under construction
A house, usually a standard 3/2 with conventional rooms. But what makes it magic, are decks and porches.
You are drawn immediately outside for the views, the fresh air, and the calm.
It adds utility: A nice big deck expands the living area… decreasing the space pressure of a house. Add some storage areas on the neighbors’ sides, provides some privacy and more space for things.
Add a partial roof to part of the deck, and you can be out in the rain. The deck area with no roof lets you feel the sun.
Container plants let you garden, without creeping on the ground…
A good deck is just FUN, it’s where you want to be, where your friends go to ASAP.
And yet… it does NOT add square footage to your taxable property! Free living space.
I say all this… and see so many mistakes… the biggest one, is a deck too small!
size
SIZE…GENEROUS VS STINGY…
DO THIS; Put out table and chairs on all 4 sides, and see how much space this takes….NO not with the chair tucked in (like you see in magazines, to make a room look bigger…) , but with real life size humans in them. GO.
A table is usually about 4 feet deep, a person in a chair, scooting in and out takes about 3 or 4 feet. You have a person on both sides of a table and now you have used up 10-12 feet of space. If someone wants to walk by… you don’t want to have to keep scooting your chair for them to get around you. No, that is just awkward, and uncomfortable… add a few more feet when you build and relax.
So, a comfortable deck must be a minimum of 10-12 feet deep.
Sometimes you see a small, tiny porch …one that is 3 or 4 feet deep. It’ll torture you!
You imagine it is a nice place go outside, have coffee, relax… But NO.
Put a chair out there and sit…& you can’t even lean back or put your feet up.
You sit rigidly upright like a jerk…and each moment you wonder why the contractor didn’t spring for an extra 2 or 3 feet so you could lean back.
Even worse, is having to get up entirely, move your chair, so some other num-nut can join you out there. …. and then THEY too will be disappointed and despair over how uncomfortable it is, and the conversation keeps going back to … if only we had 2 or 3 extra feet… why was the builder so cheap, so mean, so cruel, to build this teasing porch…
And you add this porch to the other shortcuts you find the month after you moved into this house… This is a tell… you had a bad contractor, a bad builder… a mean cruel one!!!!
Roof
Next biggest mistake is putting a roof over the entire deck/porch.
NO! You DO want to feel the sun. Yes, yes you do!!!!!
But equally, you want light to come INTO the house adjacent to the deck. This is an intelligent compromise. Think about it…A massive roof outdoors just depresses the living room indoors in the shadow of darkness… and you end up looking at the underside of a roof, instead of Nature, skies, trees. Spectacular houses make this mistake all the time! See?
So, add a rain roof, or a sunroom on part of the deck, so you can be outdoors in the rain, and leave the rest open to the sky…. A 4-foot eve to keep the rain away from the house is OK, but leave enough room for a lounge chair and a huge umbrella for nice days..
This configuration is flexible, and fun!
railing
Because it is cheap, conventional, common…. who knows? People use wood railing all the time.
Think a bit harder.
Open your wallet and let a few moths out.
Build something that will not obstruct the view! Something that will not rot. Something clean and fresh, now and 10 years from now….that will not have paint chips in a few years… time goes by fast…
stairs
Maybe consider NOT having stairs.
They take up space, and just another thing.
We skipped it, and forever after, we do not have to wonder if a stranger used them to get up on our deck, peaking in the window, or breaking in.
If you must have a stair, consider boxing it in, with a lockable door? But think of something…keep an open mind….a zip cord, a slide, whatever….
Truth is, we don’t need to get out to Nature…our desks are so large, so high, there is very little drive to “wall the land”.
Sure it is a compromise…..but, it has been so relaxing to never worry about wierdo’s at night peeking in the windows…nice.
Deck over living spaces
This is such a huge and complicated subject, that I just list a few articles to crack the ice.
It is a subject of condensation, slope, and “never piercing the rubber membrane”.
material
Keep an open mind to using porcelain tiles…They hose off and clean easily, and bugs don’t live in the small spaces…
The air drops a tremendous amount stuff all the time…. dust and pollen, seeds and leaves, bird poop, even airplane soot…it all rains down…and this just builds up over time…
Anything with cracks and crevices gets loaded…. and I yet to tell you about ants and roaches, and meteorites…ugh…
Tile is so inorganic…and pretty but it is a rarely used surface, except in magazines. Don’t just default to a wooden deck, or fake composite wooden decks… unless you really know what comes down from the trees, and up from the earth…..make a test deck surface, and gather some facts…
This list is detailed, but not complete.
That is impossible!
Each chapter here could be an entire book.
These chapters are just a catalyst,
to nudge you
to think and study and Google and Houzz research to figure out your house…BEFORE YOU BUILD.
I have never met a single person that has honestly said their renovation was easy.
I ONLY hear of the nightmares. (Not to spook you, but Google “renovation nightmares” and read some stories.
But still, we LOVE change. We love renovations. We love our neighborhoods and do not want to move… so we renovate.
You would never get married, have a baby, go to college, or renovate a house, if you knew how hard it would be. .. It is only the optimism of youth or inexperience, that lets you take that leap.
A good renovation is defined by putting extra money into upgrades, not change orders.
It is about getting your bid right in the first place.
My thesis is to just slow down… there is NO hurry.
Take time to learn to draw 3D while you watch TV at night.
Dream, measure, think…all these things are free. Study the work of each sub that will be building your house.
Study contractor shortcuts and fake architects…
This is not a luxury. YOU will be paying them, YOU will be their boss.
It is human nature to work for your own self interest.
They work for THEIR family THEIR profit, not yours.
The more honest your are in your expectations, the more accurate their bids will be. You are not out to GET anyone… You are not out to get FREE work for you.. or FREE anything… you are THANKFUL they work so hard to your goal.
No.
Look at it this way, you want your renovation to go forward smoothly. No double paying for moving walls and windows and doors in the middle of framing.
No regrets as you “first see” the house in the framing stage…NOOOOO.
You want your “first see” on your computer screen, in 3D, in Virtual 3D, proving your ideas are right or wrong….
Believe me, the “first see” is ALWAYS WRONG!!!
But while it is on your computer, you get to start over, do it again, let it cook while you are shopping or looking at Houzz… and then redraw your house better.
After 100 changes ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN, Then, you can negotiate the bid, the contractors, the architect on an equal footing… you will not be the sucker, the week leg of the 3-legged stool.
This sections goes over thoughts you will have as you plan your rooms and places. Go slow, & enjoy the honor of designing your own house.