This is the third post about my modern remodel in Austin, Texas. Click here for all ‘My Remodel’ posts.

As I covered in the Home Search post, we considered our remodeling options when we purchased our home.  We found a small home on a big-enough lot and began to plan our project.

Starting Point

The original home sits towards the front of a long, narrow city-size lot with homes on either side.  There are several medium sized trees on the property and one large Elm on the North property line, all of which shade the rear of the house (West) from the afternoon sun.  Here’s a top view of my rough model (North is up):

While the existing garage was moments away from collapse, the house was structurally sound.  We wanted to re-use as much of it as possible.  Here is the floorplan:

You can see that the home was originally a 3 bedroom 1 bath with a small living room and kitchen.  We think the rear addition was a closed-in back-porch that was completed in the 1970’s or 1980’s.  It wasn’t well built, and had several structural issues. 

Here are some photos of the original house:

Design Goals – Fashion and Function

With a long and narrow lot, an existing house, and several good sized trees, we knew our remodel/addition design would be challenging.  We did our best to keep our program simple and to stay open to our architect’s ideas.  Here is a list of our ‘functional’ criteria:

• Open and connected common areas (living, dining, kitchen …)
• Strong connection to the outdoors (lots of glass, outdoor living)
• Energy efficient design (minimize solar heat gain, maximize breeze …)
• Main floor master and guest bedrooms
• Secluded office (I like quiet, my wife likes to hide my mess, win-win)
• Option for separate studio and workshop

As for fashion, our tastes lean towards Modern and MCM architecture/design, however we also wanted our home to relate to the design elements of our neighborhood (mostly Craftsman and some Victorian).  An interesting challenge, so we left this up to our architect .  Lets see how we did before this post gets any longer.

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A wide variety of links this week – something for everyone:

Austin (Good) News

• Austin gets high marks in yet another nationwide ranking- Austin Business Journal: Survey: Austin high on most-desirable list. Perhaps this survey states the obvious (of course people want to move here!), but its nice to get the national recognition.
• Today Show Real Estate Expert (and successful investor) Barbara Corcoran calls out South Austin as one of four “up and coming” neighborhoods in the country. See the video – MSNBC – Barbara Corcoran on up and coming neighborhoods.

Green Building & Architecture

• I’ve seen a lot of architects make customer furniture, however there are several other venues for their design skills. Archinect points out some notable examples – Archinect: Architects’ Designs on Fashion and Boating
• Great news for green entrepreneurs – Techcrunch: Google Takes on Global Warming. See the full Google press release here.
• Even the famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center has gone ‘green’ with solar panels and LED lights – Apartment Therapy: Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Goes Green.
• For those considering a remodel or addition in the near future (myself), here is some good news – The Real Estate Bloggers: Time To Rebuild The Deck, Or Lumber Prices Decline On Low Demand.

Real Estate

• Check out this listing: Lautner Designed Lucien Hubbard’s Desert Hot Springs Motel For Sale for only $495,000! Seems like a deal to me! I think a certain local modern blogger (and Lautner fan) may need to move to Desert Hot Springs, CA. For more cool listings with great photos checkout ArchitectureForSale.com.
• Another unique home in the desert (although not for sale), the USA Today tours magician Teller’s home – USA Today: Teller’s magical Vegas retreat speaks volumes.
• If you have $40 Million to spend here’s a great Richard Meier designed condo for you Curbed: On the Market: What $40 Million at Meier Gets You.
• Finally, read this post for a tough lesson on Adverse Possession – BoingBoing: Land grab case in Boulder incites anger and protests

Misc

• Google Maps adds terrain data Google LatLong: Explore new terrain.
• Perhaps some holiday gift ideas for your favorite bookworm NY Times: 10 Best Books of 2007.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it lasts!

Public competition is often used as a tool to spur innovation. Recent high-profile examples include the widely publicized Ansari X-Prize and the DARPA Grand Challenge. The technologies developed by each of the teams in these competitions serve to advance the state of the art in the field.

To bring this competition and innovation to the field of high-performance (green), solar-powered homes, the US Department of Energy created the Solar Decathlon. Here’s a description from their website:

The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

The competition is composed of 10 contests, each grading a different aspect of the designs. The 10 contests are: Architecture, Engineering, Market Viability, Communications, Comfort Zone, Appliances, Hot Water, Lighting, Energy Balance, Getting Around. This variety forces the students to make difficult trade-offs when optimizing their designs, and of course to innovate.

For those in the DC area, the Solar Decathlon takes place on the National Mall this week, and the homes are open to the public every day except Wednesday, 10/17. The winner is announced on Friday. Here are a few of the competing designs for 2007:

The University of Colorado has won both of the past two competitions (2002 and 2005). Here is a rendering of their 2007 design:

As we’re in Austin, here is the UT design:

Finally, I’m an Aggie, so here is the Texas A&M Design:

For more details check out the main Solar Decathlon Website and the Inhabitat Coverage. Also, here’s a recent Statesman article about the UT design – UT team ready as solar decathlon opens. Send me an email if you plan to check it out in person.

Here’s hoping for a Texas team to end the Colorado Dynasty.

A long list, but a lot of variety….

Austin Real Estate News

• Our local modern bloggers, remodellers, and Door Business Owners were written up in the Statesman this week. Congratulations Erwins! Statesman: Remodeling opens doors for family in Crestview
• Have you ever wondered if those UT apartments near the Tom Miller Dam (on Lake Austin Blvd) will ever be redeveloped? Here’s a hint at the answer: Austinist: UT Releases Recommendations for Brackenridge Tract
• In other waterfront property news - Statesman: Windy Point on the market for $15 million
• And some national press coverage of Austin real estate affordability – BusinessWeek: South stands out for home value
• Real Estate Investment Blogger Jeff “Bawldguy” Brown was here last week, and I think he liked what he saw – BawldGuy Talking: Real Estate Investors — Austin Deserves Serious Attention — BawldGuy Wish List

Some good Dwell blog links

• Dwell: Modernism at McDonalds… I know, but check out the photos.
• And a Dwell link with photos from a recent San Francisco homes tour – Dwell: San Francisco Living Home Tours

Google Mapping Updates

• YouTube videos in Google Earth? Think of the possibilities… Google Earth Blog: New YouTube Layer in Google Earth
• And new satellite imagery to go with your videos – Google Earth Blog: Google Earth Imagery Update
• What about Google Maps? Now it includes Streetview images for 6 new cities: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson – Google LatLong: More Street View cities to explore

Good night, and good luck.

A few links for the weekend:

• In Wind Energy news, from the Austin Business Journal: Austin Energy boosting wind generated power
• The Dwell Blog has a cool video of architects building a massive Lego cityVideo: Lego Mania
• Check out My Money Blog for A Comparison Of Home Flipping Shows: Flip This House, Flip That House, and The Property Ladder. I personally prefer the shows that follow up with the flippers to convey the true outcome, instead of bragging up the ‘projected profit’.
• Slashdot covers a Method for $1/Watt Solar Panels Will Soon See Commercial Use.
• Lifehacker points out a map based local music search: Find Local Music with Gruvr Maps. It’s a neat app, we’ll see if it can handle the # of shows in Austin.
• Rolling Stone lists the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Enjoy.