happy living Design

renovate-decorate budget worksheets

This file for me is a work in progress really, but I feel like I have finally got it to a point where it might be useful for you.  It is actually really simple and does not provide you with anything that a scratch piece of paper and a calculator could not do.  I personally just like to have my information organized and easy to update and read and have found Excel to be a useful tool to do that with some really basic formulas.  The spreadsheet file was created with Excel 2003.  You will find that I set up lots of tabs, one for each room of our house.  You can delete or rename each tab to correspond to your own home.  You will notice that right now the sheets are set up as line items for materials to buy for d.i.y. projects.  I envision that you would add a line item for each contractor that you may hire to do any of the labor for you with your finish and decorating materials below that you will purchase yourself.  I.e. you may hire a plumbing contractor to redo your bathroom and many times the cost of the the tub and toilet are included in his price, but things like the towel bars and shower curtain are not.

This is the first time I am using the file upload feature, so let me know if it there are any problems.

Download Happy living reno-deco worksheets

renovate! : abranowicz home

I have to apologize for the quality of the photos.  This project (another one of my all-time favorite renovations) is from Martha Stewart Living, September 2003.  The only photos I have are directly from the article that I tore from the magazine.  And since the article was photographed by William Abranowicz himself (my all-time favorite photographer) it seems like a crime to put these pictures up in such a quality (or lack there of) but I really wanted to show this project to you and hope that you still enjoy it.

The original house, in Westchester County, NY (just north of Manhattan) was a 1940's ranch.  Not too much to get excited over but they saw the potential both in the house and the property it sits on.

The house, after.  Still a very simple house form, but the richness of the exterior materials gives the it a solid and streamlined feel.  I love the dark window trim next to the cedar shake siding.  Also the new main entrance porch gives you a better sense of the 'arrival' to the home.  I also appreciate that there is not a sea of asphalt in the courtyard in front, just some crushed stone.

Before and after of the garage, turned into the office.  I could work there!

Floor plan.  Another thing I love about this renovation is that they added very little square footage to the existing house, just enough to make the spaces work a little better.

It was this article that sold me on the idea of black cabinets.  Set against the marble countertops, I think it is really elegant but family friendly, still, after 5 years.

Cubbies in the front entry and Danish modern dining table in the kitchen.

The photos hung in identical frames in the hall make it a destination, a place to linger, rather than just a space to pass through.  I love that and the simple light fixtures.  You can find similar ones here.

Living Room.  According to the article, the small jars on the shelf (left photo) contain sand from every beach that the family has traveled to.  A sweet idea.

Master Bedroom.

Home Office of Andrea Raisfeld, Bill's wife.

I see many family dinners out on the screened-in porch!

Credits: All the photos are from the article originally published in Martha Stewart Living, September 2003 and were taken by William Abranowicz.

a new blog :: Dear Cottage Living

"Great curb appeal is not about the size or style of your home, but making the most of what you already have."

Have any questions about or need help with suggestions on your home's curb appeal?  Write to architect Hoyte Johnson and Cottage Living editor Rex Perry at the new blog at Cottage Living.  Or just have fun checking out sweet cottages.

renovate! :: the new series

The short version about the new series: I want to gather and show you inspiring exterior and whole house renovation projects.  Is it that simple?  Not exactly, but that is where I am going to start and I will go from there.

The first in the series is one of my favorites and is a whole-house renovation.  What I mean by whole-house is after the renovation the house looks very different on the outside than it did before.  It is not just a room-by-room interior renovation.  Thought is given to the exterior envelope as well as all the interior rooms.  Platt Dana Architects from New York renovated Hope Dana's Connecticut family home.   They took a banal and uninteresting home that had good 'bones' and was on a nice property and made it into a modern version of a 5-bay (5 windows across the front) farmhouse.  You may have seen this featured in Domino last year.

Look at the changes to the exterior of the house.  Note the different window proportions/sizes, they scrapped the bizarre brick corners for simple horizontal wood siding.  The vertical lines in the standing seam metal roof adds a bit of height to the roof.  They also recessed the front door slightly so that you have a bit of cover when entering the front.

photo from Domino article, October 2006

photo from Platt Dana Architects

Photo from Platt Dana Architects

Look for the subtle changes in the floor plan.  There are quite a few of them that when totaled together have a huge impact on the feel and function of the house.

floor plan image from Domino article

floor plan image from Domino article

And because I can't bring myself to deprive you of great interiors... Note the simple but quality materials on the inside.  They carry the horizontal wood paneling through the house and use the same wood floors in every room to tie them together.

photo on left from Domino, photo on right from Platt Dana Architects

living room before photo from Domino

living room after photo from Platt Dana Architects

photo from Platt Dana Architects

photo from Platt Dana Architects