Apparently, the City of Austin thinks our work is iconic

We were watching the news the other night and saw a story about the launch of the brand-new website for the City of Austin.  To our surprise and delight, when the website appeared on the TV screen, our Chestnut Commons project was front and center!  The image is one of three images of Austin that you see when you first arrive at austintexas.gov .  Here's a snip from the site:

City of Austin's new website, featuring a nice photo of Chestnut Commons

It's a nice little shout-out to us and our visionary clients at Momark Development and a good way to end a wonderful 2011.  Happy New Year, y'all.

South Third St. project nearly ready!

Took this snapshot today with my phone (carefully cropping out the bare dirt, port-a-potty, lumber, etc.) to give you a peek at our S. 3rd St. project as it nears completion.  Below you can see our design model, which is remarkably close to the real deal.

Here's the "before" photo...

 Our clients will move back into the house in a couple of weeks, so we'll have more photos soon!

Do over!

Proposed kitchen viewed from the back door

View from the entry to the kitchen

We see it all the time: additions to Central Austin homes that ended up more of a liability than an asset.  This house in Rosedale was a perfect example.  A previous owner of this wonderful little stone cottage had tacked on a "master suite" to the back of the house that robbed the home of its connection to the amazing back yard.  The result was a room that never really worked as a bedroom or anything else useful (it ended up being used more as a mudroom/study/storage space).  This is one of the most common problems we encounter, as so many additions go on the back of houses, creating a "buried" kitchen and stealing the daylight and access to the back yard that's so vital to a home.

There's a different solution every time, but in this case we opted for a really dramatic change.  We're converting the unusable master bedroom into a cool new kitchen and splitting the former kitchen area into dining and bedroom areas to make it all right again.

In the renderings above, you can see the proposed kitchen.  It's loose and airy, really functional AND very inexpensive to build.  It's set up to allow the base cabinets to be anything from "freecycled" Craigslist finds to Home Depot utility cabinets.  We're also ripping out a storage loft that blocks the view to the wall of windows along the back wall of the house (yes, they're all existing) and opening up the vaulted ceiling to add light and space to the room.  We'll also expose the original stone wall between the house and addition.  Because the kitchen is so loose and simple, the materials, colors, surfaces can go in any direction our clients choose.  It's a great example of a kitchen that "fits like a mitten"- it will look like it's been there a while right from the start, and it can evolve as time goes on.

It's going to be a great kitchen on its own, but the solution it offers to the rest of the house will be truly life-changing for our clients.

Wait till you see what we're going to do with their old garage!!  Stay tuned...

Whole-house remodel in Allandale

Coming soon! The house stays true to its roots, but gets an update for a 21st century family.

"Before"- your basic early '60s Allandale house

There's no need to call FEMA, it just looks like it's been hit by a tornado...

This tired old house on West Terrace in Allandale was really overdue for a makeover to get it ready for its next 50 years.  Over the next few months, builder Warren Spain will transform the house to match the rendering above.

Inside, we're rearranging a huge percentage of the interior walls to make the living spaces bigger and brighter.  The master suite will move from the second floor to the first, the kitchen will be re-built from scratch, and we'll add a new screened porch to the back. On the second floor, we're turning what used to be a rental apartment into 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a play room for the kids.  We're adding only a few square feet to the conditioned area of the house (the family room will steal some space from the garage), but the whole house is going to feel much larger and less "chopped up".

Out front, we're getting rid of the cheesy gambrel roof over the garage and adding a nice new porch.  The whole idea is to respect the context and create an updated home that will look and feel like it's always been there.

Tree-mendous!

Rendered view from street showing new front porch and new upstairs master suite

Existing house, from street (photo courtesy of Google StreetView).

We're just a few days from starting construction on this fun remodel/addition project on South Third Street.  It's on a lot that's covered with beautiful oak trees, so we opted to go up with the new master suite to avoid having to cut any trees down or expand the home's footprint onto the the trees' critical root zones.

The resulting second floor addition not only made the the trees happy, it gave us access to treetop views, breezes and daylight all around.  The new master suite will feel like a treehouse.

Downstairs, we're tearing out a hallway to open up the family room and adding a nice new porch to the front.  We're looking forward to a cold beer on that porch in just a few months!

Did we mention that we're doing all this fun stuff without spending a fortune?  Youbetcha.

Something old, something new...

Our clients on Ramsey Ave. are celebrating in a very big way this weekend: moving back into their newly remodeled/expanded home and getting hitched.  In the middle of all that, they were kind enough to give us a peek at the house tonight, and it's awesome.

We'll have more photos in a few weeks, but for now, here's a sneak preview of the nearly-finished kitchen (a work table island is on the way, and a the microwave hasn't been installed in the tall cabinet on the left yet).

Builder Trey Smith did a fantastic job with the project and managed to finish up before the wedding deadline.  We're looking forward to working with him again soon.

The beautiful shiplap pine ceiling in the kitchen is a remnant from the original 1940 house that had been buried under drywall for decades.  If you look for it, you can find the "shadow" of the old kitchen wall in the ceiling.

The project also includes a beautiful new master bedroom suite upstairs, a new utility room, study, and a big back porch.  As soon as the happy couple is settled in, we'll have some more photos for you to enjoy.

Here's to many happy years in your new home, guys!