Studio DEC

Tired of Belltown but want to stay in the wonderful Seattle metro area?  Look no further than these three Washington towns that made CNN Money’s list of Amercia’s best small towns.  Seattle (or Bellevue for you diehard Eastsiders)  ‘burbs Mukilteo, Sammamish, and Newcastle all placed in the top 20 of the 100 town list that rated towns by great job opportunities, top-notch schools, safe streets, economic strength, nice weather, and more.

But of course, we think Seattle is just a fine place to live, and instead of moving why not stay in the city and add a 2nd story or backyard cottage?  And we’d be happy to help you with that.

Mukilteo lighthouse

If you are planning to update or remodel your kitchen soon you’ll want to check out the July 2011 of Consumer Reports. They have a 28 page kitchen section covering everything from coverings (floors that is) to the kitchen sink.  In addition to the usual great in-depth reviews of appliances, including refrigerators, cooking appliances and dishwashers, they review countertop materials, fixtures, flooring, kitchen cabinet, places to buy everything, and general tips to help with your kitchen project.

They noted the “hot” trends in kitchen layout:  pantries, island, and a connection to the outdoors, as well as  a kitchen that is integrated into an open family room space.  Under cabinet lighting was also found to be a must have feature.  We also like to have up-lighting on top of cabinet runs for a nice ambient or night light feature.

For countertops, they rated quartz and granite at the top, with marble and bamboo bringing up the bottom of the list.  The rated flooring in several categories, with plastic laminate, vinyl (which I don’t recommend for environmental reasons – real linoleum is a good alternative)  and pre finished solid wood getting the highest marks.   In the cooking appliance category, they looked at stand alone ranges (gas and electric, gas, induction) , cooktops, wall ovens, microwaves, and range hoods.   The over the stove microwaves were found to fall short in their ability to vent vs. the stand alone vent hoods.   Hotpoint, and GE were found to be reliable brands for electric and gas ranges.  For cooktops you might consider GE and Kenmore and avoid the repair prone Dacor.  They found Frigidaire and GE to be the best bet in the wall oven category, with Thermador the worst.   They reviewed four styles of refrigerators:  The budget friendly and energy efficient top freezer, the newer bottom freezer models (with the french door style dominating), the less energy efficient side by side type, and the pricey built-in styles.   Whirlpool and Kenmore made the top of the list in most of the categories.  Whirlpool also topped the dishwasher list for the most reliable, with LG and Fisher & Paykel (dish drawers) the most repair prone.

For in depth results and tips on how to make your kitchen remodel shine, check out the article on line or grab a copy of the print magazine.  And call us when you are ready to plan your new kitchen!

McTrax Cottage Exterior from early 2011

This weekend Seattle’s NW Eco-Building Guild is sponsoring a green home tour around Seattle to showcase residential projects utilizing green building methods and materials.  Studio DEC is  excited to have our first Backyard Cottage project featured as site # 6.  The McTrax Cottage ( a combo of the owners last names) is a small two-story office/studio fit into the back yard of an older, single story Ballard home.  Owners Sean and Lisa really pushed the envelope on super-insulating this cottage well beyond the code minimum. Double stud walls with blown-in dense pack cellulose and both spray foam and cellulose in the ceiling make this a very easy space to keep warm.  Sean scoured building salvage stores (the ReStore and Second Use among others)  for most all of the interior fixtures.  A cement fiber board (much of it salvaged) rainscreen system and metal roof set up for rain water harvesting are some other environmentally friendly features on this project  that was built by  Ncompass Construction LLC.

You can see this home, along with dozens of others, Saturday April 16th and Sunday the 17th as part of this self-guided FREE tour.  Stefan and Drew of Ncompass will be on hand to answer questions about this cottage, as will Sean the owner, and I’ll be there Saturday afternoon.  I encourage you to get out and see some of the innovative projects on this great tour.

Come be part of the first annual Building Renovation Fair sponsored by our local keepers of architectural gems of the past, Historic Seattle. If you own an older Seattle home and plan on doing any renovations or additions, this is a great place to chat with architects, contractors, engineers, and tradespeople about your project.

The daylong event on April 9th is $5 and is held at Washington Hall (153 14th Avenue) in central Seattle.  Washington Hall, built in 1908,  itself has been recently undergoing renovations to restore it to it’s original glory.