Custom door

(continued from earlier)



The type of door installed here becomes very important. It had to provide full control of privacy and view because the potential function of the separate rooms are so different. I needed a fully glazed door with integral blinds. It also had to be seamless, contemporary-looking and maintenance-free.

My search turned up nothing like it for sale.

I had to design and fabricate it.

New doorway

After careful consideration, I decided to open a doorway between the "living room" (now office/library/den) and bedroom #2. The floor plan here is such that having the access is ultimately better than not having it. My estimation is that it will improve circulation, function, comfort, accessibility and home value.



Structural restrictions were also absent. There was no load from above, no shear wall involved and no mounting substrate to be eliminated. It was a simple cutaway of a non-load-bearing interior partition.

Nonetheless, for good measure I built a double 2x6 header with sandwiched 1/2" plywood and further added a Simpson LSTI49 reaching across four studs. Existing sheetrock was used as patch for good texture match.

See completed door.

Wall speakers

I got a "designer's deal" from Cambridge Soundworks for their top-of-the-line in-wall speakers. Retailing at $200 a pair, I got these Ambiance 82's for $160. It fits perfectly in the gable wall created after raising the ceiling to the rafters. Speaker wires are routed to this room and to the family room.

Home office

As global headquarters for my burgeoning world-conquering business (yeah, sure), my home office had to be spectacular. While most any space in a typical house can be adapted to serve as a basic office, for me the criteria were proximity to an exterior door, relative privacy, space for occasional sitting clients and an efficient computer layout (criteria which are actually quite universal for any viable home-based, computer-dependent business).



The original living room was perfect for a makeover. It's right off the front door. It's an otherwise static 12 by 16 foot box that gets little use. The new bow window improved it dramatically. Gleaming morning sun, though controlled by the Pella slimshades, meant the computer displays had to face perpendicular. It was the only absolute. Besides that, the entire room design was a balance of flexibility, feasibility and fantastic features.

My needs also included a side layout (conference) table, lots of deep desktops (for large drawing sheets) and plenty of bookshelves. Mindful of the potential for a change in room function, I designed semi-modular components. They would simply be furniture pieces. In fact, I scaled back my original plans and went with simple same-height work surfaces all around (instead of lowering the printer table, for example). The built-in wall shelves can hopefully serve as general storage at some point in the future when I'm gone.

Next, raising the flat ceiling to a nice volume.

Bow window, part 4

(Continued from part 3.)

Day of total completion for the bow window... All glazing surfaces have been applied with Rain-X, which is an excellent surface treatment for all glass surfaces. The interior pine surfaces got a light sanding, a coat of wood primer, then two coats of latex enamel semi-gloss paint.
Pella has a nice fold-away crank feature and a convenient low-position locking lever that operates both latches simultaneously. The bugscreen has an extension knob that aligns with the slimshade adjustment knob. These are essentially triple-glazed units with the extra glazing panel over the slimshades. The fixed sashes have a U-factor of 0.27 (the lower the better) while the casement sashes are 0.30 — truly amazing performance. It's quite noticeable, too, like when standing at the window on a cold windy day or when a noisy vehicle drives by. This is truly a high-performance window.