Some of you already know, but for those who don't: all of the renderings here were done with Google Sketchup. It's available (free!) from http://sketchup.google.com/download.html. I'm completely in love with this piece of software: easy to use, intuitive, powerfull... and free!
If you download it (and you should, if nothing else it's a fun piece of software), you can download your own copy of any model I've made. Then you can move walls around, try different layouts, experiment...
Any questions about using it, the online tutorials cover most of the basics in about 10 minutes. Or just ask me.
I bring this up because I want to enroll as many people as I can into the design phase of this project... I'm not an architect, or a designer, just the guy who's facilitating the design process. I'm looking for all the suggestions and ideas I can get. Feel free to jump in. Really.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Survey / Lot Occupancy
(reminder: click on any picture to enlarge it)
...
This is the most recent survey we had on file (I'm not sure why blogger turned it into a negative):
I had to shrink the file to upload it, and lost some definition in the process. I hope you can still see the differences between it, and what's actually there right now:
It seems the old owners added on even more illegal decks than we'd realized... The gazebo, the half-round diningroom deck, about half the deck leading to it; the second (square) hot-tub near the bay, and the deck it sits on; the steam-room off the master bathroom deck... all illegal.
Apparently they would take apart all these add-ons, anytime the house was inspected or surveyed, then put them back up afterwards... how crazy is that?
...
Before I continue - some perspective views:
from the north
east
south
and west
...the two different seawalls on the drawings reflect my uncertainty about the lot boundaries. I got something different depending on what I measure from - some of our fencing is definitely not where it ought to be. Just to give you an idea, these are the some of the possibilities:
In one direction, we seem to be encroaching on Frank & Allen's and/or Eric & Tony's. In the other direction, Ariadne and/or Frank & Allen are definitely encroaching on us.
I've asked Mr. Mayer to leave some flagging tape at the lot markers, so I can figure this out when I go check on the houses this winter.
(Side note: no matter which of these is right, the half-round dining room deck definitely extends past the lot boundaries. Not just the fence jog-out: the deck itself. Good thing we're getting rid of it!)
...
Another issue is that, in the years since this house was built, the rules for calculating lot occupancy have changed.
It used to be you could exempt a 6'-wide swath of deck from your gate to the house's front door; and you could pick which door was your "front" door. (On the old survey, you can see where a nice big chunk of pool deck is marked "access".)
Under the new rules, "front door" is narrowly defined as the first locking door you come to; and your "access" exemption stops as soon as your deck is more than 6' wide. In our case, that would mean the gazebo? Or at best, the pool deck.
For now, we're grandfathered under the old rules; but if we do any changes to the decks (and plan to) we'll have to abide by the new rules.
...
The result is that we have about 10,000 ft2 of house & deck (or maybe 12,000; my software has a hard time with all the little walks & complicated layout)... as opposed to the 7, 355 we're legally entitled to.
More importantly, it's a lot more deck than we care to maintain, or need, or really have a use for. (Does anyone else feel it's a long walk to the pool sometimes? And those stairs...)
So. The decks are going to be greatly reduced, and simplified:
As part of this simplification, and to allow for a deeper pool, we'll be bringing the pool deck up to the same level as the house deck. Some perspective views:
from the north
east
south
and west
You may notice that the house itself is slightly different in these renderings. We want to fill in the east corner, like this:
We're also going to be getting rid of the cheesy love-boat-looking spiral staircases, replacing them with regular (U-shaped) stairs - that's why the narrow strip added to the left side on this drawing.
The addition will almost certainly require a variance. Hopefully, being such good citizens about the lot occupancy will count in our favor.
...
Drawings of the inside changes will be posted soon. Really - I promise.
...
This is the most recent survey we had on file (I'm not sure why blogger turned it into a negative):
I had to shrink the file to upload it, and lost some definition in the process. I hope you can still see the differences between it, and what's actually there right now:
It seems the old owners added on even more illegal decks than we'd realized... The gazebo, the half-round diningroom deck, about half the deck leading to it; the second (square) hot-tub near the bay, and the deck it sits on; the steam-room off the master bathroom deck... all illegal.Apparently they would take apart all these add-ons, anytime the house was inspected or surveyed, then put them back up afterwards... how crazy is that?
...
Before I continue - some perspective views:
from the north
east
south
and west
...the two different seawalls on the drawings reflect my uncertainty about the lot boundaries. I got something different depending on what I measure from - some of our fencing is definitely not where it ought to be. Just to give you an idea, these are the some of the possibilities:
In one direction, we seem to be encroaching on Frank & Allen's and/or Eric & Tony's. In the other direction, Ariadne and/or Frank & Allen are definitely encroaching on us.
I've asked Mr. Mayer to leave some flagging tape at the lot markers, so I can figure this out when I go check on the houses this winter.
(Side note: no matter which of these is right, the half-round dining room deck definitely extends past the lot boundaries. Not just the fence jog-out: the deck itself. Good thing we're getting rid of it!)
...
Another issue is that, in the years since this house was built, the rules for calculating lot occupancy have changed.
It used to be you could exempt a 6'-wide swath of deck from your gate to the house's front door; and you could pick which door was your "front" door. (On the old survey, you can see where a nice big chunk of pool deck is marked "access".)
Under the new rules, "front door" is narrowly defined as the first locking door you come to; and your "access" exemption stops as soon as your deck is more than 6' wide. In our case, that would mean the gazebo? Or at best, the pool deck.
For now, we're grandfathered under the old rules; but if we do any changes to the decks (and plan to) we'll have to abide by the new rules.
...
The result is that we have about 10,000 ft2 of house & deck (or maybe 12,000; my software has a hard time with all the little walks & complicated layout)... as opposed to the 7, 355 we're legally entitled to.
More importantly, it's a lot more deck than we care to maintain, or need, or really have a use for. (Does anyone else feel it's a long walk to the pool sometimes? And those stairs...)
So. The decks are going to be greatly reduced, and simplified:
As part of this simplification, and to allow for a deeper pool, we'll be bringing the pool deck up to the same level as the house deck. Some perspective views:from the north
east
south
and west
You may notice that the house itself is slightly different in these renderings. We want to fill in the east corner, like this:
We're also going to be getting rid of the cheesy love-boat-looking spiral staircases, replacing them with regular (U-shaped) stairs - that's why the narrow strip added to the left side on this drawing.The addition will almost certainly require a variance. Hopefully, being such good citizens about the lot occupancy will count in our favor.
...
Drawings of the inside changes will be posted soon. Really - I promise.
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