over during my time working hospitality. I thought I had some real ability and to them I was a meat bag there to do their drawings – the dreaded cad monkey. It made my blood boil to think that their obvious lack of a particular skill set was almost seen as an asset. Maybe if you don’t know how to draw, you don’t have to draw, which means you are a designer and not a drafter. This mindset supports a perception that most architects have – that interior designers (rag pickers, paper hangers, whatever word you’ve heard) don’t create space, they decorate it.
All architects are taught in school the process of creating mass, form and form. We never talked about color or materials (unless it was a class on color and materials). For architects, it was all about the big idea, the concept, your parti, and if you got into your jury and the panel was talking about some detail of your project and not the manifestation and execution of that concept – your project probably sucked (or blew, your choice). As a result, it seems fairly straight forward to me now why architects tend to not place as much value on the scope of work that interior designers are “relegated” to working. Architects tend to view interior designers as people who come in after the “real” work is done, after the form and mass and concept are in place, and adorn they space they had just created with carpet, tile and paint.
To add injury to insult, moderately successfull interior designers in private practice can make more money than architects and can only contribute to the backlash of irritation. I know that in our residential practice we to deal with clients who think they know how to design a house because “I’ve lived in one before” yet these same people can’t make a decision on what color to paint a wall unless the interior designer tells them. Oh brother….
Since I am now on the record and stating that I know more good interior designers than bad, there is one other thing about interior designers that works me up; and that’s when they act as purchasing agents for their clients. For the record this isn’t true about all but I still see it and it’s a total rip-off. That’s right, I know all about the 50-20-10 deal. It’s fairly common that showrooms will give deep discounts to interior designers who purchase products for their clients. How it works is you take the listed retail price and knock off 50%, and then 20% off that price, and then 10% off that price and that’s what the interior designer pays. But wait – it gets better! The interior designer will tell their client that they can get such-n-such product at a lower price, but they will still leave a healthy commission in place. So let’s review; client hires interior designer who charges hourly fee and pays commission on the purchases of the items that the interior designer selects. And what if a showroom doesn’t want to play ball that way? Then the interior designer doesn’t use that product. On the architecture side of things, we call that a kick back and I’m pretty sure the AIA Code of Ethics has a position on not taking kickbacks. Based on my own first-hand knowledge, either ASID doesn’t or no one cares.
Granted there are a lot of talented designers out there that do not have any professional degree or license and are called “interior decorators” or simply “decorators” – the short version without putting a whole lot of thought into it is that I don’t care about that. Architects have to be licensed because the scope of work we are inherently responsible for has to do with the health, safety and welfare of the general public. We screw up and people can get killed - our licensing test doesn’t even take design into consideration. I also know a lot of smart talented people with architecture degrees that simply aren’t motivated enough to get their license nor do they want the liability of being an architect. Why should interior decorators be any different? I have no doubt (and I kind of expect) for the licensed interior designers to weigh in on the reasons why being licensed holds more inherent value than not being licensed.
Round 2 – ding ding!!
Kate Borson
Fancy-Pants Chicken
Like Popeye, “I’ve had all I can stand, I can’t stands no more”. This entire fascination with raising and/ or owning urban chickens seems completely absurd to me. Since I don’t really know anything about raising chickens (because I live in a city with grocery stores and I don’t need to raise my own chickens), I decided after seeing the tragillionth post on the latest modern chicken coop to do some quick research and see how someone could come to the conclusion that raising chickens in their backyard was not only a good idea, but necessary.
Since there are dozens of websites and blogs dedicated to the plight of the urban chicken egg hunter, I had a hard time focusing on the facts presented and ended up with a headache from slapping myself in the forehead from reading so many really informative websites. For example, return counts for the following searches yielded:
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Chicken Coop – 2,440,000 results
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Modern Chicken Coop – 156,000 results
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Chicken Coop Plans – 292,000 results
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raising your own chickens – 635,000 results
Clearly there is something to this that I am missing. Don’t get me wrong, I love chickens: fried, grilled, roasted, bbq’d – literally anyway you can get them. I will also admit that I have seen them running around a yard once or twice before and it was kinda cool seeing them in a different context than how I was used to see them (i.e. meat case at the local Piggly Wiggly). But those chickens cost like $1.99/lb for a fryer chicken, how much do live chickens cost? Couldn’t be that much right? I mean, there’s handling and packaging costs associated with the free range, hormone free ones I get at the local Whole Foods so those have to cost more….let’s take a look:
Species: Silver Dorking
Dorking Chicken (3 units in stock should be 3 stock in unit ha!) – The Dorking is one of the most ancient of all domesticated poultry. Julius Ceasar brought them to Britain in the first century BC. The Dorking was also described by the Roman writer Columella in his treatise “Of Husbandry in Twelve Books.” The White, Silver-Gray and Colored varieties were accepted into the American Standard of Perfection in 1874. Although the Red is the oldest variety, it wasn’t admitted until 1995. Before the Civil War, the Dorking was one of America’s most common farm fowl, but now the Dorking is quite rare.
Species: Ameraucana
Ameraucana – South American. May or may not be genetically related to the Araucana. In pre-Columbian Chile, there are several different blue egg-laying chicken breeds, none called Araucana. Standardized & accepted into APA in 1984. Most hatcheries, however, sell Easter Egg chickens with mixed breeding that may lay blue, green (or other colored) eggs, but do not conform to standard.
Species: Light Brahma Cockrel
Brahma Chicken – The Brahma is an Asiatic breed of chicken. The first Brahmas were brought to the United States in 1846 from China. The earliest male imports to the USA weighed around 14 pounds. They were used as a utility fowl for both their meat and eggs. Today Brahmas are mainly kept for ornamental purposes.
Species: Crevecoeur
Crevecoeur Chicken - The Crevecoeur is a old French breed. They were originally bred as a table bird. The birds of today are surprisingly larger than those from hundreds of years back. This is due in part to the introduction of Dorking blood in the late 1800s.
Okay, so clearly these are more expensive than the ones I have been buying. So there must be some other benefits. Another quick search leads me to a site that conveniently list of benefits but I will summarize here; they include:
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Local Source of Protein
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Better Quality
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Source of fertilizer
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Natural Pest Control
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You can be part of the local food movement
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It’s Fun!
Okay, I understand all of these but the only one that I consider a true motivator to swing the balance of reasons towards having chickens in my urban backyard is better quality. The rest seem like someone told them to come up with 6 reasons and they ran out of good ideas after two. Is it elitist to have urban chickens? Certainly listing chickens as a source of fertilizer (fertilizer=poop for you hardcore urbanites) doesn’t make you elitist unless you make your lawn crew collect the “fertilizer” for you. Three of the listed benefits have to do with a different by-product of having urban chickens:eggs (or food), but I am going to save my comments on why that facet is particularly nonsensical for a little later. Let’s talk about chicken coops.
Modern Coops
Modern Coops
The Cocorico hen house by Maxime Evrard
The Cocorico hen house by Maxime Evrard
Frederik Roije: Breed Retreat
Frederik Roije: Breed Retreat
Frederik Roije: Breed Retreat
from the designer: to eliminate the estrangement from our origin respecting nature will be necessary.
designing a special place will give nature its space. even in urban society.‘ – frederik roije
Really?
Those are some fancy-smancy chicken coops and I have no doubt that the chickens that will roost in them will truly appreciate the clean lines and modern aesthetics. I was actually surprised that I didn’t stumble across a coop that had a Burberry pattern on it (ohh….1,2,3 copyright or errr trademark…whatever, my idea!! Urban chicken ranchers are going to literally eat that up and I’ll be rich and can spend all my time trying to write clever posts instead of ones on chicken coops.)
I have always appreciated the farm or rural aesthetic because of it’s focus on purpose and its form and aesthetic value were by-products. As a result, there is a definite link between modern architecture and agrarian buildings and modern day modernist have drawn inspiration from these forms as a basis of their designs. As evidence, all you need to do is go back and look at the work of Marlon Blackwell that I posted from my visit to Arkansas.
Regular functional chicken coop
When you run the numbers it just doesn’t make any practical sense to have an urban chicken coop. I\Even if your Rocky and drinking down a dozen raw eggs every morning, you can never re-”coop” your investment – certainly not if you buy one of these uber-cool modern chicken coops. Let’s just look at the numbers:
Kick-ass modern pre-fab fair trade chicken coop – conservatively $1,000
Your average egg laying chicken can produce 5 eggs per 7 days (some can average 1 a day but if I’m onnly going to hit you with a $1,000 charge on your chicken coop, you’re going to concede these 2 eggs to me)
Do I go with Rocky Balboa type egg consumption – I think not. We eat our fair share of eggs in my house (3 people) and we buy about a dozen eggs a week at the Piggly Wiggly price of $1.59 per dozen. That comes to $89.50/ year on eggs but that’s also 624 individual eggs. Since my chicken can only produce 260 eggs per year, I’m going to need 3 chickens.
The most cost effective chicken I found on the internet was around $10 but let’s be serious. You aren’t going to stick a plain-old chicken in your kick-ass modern pre-fab fair trade chicken coop are you? Because that just wouldn’t be cool. So let’s go with the “Dorking” chicken at $299.49 (that’s the one I would get just for the comedy gold you could mine out it). So that basically $750 for dorking chickens (giggle). **NOTE** I had a hard time finding the cost of chickens – not unsexed chicks or eggs, chickens. If you know or want to send me a comment on what these species can be purchased for, I would greatly appreciate it.
To provide your chicken with food and healthy supplements (to keep it from getting sick, not to triple it’s egg production), a feeder and a source for water is going to cost you around $120 year.
So that’s $1,870 for year one cost to get started as compared to $89.50 for buying your eggs at the store – that’s a 21 year return on your investment. Even if I went cheap, your upfront and operational costs are going to run you more than buying free range hormone free fair trade eggs at the local farmers market. If your doing this to get better quality food and be part of a local food movement, buy your eggs from the local farmers market and donate the rest of the money your blowing to a food bank where you can help feed the locals. If your doing it because it’s fun – well, that’s a different post altogether.
Last week the final judging occurred on the AIA Dallas YAF design competition to design playhouses for the 2010 ORIX Parade of Playhouses at NorthPark Center benefiting Dallas CASA. Recently, members of Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) teamed up with the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (Dallas AIA) to coordinate an architectural design competition for the annual Parade of Playhouses charity event. A group within the chapter known as the Young Architects Forum (YAF) are the facilitators for this program. YAF is a committee that coordinates and promotes activities for young architects and interns while providing opportunities for networking, professional development and recognition. A ‘Young Architect’ is considered to be a practicing architect who has been licensed for ten years or less. The Parade of Playhouses, hosted each year at NorthPark Center, provides an opportunity to help abused and neglected children realize their dreams of finding safe, permanent homes. In its 14th year, the event raises public awareness about child abuse, the plight of children in foster care in Dallas County and ways you can help. During the two-week Parade of Playhouses event, visitors to NorthPark purchase raffle tickets for chances to win one of many extraordinary custom-built playhouses. The playhouse drawing is held during the event’s closing ceremony currently scheduled for August 22nd. The process for the competition was done in in two phases: the first involved having two separate groups of judges (9 individuals in total) at different locations meet to review all the submissions. Their charge was to evaluate and assign a point total to each entry based on the entry criteria identified in the submission requirements. The AIA Dallas Chapter then independently tallied the results and 18 individuals were notified that they had been advanced to the jury round, which took place last Friday, May 8th. The judges who took part on that panel included:
Judi Napier – ORIX
Beverly Levy – Director, Dallas CASA
Carolyn Newham – Director of Development and Finance, CASA
Sara Rockey – Events Coordinator, CASA
Richard Cavnar – Vice President – Estimating, Spring Valley Construction
Michael Malone – WKMC Architects
Bob Bullis – Architect, VP of Programs AIA Dallas Chapter
Bob Borson – Bernbaum Magadini Architects
All 18 entries were printed up on 24″ x 36″ tall boards and spread throughout a large room at the Dallas Center for Architecture. Each judge was given a unique color of stickers and went around individually and placed a sticker on the entries that they felt best represented the requirements and goals identified in the competition brief. We did not place a limit on the number of entries each judge could tag – they could say they liked every single one if they chose. After evaluating the results from the individual judging phase, it was decided that the cutoff to move onto the group discussion round was 4 stickers; which advanced 8 of the 18. Only one entry received a sticker from every judge so it was immediately advanced to be one of the four playhouses identified for construction. Of the remaining 7 entries, the average number of votes was 6, which was great because it was an indication of how consistent the entries were and how favorably each was received. The final judging round took around 3 hours and proved to be pretty difficult. In the end, the entries that would get constructed are:
Kristin Gisselmann, Jeff Berryman, Dan Fletcher, Matt Dyer, Ellis Heitzke-Kirdorfer, Sara Biederman, Chris Duffel, Jenna Fitzgerald & Randy Barnett
Chris Owens
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Carmen Delgado & Lorena Holguin
Spring Valley Construction is the construction company that is sponsoring the construction of the winning playhouses came on-board very early in this process and made this competition possible. I am extremely grateful to Tim Guedry, Vice President-Project Management at Spring Valley for so enthusiastically being a part of this process For more information on the opportunities for young architects, architectural interns and students interested in architecture, please visit the AIA Dallas Chapter YAF blog. I am including the other entries that made it to the jury here so that you can see how much fun this competition turned out to be. Out of all the entries submitted, 57% came from students currently enrolled in high school or college, 31% came from architectural interns (those working towards their architectural license) and 12% were young architects. We were really happy with the diversity of entrants for this event and we were very happy to see the overall quality of the playhouses submitted or consideration. Hopefully, everyone will consider entering this competition again next year.
Kristin Gisselmann, Jeff Berryman, Dan Fletcher, Matt Dyer, Ellis Heitzke-Kirdorfer, Sara Biederman, Chris Duffel, Jenna Fitzgerald & Randy Barnett
Kristin Gisselmann, Jeff Berryman, Dan Fletcher, Matt Dyer, Ellis Heitzke-Kirdorfer, Sara Biederman, Chris Duffel, Jenna Fitzgerald & Randy Barnett
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Whitney Ford
Name withheld pending guardian approval
ARCHITEXAS
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Scott Taylor
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Joseph Lara
Andrew Herrell
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Name withheld pending guardian approval
Minho Kim
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If you are interested in learning more about 2010 ORIX Parade of Playhouses at NorthPark Center benefiting Dallas CASA, please feel free to contact the event coordinator Sara Rockey at srockey@dallascasa.org
If you are interested in seeing my playhouse design for ORIX, you can find it here
Idiot as defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary:
- usually offensive : a person affected with extreme mental retardation
- a foolish or stupid person
Jerk as defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary:
- an annoyingly stupid or foolish person
- an unlikable person; especially : one who is cruel, rude, or small-minded
Did you see that the words ‘jerk’ and ‘idiot’ both share a common definition? Hmmm…I realize that I call most people behind their backs an idiot and I realize that I have become desensitized to this word. Instead of learning how to stop calling people idiots, I think I need a new word. Like ‘jerk’. Let’s take it for a spin:
Me: “Did you see that? What a jerk.”
Me: “Oh, that guy? He’s a jerk.”
Me: “That person just snatched my parking space! JERK!”
Me: “Did you see the dress she was wearing? Jerk.”
Yes, I think I like it. The hard ‘k’ on the end gives it some pop and if I use it at the end of my sentence, it will be hard for someone to follow with anything other than a ‘yeah’ or ‘totally’.
There are some rules I try and follow, they aren’t too complicated and most will probably keep you from being a jerk.
- Do what you say you are going to do, when you said you were going to do it
- Don’t volunteer to take on a task if you can’t dedicate the time to do it right
- Think outside your own 3′ personal bubble and consider how your actions AND inactions will impact others
- Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me
- Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are stupid than to open it and remove all doubt
- Don’t get mad at people who don’t understand what you are trying to say; that might be your fault
- People can’t read your mind so don’t expect it
- Ask people about their families once in a while
- It is your responsibility to ask others for the things you want
- Give people a chance to recover from their mistakes
- If you’re not making things easier, you’re probably making them harder
- Don’t spend time managing the problem, put your efforts into creating the solution
- When given instructions write them down in front of the person whenever possible
- Give your opinion as if it’s fact but don’t pretend to know something you don’t
- Communicating doesn’t just mean talking; it includes listening
- Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, even when it’s that persons job
- Don’t pull in front of speeding drivers because you think they are driving too fast, you’re making things worse
- Don’t misspell someone’s name more than once
- Just because you have been doing something for a long time, doesn’t mean you’re good at it
- Don’t talk to people on your cell phone while you are on the toilet – that’s what texting is for
- If you go out to eat with your co-workers and you make more money, pick up the check every now and then
Thank you reading today’s post. I appreciate it. Cheers,
Bob
Most architects tend to collect books, at least all the ones I know I do. Some are fanatical about their books, me – not so much. Since I moved into a smaller house, I don’t have the space to dedicate to book display and I don’t have the need to scream out to people “I read books!”. It’s possible that the architects that do dedicate considerable space to their book collection are owners of books that could only be described as ”rare and precious” but somehow I don’t think that’s really the case.
Once I read a book, I tend to get rid of it unless it falls into one of a few specific categories (decided at the moment I need to find space to put it):
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I’m going to read it again
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I will reference it again
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It has pretty pictures
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I will give it to my daughter
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It is rare and/ or precious
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It symbolizes some important time in my life and is a direct link to that period
That’s about it. I am sure that most people, architects or not, have a similar approach to the books they have. Since I started this blog, I have received several emails about the books I have, what I read, what should someone else read if they want to be an architect, etc. I personally think it’s a bizarre question, like wondering what someones taste in art is…(I like good art by the way). I have books on my shelf that suck, or I didn’t buy, and if you were one of those “book people detectives” and snuck into my home to figure me out by looking at my stuff, you wouldn’t know if those books were mine, my father’s, or my wife’s. With that all out of the way, here is a shot of the built-in bookcase in my study. There is another matching built-in on the other side of the room but I think you’ll get the picture.
These are the books that are at the top of the bookcase because these are mostly the books that fall into the rare and precious category. Some of these books I took from my Dad when he was going to chuck them out and I remember them from my childhood. I looked a few up last year to discover that some are worth a lot of money – not that I plan on selling them. The highlights are:
- The Second World War series by Winston S. Churchill
- John Adams volumes I and II by Page Smith
- The Story of Civilization series by Will and Ariel Durant
- Architect series by Taschen
On Rows 3 and 4, things start getting a little hairy and difficult to categorize. There are books that my daughter loves that get pulled off the shelf with regularity there are some others here that I simply do not know what to do with them. The highlights (for me, not my daughter) include:
- InDetail: Building Simply
- InDetail: Single Family Houses
- Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen
- The Architecture of Michelangelo by James S. Ackerman
- Dominion – The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully
- The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
- Kindergarten Chats and other Writings by Louis H. Sullivan
- The Age of Augustus by Werner Eck
The bottom two rows are mostly my architecture books. There are a lot of reference types books here as well as pretty picture books. Since so much o f this information is available on the Internet, unless the book has drawings and details in it, I have stopped buying most of these types of books. It’s not that I don’t like them I just can’t justify the expense associated with glossy coffee table books.
- Case Study Houses by Elizabeth A.T. Smith and Julius Shulman
- Breuer Houses by Joachim Driller
- For an Architecture of Reality by Michael Benedikt
- Complicity and Conviction: Steps toward an Architecture of Convention by William Hubbard
- The Art of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back edited by Deborah Call, text by Vic Bulluck and Valerie Hoffman
The resolution of the pictures I inserted here should be high enough for you to click one and zoom in to get the title and author. If you want something and can’t make it out, send me an email and I’ll get back to you. You will find some books here that are really good but I didn’t single them out – that’s probably because I am lazy and don’t want to spend any more time on this post. I have really been enjoying autobiographies the last few years and most of my non-fiction falls into that category.
If you are an avid book collector, you probably have need for bookcases. You should check this out before purchasing your next one (click here)
Tomorrow is the final judging for the Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses. CASA (which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a nonprofit organization of community volunteers trained and supervised to serve as voices in court for abused and neglected children. On any day in Dallas County, there are nearly 2,000 children waiting for a safe place to live. Many times the CASA volunteer is the only constant in the child’s life during this very difficult process. Parade of Playhouses raises funds for Dallas CASA to continue serving more children who need safe, permanent homes where they can thrive.I thought it would be a great to try and connect to aspects of my life together and get the AIA to have a design competition open to architectural students, interns (graduates with architectural degrees) and young architects (those are define as architects who received their license within the last 10 years). I went out and reconnected with an old friend who is a VP at Spring Valley Construction and got him to sponsor the building of 4 playhouses. The preliminary entries were received on April 28th, we had two groups totaling 9 people evaluate and score the 43 entries we received, and we advanced 18 onto the jury round. That’s what is happening today (May 7th).
Since I am sitting on the judging panel, I removed myself from consideration and did not enter the competition. When I told this to the people I worked with on last years entries, they really wanted me to design the entry for the event’s title underwriter – ORIX USA Corporation. I eventually agreed because I was unsure what type of turnout we would have on the competition and felt that I didn’t want to embarrass myself. It dawned on me that I had mentioned that I would publish the winning entries but in an effort to make sure no one thinks I stole someone else’s idea, I had better put my design out for consumption. I had been holding off so others wouldn’t see what I was doing prior to the entries being submitted – which sounds a little cocky.
Fay Jones Thorncrown Chapel
I sent some preliminary still shots off to Dallas CASA right after my Arkansas trip which is where I found some of my inspiration in revisiting some of the work of Fay Jones. ORIX wanted their entry to reflect that it is a Japanese company. It’s pretty challenging to do anything that can express Japanese architecture, at least what comes to most people’s mind, without breaking the bank to get the materials and the craftsmanship right. Oh yeah, and it all has to fit within the size parameters of an 8′x8′ cube. The size constraints were set so these playhouses could fit through the doors where they will be on display.
Japanese Playhouse - Front View
I have some pretty strong feelings that any of these folly type designs need to have a shelf life to them. In my mind, that means they have to be multi-purpose. I know that if I consider what I would like to see in my own backyard, it needs to appeal to me and my child.
Japanese Playhouse - Side View
I wanted to give the impression that the building was elevated above the ground plane (like a house on stilts) so I intentionally stripped down the sheathing on the lowest portion of the playhouse. This will also have the benefit of allowing air to flow through the playhouse – an added benefit for our hot climate in Texas.
Japanese Playhouse - Section
To keep it interesting and increase the “playability” of this playhouse, there is a rail that wraps around the inside at a height of 20″, perfect for small children to place objects on. Set on top of this rail is a band of homosote – a type of pressed paper board that can be tacked onto. The children can pin up anything from drawings to leaves and flowers in here and really lay claim to the space as their own. You can see in the very first image above that the entryway has been scaled down to a child’s proportion – further identifying the space within as child’s domain.
It was important to me to research Japanese structures and how they were traditionally built, roof pitch, angle of the slope, joinery, etc. When it became obvious to me that I couldn’t pull off most of these intricate and expensive details, I concluded that the spirit of rural Japanese structures shared a connection with the work of Fay Jones. The attention to scale and how multiple smaller members were combined and layered together to achieve the work of larger sections. Some of the images I referred to during my initial research are included below.
Rural Japanese Farmhouse
Myoshinji-cho Hanazono, Ukyo ku, Kyoto
I prepared a short 3d animated video from the 3d model and have inserted it here – if only I could figure out how to embedded it into this post. Something new to add to the list of things to figure out but it won’t be tonight.
Cheers and thanks for reading.
.
Existing Hardscape Plan - My House
The plan above is my existing lot plus some updates we did last summer – maybe I should call it the current hardscape plan. When we bought the house, there wasn’t a lick of grass in the backyard and there was a fence that ran crossways that cut the backyard into two pieces. There was also about 3 tons of random brick and flagstone scattered about like a crate full of the stuff was air-dropped from 5,000 feet. There was also about 8 traquillion wild garlic plants – anyone who has tried getting rid of that stuff knows it’s going to take several growing seasons before you can get it all.
I originally did the drawing above to work through “the big picture” with my wife Michelle – sort of a Phase I plan. The thing I had to sell was the rectangular walkway around the yard – something to help pull the geometry together. I had 3,000 pounds of decomposed granite hauled in and I had two really terrible weekends preparing the walkway sub-base and then spreading and compacting the granite – that is some seriously back-breaking work. Once that was complete, we laid down about 3 pallets of St. Augustine sod to fill in the center area we just created with the pathway.
outside carport, just inside backyard
Are you loving the conduit that spans from the carport to the main house? Fixing that isn’t high enough on my money priority list. I am wondering if I should paint it brown to match the house or simply ignore it? Guess which option is winning?
backyard by alley, looking towards the front
If anyone wants to post a comment on how my metal edging isn’t perfectly straight, please make sure to leave your contact address so I can send Mr. Pooky down to thank you for reading www.lifeofanarchitect.com
backyard looking towards front
looking back towards entry from carport
my daughter's pink bathrobe through the window
If I didn’t think my daughter was so cute in her robe, I would go move it but for some inexplicable reason this gets a pass.
Backyard looking towards the alley
I have a design in place to add a fence across the back of my yard and put a tall growing bush in front of it (you can see it in the design drawings). I think this might get done this summer – there’s too much focus back towards the rear to have it all end in a air condenser and an old fence. We also have plans to install a cantilevered deck where the chairs are in this photo but I have to convince myself that I have the time and fortitude of back to take on this project.
Hardscape Plan - My House
This is the next round of design studies I am working on to review with my wife – she hasn’t even seen this one yet (Hi honey!).
For all the folks reading this who are neither an architect or married to one, you are probably thinking it would be awesome to have design drawings of your own house for whatever things you want to evaluate – and you would be right! It seems that all architects have drawings on their own houses – like creating them is a hobby and we have nothing better to do. Well it is a hobby and I don’t have anything better to do – but I think it helps me work through conversations with my wife. The way this relationship works in my house is I am the architect and she is the client. I’m happy to give her whatever she wants as long as it fits in the overall picture, I need to protect her from herself. (She might say “whatever” but I know she is glad to have this information so handy.)
The drawing titled Hardscape Plan up above is our site – it’s not a construction drawing but one in a series of design drawings. My wife wants to get rid of the circular driveway we have and I am coming around to her way of thinking. I don’t love the circular driveway but if we get rid of it, all the parking has to happen in the back off of a fairly busy street and I don’t relish the idea of all of us having to back out into traffic. Also, since we are on a corner, the first half of the front yard prohibits on-street parking. This means that any guests we may have might have to park down the street a bit. So I point this out to my wife:
Me: When Kate’s friends come over where they going to park? Michelle: She’s FIVE years old, her friends don’t drive.See what I mean about planning ahead – I can’t help myself.
We also have some other issues I would like to deal with by removing the circular driveway. People use it to turn around, joggers cut through, dog walkers cut through and pee on the grass (the dog’s, not the dog walker’s). This also drives me crazy – PERSONAL SPACE PEOPLE!! We also have to contend with the fact that as is, we don’t even consider using our front yard for anything – it isn’t very pleasant to be out there. I keep it groomed, it looks nice, but other than than – nothing. I thought that if we get rid of the driveway, people will stop cutting through – I can define the personal space a little more clearly. I can also build in a landscape wall and back it up with some Nellie Stevens hollies which will grow pretty tall and thick. This will provide a visual and sound buffer as well as give us a place to stop any errant balls that might be kicked or tossed in the front yard.
view of courtyard wall from front yard
This is the stucco concrete block wall that creates the interior patio at our front door. I am standing in the driveway to take this shot. Just to the left of this photo you can see some large-ish rocks in the yard. This is where the people who are waiting for the bus come and sit – and leave their trash behind. I always think of the comedian Jeff Foxworthy who makes the joke about drinking beer while fishing :
keep the lakes clean folks, don’t just throw your empty beer can in the water, fill it up first so it sinks to the bottom
Yes, sometimes the bus riders will throw their trash into the bushes….as a result, I am about 95% sure that those rocks are going to be repurposed somewhere else. I hate to admit this (bad karma probably) but I was home one day and I saw a guy throw his trash into that big bush so I turned the sprinklers on.
The interior patio at the front entry
I didn’t go take a special picture to include here so this one was taken right after the pots were watered. There’s nothing weird going on with the concrete – it’s just wet.
So there will definitely be some changes coming, we’ve been heading towards phase II for a year now. I’ll post an update towards the end of summer to show what changes we’ve decided on. Doubtful that the driveway will happen now, that more of a phase IV issue but the deck in the back and the fence and tall shrubs at the alley fence are high priorities. You can see from the photos above that we have some planting to do….all in good time my friends.
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I can still remember all the times I went on a job site and heard someone use a word I had never heard before. There is a unique language that gets used on a job site and by admitting you couldn’t speak it, well, you might as well go sit in the port-a-john until the meeting is over. Sure, there are plenty of colorful words and euphemisms that get used but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s the regular every day – I’ve been here before words and references that will help you get along and validate your club card. I have included the ones that I think you are most likely to hear and use on your first trip on the job site. The good news is that you have probably heard them before……by the way, using the word ‘euphemism’ on site will also get you sent to the port-a-john until the meeting is over.
- electrical whip
Pigtail - The electric cord that the electrician provides and installs on an appliance such as a garbage disposal, dishwasher, or range hood.
Romex – any type of non-metallic sheathed electrical cable or more simply, plastic coated electrical wiring.
romex electrical wire
J-Box – stands for junction box. This is is a container for electrical connections, usually intended to conceal them from sight and deter tampering but allow future access to the connections within.
J-Box
Pancake box – a special type of j-box that is used when the location of that junction box needs to fall in an exact location, like when installing lighting sconces or decorative ceiling fixtures. The pancake box is the same thickness as the finished sheet rock or designed to slide onto the stud as shown in the photo below.
Pancake (or renovation junction box)
Roughback – this refers to the undressed side of a piece of veneer stone. If you have stone on the outside of your house, the side that is prepared for viewing (or dressed) faces out. The side that faces the wall is generally not prepared for viewing and is considered the “rough” side. We frequently will call for the undressed side of limestone to face out in an effort increase the amount of variation in the appearance of the stone.
rough back
..errr, wrong picture. Sorry.
roughback limestone
Sister – When the face of one structural member is attached to the face on another in order to help transfer structural loading. An example might be when a roof rafter is cracked and you attach another piece of framing directly to it – so now the broken piece has the structural stability it needs and it was not necessary to remove the damaged member.
sister framing
Sill plate (mudsill)- Bottom horizontal member of an exterior wall frame which rests on top a foundation, sometimes called mudsill. Also sole plate, bottom member of an interior wall frame.
Top plate – Top horizontal member of a frame wall supporting ceiling joists, rafters, or other members.
Doucher – someone who is unknown on site but is expected to cause trouble or additional work
Joist – Wooden 2 X 8′s, 10′s, or 12′s that run parallel to one another and support a floor or ceiling, and supported in turn by larger beams, girders, or bearing walls.
Joist hanger- A metal “U” shaped item used to support the end of a floor joist and attached with hardened nails to another bearing joist or beam.
- metal joist hanger
Girder - A large or principal beam of wood or steel used to support concentrated loads at isolated points along its length.
Backer Rod – a round foam rod used to fill joints between building materials. It is used to fill most of the void in a joint so caulking can be applied to fill the gap between materials completely to create air-tight and water-tight seal. Backer rods are not required but their use reduces the amount of caulk needed which can same money and reducing curing time (due to the thinner amount of caulk needing to fill the gap).
Backer rod
Pooky - a generic word used for caulking or sealant but can also be used as a term of endearment towards diminutive pugilists.
that's Mr. Pooky to you
Parapet - A wall placed at the edge of a roof to prevent people from falling off.
Scupper – An opening for drainage in a wall, curb or parapet. (2) The drain in a downspout or flat roof, usually connected to the downspout.
C.O. – An abbreviation for “Certificate of Occupancy”. This certificate is issued by the local municipality and is required before anyone can occupy and live within the home. It is issued only after the local municipality has made all inspections and all monies and fees have been paid.
Glued Laminated Beam (Glulam) – A structural beam composed of wood lamination’s or lams. The lams are pressure bonded with adhesives to attain a typical thickness of 1 ½” – it looks like 5 or more 2 X 4′s are glued together.
Glulam Beam
Microlam – A manufactured structural wood beam. It is constructed of pressure and adhesive bonded wood strands of wood. They have a higher strength rating than solid sawn lumber. Normally comes in l ½” thickness’ and 9 ½”, 11 ½” and 14″ widths.
LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) – an engineered wood product in the category of Structural Composite Lumber that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives. It is generally stronger, straighter and more uniform in size over milled lumber and is therefore less likely to warp, twist, bow or shrink due to its composite nature.
Home run (electrical) – The electrical cable that carries power from the main circuit breaker panel to the first electrical box, plug, or switch in the circuit.
Honey combs or Holidays – The appearance concrete makes when rocks in the concrete are visible and where there are void areas in the foundation wall, especially around concrete foundation windows.
Concrete Honeycomb
Sack mix – The amount of Portland cement in a cubic yard of concrete mix. Generally, 5 or 6 sack is required in a foundation wall.
Sewer tap – The physical connection point where the home’s sewer line connects to the main municipal sewer line.
Sleeper - Usually, a wood member embedded in concrete, as in a floor, that serves to support and to fasten the subfloor or flooring.
Spec home – Short for ’speculative’. This is a house built before it is sold. The builder speculates that he can sell it at a profit prior to completing the house.
Stick built – A house built without prefabricated parts. Also called conventional building and generally refers to a wooden framed house.
TJI or TJ – Manufactured structural building component resembling the letter “I”. Used as floor joists and rafters. I-joists include two key parts: flanges and webs. The flange or from of the I joist may be made of laminated veneer lumber or dimensional lumber, usually formed into a 1 ½” width. The web or center of the I-joist is commonly made of plywood or oriented strand board (OSB). Large holes can be cut in the web to accommodate duct work and plumbing waste lines. I-joists are available in lengths up to 60” long.
Toenailing – To drive a nail in at a slant. Method used to secure floor joists to the plate.
Toenailing
Vapor barrier – A building product installed on exterior walls and ceilings under the drywall and on the warm side of the insulation. It is used to retard the movement of water vapor into walls and prevent condensation within them. Normally, polyethylene plastic sheeting is used.
I hope this list keeps you out of the port-a-john (unless you need to use it).
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