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Tag: Exteriors & Facades

  • Before & After: A 1940s-Suburban House Grows Up Gracefully in Mill Valley, CA – Gardenista

    In the first decade of America’s post-war boom, a million and a half new houses were built, creating vast tracts of suburbia and giving young families their first opportunity to own a home. Nowadays, however, homebuyers who stumble on a 1940s relic in vintage condition often wonder if it’s worth it to buy a house that needs a major remodel?

    For Raleigh and Michael Zwerin, the answer was yes. In 2004 they bought a circa-1944 cottage in Mill Valley, California. From the moment they moved in, baby in tow, they started thinking about the house they wished they had. Nearly a decade later, after having a second baby (and learning firsthand that the charming creeks that crisscrossed the neighborhood were prone to flood in winter), they asked architect Kelly Haegglund for help.

    For Haegglund, who lives just a few blocks from the Zwerins, the challenge was to design a modern-family-sized house that didn’t loom like the Hulk over the rest of the neighborhood, where one-story bungalows and cottages were built on narrow lots. The result? A modern three-bedroom bungalow with pleasing architectural details borrowed from the Arts and Crafts era. A low-water landscape, designed by Mill Valley-based Bradanini & Associates, surrounds the house in year-round greenery.

    Photography by Mimi Giboin.

    After searching for months for just the right dark stain color, Raleigh Zwerin suddenly saw it by accident when she drove by a house under construction in nearby San Francisco.
    Above: After searching for months for just the right dark stain color, Raleigh Zwerin suddenly saw it by accident when she drove by a house under construction in nearby San Francisco.

    “I went back to that house in the city several times until I met the lead contractor and asked him for the color, but he said the owner of the house said it was proprietary information and he didn’t want to give it out,” says Raleigh. Luckily, though, the contractor took pity on her plight. “He said, ‘I’ll meet you somewhere and give you a shingle so you can match the color.’ We ended up in a rendezvous by the side of the road. He brought two shingles in his truck, I brought a box of cookies, and it was great.”

    The custom trim color? The Zwerins also gleaned it from the same side-of-the-road exchange.

    A curtain of cape rush (Chrondopetalum elephantinum) will reach heights of from 4 to 6 feet, creating an airy screening layer behind the picket fece.
    Above: A curtain of cape rush (Chrondopetalum elephantinum) will reach heights of from 4 to 6 feet, creating an airy screening layer behind the picket fece.

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  • Before & After: Should It Stay or Should It Go? In Praise of Inherited Plants (And Soil, And Concrete) – Gardenista

    When Jane Orvis and Steve Hanson bought their 1950s house in Seward Park, Seattle, they kept the original pink-tiled bathroom. But what about the mid-century shrubbery, arranged around a lawn—did that have to stay? Most people would reply, “absolutely not,” but Jane, who is a keen gardener, wanted to take a more closed-loop approach and consulted with the landscape architect Jonathan Hallet, of Supernature. On a joint visit to the Seattle Arboretum, a trio of plants in the New Zealand garden caught their attention: a topiarist’s hebe, red tussock grass, and a shrub similar to manzanita. They had all the “lightness and air and movement” that Jane’s garden was in need of.

    “We stuck with the desaturated greens and off-greens typical of New Zealand plants,” says Jonathan. “We were trying to make it feel more like a dry garden, which it is.” He and Jane also planted natives, and plants from the coasts of Oregon and Northern California. “The overall tough and dry plant palette helped in creating a more climate-adapted garden that will tolerate Seattle’s increasingly long, dry and hot summers, with little supplemental irrigation required.”

    “Most garden plants used in the Pacific Northwest are borrowed from Japanese or East Coast or British styles—plants like hydrangea that want summer water, which we don’t have,” says Jonathan. “Seattle has long, hot summers with a Mediterranean climate and we wanted to make a garden that was ready for that. We also tried to give it plenty of evergreen structure, so it feels full and good in the winter.”

    Below, Jonathan explains what went into this mid-century landscape makeover.

    Before

    Above: The former front garden: A static combination of shaped bright greens and pinks in front of the mid-century house. “The typical landscape of the 1970s was lumps and lawn,” says Jonathan. “We wanted to break that up and we knew the lawn was always going to go. It was thirsty and spongey and wasn’t needed—and it was taking all the flat real estate that we wanted for making a lively counterpoint with plants.”
    Above: “So many topiaries were removed and yet it still feels like there’s a lot,” he says.

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  • Homeward Bound: My Childhood Connecticut, Only Better, at Dirt Road Farm – Gardenista

    Homeward Bound: My Childhood Connecticut, Only Better, at Dirt Road Farm – Gardenista

    All week, we’re republishing some of our favorite Garden Visits that have a personal connection to our writers. No public gardens here, no vast estates, no professionally designed landscapes—just the backyards, vegetable patches, and flower beds that remind our writers of home. This story by contributor Kendra Wilson is from October 2017.

    Sometimes a distant but well-loved place is even better than you remember. Weston, CT, has reached mythical status with the younger members of my family ever since we were uprooted to live in London, England, signaling the end of long summers, muggy evenings, and the sounds of crickets (and mosquitoes).

    Going back to Connecticut from Grand Central Station this summer was hardly an ordinary commute; fortunately our destination included Dirt Road Farm, the 5.5-acre home of farmers Phoebe Cole-Smith and her husband, Mike Smith. With lunch in the barn overlooking the garden and circa-1830 saltbox house, the dream of a perfect Connecticut setting was very much alive.

    Photography by Kerry Michaels. See more of her work on Instagram: @kerrymi.

    A grapevine shelters the kitchen patio of chef and farmer Phoebe Cole-Smith in Weston, CT.
    Above: A grapevine shelters the kitchen patio of chef and farmer Phoebe Cole-Smith in Weston, CT.

    Like many residents of Weston (and Westport, where commuters got off the train), Phoebe found Connecticut by way of New York, needing more space for her family. With a background in food and a training at the International Culinary Center, Phoebe’s days in publishing in the city were left behind as she made country life work for her. The small farm that she runs with husband Mike Smith offers something for local people, or those chasing a dream of New England, in the form of brilliantly conceived barn suppers.

    A sturdy pergola supports the grapevines.
    Above: A sturdy pergola supports the grapevines.

    Weston in the 1960s and early ’70s was a small town of farms and an “artist’s colony” that included New Yorker cartoonists, authors, and actors. The ratio has changed but this is one farm that has been added, not subtracted, having achieved farm status in 2011.

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  • Gail Pirkis’ Grass-Topped Home in Dartmoor: A Green (Literally) Building that Fades Into the Background

    Gail Pirkis’ Grass-Topped Home in Dartmoor: A Green (Literally) Building that Fades Into the Background

    Recently we spotted a project on The Modern House that compelled us to stop our scroll and investigate deeper: a home that looks otherworldly and not of this time, located in Dartmoor, a region of southwest England known for its rugged landscape dotted with outcroppings and pre-historic sites. Capped with a rolling green roof and set into a hillside, the two-story residence disappears into its environment, sometimes literally.

    “We wanted something that was timeless, that would still be here in a couple of hundred years. I read so many articles about houses with conservatories, swimming pools, tennis courts, games rooms and cinemas. You just don’t need all that,” its owner Gail Pirkis, a literary editor, told The Modern House. Instead, she and her husband, David, hired Peter Hall from Van der Steen and Hall Architects to design a unique but unostentatious house that “faded away around” the landscape.

    The project took seven years to complete, during which time they found themselves subtracting the superfluous from their plans (“we didn’t want fancy bathrooms; we didn’t want gizmos in the kitchen”). What they ended up with is a truly low-impact home with a soft, modest footprint that’s simpatico with the natural world that surrounds it.

    Here’s a peek. For the full story (and interior images), go here.

    Photography by Elliot Sheppard, courtesy of The Modern House.

    The couple prioritized the use of local materials.
    Above: The couple prioritized the use of local materials. “The granite that faces the building comes from the spoil heap of the quarry that was used to build nearby Castle Drogo, the last castle to be built in Britain designed by Edwin Lutyens.”

    Two levels of green roofs help keep the house cool in the summer months.
    Above: Two levels of green roofs help keep the house cool in the summer months.

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  • Pine Tar: A Sustainable, Natural Wood Preservative and Stain

    Pine Tar: A Sustainable, Natural Wood Preservative and Stain

    Venmo, dishwashers, those Instagram filters that give tired faces a glow-up—we can all agree our world has benefited from progress. But some things don’t need to be improved upon. Case in point: pine tar.

    Pine tar has been in existence since the days of the plundering-and-pilfering Vikings, who distilled the stuff in large quantities and used it to preserve their wooden ships. If it’s potent enough to waterproof these vessels that sailed the rough waters of the North Sea, it’s surely good enough to protect your wood fence, deck, garden shed, barn, or home.

    To learn more about pine tar, we reached out to the folks at Earth & Flax and Sage Restoration, two North American companies that specialize in natural Scandinavian paints and wood finishes, as well as Emil Jespersen, cofounder of Danish-Norwegian architecture firm Jespersen Nødtvedt, who recently worked with pine tar on a project for a client.

    What is pine tar?

    Plywood painted with pine tar clads the exterior of this cottage in Sweden by architect Johannes Norlander. Photograph by Rasmus Norlander, courtesy of Johannes Norlander Arkitektur, from Architect Visit: Johannes Norlander in Sweden.
    Above: Plywood painted with pine tar clads the exterior of this cottage in Sweden by architect Johannes Norlander. Photograph by Rasmus Norlander, courtesy of Johannes Norlander Arkitektur, from Architect Visit: Johannes Norlander in Sweden.

    Pine tar is a natural marine-grade wood preservative. Traditional pine tar was made by essentially cooking down pine stumps in fire pits to yield a syrup-y, dark-colored, and resin- and turpentine-rich liquid. Today, most pine tar products are produced in kilns (using heat only).

    Post-Viking Age, pine tar is primarily used as a finish for decks, fences, facades, and roofs in Scandinavian countries, but interest in the wood preservative is growing in the U.S. “What’s old is new again. People are looking for alternatives to modern chemical finishes, and architects are looking for something new to offer clients,” says Michael Sinclair of Sage Restoration, which is based in Tamworth, Ontario. “Our sales have been increasing every year.”

    Natalie Yon Eriksson, founder of Philadelphia’s Earth & Flax, agrees. “This trend is going strong. Pine tar has been used with or in place of the traditional Japanese shou sugi ban burned or charred siding treatment,” she says. “The best aspects of pine tar are that it is sourced from nature, using a waste product from the timber industry, and is an exceptional natural wood preservative.”

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