Removing an original chimney in a quiet neighborhood in Farmington Hills, Michigan, provided our clients with the opportunity to redesign the interior of their home.

It was blocking views, disrupting circulation and separating the kitchen from the entertainment spaces. Furthermore, it had caused multiple other problems for years: including, for example, roof leaks, insect infestation, mold and structural dry rot. What’s more, they were unaware of the full impact of these problems on their health as they struggled with asthma and allergies. For the same reason, they had not been able to make use of the fireplace because of the dust it produced.

On a modest budget, the floor plan was transformed. They can now entertain friends and grandchildren in a beautiful open space which includes the kitchen, dining and living rooms— all of which now share the benefits of a beautiful, broad, south-facing bank of windows. From the kitchen, our host can join the party in the living room for the first time.

Adding a Velux, ventilating skylight to the center of the space brought in fresh air, natural light, and stunning views of the walnut trees overhead. Here is an early photo ….

An initial proposal included a fixed picture window combined with a narrow, ventilating skylight. This design conformed to the original opening through the roof, framed around the old chimney. That constraint imposed a certain, awkward character on the project. Our client, a designer for many years at General Motors, and a professional perfectionist, was not satisfied; and frankly, neither were we. From the following photos, you can get an idea of what it looked like …

After several, fruitful consultations, we discovered a beautiful solution. Changing the size of the shaft and the skylight, as well as their location and orientation, made it possible to direct the afternoon sun down the central hallway to the bedroom wing. The benefits in overall design are many-sided. Now the scale and shape of both shaft and skylight perfectly suit the aesthetic of the beautiful, original, low-sloping roof.

This project only goes to show that a discerning client who has the patience and persistence to pursue his aesthetic sense makes all the difference in the world.

Our clients were losing heat and cooling through a poorly insulated roof structure. Huge icicles formed at the eves as their heating bills soared above $800 per month. They sorely needed maintenance but were also interested in improving the general appearance of the property.

In our design, improvements to the roof and exterior siding became part of a comprehensive strategy to lower heating and cooling costs. The changes improve comfort by maintaining stable interior temperature and introducing fresh air and diffused natural light. A new roof rises above the existing roof and cathedral ceiling. An insulating, airtight seal was achieved by applying closed-cell, polyurethane insulation between the living space and the new attic cavity. This cavity in turn is ventilated with new soffit vents and a thermostatically-controlled fan.

A remote-controlled Velux VSE, motorized, ventilating skylight brings fresh air and natural light into the library. Three deep and slanting shafts diffuse the western sun to make the space pleasant for reading and work on computers.

A standing seam metal roof provides an attractive contrast to several lower sloping planes of dimensional shingles. A special coating gives the installation an Energy Star rating for heat reflectivity.

Before

Installing the Metal Roof

Southeast Michigan

Built in 1961, this house began as a simple ranch with one long gable roof. Our clients retained us to study improvements in energy efficiency, maintenance and overall appearance.

Shingles needed to be replaced, siding repainted and insulation added to the ceiling. We proposed to combine the regular maintenance work with a new roof structure, a timber frame truss at the entry and some modifications to the exterior siding to achieve a dramatic effect in energy savings and overall design.

Permits are being approved and construction is scheduled to begin May 11.

We specialize in analyzing your dreams and bringing those dreams into a cohesive floor plan, specifically designed for you. Your new house will be so well designed to you, it will seem to breathe with you, not against you.

Since all plans are unique, we can not offer exact prices on the right plan for you with out knowing a bit more about your needs. Submit the form at the bottom of this page, and we will get right back to you with the custom quote on the home plan of your dreams.

What we offer:

Simple Floor Plans

We will take all your wishes, dreams, needs, and wants, and turn them into a Simple Floor Plan. It will show the entire layout of the home, including bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining area, foyer, garage, mudroom, stairs, windows, doors, closets, pantries, fireplaces, etc. It will also call out all the green features you want included in your plan. Simple Floor Plans are great to get an understanding of the new home without spending a fortune on full Construction Documents. We offer Simple Floor Plans as low as $195. For added fees, Simple Floor Plans can include detail kitchen design, bathroom design, window and door sizes, special ceilings, flooring materials, closet design, and other details. See below for more information.

3D Walk Through of Computer Model

Do you want to walk through your future front door? See your new kitchen? Request a quote below and let us show you! (Most houses only $99!)

Here is a sample walk through:

Construction Documents

Anxious to build? Have us draw the construction documents at a fraction of the standard cost! Submit the form below for your custom quote.

Kitchen Detailing

Want to design your custom kitchen? Where do you want the sink? Where should the big pans go? Let’s detail the whole thing! Most kitchens detailed for $175. Submit the form below for your custom quote.

Bathroom Detailing

Want double sinks? Granite? Ceramic? Dual shower heads? Water saving fixtures? We will go through all the details with you. Most bathrooms detailed for $99. Submit the form below for your custom quote.

Window and Door Detailing

How big should the windows be? How wide should the doors be? Mullions? Triple pane? Not sure? Let us help. Most houses detailed for $99. Submit the form below for your custom quote.

Going Green

How Green do you want to be? Green details included in all the above services for free!

Request a Quote:

Would you like an affordable custom home plan? Would you like it to be environmentally friendly? Submit this form and we will get right back to you with a custom quote for your unique needs.

Are you ready to accept your quote and make a down payment? Click below to make a payment:

Make Payment

Down Payment $75.00

Going green can be the easiest or hardest thing you ever do. It depends on how green you want to be.

Green design, or a green lifestyle, does not necessarily have a quantifiable definition. You might say there are many “shades of green.” In the most general sense, the measure for an individual, a building, or an institution,  is the impact, or footprint, on the environment. Carbon emissions, water usage, energy consumption, and landfill contributions are the basic components of an environmental footprint. You may already be somewhat green and not even realize it. If you use a recycle bin, own energy star appliances, or fluorescent light bulbs, you are already more green than the average citizen.

To be solid ‘green’ your environmental footprint must be environmentally sustainable. This is a debatable topic, because it is difficult to calculate how much each human can safely emit/use/consume/contribute while nature comfortably digests. For example, humans do not need to emit zero carbon to be sustainable. Nature—specifically, plants— consume carbon and emit oxygen in order to live. Human society can, therefore, safely emit a certain amount of carbon without threatening to render the earth uninhabitable.

It is possible to be ‘net zero’ and this is a popular goal in the building culture. This is not a problem, because many people are emitting much more than their share, and those at net zero are helping offset the others.

How green do you want to go? Please comment below.

Click Here to Request a Quote on Green Design

We are looking for a change in the appearance of the house to address the necessary maintenance and, at the same time, emphasize our appreciation of the natural landscape where we are at home with deer, great blue herons, wood ducks, and red-tailed hawks. The house has a new roof of “Weathered wood” dimensional shingles. But we have to select colors and textures and some architectural details for the siding and doors.

Primitive stone masonry protects the entrance to this cave dwelling in the American southwest.

Insulation

Recent spikes in energy costs have brought homeowners attention to the energy efficiency of their home. Insulation is one of the biggest factors in energy costs. A home’s walls, windows, doors, ceiling, and foundation should all be well insulated. Many homes have little or no insulation in all of these building components.

Wall Insulation
In the past, the standard wall construction was 2×4 framing with R-13 or lower insulation, most likely lower. The older your home, the lower the insulating capabilities of your walls. Many homes built before 1940 were built with no insulation at all. We recommend walls be built with a minimum or R-19 in 2×6 framing. The best option is using Structural Insulated Panels or SIPs. SIPs eliminate the framing members which cause thermal breaks every 16 or 24 inches. SIPs are also much thicker than standard walls, allowing for R-30 to be easily achieved. Another good alternative is spray foam insulation. It can be applied to standard framed buildings. It achieves about R-6 per inch and completely seals the building envelope. Applied in a 2×6 wall it would achieve about R-30.

Window Insulation
Most homes built before 1970 have single pane glass windows. The standard single pane of glass has an R value of .9. This is very poor even when compared to a poor wall system with R-13. Nowadays most windows are double pane. Standard double pane windows have an R value of 1.7. Although the price is significantly higher, triple pane glass offers the best insulating values at R-3.2.

Ceiling Insulation
Most older homes have very poor insulation in the ceiling, sometimes below R-19. We recommend a minimum of R-40 in ceilings. This is the most effective building component for improvement. R-30 insulation can easily be added to a homes attic for about $1 per square foot. That means if you have a 2000 square foot house, it would cost you about $2000 to significantly improve your home’s energy performance. This cost is usually recouped in just a few years, as insulation also plays a large role in air conditioning costs.

FYI: Icicles are a simple indicator of insulation quality. If you have large icicles building on your house, it means that a lot of your heat is escaping through your ceiling and melting the snow on your roof.

Foundation Insulation
Foundations should not go unnoticed. Insulation is important in the whole house, not just the walls and ceiling. Crawl spaces and basements should also be insulated. Because heat rises, R-13 is usually an efficient solution. The ground gets very cold up to 4 feet below the surface. Rigid foam should be used around the exterior of the foundation 4 feet below grade. Also, when finishing a basement used 2″ rigid insulation inside the concrete walls secured with furring strips.

Ventilation

Ventilation is another factor in energy efficiency. Attic ventilation is very important in the summer. In the summer an attic can become very hot, hotter, in fact, than the air outside. For example, on an average summer day of 85 degrees, an attic can easily reach temperatures over 100 degrees. When this happens, the demand on the air conditioner is much greater. Now, instead of trying to bring the temperature down 10 degrees, from 85 to 75, it has to bring it down 30 degrees, from 105 to 75. This is a demand of 3 times greater! Also, the hot attic allows the shingles to be even hotter, actually baking them in the sun, significantly reducing the lifespan of the roofing.

The answer is continuous ventilation. By keeping the attic air and the roofing at lower temperatures, both energy costs and maintenance costs are significantly reduced.

In the winter it is also important to ventilate the attic. If an attic is not ventilated, it will actually build up a little heat, especially if the ceiling insulation is low. This causes the snow on the roof to melt and the water runs down the roof until the surface is below 32 degrees, this is usually at the exterior wall, where the attic ends. There, the water freezes again and an ice dam begins to form This can be very damaging to the building. When it builds up enough that the water can no longer drain, it backs up into the house leaking through, rotting the structure and ruining drywall.

Again, the answer is continuous ventilation. By keeping the entire roof surface the same temperature as the exterior air, the whole roof can freeze and thaw uniformly, preventing ice dams.

How to achieve continuous ventilation
Continuous ventilation require three main components: supply, path, and exit. There are various types of soffit systems that allow for continuous ventilation. Baffles are usually required in each rafter space to permit the air to pass by the insulation into the attic space. Ridge vent is also required to allow for the air to exit. A continuous system is important so that air is drawn across the entire roof surface.

Other factors

Other factors that affect a home’s energy performance are furnace, air conditioner, water heater, and appliance efficiencies. Old or cheap equipment are not very efficient at maximizing the amount of heat generated from the fuel it consumes (similar to MPG of a car). Proper design will included the proper type and efficiency appliances specific to the client and their home.

Air infiltration is usually a factor in older homes. All windows and doors should be properly installed and have good weather striping. Electrical outlets and recessed lights should also be properly sealed in order not to lose the conditioned air.

Please contact us with any questions on how we can advise or assist you in making your home more energy efficient.

Energy efficient design is literally thousands of years old. Primitive peoples carefully oriented their structures to the sun and utilized masonry mass to store its heat. Other ancient designers in the arid Middle East employed ingenious strategies to modulate fresh air ventilation and the cooling effect of evaporating water.

Keeping such time-honored techniques in mind, we design for natural lighting, fresh air ventilation and passive heating and cooling as the best start for an energy-efficient home. This approach begins from the premise that good design has always preserved natural resources.

New technologies offer many ways to strengthen a good design but cannot replace it. The proper application of insulation, sealants and thermal breaks, for example, is of vital importance. We employ the latest techniques in thermal imaging and blower-door infiltration testing to develop the most effective strategies for our clients.

To arrange your energy audit, or other consultation, please, contact us.

Can you build a bed similar to this?

I would like it to be queen size, reddish/honey in color, platform style, and be able to take it apart when I move.

Our proposal:

Is something like this what you would like? It is red oak finished with tung oil, queen size, platform, and comes in two sections: the head board and the platform.

Reddish honey describes red oak quite well, and is a more affordable option.

Andrea’s response:

Yes, but can you make the curve in the head board more pronounced?

With the modifications:

Under construction:

I would like a custom bunk bed made for my two girls. I am looking for:

Red oak finish
Must have stairs – Violet can not and will not do a ladder.
Low to the ground – I like the shorter height for safety.
Have a “cave like” lower bed for my oldest
Storage – I have a small house downriver and need to store their clothes.  I am okay with a “commercial” dresser being put in as long as it matched/didnt look strange.
Sturdy – Needs to be able to hold an adult with the child.

Similar to this one but stronger and more affordable if possible:

The current room layout:

Where the chair ends is about 96 inches.  The bed in the top right is the crib, bottom left is car bed.  Along the left wall is a giant change table/wall unit which will have to go.

Thanks,
Michelle

What a great project Michelle! We can certainly make this bed. We would make it in 4 sections: the lower bed, upper bed, dresser, and stairs. To keep the price low we will use plywood with oak veneer and edge banding, along with less curves to simplify the construction.  We will add extra support to hold 2 people at a time. We can also space out the time line to meet your budget. You can purchase the sections as your budget allows.

Here is the basic shape with the colors showing the sections:

If you would like to accept this proposal and make a down payment, we will begin the design process in which we will further customize the details.

]]> http://rougerivergroup.com/custom-bunk-bed-for-michelle/feed/ 19 http://rougerivergroup.com/what-do-you-think-of-the-new-web-design/ http://rougerivergroup.com/what-do-you-think-of-the-new-web-design/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:50:28 +0000 Rufino http://rougerivergroup.com/?p=816 Dear friends,

We have recently redesigned our website seeking transparency, fluidity and more accessible content. We would welcome comments and suggestions, which you can post below. We would also like to expand the testimonials page. Please, submit a testimonial if you can think of something good to say

We are looking forward to your response!

GETTING STARTED
The first stage is for us to meet and discuss your scheme, your wishes and practical requirements, as well as the budget and time constraints. Town planning, rights of adjoining owners and the building regulations are matters that also need early consideration.

Once appointed as your designer, we agree on a design brief with you, defining all essential components of the project. A measured survey of the building or the site will also need to be arranged before we prepare design sketches.

THE SKETCH DESIGN
Using the survey information, we prepare the initial sketches and develop the design with you. In certain cases, we may recommend seeking specific guidance from the planning authorities. Outline cost estimates will also be prepared at this stage.

OBTAINING PLANNING APPROVAL
The sketch proposals are now developed to provide more detailed drawings that can be submitted to the local authority to apply for planning permission.

COMPLYING WITH THE BUILDING REGULATIONS
We prepare drawings showing how your scheme will meet the various construction regulations and these are submitted to the local authority for approval.

ESTIMATING THE CONSTRUCTION COSTS
To obtain a general estimate of costs from a builder, or us, the building regulation drawings are usually suitable.

For more accurate prices, we recommend the project be tendered to several builders who will each prepare detailed costs for the work. We assemble the additional information required, such as detailed drawings, a specification and a schedule of works, and provide an analysis of the tenders that are returned.

BEGINNING THE WORK ON SITE
If you do not choose us to build the project, you may choose to deal directly with the builder or you may prefer to continue using us to manage the project throughout the construction stage.

ADMINISTERING THE CONTRACT
We can advise on the choice of contract to appoint the builder and visit the site to monitor progress and inspect the work, as well as dealing with questions that arise during construction. We also certify the value of the work carried out.

At the end of the work, we determine when the job is finished to an acceptable standard, and in doing so, define the period during which the builder is responsible for remedying any defects. With all work completed and with all accounts settled, we can issue a final certificate to terminate the contract.

Two writers asked us to rejuvenate a 1940′s home in Lathrup Village, Michigan. This is the result…

Client’s testimonial: