Thursday, July 15, 2010

Extreme [Garage] Makeover

Just this afternoon I finished cleaning out my family's garage. Now you may think that it was a chore, or I was being paid or something. I am heare to say, though, that from July 14 to July 15, I decidedly, and freely, put almost all of my free time into that big old mess of a "garage." (We use it more like a shed, even though it acctually qualifies as an "oversized garage.") I know that if you're reading this blog, you're probably wondering how the heck this relates to architecture. Well, the garage I just cleaned out is a single car garage. Typically, single car garages are nine or ten feet wide. On the other hand, mine is fourteen, and although most are as short as 15 feet, mine is 21 feet long. We have a ten-foot-wide garage door, and a "people door" on the same side. Even with this masive square footage, my family (me included) manages to completely trash, and fill up, the garage. We need counters! Cupboards! Grocery store shelves! Anything to keep our junk off the floor! Right now were living off of "Jiffy Shelves" and plastic tubs. They work okay; my mom has two that she uses, and I have a huge cabinet that I use. There is one for other stuff, and we have two shelves that stretch about ten feet accross the back. Here's a hint about the now-quality of those shelves accross the back: My dad built them by hand when the garage was built - in October of 1988. We have - or had - furniture all over the floor, too, at least until the annual Eastmorland grarage sale in June. We sold a dining room table, and put a huge bookcase in storage for my sister. Then, of course, we acquired a book case and a bedside table from her - the reason all of her stuff is coming home/going into storage is because she is moving home at the end of tchairs! his month. Anywahy, at least her furniture is small. Oh, and I forgot the chairs! That dining room table we sold? We kept the chairs; here's the story: My mom doesn't like our breakfast room chairs, so we went and bought a dining room set off of Craigslist.com in which we all liked the chairs. We kept the table and chairs in the garage until the sale (for like, three months), along with that freaking bookcase/desk that went to my sis. Now all that's left of those are the chairs, which I stacked in a corner. Oh, we also have a rocking chair in there. That's all; I promise. Here's the tally:bedside table, bookcase, four akwardly-stacking chairs, big rocking chair. Now that two bikes are up hanging from the rafters on top of that, our garage is lookin' pretty good! If any of you guys have any organizing tips at all, feel free to leave a comment!

- Herbie131

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cornerstone Designs, LLC

My favorite design company of all time is Cornerstone Designs. I have also developed a little trick in order to find their plans. Whenever I'm on Coolhouseplans.com, I can tell which plans are theirs by (1) the elevation [facade] picture, and (2) by the font of the writing on the plan.

The elevations of Cornerstone Designs homes are completely computer generated. Look at all of the elevation pictures on the right sidebar of my blog right now. See how their composition is so that you can tell good and well that they were done on the computer, but at the same time, they look so real? Those are my favorite types of elevation pictures, and those are they are the work of Cornerstone Designs.

Onto number 2, the plan fonts:

Check out the fonts on these two plans here: They have a different "feel" than other plan fonts used by other design groups, so they are pretty easy to spot. The first plan's font is the newer font that Cornerstone Designs uses (I think). The second plan I think uses the older font, but I personally like it better. It's and fancy and kind of curly; it almost looks...regal? Wierd word to describe a text font, I know, but I can't think of anything else. Cornerstone must have hit something, because the way they lay out their plans seems to be absolutely perfect! (That is most likely just me, though.) The best way I suggest to check out and get a good feel for the two fonts below is to look at the "Main Floor"s under each plan. You can always just click on the plan to make it larger, too.
- Herbie131

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Great Wolf Lodge - Grand Mound, Washington

I have just had the experience of a lifetime! I just turned thirteen on January thirty-first, and what a tim,e I had. The thirty-first was on a Sunday, and I thought I was just gonna have a long, lazy, boring weekend, then have a small party with my parents and sister on Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, I was sorting through my Portland Auto Shaow brochures (another post!), when my sister came into my room. Aparently I had the door closed, because everyone was running around packing. Well, she came in and told me to pack a duffel; we were going on a drive. Well, I don't normally take a duffel bag on a "drive," so I did a double-take. I asked where we were going more than several times, but nobody would tell me! I swore they were taking me off to military school (one of my greatest fears, by the way), but my parents and sister also had bags. All I got out of my sister was "Oh, there's a pool, so take a swimsuit." I was so dumbfounded that my sister ended up packing my bag! How crazy is that, having my almost-twenty-five-year-old sister pack my bags? My dad and I dropped off our dog at the dogsitter, which means we weren't planning on coming back for a time. All my family said to me We drove for what seemed like hours, so I whatched a movie (We took the van, so that was possible.). I thought we were in southern Oregon!! HA! We were creeping up through Washington state! When we were getting close, I took a rest, and the only sign I saw the whole trip was a milage posting for Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia. I really don't know why that didn't click; maybe I was just sleepy.


Boy, was I in for a whopping surprise!! Shortly thereafter, we pulled our minivan into the parking lot of the biggest, nicest resort I have ever seen! The Great Wolf Lodge! We went inside and I practically toppled over!! There were hundreds of people milling around, and probably three hundred more in the great room!
I looked to me and my sister (who had also never been there before) like the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, only with an entire theme park in the back!!! There where hundreds of thousands of gallons of water in that room (around 350,000 the brochure said), and it was sheer amazement as we stood in front of that plate glass with our mouths hanging open. We reluctantly pried away by our pents and taken to our hotel room, the twentieth room on the fourth floor.

It was well-furnished, with two qween beds for my parents and sister, and a hidaway bed for me. The was a fridge and a sink...all the normal stuff, and a fourth-story-view of the landscape (including the parking lot). The hotel was an extrodinary, unfathamable feat of engineering and architecture!! Firstoff, it was major, major Craftsman, my favorite! Second, it was the hugest resort I 've ever been in! The Embassy Suites would bow to this! I can barely even explain this. Whoa, it was just huge.


The waterpark flabbergasted me the most, though. There were three main pools, holding in almost three hundred, fifty, thousand, gallons of water. There was a wave pool, a kiddie pool, and another pool for kids around my age. There were also pools where the four slides came out, but in the middle of all of theis was this gigantic play structure with all of these water-associated boobie-traps. A the the top were two slides that twist and turn to ground-level. On top of it was what the Great Wolf is famous for: the bucket - a one tousand gallon bucket that fills with water and pours out on whoever in on the structure - it was SO AWESOME!!! There were also four major slides; two that were the perfect size to go to by myself, and two huge ones. One of them was new, it was really fun! The other one - oh Lord - it gives me shivers thinking about it!
You could drive my sister's Subaru Forester in the mouth of it, and flip a semi over in the freaking middle!!! Fist time, I went with my sister. We waited in line for 15-20 minutes, and were then seated in a four-man raft. She went down backwards that time. She was brave. The beginning was nice - come the sixty-foot dropoff, uh, I wasn't doin' so hot then - I screamed the entire way down, and Katie thought it was hilarious! So do I, now. I won't even describe the rest. It was a heart-stopping ride-Lord-I'll say that for sure! I will say, that on January thirty-first, 2010, at 12:31 in the afternoon, I turned thirteen, goin' down the "Howlin' Tornado" all right! I'm proud of that day!

The wave pool had two settings: waves like in a nice lake, those were fun, and title wave - throwing people and their innertubes this way and that! My sister got slight motion sickness, but my dad and I loved it! The kiddie pool was kinda fun, along with the third pool, but I spent most of my time in the wave pool.

The hotel was amazing architecture - Google it for some more good pictures, or visit one yourself!!

To make it easier, just click on the title of this post to visit Great Wolf Lodge's Website!!

- Herbie131

My Sources of Floorplans

As you readers know, I love browsing floor plans, sometimes copying them an tweaking them to my perfection - but mostly I think up my own. I use graph paper for 95% of my plans, but occasionally I'll log onto my account on Floorplanner.com and work there That's been fun, but I always go back to graph paper. When I browse, I use Coolhouseplans.com. I RECOMMEND THIS TO EVERYBODY!! It's fast, free, and extrodinarily easy! I tend to get stressed on wibsites like eplans.com, becaue ther are so many options it makes my brain hurt. Plus, Coolhouseplans is Christian, and I respect that a lot. Visit that website whenever you need a plan, because this will make your house-planning a heck of a lot easier! Trust me, it's Cool.

Right now I'm really into Old Portland-Style houses, so I've been working on those a lot. They're quite common in the neighborhood I live in. For those of you who don't know what the look like, they're commonly Craftsman-looking, and they're basically a huge box They're huge, all right! Thre is often a basement, main floor, second floor, and third floor, though it seems like half a floor from the facade. My best friend Jack lives in one, and it's super nice. They're common for B & Bs, with so many bedrooms and so much square foorage. The Eastmorland Bed and Breakfast is also in my neighborhood. The front yard is about as steep as my minivan's trunk. In conclusion, Portland Style Homes really appeal to me!

Click the title of this post to visit Coolhouserplans.com! You'll love it if you're reading this blog!!
- Herbie131

Types and Styles of Houses

Here is my list of types and styles of houses common to Eastmorland. However, there are some in there that I thought would just be interesting. Have fun reading!!

•A-Frame –
this contemporary, triangular-shaped home has a roof extending down towards the ground on both sides. Often they may have many larger windows on the front and rear facades. They are popular as vacation homes and in the mountains. This is one contemporary plan that I relly like. They aren't any in Eastmorland, though.

•Apartment Garage – this design is an apartment-like home above a garage.

•Bungalow –
this design is commonly a one-story house with a low-pitched roof. An alternative is a compact one-and-one-half story home containing small rooms. Variations include enclosed front porches, dormers, and bay windows.

•Cape Cod – these cute homes have a simple one-and-a-half story design, with a distinctive steeply pitched roof, shutters, and centered front door. Variations include dormers and bay windows.

•Colonial –
these houses commonly have a rectangular design, which are often characterized by double hung windows with multiple window panes, shutters, and fireplaces. These designs can also an overhanging upper story. Variations include pillars or columns, a fanlight window above the front door, dormers, and paneled doors.

•Condo – this is a small apartment in a multi-unit building called a condominiuim. The individual's unit is privately owned, while the building and land is owned by all individual unit owners. These are common in Hawaii. My family stays in one when we go to Hawii.

*Contemporary - I hate these, but I won't be baist in the description: these houses are very modern-looking, with horizontal siding, stressed angles, and (boring) rooflines.

*Craftsman - These modern houses often have multiclored, earthtone exteriors, varied angles, staggered setbacks, and practical floor plans.

•Dutch Colonial – this barn-like home is a two-story house characterized by a five-point roofline and flared overhanging eaves. Variations include shutters and a front porch. These are practically on every block of Eastmorland!

•English Tudor – this picturesque old English design has many large gables and half-timbered exterior walls, utilizing brick or stucco. Features include diamond shaped windowpanes, and arched windows and doorways. Oh heck, these cute little houses are EVERYWHERE in Eastmorland!

•Federal - often made of brick, this is a stately two-story symmetrical house with a centered front door, sidelights and fanlight window above the door. Further, it has common window styles evenly distributed across the front and sides of the home as well as identical chimneys at the sidewalls of the house. It is somewhat like a colonial.

•Four Square - this two-story, square-box design often has a front porch.

*Modern - These houses aren't so bad, but they aren't my first choice. They can be any design, really-they have flat, or almost-flat roofslots of steel, wroght iron, and metal, modern features, lots of interior glass, and bland siding. These houses look kind of like someone took a sheet of blank paper and slapped a bunch of windows and doors on it. (My opinion, of course!) There is only one in my nieghborhood; it used to be an adorable little CapeCod, but now it looks like a piece of (****). It does NOT belong in my neighborhood!

•Pueblo -- common to the Southwest desert, these earth colored distinctive adobe and stucco houses resemble pueblos of Native Americans. Features include round edged exterior walls, flat roofs and rustic support beams extending through walls.

•Queen Anne - although simpler and less elaborate than a Victorian, it has many similar architectural features such as a round turret, wrap-around porch with gazebo, bay windows and gables. Commonly, it has horizontal bands highlighting differing textures and materials.

•Ranch – this is typically a very long rectangular or "L" shaped home with all rooms on one level. The simple layout features openness and efficient use of space. My mom grew up in two of these in the fifties and sixties, in Menlo Park, California.

•Row House – a series of multi-level houses, connected by common sidewalls and forming a continuous group, each home has its own private entrances. A type of typical row house has individual facades, staggered setbacks, varied heights, and larger yards. These are also really popular in San Fransisco.

•Salt Box – this style is a simple, distinctive design featuring a flat front and a steeply sloped front roof. The rear roof is that of a normal two-story house.

•Semi-detached -- one of two dwellings, this condo of sorts is attached by a common wall, which is located within one building. It is like a duplex, only the two homes are both ground-level. My sister lived in one while she was at college.

•Single Family – this could be any house that's designed to be occupied by only one family.

•Shingle - these homes are covered with dark colored wooden shingles. Features include steeply pitched roofs and porches.

•Spanish - this style of home features a red or maroon tile roof, arched doorways and windows, terra cotta tiled floors, wrought iron accents, light colored stucco, beamed ceilings, patios, and/or courtyards.

•Split Level - Features include that the house appears to have been lifted half out of the ground, so that the lower level has windows. The doorway is halfway up the front of the house between the two floors. Personally, I think ity's a terrible use of space.

•Tidewater - typical features include a wide porch on three or four sides, a hipped roof, and many doors and windows for cross ventilation.

•Townhouse - these designs are commonly a row of narrow homes with small yards and similar floor plans. These are everywhere in Eastmorland!

•Victorian - these are whimsical, extravagantly ornamented houses that may include multi-colored exterior walls and trim, a Widow’s Walk, complex gingerbread trim, towers, multiple tiered rooflines, stained glass work, tall ceilings, hardwood floors, porches and impressive stairways.

Hope these descriptions give you lots of insight as to the different styles there are of houses therse days; enjoy!!

- Herbie131

My Thoughts on Architecture

One of my favorite things about the earth is that there are cars and houses almost everywhere I look - in the city, in the country, pretty much everywhere! That right there is the main focus of my new blog - A House of Many Colors.

Firstoff I'll begin with architecture:

I would like to start this blog off with some of my opinions on architecture - I hate Contempor-ary homes more than anything. All those funky angles and unnecessesary walls and impractical window designs - it drives me crazy. My all-time favorite home style is Crafstman. I love the mixture of color and wood and stone, and the traditional look and feel of it. I love the huge pillars and peaks and the windows, too. I guess one could say that Crafstman designs are the Queen Anne/Victorians of the 21st century. I really do appriciate all house designs, and Contemporary/Modern might even have its place. I have acctually come to like Modern plans, to a certain degree.

Last fall a three story townhouse was just built in the neighborhood next to mine, and it was recently in the newspaper. The 2,000 square-foot home has only two doors in the entire house (!!) - the two bathrooms! The couple that had it built loved openness and modernness, so they had the living areas wrap up and around a gas fireplace. The exterior design intrigued me - the couple was one of cycling - they had eighteen bicycles all together - yes, 18 bikes. They live on their bikes, and their new garage was built for it. A car won't fit - only bikes - really strange for new-age Portland Oregon! They moved out of a condominium, where they filled the entire boiler room with their bicyles! All in all, the house was amazing architecture - I liked the house a lot. For me, that is rare.

I live in a beautiful neighborhood!! The architecture is unbeliebibly phenomenal! There are so many types and styles; oh my word, it's just unbelievable. Eastmorland is almost densly wooded, tucked away in southeastern Portland, scarcely bothered by traffic - ever!

I would hurt myself naming all of the different styles of homes in my neighborhood, and my parents wouldn't through a party if I pulled an all-nighter to start off the week with my (already cranky) teacher! I will be deffinately sure to name the most common designs (not necessarily in my neighborhood) in another post, but the document is on another computer and I'm already pushed for time. Well, this basically sums up tonight's post, as an introduction to yours truly,
Herbie131 -

A Post a Minute? Come On.

Just as a heads up, all of my posts from "My Thoughts on Architecture" to "Great Wolf Lodge" are acctually from January and February of this year. They were off of my other blog, which was previously named "Designing the Garage." It got really boring and hard blogging about cars and houses, two completetely different subjects, on the same blog, so tonight, July thirteenth, I took the architectural posts from the old blog and posted them on this new blog. Tomorrow I'm going to redo that whole blog and tweak this one, so that they are strictly about their own specific topics. Sound confusing? In the end, it's so much easier for all of us!

My point was that I am, in reality, a very slow typer; I couldn't crank out a post per minute to save my life! Thanks for rading,

- Herbie131

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