LINDEN STREET LANDSCAPING

We spent last weekend in Tucson working on the landscaping job on Linden Street. The birds were chirping, the sky was blue, and the temperature was perfect. There is truly nothing more splendid than the Sonoran Desert in February.

 Here is the house before the fence went up.

And here it is 2 days later with a fully installed cedar split rail fence.

Split-rail fences are a historic staple in the southwest. They have a very natural appearance that is both rugged and beautiful. My brother once said that in Tucson, it basically rains sun-- so I figure rugged is pretty good thing to be.

GLASS BARN DOORS

One of the goals of the Mesa Condo project was to privatize the master suite without losing the borrowed light from the Arizona Room. Our solution was to install sliding glass slabs on barn door hardware to compliment our Rustic-Modern theme. The light that comes into the bedroom is sparkly and shimmers with an iridescent effect and the view into the room has plenty of obscurity.

View of the Master Suite from the sunny AZ Room

5-Lite Solid Clear Pine Slabs with Beveled Glazing

Solid Maple threshold at the floor Transition

Dakota Square Pulls in Rustic Pewter by Restoration Hardware

LINDEN STREET LANDSCAPING

Meet the Mead Mansion. This sweet little property has been in our family since my folks bought it when it became likely that all of their offspring would attend the University of Arizona in Tucson. It served as home base for me, my sister, and my brother over the course of my 5 year enrollment at the College of Architecture.

To celebrate my recent professional registration, we thought it would be nice to put a little payback into the house that started it all. We're putting in a new entry along the west side of the property to serve the back house that Dad and I built together on the rear of the lot.  

We are adding security gates, new fencing, some pavers and a path, and a few new desert botanicals.  We're also going to integrate some smart features like a permeable landscape, a water collection system, and a tensile shade sail. 

PAINT PATTERN HOUSE

paint, rain, redo...

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671734/the-beautiful-hand-drawn-home-facades-of-burkina-faso#4

RUSTIC-MODERN RENOVATION

Earlier this year we were approached by a young couple who had purchased a historic, rustic condo in the old-town of Mesa. It had a lot of charm, but because of it's age, it was due for an upgrade. We talked with the homeowners and decided that there were 3 things we could do that would make a big difference for a small budget.

The first task would be to replace all of the existing hollow core doors with natural, solid wood interior doors. The second thing on the list would be to replace all of the stubby, worn out base and casing with natural Pine milled in a Spanish Profile. The final item on the list would be to remove the obsolete sliding glass doors that had once served the (now-enclosed) Arizona Room. For two of the three openings attaching the Arizona room to the main residence, we would install finished casings and maple thresholds. For the third opening we would hang barn-doors with obscure glazing to privatize the master suite.