Hardscape & Garden Design - Demolition & Prep

This spring, my husband and I decided to do something about our "moss farm" that was formerly called a lawn. For nine years, we had lived with a shaded, plain, moss-invaded, sloped front yard. Very ugly and I dont like sloped lawns unless they are with mansions attached. My husband tried to spruce the yard up at one point as a surprise for me and planted some boxwood in the shape of balls up the front walkway. That was fine until the boxwood balls became mishapen over the years and started looking like something out of Pee Wees playhouse. I had no idea how to trim this circular topiary and didn't want to risk my fingers or hands figuring it out.

I drew up plans for my ideal front yard and proposed my ideas to a local hardscape company, The Wall. Rick McCutcheon and I had worked together on other projects for years and I trusted him and his company for my project. (See additional post of plan examples). The three main ideas for the design were:
no slope
wider driveway
no grass (moss)
With that in mind, I chose to design retaining walls to level out my yard, expand my driveway two feet wider, have wide, platform steps up to my front door, a front yard patio, and team up with my colleague, Sarah Smith from Sarah Jane Designs, to do a planting selection and lay-out plan for all native, shade, and drought tolerant plants. I was not a good waterer and I also didn't want to shell out a lot of money for water. I definitely wanted to be more earth-friendly and practice water conservation. (its easy to conserve when one is cheap). I wanted to be able to use my front yard for interfacing with my neighbors and community and give my kids a safe, but fun yard for them to play in with their friends.

These pictures are Day 1 of the project that included both demolition and construction of the concrete forms.

The Wall came in and tore up the yard very early in the morning. They wanted to get all of the forms set up before the end of the day. One demolition request that I had was that they save all the dirt and sod. As a composter, I knew that flipping over the sod and moss and using it as a substrate base for my yard would give my soil the nitrogen boost it needed. My soil was mostly clay and this helped with the soil amendment that I was tasked with by Ms Sarah, the garden expert. The workers were relieved that they didnt have to haul it all away or load it into a dumpster (which saved me money and you know by now how cheap I am). I later used all of the decomposing soil as backfill after the walls were erected. When re-using the sod, rent a rototiller and grind it all up before using it as backfill. Much easier to shovel, fill and spread where needed.

Important Construction TIP:
When you are tearing up your front yard and your only point of access to your mailbox has been obliterated for a while, you will have issues with receiving your mail. You have options. You can have your mail held at the post office for you to pick up. You can have a safe path to your mailbox as determined by you and your carrier (They are particular about what works best for them). Or you can do what my carrier suggested I do (when I realized I hadn't thought this ) and have a plastic storage container with my address on it put at a place on site for his ease of access. As I work from home, this was easy for me to do without concern for mail theft. The other options may be more viable for those that work away from home.

Important Construction Budget Tip

I know I talk alot about saving money and being cheap, but I have a caveat for heeding this philosophy. Remember, you always get what you pay for so be careful in what you "value engineer" and what you really value for your project. I saved money re-using sod/dirt that was already on site and saved labor expense by rototilling my own soil and amendments. I spent good, valuable money on having professionals come out and install my hardscape. The Wall was worth every penny and did a fantastic, no problems job. I also budgeted realistically for my plants so that the initial planting would be full and lush. Investing in a good watering system is also a value that I readily embraced. Gotta keep those plants not just alive, but thriving. (Yes, Ms Sarah, I am listening).

A wise Asian philosopher once said, "Spend once wisely and you will only cry once. Spend once foolishly and you will cry every time you see the results".

More posts and photos to come....

Curb Appeal that Appeals to You Personally

Lately, I have been working on the curb appeal of my home. No longer is Ghetto Chic allowed by my neighbors. Appalling for an Interior Designer, I know, but while I'm making everyone else's Design Dreams come true, my home gets overlooked often. The state of the lawn is another story.

But not this summer! With more time on my hands, I have turned my design talent to beautifying my home's Curb Appeal. (And to also stop my mother's comments about the condition of my front entry everytime she visits - "You know the relatives from England are visiting this summer.") Per a colleagues suggestion, we decided to stencil my front door with a Personal Monogram (20/20 for Site, llc , Tm). This image would represent our family and home style. My partner- in-paint (PPI) suggested we go with the base color shown as she noticed I was drawn to it more and more when we went shopping.

This is a good tip for finding the right door color for you. Look at your wardrobe. What colors are appealing to you at this time? How are you dressing the "Entry Way" to who you are? Its an easy and safe way to make a color decision. We went with a turquoise color that naturally accents with chocolate brown, another color I was also being drawn too.

Always remember: Your paint job is as good as your prep so dont skimp on doing on thorough job (as I always want to do when its stuff for me!) My PPI held firm and we spent the first day doing all the prep and masking.

Halfway through painting the base color, my PPI told me she didn't have a stencil for the flowers. With her puppy dog eyes, she pleaded with me and assured me I could free-hand the design. Reaching back to my geometry class, I was able to create arches and layout the proportions for the petals, etc. Then, starting with no coffee, I carefully painted the image. Perfecto!

Meanwhile, my PPI painted the door and window trim while I was doing the difficult parts. How did she talk me into this again? Next we were to paint the concrete porch. Through the paint technology of today, I was able to get the chocolate brown trim color made up as porch paint. On a separate, long holiday weekend with no chance of the mail carrier showing up, my husband and I gave the porch two coats. What a huge difference!

When painting a concrete porch, never, ever, ever, never pressure wash it. The water will seep down into the concrete and slowly rise up to the surface over the years causing your porch paint to bubble, bubble, and toil with trouble. Concrete is hard, but it is still porous. (The voice of experience from the last time we did this.) Scrape and sand, scrape and sand. Its laborious, but your prep is.... you know the mantra.

The final project was to put down the anti-slip tape. Oh, we could've been utilitarian and put down strips of stripes, but that's BORING!! Laboriously, I drew and then cut out the centers and petals of flowers out of thick anti-slip tape. The kids helped me apply. The picture shows the cool results. Now the mail carrier or elderly neighbors won't slip on my newly painted concrete steps and sue me. Thats not the only reason I assure you. I have sent myself flying off the porch when stepping on the wet concrete in cheap flip flops. Who knew Icould still do the splits at 38+? (I have never been able to do the splits so you now understand the comedy and the agony).

How long did this all take? 4 Weekends in the summer with the help of my PPI, my husband, and my children. Not a bad result for a short time commitment. And it was just paint and

anti-slip tape. In this economy, its an affordable & quick way to add dramatic, cool Curb Appeal. Try it for yourself and give your house's face a lift.

Basement Progress - Demolition

Demolition - how cathartic! Destroying what has annoyed, oppressed, hindered and depressed you altho you didnt realize it until you started to take it all down. Thats how we felt about our existing basement. BUT before the cartharsis could begin, I had to do something with my STUFF! It was actually our family stuff, but my husband made it my responsibility by threatening to throw it all out into a dumpster. Little did he know that his Trailblazers 1977 championship album was in all of that STUFF. I saved him a lot of grief.

First everything was relegated to Save, Toss, and Garage Sale. All "Toss" went as much to Goodwill, Craigslist, and the rebuilding centers as possible. Save was all shelved and organized into the space that would become my new storage room. We did have the garage sale in the Fall and managed to still make a decent amount of money even if it was cold and always threatened rain. Within weeks, everything was stored and organized. (I knew it was if no one else did.) I also commandeered the garage with alot of my office stuff as I had already moved my office home. Risky move according to my husband, but we saved money.

Thanks to our therapist, I was able to schedule my husband's and my time to do demolition after work and on weekends. Kids were babysat and chores that nag my husband were done. We took down the walls of the rec room and various storage rooms. The walls had been constructed of 2x4 plates and studs and clad with tongue and groove paneling. We salvaged most of the T&G to use for my ceiling in my new office. We set out the old studs on the curb for firewood and it was gone quickly. Wood from old shelves was given to a local carpenter to be made into future furniture.

We were able to get all of the remaining demolition debris easily out of the basement by passing everything through a basement window. As I don't mind the rainy, cold weather of the fall, I was on the outside taking everything coming out to the dumpster. My husband stayed nice and dry and not cranky inside the basement. I will suffer through anything if it prevents me from having to suffer through my husband's bitching and moaning. If we were on "Survivor", I would win and he would be voted off after Day 1. We were even able to get the old kitchen-installed style water heater, complete with countertop, up the basement stairs. My husband had a thrill demolishing the old concrete washtub.

We cleaned up after all of our demolition and finished prepping for the new work by covering our vintage 1950'2 turquoise vinyl sleeper sofa with layers of drop cloths and plastic. There was no way we were lugging it around or up the stairs. It had to stay in the basement and would have to survive the remodel on its own.

Our first order of business was to tackle the concrete basement walls. Moisture is an ever present condition in the Pacific Northwest and if basement walls aren't prepped and sealed correctly, one is in for a world of hurt later. Your finish is only as good as your prep so spend the time and effort on prepping your walls. We ran a wire bristle brush over all of the walls, loosening all of the flaked concrete. Once all of the walls had been thoroughly brushed, we applied our concrete sealer. This also acted as a vapor barrier. After the application of the sealer, our basement was looking quite different already. The sealer was white and brightened the space up tremendously. My husband was now finally getting excited about the possibilities for the basement.

One issue we ran into when we sealed the walls was that we were now preventing the usual moisture from seeking its familiar path into our basement walls. So it found new paths to come into the house via our galvanized water pipes. It didn't help either that our framer brought in wet wood. But it is the NW and lumberyards get rained on. We were not spending a fortune on the best, most expensive kiln dried wood either. To keep moisture low, we rented a dehumidifier. As the framed-up lumber dried and the insulation went in, the moisture stopped. Having the sealer and the insulation vapor barrier create an insulating air pocket that is kept at the proper temperature osmotically by our heating system, moisture is not attracted inside to our basement living space. The house is also not tightly sealed so it is allowed to breathe and naturally regulate itself. I liken this to preventing condensation on windows at an indoor pool. If the room is the same temperature as the pool, condensation does not form.

I am getting ahead of myself in this saga. We must go back to the concrete cutting for the large egress window of my office and the trenches for the new plumbing for the laundry and bath. That was a huge wet mess, but totally worth it. I was now going to have a 3'wide by 4'high daylight window for my new office. I myself crammed into the window well and dug out the addtional 12+" needed to accomodate the new window. I'm sure my neighbors were wondering what I was doing.

Once the trenches in the concrete floor were cut, the kids and I dug out all of the dirt filling up (3) 32 gallon trash cans and (1) 54 gallon roll carton. On the last day of digging, my husband found a horse foreleg and an empty bottle of whiskey. What kind of story would that tell? the leg looked a little gnawed on. We saved the items for a diarama for our finished basements decor.

The plumber came and plumbed everything out. We passed rough-in inspection and set to work unloading all of the cans of dirt back over the new plumbing lines. Naturally we had dirt left over and had to haul a 32 gallon trash can upstaits and outside. I think my husband hated me that day. We put our accumlated dirt that had been underground for 75 years and brought it topside. I wonder what it would say if it could talk? It is now part of our landscape and enjoying its new accomodations.

The concrete guys came back and filled in all of the trenches. A difficult stage was done. Next we were on to electrical and HVAC.

Basement Remodel in Progress

Have you wondered about remodeling your basement? Could you use the extra living space? Would it improve the value of your home and would you get the bang you require for your buck? What are the things one needs to consider when remodeling a basement?

As a designer and a contractor, you think it would be a no-brainer for me to remodel my own basement; power for the course. What really happens with most people indulging personally in their own professions is that old adage "the cobbler's family has no shoes." When I started my business out of my house, my mother was famous for coming in and saying, "I hope you don't have client meetings at your house." While I am making my clients' design fantasies come true, my house is pretty much as it was when we moved in 8 years ago and added on to with 3 kids, 2 dogs, various rodents at various times, an outdoor cat, and 3 chickens. Oh, and did I mention I love gardening? Iwould much rather dig in the dirt than housework. And my husband and I are very good at avoiding house work if we can play instead. So you can understand my mother's sentiment however rude and unsupportive. Could we commit and stay invested in a remodel to the end? I know if it wasnt for my husband, I would be happy still living out of cardboard boxes and consider piles of things as "organized".

This brings me back to the question of whether remodeling my basement was a no-brainer for me. It wasn't. I had to review with my husband - were we ready to commit mentally and physically? We had to review why we wanted to remodel our basement. The economy we had when we started(2008/2009) was a big factor. I was downsizing my design office and moving it home. (The design & construction industry was screeching to a whiplash halt and the overhead would've killed my business.) I needed a home office. Our children were outgrowing their 10'x10' playroom which also doubled as my husband's home office. We needed an additional bathroom and I secretly fantasized about a laundry room where we didnt have to pick our laundry up off of a concrete floor under the light of a bare bulb nor have to walk around our main sewer waste pipe to put the washing into the dryer. We had to review our finances. We came to the realization that if we didn't do the remodel, we couldn't function as a sane family and I couldn't run my business professionally. And, in our neighborhood, a basement remodel would significantly increase the value of our home instantly. It was a sound investment. This, in a way, made our decision a "no-brainer". "We" became one of my clients.

I had to design within a budget event though it was my own house because we couldn't afford the real showplace all people think designers should be living in. So, I had to come up with a "showplace" design on a budget. That was usually power for the course with every project I worked on. To keep costs down, we did a lot of the labor ourselves. As a contractor, I was used to that, but my husband was not. He is a "nervous nelly". Nervous about tackling big jobs he knows nothing about and nervous about me because he knows how I like to jump feet first into any project and figure out what to do next... next. My husband is a perfectionist and I am a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other-til-its-done-ist. To date, we have worked together well with only a few arguments that we took to our therapist. I have come to appreciate my husband's perfectionism and he has come to respect my ability to create something out of nothing, make it work, and make it look great! He trusts me more now and I have developed more patience for his insistence on thinking things through til he feels comfortable progessing on with the project. My husband only has Plan A, where I am always armed with Plans B, C, D, E, etc when I start a task. Plan A usually costs less money altho Plan B should be considered as well at the start of any new task. You see things you didnt see before in the design/planning stage. I do believe in the evaluation of each task before starting ; cross t's and dot i's. I have a good example of this further in the remodel blog.

In evaluating the feasibility of our basement remodel, we had to consider the following as anyone should when thinking about their basement viability:

Ceiling Height -high enough for code and livability?
Light - natural and artificial - what can you handle?
Safety Egress - if you are having a family room or bedroom in the basement- code.
Flooding and dampness - possibility of sewage back-up or dampness that could cause mildew,
mold and other bio-hazards.
Potential for a bathroom and/or laundry
Consideration of an apartment use or duplex use - check all building codes and confer with a
contractor or architect.
Accessibility from main living areas of the house
How will you heat and vent the space?
Existing electrical and plumbing conditions - acceptable or total re-do?

After our initial due diligence, which turned out all favorable, we proceeded with the design for our basement. Our basement was semi-finished with an old 50's rec room and some T&G paneled storage rooms. We designed for my office to be in the old rec room space (with existing fireplace), a storage room under the stairs (always a good place for storage, bathrooms, or wet bars), a family room for the kids with adjacent bathroom, laundry room where existing laundry was, but with a better configuration, and a giant storage/utility room for all of my STUFF. Heaven! A girl loves her simple pleasures.

Finishes would be simple, affordable, but dynamic and a showplace for future clients. I am a designer after all. We also had to consider keeping the basement light filled and well-lit. I grew up playing in a dungeon basement and totally did not want my basement and my office to feel that oppressive. We would do as much of the work as possible and re-use materials as we could. We would also shop sales, the rebuilding centers, and wheel and deal with my suppliers. We would also try to keep our marriage together through this remodel - a true test of the stability of any relationship.

The following progress pictures and reports show how we did all that we set out to do. At the end, I will reveal how much everything cost and how long it took us to complete. Please read additional blogs posted for more information.

20/20 Residential Portfolio

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20/20 Residential Portfolio

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Why you should hire an Interior Designer

Why should you hire an Interior Designer? In my field, I constantly have to market my services to potential clients. Mostly my marketing consists of word of mouth from satisfied clients and people looking for help with their remodel or home build by surfing the internet and finding the design organization I belong to in which my website is linked (http://www.nwsid.org/).

If they havent already been schooled by their friends and colleagues as to the value of hiring an interior designer or architect, people will ask me why they should hire me to do something they feel they can do themselves. They've watched HGTV and the Style Network and Ty Pennington's show and DIY, etc. They have a talent or knack for design and know some "people". If you have the courage, the stomach, the time and the money for designing and remodeling your own project, go for it! It's a valuable learning experience.

I view my clients doing their own design and contracting like I view doing my own bookkeeping and my taxes. I know how to do it, I've spent hours doing it, I've completed the tasks month after month, year after year, and I've driven myself crazy, I've cried, I've made mistakes, and stolen hours from what I love doing because I thought i was saving myself money and time. That was a bunch of hooey on my part.

"Work smarter, not harder."
" Sometimes it takes money to make money."
These are my mantras for the new year.

I finally hired a bookkeeper and now I can focus on what I love to do every day. I am also not wasting my valuable billable hours working on bookkeeping - that was not saving money. I was losing money. I finally figured out that for one hour of my work, I could get 2.5 hrs of a bookkeepers time. So for 5 hours a month, I only had to work 2 hours of my time to pay them. And they knew more than me about accounting, bookkeeping, taxes, interest, etc. What a bargain!!! And I didnt have to think about it every day, every month, and every year. My business is more successful today because I am less stressed by not doing what I was not qualified to do.

I digress with my example and will expound upon the comparison of the benefits of the bookkeeper to the designer. Here is the moral of my story in parable form:

"When I meet with my bookkeeper, I hand her a pile of stuff that I know I need for my business, receipts and invoices I've procurred, and items she's requested or I've had to keep track of. She takes that messy disorganized pile I give her twice a month and makes it go away, organized into the accounting program, compiled, reconciled and any other fancy bookkeeping words that come to my mind. She can do this because she is a professional bookkeeper. She has her office for support and resources. She has her education and experience to take all of my information and turn it into something tangible. She has consultants, computer programs and references to assist her in the job of bookkeeping. I dont have these, its not my job, not my career. This is what I pay her to take care of for me so I can make better use of my valuable time. She loves it - I dont know why. It would scramble my brain trying to keep it all together, calculating, organizing, etc. every day for different clients. But she manages to bring together and organize all of my papers, receipts, etc into a functioning bookkeeping file that keeps my business on track and my taxes completed on time every year."

Now instead of using the word bookkeeper, insert the word interior designer and you will see what the value is in hiring an interior designer:

"When I meet with my interior designer, I hand her piles, boxes and folders of items that I am interested in using for my design and/or build. She takes that messy, disorganized pile of my thoughts, research, dreams, and ideas and organizes, deconstructs, plans, shapes, models and creates a tangible vision of how I want my design to be. My designer can do this because she is a professional. She has the education and experience to turn my thoughts into something real. She has the support of her office, trades, resources, and colleagues. My designer has computer programs, cunsultants, and trade references to help her figure out the best design for me. I dont have these - its not my job, not my career. This is why I hire a designer to take care of me and my project so that I can make better use of my valuable time. She loves it - I dont know why. It scrambles my brain just thinking about her doing all that she does for me and with all of her other clients. My interior designer manages to take it all in and produce the most amazing design for me and my home and/or business."

There is value to you to hire an interior designer. The same value there is for you to hire a bookkeeper, a lawyer, or a doctor. Yes, you maybe able to do what they do, but would you want to? No, but they do. Do you know all the laws, codes, legalese, technicalities, etc? No, but they do. Its their job to know and to use that knowledge to help you have a successful business, tax filing, remodel, lawsuit or face lift. You save more money and time hiring a professional to do the job you need done.

The following is an excerpt from NWSID, Southern Chapter for reasons why to hire an Interior Designer for you next project:

Why Hire an Interior Designer?
The following information is provided to you to help you make an informed decision with regard to consideration of hiring an interior designer for your next project. The following are valuable services interior designers can provide to you.

1.Provide solutions: Each project, small or large presents challenges. Whether it is lack of storage, poor traffic flow, color scheme, unusual windows or maximizing light and space.

2.Prevent costly mistakes: So many choices, too many options, and this product over that product. There are so many things that are hard to know unless you have encountered those dozens of times before.

3.Resources: Any design is only as good as its execution. Designers work with the best workrooms, contractors, and fabricators and have the clout to make sure the price matches the quality.

4.Guidance: A designer knows sources well enough to edit the options and offer seasoned advice to guide clients through the myriad of design choices.

5. Convenience: Designers save you shopping time and work on-site. We bring the “store” to you.

6.Set priorties: A Designer will help allocate your “design dollars” and how best to spend your money now and plan for future phases of your design project.

7. Liaison/Advocate: Designers work with trades-people and manufacturers regularly and have more leverage to get things repaired or replaced when necessary.

8. Working through opposing taste: Designers can be the third party to join taste and style between husband and wife or significant other.

9. Get the job done: Designers see to it that everything is completed. Your complete satisfaction is their best referral.


So when considering your next design or remodel project, consider the assistance of an interior designer. Not all Interior Designers work the same so check out design organization websites, surf the net for interior designers in your area, ask your friends for referrals, and make sure to interview several designers that fit your needs before settling on one. Designing and altering your home is a personal project and you want the person that fits best with you, your partner and/or your family.

How to Hire an Interior Designer - next time

Why You Should Hire Professionals to Save You Time & Money

In all the years I have been in the design and building field, I have had occassion in which I have had to "save" a project. I think all designers, architects, and builders have all had to do this at one time or another. I've had to take over design direction from other designers, I've had to flesh out bare-bone building documents created by architects and I have had to take over construction projects when the contractor has been fired or abadoned the job, always taking the owner's money in the process. I am in the special situation of being both a Professional designer and a licensed General Contractor. More and more professionals are obtaining both specialities, but as a woman, I am still a minority in this instance.

I cannot stress enough the importance of hiring a professional interior design and/or architect and a licensed General Contractor with licensed subs for your construction project. What may seem like a large up front expense to begin your project will end up tripling and getting you in the shorts by the end of you project if you fail to do so. I will have to look it up, but there is a telling quote that runs something like this:
"Pay for quality, cry only once
Pay for crap and cry everytime you see it."
Once I find it again, I will post it.

Your home is your investment, both financially and emotionally. Respect that.
You project does not have to cost a million dollars, but all successful projects start with good planning. That costs money. Its an investment. You are hiring people that will save you money in the end and are looking out for your best interests because their reputation is extremely important to them and you are their most valuable asset in referrals.

Professionals will thoroughly design your project, assess pitfalls and barriers, and take care of all issues before any construction starts. With professionals, you can esitmate the cost of your project from the beginning and have tools in which to asses the bids that you receive from general contractors or subcontractors. Designers and architects do offer services to assist homeowners with bid reviews to make sure all of the numbers are relative and within current cost estimates regionally and nationally.

Whatever you think your project will cost, multiply that by three to be fiscally safe. Planning a remodel is like planning a wedding. Unforseen conditions will add costs and something, at least one thing, will go wrong. Its how you, your designer and your contractor handle what goes wrong that will make the solutions successful. There is also a phrase that my father likes to use called "creeping elegance". You will want to keep redesigning your project as you go along. You will want to add, change, subtract, buy more, etc. If you are on a budget, stay within that budget as best you can. Designers and Architects can help you plan your remodel in phases if necessary to fit your budget. Ask the questions, pose the possibilities. This is your boat with your consultants on board helping you move it forward.

But always remember its your boat and you are in charge. Dont hesitate to ask questions, call in numbers, or stop your project if you think necessary. Everyone who works on your project is just a person, a human being. They are not God, they dont have more authority than you over your project. They may have more experience and expertise, but they work for you and this is your boat.

I say this pointedly to a lot of women as well. Even my most professional CEO women clients get shaking hands and flushed faces when talking to a designer or contractor. WE are the mystery behind the curtain, but you all know what happened when the curtain was drawn back. Just a human being who knows how to operate the controls. The construction industry is still mostly men, granted. That doesnt mean they know everything, its just the evolution of the profession. As more women become contractors, the great mystery becomes de-mystified and women find that they can do all that men can do in this field. Do we want to? Hell no!! We work smarter, not harder. Did you know that a woman invented the first continous cutting saw? Fashioned similar to a spinning wheel. Working smarter, not harder.

Alot of my blogging will focus on women as the clients. A lot of my clients are women. I am a woman. Please take my comments in that vein.

Please look for future blogs about hiring Professional for design and construction.

TTFN!