teideal glic deisbhéalach » house

Of bureaucracy and second-guessing

Bryan O'Sullivan — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:36:44 +0000

Carol Lloyd at the Chron wrote a second article about our fun with green building in San Francisco recently, which elicited a mention at SocketSite. The peanut gallery had a variety of comments, which I’ll quickly address here. Someone noticed that our planning drawings were sent back to an “earlier” desk in the review process because they differed from the original drawings we submitted. What happened was that the plans accumulated a number of small changes as they went from desk to desk in the City’s planning departments; this is almost inevitable if you’re not going by the numbers with a standard construction plan. The accumulated changes prompted one of the reviewers to send our plans back to make sure they were still conformant. It’s not a big deal, though the added delay is unwelcome. Another commenter:

I think you can demo a house pretty much to the studs under a remodel permit and essentially build a new house within the existing building envelope under a much quicker remodeling counter permit process.

You can do this, within limits, if you have a sound structure to build on. In our case, the foundations were failing, and my 5-year-old son could push a screwdriver through the wood of the studs. Not exactly a good basis for construction, that. Without exception, all of the people that we have dealt with in the City bureaucracy have been conscientious and decent to deal with. My opinion is that they are overworked and their departments are underfunded, which is a policy matter over which they have no control. Papers do indeed sit on people’s desks, in a few cases for literally months on end, but that’s because the people in question have a corresponding supply of backlogged work to deal with. It seems that a substantial component of our delay has been due to the unfamiliarity of the various planning-related departments with green construction techniques. If San Francisco had a programme in place to expedite green residential construction, as it does for commercial construction, that might make a substantial difference to the efforts of people like us.

NowHouse, day 2

Bryan O'Sullivan — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 15:00:00 +0000

Shannon went to the opening of the NowHouse in San Francisco yesterday morning. Being stuck with a deadline at work, I couldn’t attend, but we went back this morning. I brought my camera along.

The October morning weather provided a uniformly dreary light, so it’s very difficult to tell from the photos that the NowHouse is in fact extremely attractive. Naturally, the weather improved as soon as we left.

In addition, the camera refused to use fill-in flash for most indoor pictures, so many of the photos are somewhat disappointing. It’s also difficult to capture any sense of a large building with a little snappy digital camera, not a semi-pro behemoth.

The NowHouse is very impressive; the exterior combines what look like cement board panels with corrugated steel or aluminium, giving a nice variation in texture. In addition, the colours look wonderful, with a pale winter green on two walls, and a burnt umber on the other two, the metal being finished in a suitable gunmetal shade.

Inside, the house is airy and spacious, with plenty of light. The bamboo floors and fixtures are very appealing. Once again, the colours are vibrant and energetic, and the furniture is modernist without being alienating.

There were only two aspects of the NowHouse that put me off. The first was the floor plan, which is aimed squarely at a couple with no kids. Although very attractive due to the amount of open space, this is not very practical for the kinds of people who’d be likely to afford to build such a house. Secondly, the central electronic controls, and the stacks of A/V gear all around the place, struck me as a bit much. Then again, I spend so little time in front of a TV that I’m immune to the lure of 42“ plasma screens in every room and centrally distributed music.

Toby, the architect, and Joe, the project manager, were both at the house this morning. They were so deluged with questions from the visitors that I didn’t have a chance to do more than shake their hands; I expect there will be many more chances to talk to them.

It’s (they’re) ours!

Bryan O'Sullivan — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:23:24 +0000

We signed the final paperwork on the new properties last night. I remain impressed by how little my signature at the beginning of a signing session resembles itself forty repetitions later.

Shannon and I spent tonight drawing floor plans on graph paper. I thought that I was fairly indifferent to my surroundings, preferring to live inside my head, but it turns out that I ignore the walls around me only when I have no control over them. Give me a pencil and an eraser, and suddenly I’m the Tyrant of the Basement.

Never trust a pen-and-ink real estate drawing

Bryan O'Sullivan — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 15:00:00 +0000

On the left, we have the image that was published with the listing for the new property. On the right, a picture of the actual place. While the pen-and-ink drawing makes the property look quite attractive, the photo fails to make the place look as decrepit and sad as it appears when you actually walk around it.

For example, you can’t see that the rails on the steps are wire-wrapped onto their posts. The photo also fails to show that most of the left side of the house in the drawing is invisible from the street, as zero lot lines cause the neighbouring property to abut it.

In summary, if you’re in the market to buy a place and you see a listing with a drawing in place of a photo, it’s best to assume there’s a very bad reason why you’re seeing a drawing.