remodel / restore

  • Time For a New Kitchen

    Kitchenremodelneeded
    Lots of house-bloggers document their projects, but Eric and Flourgrrl are not only documenting every aspect of their Craftsman Bungalow remodel, but also including all elevations, renderings, countertop & lighting choices and more. Nothing groundbreaking here, but some good ideas for those of you working on such projects yourself – it’s certainly helpful to me; I’m just beginning my own kitchen remodel.

    A few other accounts of recent kitchen remodels:

  • Two Bay Area Remodels

    Sfcaremodel
    SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle‘s electronic counterpart, recently ran a nice profile of two Bay Area families and the architect who, over the course of their remodels, took the best that modernism had to offer and tempered it with the original character of these homes. I myself am usually more drawn to restoration rather than the kind of updating that architect Sandra Vivanco espouses, but I have to admit that these projects turned out quite well, without the uncomfortable angles and agoraphobic spaces that the modernist aesthetic often introduces.

    photograph by David Paul Morris for the SF Chronicle

  • Architectural Salvage IV – UK Edition

    In the previous three installments [ 1 / 2 / 3 ] on this subject, I’ve concentrated for the most part on vendors of salvaged materials in the United States. However, the UK has more architectural salvage specialists per capita than any other country, from what I can tell, and some of these folks are selling really incredible stuff – fireplaces and stone/tilework from old demolished (or collapsed) castles, perfectly good roofing materials from 200-year-old rowhouses, statuary and plenty more. Here are a few such dealers in England:

    • Rose Green Tiles & Reclamation in Fishponds, Bristol has building materials and plenty of ornamental features. A large selection of hard landscaping items and timber, too.
    • Manchester’s In Situ, which sells everything from salvaged flooring, entryways, old doors, paneling, railing & gates, windows & frames and more.
    • Cawarden’s motto is "destruction to construction," and it’s certainly apt. Their Rugeley, Staffordshire stockyard is the largest vendor of reclaimed bricks in the Midlands, and also have an enormous stock of beautiful old doors.
    • I may have mentioned Bygones before, but the fact that they are one of the largest reclamation yards in the UK makes them important to note again. Their Canterbury warehouse & yard is simply enormous, with lots of stone and ironwork, and an especially large stock in fireplaces and associated goods.
    • London’s Westland sells high-end salvage – rococo and gilt, built-in furniture and cabinetry, and lots of statuary.
    • West Yorkshire Architectural Antiques & Salvage is pretty self-explanatory. Stone statuary, gates, radiators and a pretty broad range of fireplaces, chimneypots, finials and stained glass round out their stock.
    • Andy Thornton is also in West Yorkshire, with a showroom and warehouse in Halifax. They sell mostly new furnishings to pubs, hotels and the like, but also have a good-sized stock of architectural antiques.
    • Cronin’s Reclamation & Solid Wood Flooring sells flooring, of course, as well as a range of flagstone, as well as furniture, fireplaces, doors, oak beams and plenty more. They have a showroom in Little Bookham and a yard just off the M5 in Nr Ilminster, Somerset.
    • Abbots Bridge Reclamation in Bury St. Edminds, Suffolk have both garden ornaments and furniture as well as interior goods – fireplaces, stoves, flooring and more.
    • Ace Reclamation in West Parley, Dorset, buy & sell a range of architectural antiques and building materials. Their jam-packed yard is full of oak and pine flooring, over 400 doors, sinks, radiators, plenty of period bathroomware and plenty more.
    • Drew Pritchard, in
      Llandudno, Conwy, specializes in stained glass and a particularly high grade of architectural antiques.
    • Ribble Reclamation‘s motto is "from a single roof slate to an entire Victorian church" and they are not kidding. Everything under the sun in their huge stock. They are located in Preston, Lancashire.
    • Dorset Reclamation has a nice-sized yard and shop in Wareham, selling such a wide range that I couldn’t begin to list it all here. Suffice to say there’s an enormous range of finials and garden statuary, lighting, wall times, flooring, doors and plenty more. Mill wheels? They got ’em.
    • Retrouvius, on Kensal Green in London, is both a salvage and design firm.
    • Heritage Reclamations in Sproughton, Suffolk have an extensive stock of period ironwork, reclaimed materials and interior fittings. They are just outside Ipswich.
    • Romsey Reclamation at the Romsey Railway Station in Hants have thousands of railway sleepers and plenty of other building materials – timbers, flooring, bricks, roof tiles and plenty more.
    • Gardiners Reclamation in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire also specialize primarily in building materials, with plenty of roofing, various types of brick and architectural stone, paving, cobbles, and plenty more.
    • South West Reclamation in Bridgwater, Somerset have a very well-organized yard full of roofing, building materials and various architectural antiques.
    • Hingham, Norfolk-based Mongers Architectural Salvage deal in windows & art glass, doors & door furniture, garden statuary, gireplaces and reclaimed flooring.
    • Wilson Reclamation Services are in Nr. Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria and specialise in antique and some reproduction statuary, urns and garden planters. They also have a decent-sized stock of doors, paneling, oak beams, flagstones, etc.
    • Architectural Antiques have a small storefront in Hammersmith, London. They specialise in English and other European chimneypieces, mirrors and various other architectural artefacts and also maintain an appointment-only warehouse in Paris.
    • Drummonds Architectural Antiques have shops both in Hindhead, surry and Chelsea, London. Their Surrey shop contains more than 80,000 square feet of goods, ranging from antique baths and fireplaces to reclaimed flooring and other building materials.
    • The Minchinhampton Architectural Salvage Co. in Nr. Stroud, Glos., sell large items (decking, bridges, columns and more) as well as a wide range of interior items, from period fireplaces to entire paneled rooms.
    • Walcot Reclamation in Bath sell garden features, architectural joinery, doors, ironwork, grates and whole period bathrooms. They also have a depot nearby specialising in paving, stone, bricks, tile and other outdoor and garden features.
    • IBS Reclaim are near Oakley village on the Bucks / Oxfordshire border. They have a large stock of church pews, floor boarding, yellow and red stock bricks, roof tiles, Cotswold building stone and plenty more.
    • Traditional Welsh Salvage in Neath, South Wales, deal in just that – materials saved from demolished churches, schools and other period buildings. Stained glass, wood, stone and church fittings especially.
    • Tina Pasco sell primarily garden furniture and various historic landscaping materials from their Wingham, Kent yard.

    Almost every one of these dealers adheres to the SALVO code, although I suggest that if you would like to be safe in the knowledge that you are buying materials that are not stolen and were responsibly removed, that you read about the code here and make sure companies you do business with adhere to it. Look for the Salvo crane logo to be sure.

  • Grandview Bungalow at Colorado’s Chautauqua

    Grandviewfrontporch036Niki Hayden has a short article in Front Range Living on Bungalow 811, which was relocated from the University of Colorado campus to the Chautauqua community in Boulder recently and fits in perfectly with the other brown & white homes there. The structure itself held up remarkably well from the quick move, which took place from 1 to 3 am not log ago, but has seen a serious internal (and external) overhaul since then. Local designer Dorothy Tucker got the job of designing a period-perfect interior to match the others in the community, a task which she discharged quite well. The total cost of moving and renovating the bungalow came to $200,000 – a number impressively low when you see the amount of work put into the almost all-new interior. Boulder-based ceramicist Sue Walsh produced the original tiles – loosely based on Batchelder designs – which are a perfect fit for the rest of the inside.

    The bungalow itself is available for rent to Boulder visitors, and opens to a wonderful view and a number of nearby hiking trails.

  • The Johnson Partnership

    Founded in 1979, the Johnson Partnership is located in Seattle and does both restoration / remodel jobs as well as new residential projects throughout the Northwest (as well as commercial and preservation work). From the type used on the opening page of their website, I could tell that A & C aesthetic meant a lot to them; the combination of Asian and Craftsman influence in their work is particularly refreshing to see from a new home builder! Their new site is full of downloadable PDFs profiling particularly noteworthy projects, as well as a few video walkthroughs, and is definitely worth checking out.

    Almost every single one of their projects reflects a true dedication to A&C ideals. The level of detail in their woodwork is refreshing – it’s as if cabinetmakers decided to build houses, which isn’t far from the truth; architectural principal Larry Johnson is one of Seattle’s most knowledgeable people when it comes to Arts & Crafts design, and architect Howard Miller is a furniture designer, woodworker and ceramacist (who also lists his skills as "enthusiastic husband" – glad to know they have a sense of humor, too).

    What makes their skillset and focus especially interesting to me at least is that Lani Johnson, the environmental planning principal, brings preservation and landscape to the forefront – everything they build is situated so precisely in the landscape – just as it would have been for the founders of the movement. Their respect for the fidelity of the original architect’s vision in a remodel job is equal to the respect they have for the land a new house will be built in, and that is impressive when so many builders don’t consider the latter at all.

    I only wish I could find someone like this here in Sacramento! (PS – if you know someone – email me.)

  • Mission Revival in the News

    A few recent articles elsewhere on Mission renovations, restorations and remodels.

  • Minneapolis Prairie Kitchen Remodel

    Image03400Home Portfolio, a great online ideabook for prospective remodelers, recently reprinted a short article from Traditional Home magazine on a particularly succesful Prairie-style kitchen remodel. Skip and Michelle Liepke’s 1915 Minneapolis bungalow was, upon their 1991 movein, outfitted with an authentic but not tremendously usable period kitchen, complete "with harvest gold applicanes." The update addresses flow and use issues and enunciates the period feel of the home. Minneapolis architect Joe Metzler designed and built the all new and very attractive room; additional photographs are available on his site.