I happened to run across HGTV’s Dream House 2009. Here it is.

The outside looks nice, but the plans are pretty bad. (more…)

    Home security systems can be pretty sophisticated these days. We have sensors that detect the sound of breaking glass, pressure pads that are placed under carpets. and even tiny security cameras that can be tied to the internet so you can monitor your house from halfway around the world. We used the camera set-up on a house I designed in Hawaii. The Owners live in Hong Kong, but they can check in whenever they want to see if the local surfers are swimming in their swimming pool!

    But before the days of electronics, houses still needed some measure of security. I ran across this one in Old Town San Diego at the Casa de Estudillo. The adobe wall around a portion of the property was topped with shards of jagged terra cotta. (more…)

    If you have wood floors in your kitchen and a natural wood finish on your kitchen cabinets, should the floors and cabinets be the same species of wood and the same color or should they contrast? And if they should contrast, which should be the darker color?

    I often discuss this issue with my clients. My feeling is that there needs to be some color distinction between the flooring and the cabinetry so that the cabinets don’t look like the floor is simply wrapping itself up the walls. After all, one is the floor and the other is essentially furniture and they should express themselves differently. I would suggest that there is no rule about which wood is the lighter or the darker. (more…)

    Here is a little tip to keep in mind when you are selecting a tile floor for your shower. Make sure the tile is relatively small. The reason might not seem obvious at first. A shower floor needs to have a slope so the water will flow toward the drain. Puddles in a shower floor are a slipping hazard and mold will grow in the puddle quite quickly. Generally, the drain is placed in the center of the floor to create an even slope from each wall to the drain. (more…)

    Passive solar design, green and sustainable building are not new inventions. Who would have thought that we would be returning to the house design principles of more than a century and a half ago?

    I was in San Diego recently and visited the part of town they call Old Town San Diego. I don’t think the buildings are the actual original structures, but they are reproductions that are authentic to the mid 1800′s. One house La Casa de Estudillo, is built in the Spanish Colonial style of the early California settlers. You can see from the photographs that it is built in a “U” shape with a covered veranda wrapping the inside of the “U”. In the center is an outdoor space that is planted and has a water feature in the center. (more…)

    Here’s the answer to yesterday’s Dream House Fumble question.

    House design mistakes are all around us. Unfortunately, we tend to look right by them. But I’m on a mission to point some of these out, just to raise the bar on what we “demand” of the marketplace in terms of house design. Often, the mistakes could have been easily avoided, if only someone bothered to think about what they were doing. Here’s the photo of DHF #2 again: (more…)

    Green roofs are roofs that have grass of other plant materials growing right on top of them. The theory is that the roof will stay cooler and reflect less heat back into the atmosphere.

    There was an interesting article in the Raleigh News and Observer today. It was about how the local Universities are going “green” in an effort to attract students. They discussed some of the green projects, especially the green roof at Duke University Hospital. (more…)

    Here’s your quiz in House Design for this week. I ran across this house in a neighborhood where I do a lot of work. It hit me hard and I just had to stop and take a photo to share with you. Let me know if the same thing bothers you as it bothered me. I’ll post my opinion on Monday.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Thanks for reading,

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com

    Radon is back in the news. Radio personality Paul Harvey, the New York Times, and other news outlets reported recently that granite countertops pose a threat of emitting radon gas. Radon gas has been purportedly linked to risk of lung cancer. The Marble Institute of America has responded with a scholarly report essentially saying that the radon emissions from granite are so miniscule that they warrant no fears.

    It seems that this report surfaces every ten years, or so. It has been promoted by the makers of competing countertop materials, like quartz products like Cambria or Silestone and solid surfaces like Corian. You can read and listen to the reports for yourself, but it seems to me that this is a Chicken Little issue that grabs the media’s attention and the stone countertop industry then has to spend lots of time and money de-bunking it. (more…)

    Here’s a small, but important tip for placement of recessed lights in ceilings.    

    If you are placing a ceiling fan in the ceiling of a room and you plan on using recessed lights in the ceiling, make sure to keep the lights well away from the blades of the fan. If you don’t do this, the turning blades of the fan will produce a strobe light effect. Of course, if you’re really into disco and yearn for the 80′s, this might be a great thing. but for most of us, this kind of flashing light situation isn’t very good.

    So my general rule is to keep the ceiling lights at least a few feet away from the ends of the fan blades and even more if the fan is suspended farther away from the ceiling.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com