Exterior Rendering Studies

We’ve been spending a lot of time exploring exterior finishes -- cladding colors, wood finish options, as well as natural landscape screening. Check out some additional versions by clicking on the image above.

Interior Lighting Studies

We are now beginning to look at interior lighting schemes.  The challenge is to move beyond a sea of recessed “can” or track lights and arrive at something a bit more interesting at a reasonable price. In the quest to control energy consumption, the wisest choice would be compact fluorescent fixtures.  However, we are still having a hard time getting over their start-up behavior, light color, color rendering, and a “lack of brightness”. There are trade-offs to think of with can light sizes too:  six inch and up are readily available and cheap.  Most smaller sizes, which are nicer and more subtle are more expensive, have limited wattage, and require more fixtures. Although low voltage would be a choice to get smaller fixtures with bright lights, we want to avoid both the cost as well as the sparkle and glare that they give off.

For more images, check out our renderings on Flickr

Renderings for fun

As Nancy and I wade through massive amounts of products and options in preparation for the pricing set, I took a moment to crank out a couple of simple natural day light type renderings.

For more images, check out our renderings on Flickr

Current Renderings

We’ve been refining and fleshing out the plans for a month now.  There are still ideas we want to explore, but they will have to wait until after the pricing set goes out.  We need a reality check on how this project is shaping up financially.

Current Challenges:

1. Closing off the basement at the stair in a creative and subtle way Still struggling with the entry/foyer area--we need storage and some privacy from the street
2. Window placement and size at the kitchen--it’s going to be directly across from the neighbor, but Nancy wants some visual access to the outside from the counter 

For more images, check out our renderings on Flickr

Experimenting with light

There is excellent software out there today for studying the behavior of light within a space. With a little effort, our 3D model can be explored as shown above with the rendering of natural daylight only. This helps in the placement of windows and getting a better sense of the ultimate play of light on each surface.

Additional studies here: Renderings on Flickr