All the windows of my heart I open to the day.
John Greenleaf Whittier
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| window shopping in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California |
As a child I had an absorbing pleasure of drawing simple box houses. I loved drawing the square, then the triangle and finally the little rectangles for the windows. The real fun came with the windows. I would make curtains or sashes or even a flower in a vase sitting on the sill. Sometimes I would color the inside of the windows with bright yellow. To this day I love paintings of simple, block houses.
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| Georgia O'Keefe Barn with Snow c. 1933 |
It is no wonder that I wanted a simple, box shaped house. Built of straw. But 2008 happened and no one would give us a loan for straw bale construction. They would give us a construction loan for a stick house. No bricks---earthquake country. No straw---unconventional. Just sticks. This is getting to sound like Three Little Pigs.
There are some elements of a straw bale house that we were able to keep. The window sills done in earth plaster, walls with lime plaster with clay paint and a few other things. I love some softness that the windows provide, but I also love angles. My eye needs some conventional space that provides a protective hardness, too. A stretched canvas board feeling. Too much softness would swallow me up. I need some framing solidness, too.
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| first layer of earth plaster |
The windows are in and we are happy with them. I learned a lot about windows. I learn that they are expensive. We had to find windows with no UVA coating for the south exposure. Which is harder to explain to salespeople why we want sun-damaging rays to fade our concrete floor than to get them to sell us non-UVA coated windows. We also needed hopper windows for the cupola (clerestory.) Turns out that the bedroom windows need casement windows because of new changes in fire code. We also needed hopper windows for the cupola (clerestory.) Then hopper windows were switched out to awning windows which will open with old-fashioned climb up a ladder with a long pole and hook method. I might add, with cross-fingers and someday a very tall visiting grandson.
At noon the winter solstice sun streams through this window!
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| south side |
Your home is a work of art. I love all the choices you've made with window placement and walls and beams. When do you get to move-in?
ReplyDeleteI've never seen that Georgia O'Keefe piece -- very cool!
Our Architect, Tim, listens. We listen. We talk and suggest. It is a collaboration. Completion is slated for fall.
DeleteGeorgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe and the San Diego Art Museum has her barn paintings. They are rich, soulful and enigmatic. A must see in person!
I've never seen that Georgia O'Keefe painting either, wonderful, Carmel is a great place to visit. I would love to live in a straw bale home some day. I built my lavender gift shop in California as passive solar and in winter it was so warm in there from the sun heating up the concrete porch and radiating through the sliding glass door. A home with a cupola, what a treasure that will be with the light coming in.
ReplyDeleteWe love going down to Monterrey and Carmel. I went to first grade in Monterrey. The school was right next to Hwy 1. We swept sand off our front stoop daily. My Cajun father loved living there and we would go fishing down by Cannery Row (which was not a tourist attraction then!)
DeleteIt is good to hear about the sun heating up the concrete. I need to hear that it really works! It sounds like your shop was so beautiful. It must have been hard to leave.