Master Bath Shower – you displease me

On October 17, 2011, in Life in General, by Bob Borson

Exactly 1 year, 3 months and 23 days ago, I introduced the Life of an Architect world to my Master Shower (i.e. – the shower in my own bath room). Yes, it was 480 days ago that I pointed out that my shower was in need of help but that I was on the case and the big things were going to happen! (By “big things” I mean absolutely nothing has happened. Well, that’s not entirely true … before – and I quote):

So those are all the obvious issues that need to be addressed in some form but despite them, or maybe it’s because of them, I still like the space …

Okay, so fast forward 480 days – I don’t still like the space. In fact, I am growing weary of the space because despite the “I like to party naked for everyone to see” vibe that exists in this shower, the silliness of this room has finally broken my architectural spirit. So today, I am going to revisit this shower as a reminder of all the problems that exist here and since I got a new wide angle camera lens, I can better document the peculiarities of this “shower” a little bit better than before. Let’s begin!

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Entry View of shower

This is the shower … basically an 8′ x 8′ room with a depressed slab for a tub, an electrical pendant light fixture (aka “heat lamp”), a non-functioning tub spigot, exposed rough cedar beams and wood ceilings, 3 sets of sliding glass doors (that’s right, I said three!) two of which are sized for either small children or starving third world refugees. Did I mention that there was a lot of brown mosaic tile?? Oh yeah, except for the “Builders Home Special (BHS) 12″x12″ tile set on the diagonal where there was a leak during the previous owners occupation. Don’t worry about the 1/2″ gap at the bottom of the BHS tile … I applied a tube of silicon that sealed that gap right when we moved in.

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Master bathroom shower - section sketch

I sketched this room section when I initially introduced my shower to everyone last year – but it only hints at the “WTH” factor that is going on here.

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Master Bathroom Shower Plan

So, if you don’t read plans that’s okay … basically this is an enlarged plan view of my master bathroom. I know it looks confusing, that was sort of my point – because it is confusing. See all the dashed lines? Those are wood beams that would be above your head when you are standing in the shower. You can also see where the 3 pairs of sliding doors are located – one to the outside (yes, I said outside), one to the vanity area, and one to the toilet.

Toilet?!?

Yes, toilet. Because we all know that men will get out of the shower when they need to use the toilet right? (I can’t speak for the ladies out there.) If you discover that you need to the facilities in a more meaningful manner, then you just need to finish your shower before you go handle up on that business – there isn’t any need for immediate and direct access to the toilet from within the shower. Tut tut tut tut – there just isn’t so don’t even try to convince me otherwise.

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Towel Wall

I don’t think I could have captured the slab drop for the tub, or the size of the room as effectively with a regular camera lens. I did add those towel bars myself and if you’re wondering how those towels stay dry when the shower is running, I can assure you that no water comes within several feet of them at any point. (you know, because the shower is humongous)

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Privacy Sliding Doors

Here is a look at the shower doors from within the shower looking out towards the vanity and toilet. One thing that I still haven’t figured out is why there is privacy glass on the two doors from the shower looking into the house yet the shower door to the outside world is made with clear glass. I’m pretty sure that when this post goes out, if you were to go to Wikipedia and look up “WTH” this obvious lack of logic will now become the gold standard.

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Shower Entry Door

Remember earlier how I said the stupid awesome shower doors were sized for children? That’s because when they are in their fully opened position, you get a whopping 19″ clear … which means all but the tiniest of people have to slide through this door sideways to get in. But wait! It get’s even better!! If you look at the tape measure over towards the 1″ mark, please note that the wall just before the door is made out of rough cedar boards. That means when I, in my normal sleep depraved condition, stagger into the shower just moments after waking up, I can look forward to a hip full of splinters … at least, let’s hope that’s the only place where those splinters end up going.

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Exterior Doors

That would be the “non-privacy” glass door to the outside world – “Hey neighbors!! What’s up!! [insert numerous obvious jokes here]

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Privacy Glass in the shower door

Note to Privacy Glass: You are on the wrong doors!!

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Showerhead Wall

I do like glass mosaic walls and to be completely honest, I used to really like these as mosaic walls as well. But f or some reason I got into my head that this is what Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal probably looks like and now it’sall I see.

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Tub Spigot

And the last picture to share with you today….? Ye Olde Tub Spigot. It doesn’t work. It is corroded. It stabs me in the back of my leg constantly when I am standing under the shower head. I tracked down the original architect who designed this house and asked him about this tub filler. He told me that it was salvaged from a boat …….. of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be?

I had thought that this whole cinnamon toasty crunchy mess would have been dealt with by now but that hasn’t happened. I know that when the time comes, this update and fix won’t be cheap, and like every architect I know, I will wait until I can do it right instead of tackling it in little bites, regardless of how delicious those little bites might be. In the meantime, party at my house!!*

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* bring your own loofah for admittance

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The Planter Playhouse for Dallas CASA

On August 2, 2011, in Life in General, by Bob Borson

This is week is a Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses week. Today I wanted to focus on another playhouse that my office is doing – The Planter House – designed by our new associate Scott Taylor.

scott taylor avatarThis is Scott, or at least how Scott would look if Scott drew himself (FYI - if I could draw this well, I’d make myself a lot better looking). Scott starting working at my office around the beginning of July but I have been keeping track of his movements for quite a while. He has actually made two other appearances on my site, first for some graphics he made for the Architecture on Tap series hosted by the  AIA Dallas Associates group and then as the winner of the Life of an Architect Graphics competition – although I never used any of the graphics … yet.

Scott submitted a design for the playhouse competition last year and for some unknown reason, his was not selected. Once he came on board with us here, the first task he had was to prepare construction drawings on this playhouse so we could get one of our contractors to build it. All of this is very exciting considering that there was only 4 weeks between the start of the construction drawings and when the playhouse had to be delivered.

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CASA Planter perspective

.CASA Planter perspective

I thought it would be interesting to show another set of construction documents for a supposedly simple project. Since this was literally the first task we set Scott on, he used my construction drawings for the Bug House as an example so these are set up remarkably similar to my own. That’s the thing when trying to design something complicated and have it look simple – it takes a lot of drawings. For me, these aren’t just for the contractor benefit, I find and solve solve design problems when I create my construction documents.

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CASA Planter House construction drawings

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Just like an architect to need To add to the complication, this design has a water storage system and a hand crank that forces the water up to the roof where there are a collection of six 16″ flower pots up there. Tight schedule, complicated design, new guy … 3 ingredients that generally don’t add up to awesomeness. Luckily, I know how this playhouse is turning out and I am excited to see the finished product.

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Planter House contruction progress front

This playhouse is being built by Dallas contractor Howard Gorman with Gorman Homes and is being underwritten by Briggs-Freeman Realtors.  Since the entire thing is being assembled in a warehouse, it’s difficult to get into position to take a good photo. These are more about documenting the process. This is a view of the front – you can see the location of the exterior staircase leading up to the roof terrace where the flower pots are located.

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Planter House contruction progress rear

This is a look at the rear – there will be a large sheet of polycarbonate paneling covering up the opening here but this shot gives a hint at the water storage tank and assembly.

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Planter House storage tank and pump

A close up look at the water storage and hand pump – despite the fact it would be easier to simply spray the water up on the roof from a hose, this is about the kids having fun. That upper most pipe coming down from above (shown on the left) is actually a drain line from the roof. Yes, we are actually capturing the run-off from the sprinklers and natural rainfall into our 15 gallon storage tank. Unnecessary and excessive? Or fun and awesome? I’ll let some lucky kid tell me the answer in about 4 weeks … but we think we already know the answer.

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