Custom House in Chino Hills

Continued development of the elevations previously posted under "Recent Work"; this is a custom house, approximately 5200 square feet in size.

Colored front elevation by Steve Royse.

The Lot is located in an area of rolling wooded hills dotted with live oaks, with views down a small valley. The site is a bit difficult because it slopes pretty steeply southward, and extensive grading will be necessary to create a large enough flat pad for a single-story house. (There will be lots of grading photos in the future).

                                              South                                                             SW                                                            West                                    This is a panoramic view from the center of the site. The main rooms will face nearly due South, which provides the best views The master suite will have South and West views.

All four elevations. The front of the house faces North, the rear faces South.

Recent Work

Elevation sketches for a custom house:

First study for the entry elevation to determine masses and composition of the portico.

Revised entry elevation with added cupola and window bays

Currently doing preliminary designs, and preparing presentation drawings for design review. I will post more as the project continues.

Remodel, Post #2

     This is an update of the project previously posted under, "Back to Work", and fills in some context and background for the job.

     First the existing house: this is a fairly common style single-story ranch house, built in the mid sixties. The elevations and plan of the existing house are shown below.

The client has asked to enlarge the first floor bedrooms at the front of the house, add a playroom or den, and create a second-floor master suite. The extent of the additions are visible on the site plan below:

The colored sketch of the front elevation, below, is further developed, and reflects refinements to the floor plans since the first elevation sketch, shown in the last post.
     The first elevation sketch felt a little too Arts-and-Crafts in style; the clients have asked for something with a modern tropical style: open roof framing, metal roof, wood windows, clapboards, etc.:

Front Elevation (thanks to Steve Royse for doing the rendering).

     This is just the preliminary design; final floor plans and progress pictures will follow, as the job progresses.

Back to work

Elevation sketches for a renovation/addition to a house in Newport Beach: 

Front Elevation

Left Side Elevation

The Program on this project is to add a second-floor bedroom suite to an existing single-story house. Living rooms and seecondary bedrooms on the first floor will also be enlarged.

I will post more as this job progresses.

House on the Coast, Post#8

(A continuing series of construction progress photos)

Stucco Time.
At this point, the house has been wrapped with building paper and lath, and the appplication of stucco has begun. The finished pre-cast moldings are first anchored in place, and the grey scratch coat of plaster is trowelled on. The finish stucco color will be applied later.

Front elevation with precast and stucco scratch coat.
Tile is loaded on the roof

Front driveway court

Front driveway court from right side.
The driveway leads down the right side into the basement garage.

Rear elevation. The landscape work to the right is a large pool
(more about that later)

The precast moorish arches are a design motif which appears inside as well as outside. The arches are surrounded by panels with abstract floral designs.

precast arches and balcony at front elevation.

Close-up of precast entry portico.

Detail of precast moorish arch and decorative panel.

This is part of the colonnade visible during framing in previous post, #7.
The steel posts will be covered with precast columns.

Variation on a theme: the loggia outside the library is composed by
alternating sizes of arches.

The interior is progressing also, and is now starting to show elements of the final design:

Coffered arched ceiling in the master bedroom.

The theme of the moorish arched is continued
on the interior.

Coffered ceiling in living room.

View of rear yard from second floor balcony; the pool is taking shape,
and the view is already wonderful.

House on the Coast, Post #7

(A continuing series of construction progress photos)

 I have been remiss in updating for quite a while, so I will try make up a lot of ground quickly.

These pictures show the completion of rough framing:

Font Elevation: Now it is possible to see the massing and roof lines.

Front elevation from the right corner.

Arches that will be a major design feature are boxed from plywood, and will
be clad in precast concrete moldings later.

House on the Coast, Post #6

(A continuing series of construction progress photos)

There has been a bit of a lull over Thanksgiving, but the first floor is finished. The second floor has been sheathed, and the framers are laying out the second floor walls in the photos below.

House on the Coast, Post #5

Joists being set for the first floor:


And first-floor walls go up quickly:



So far, the weather is holding. There was a chance of showers today, but nothing materialized. In the next few days, floor joists for the second floor will be in place

House on the Coast, Post #4

The contractor is wasting no time in moving ahead with framing. This photo was taken on Friday afternoon:


Because this project has a an accelerated construction schedule, the steel contractor had begun fabricating the beams and columns well ahead of time, allowing them to be assembled immediately after the foundation was poured.

Since the last post, waterproofing has been applied to the exterior of the basement walls, visible as the black areas. The majority of the structural steel is in place, providing a large clear space for the garage, seen at the right-rear portion of the house. Most of the remaining area is framed conventionally, in wood. The corrugated steel pans at the right side will support poured-concrete patio areas, and the frames extending above the foundation support a second-floor deck over a large first-floor loggia.

The next major task is to set floor joists and sheathing on the first floor.

House on the Coast, Post #3

The concrete for the basement retaining walls was poured last week, and when I stopped by the site on Saturday, they had nearly finished stripping the formwork. The notches at the top of the walls are locations where landscape paving meets inset door thresholds; the cantilevered projections on the left side are locations of fireplaces.

It rained a moderate amount last week, but you can't tell by looking at the ground here. We are back into 90-degree weather, and things dry out rapidly. Despite the general aridity, a layer of fog, known as a marine layer, which is common along the coast in the morning, is visible covering the ocean surface in the background.

The next major operation will be setting structural steel, before framing begins.

House on the Coast, Post #2

view from front, left corner of house

Placing of formwork for the basement walls continues. It is possible to see the size shape of the floor plan, now. The basement will house the garage (the location of the garage door is not visible, yet), as well as conditioned space. At the left rear, the break in the wall will be the location of doors which provide a walk-out to the back yard.

There is good weather now, but we are expecting a wetter-than-normal fall and winter, so it is important to get the basement done quickly and avoid having a hole filled with water.

view from front, right corner of house

The excavated area at the lower right will be where the driveway descends.

House on the Coast, Post #1

This is a custom house project in Orange County, overlooking the ocean. I was working on this house before I was laid off, but I hope to be able to maintain regular updates as the construction progresses.
Reinforcement for the concrete basement slab is in place.

The basement slab has been poured, and forms for the basement walls are being placed. The ocean is visible in the background.