the phritzery

http://www.sfgate.com/maps/sfhomicides/

… is receiving a Starbucks mega-holiday gift basket from hotmovies.com!

http://news.google.com/news?q=florida+evolution

but in case you don’t have the time, just read this:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2007/12/boe-member-i-wa.html

This is not a joke. Follow the link, scroll down, and hit play.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/12/highway_to_hysteria.php

They want a “holy nation.”

This stuff (along with Dover PA, Texas, etc.) is scaring the hell out of me. Perhaps I’ll relocate the phritzery to some place civilized.

This is, apparently, what things will look like when I invite the A-Team, the Ottomans, Stephen Colbert Jr., and a cat over to my place. Courtesy of Mark. Click to enlarge. (The third one is the view from the area under the overhang towards the back of the building).

Here are some perspectives of the scheme without the most of the minor changes we made on Friday. But it gives a better idea than just the floorplans. Click to enlarge.

What a long crazy trip it’s been, wow what an adventure, i can’t believe this year is over, where are you going to college, party at the moon tower, etc etc etc. Which is my way of saying that we’re graduating from the floor-planning stage to the stage that comes next, technical drawings (if I understand the process right…. Big Puff Dog?).

Anyhoo, The Plan goes like this: we make a few minor modifications to the latest plans we’ve been working on (see below) and give it to a couple of contractors to bid on. If bids come back under budget (riiiight) or near budget, we go with it, perhaps trimming a little of the fat to make it work (e.g., removing a skylight). If things come in significantly above budget, or if we can’t pare things down without removing essential items, we fall back on the most basic, original plan. Knowing Gary and Mark, they’re going to make it work on the budget.

OK, class, if you refer to your notes from last time you’ll recall we were working on a industrial-looking space where we ripped out most of the second floor leaving lots of open space (click to enlarge):

That’s still the idea, but we refined the design in a few ways, including adding a “pod” on the second level that can act as a reading nook or a place to crash. The plans under consideration last night looked like this:

Floor 1

Floor 2

It’s a little hard to explain the following changes to the above floorplans without a good 3-D view, but I’ll try. If it doesn’t make sense, wait for the views I’ll post soon.

These PDF’s are a little hard to read because they include a lot of planning information. You can zoom in holding ctrl/apple and hitting the + key. The orientation of the drawing is with the front of the building at the top.

The first floor will remain basically as shown. There’s the garage at the top with the long, thin entranceway from the street. This entranceway has a double-height ceiling. If you continued straight down the right hand side of the drawing you end in a bathroom. Along this corridor (it’s not actually a hallway because it is mostly-open in the sense that there are views into the main space) the blocks you see are storage spaces of one kind or another. At the top of the main living space is where the couches and TV would go, facing the wall that separates it from the garage. The area marked “production room” is actually a kitchen on the right. Below that is a small dining area and the deck. The main living space is completely open, and (as you’ll see) has a double-height ceiling in the middle. Regular height ceilings are over the TV area and the dining area, making them a bit cozier.

Go up the stairs. The room at the top of this floor is the master bedroom, and is set off from the street with a thin, very cleverly screened deck. Moving your eyes down the page you see the immediately adjactent area labeled “production.” This is a railed platform overlooking the main living space that was to be used as an office (look at the area labeled “office (2nd fl)” in this 3d shot). See the 3-D shot above. However, we’re going to shrink the length of it and put the office elsewhere (you’ll see). The shaded area on the right is grating, forming the hallway connecting the master bed and platform with the full bath in the bottom right. The “pod” you see hanging off the side was to be used as a reading nook or crash room, but we’re going to enlarge it slightly so that it could also be used as a “real” second bedroom for a roommate.

Now, here’s the kicker. See how in the above 3-d model the stairs continue up from the second floor to the roof? Well we’re going to have the stairs terminate in a small room perched on the roof. This room will be an office. How sweet is that? And how much are the neighbors gonna hate on me?

There’s a lot more to explain about the concept as a whole, but I think I’ll save that for later. Also, if the idea as a whole is unclear, seeing 3-d renderings will really help. I will post 3-d renderings, pictures of the model Gary and Mark built, and the refined floorplans as I get them.

As far as timeline goes, assuming we’re on-budget and the design is properly camouflaged, the detailed schematics should take a few months, plus another month or so for permits (Ceiling cat-willing), and we can get started.

I think this is a pretty sweet, totally unique (can something be less than totally unique?) design. Good work, guys! BFF!

(Interested to hear what the peanut gallery thinks too!)

Tonight I’m convening the Brain Trust (Gary, Mark, Big Puff Dog) to make a final decision on what direction to go with the plans: try to squeeze the most recent plans into my now more limited budget or go with a previous, simpler iteration.

In the words of our fearless leader: I AM THE DECIDER!

For some reason I just can’t stop laughing at this:

The one who hates us so much he moved to hell-A points me to what is quite possibly the best Halloween song ever… Behold! The Greenskeepers: Lotion