Are you ready for barbecue season?

Maybe you need to refurbish you deck, or maybe it is time to completely tear it out and build new. Check out some decks Rose Construction, Inc. built:

Spectacular outdoor kitchen with fireplace

This one of my favorites! You will notice that it has a wonderful roof, with skylights. In the Pacific Northwest you can never assume a day will be rain-free; roofs are a must for planning ahead for a barbecue. Here is the kitchen area of this outdoor recreation room:

Eating bar with cooking equipment in background

Here is another of my favs, built high to take advantage of the view over the tops of the trees:

Beautiful deck with view!

 

Just one more, to get you dreaming about that deck you’re going to have built:

Deck with wonderful bench to enjoy the backyard from!

 

That’s it for now – get started planning your deck. There are as many different kinds and configurations of decks as there are people who want one!

 

 

Tour of Remodeled Homes

Well, the TORH’s is over!  We had 85 visitors on Sunday!  Not sure of the count for Saturday, as I manned the front gate for our home project on Sunday.

Kitchen Remodel with custom moulding, granite countertop

 It was great to see so many people who were really interested in seeing what can be done with home makeovers.  Families were out getting their heads full of ideas for their own remodeling projects! 

Here is a nice photo of the kitchen portion of the home remodel.  Check out the granite countertop with custom backsplash and the lighting feature surrounding the skylight.

This home also had the deck rebuilt by Rose Construction and had new Trex XLM decking with concealed fasteners installed along with railings that are stained cedar.

New deck with countertop and privacy screen

The photo of the deck shows one end of the deck with a countertop and privacy screen.  This is where they located the propane barbecue and do their outdoor cooking.

Out here in rainy Washington, we even had a rain-free day on Sunday, which I especially enjoyed as I was the official greeter, meaning I had my chair outside! 

All in all, it was a great day.  If you meant to go but missed it, come next year; you will get an eyefull and loads of great home remodeling ideas for bathrooms, kitchens, decks and every other room in the house!

Great Looking Decks

So, since I am planing on tearing out my own deck and replacing it, I find decks, decking materials and deck design are on my mind a lot lately.  I know what I want – I want to not have to refinish the blinkin’ deck every other year, and I want it to be smaller than the one I have now.  Yes, I suppose that sounds odd to many people, but I like compact, efficient and clean simple lines. 

Well, we design and build decks at Rose Construction as well as kitchens and baths, so I have been going through our more recent deck jobs.  I’ll put a couple of pictures here:

Decking with Glass Panel Railing

Multi-level Deck with Built-in Bench

These two are very different, demonstrating the great variety that people can build onto their homes.  They look great, but for my house I am going with a very simple design.  My house is a two story split level type, built on a lot with the backyard much higher than the front.  What I really like about this is the back deck goes out from the second level dining room at abut 5 1/2 ft. above grade and 14 ft from the house the deck bumps into the rock bank. 

This actually makes a bridge out of the deck; it connects the 2nd floor of the house to the backyard.  I want to expose more of the big rock bank that is behind my house, so I am going to replace the deck which currently runs the entire length of the house with 2 seperate, smaller decks which will expose a lot more of the rock.

Since I want to reduce the amount of upkeep for the new deck, I am going with one of the composite decking materials, probably Trex.  They make a color that almost perfectly matches the color of the existing deck and my house trim color.

Well, that is it for now.  I will update you when the construction is underway.  I have been waiting for it to stop raining here, it has been a very wet and cold spring/summer.  This week they are predicting 74 degrees F. today, and over 80 for the rest of the week.  That should dry out my rotten old deck so it won’t be so heavy when it’s driven over the scales at the dump!

 

A Sunroom Overlooking the Golf Course

We were contacted by a client who saw us at the Whatcom County Home & Garden Show in Lynden a few years ago. We were featuring one of our favorite additions, an outdoor kitchen and living space (I’ll post that soon!), and our new client had remembered it. Luckily our name stuck as well! They’re interested in a new sunroom and deck. Sunrooms are a wonderful addition to almost any home. Because this home lies on the edge of a golf course, it will allow for beautiful views over the landscape.

When thinking of sunrooms, most people imagine huge additions with glass ceilings and countless windows. However, a sunroom can be as ornate or simple as you would like though, obviously, windows are the key ingredient. After all, the reason to build a sunroom is so you can look outside in all types of weather! That’s difficult to do if you have no windows (ahh, a little joke there). If you have a small budget, I would recommend framing some of your favorite views with good quality windows rather than choosing a full wall of lower quality windows. An inferior window will cost you in the long run in heating and cooling costs and will need to be replaced much sooner than a qualty window. Your contractor will have suggestions and should be able to help you keep the long term costs down by making smart decisions now.

We are still in the design phase for this project and are planning a simple but elegant sunroom addition. We have several schemes, one of which features a hip roof extension whereas a second features a gable roof extension. Three sliding glass doors are planned, all of which enter and exit on the proposed deck. The Milgard windows feature, of course, tempered glass (gotta watch those golf balls!). Our initial scheme included a decorative Catalina Estate Lattice used as railings but some design changes lowered the height of the deck, which means that railings are no longer necessary. This is going to be an interesting project. I’ll be sure to post finalized drawings once they’re complete.

© Rose Construction 2009

Deck In Progress

I had the opportunity yesterday to visit one of our jobsites. The home is located in Bellingham’s Edgemoor neighborhood and has a beautiful backyard. We are renovating three bathrooms and rebuilding their deck.

The deck was a collaborative design between the clients and Rose Construction. This design is larger than their old deck and features an octagonal raised level with custom-made cedar benches.

Though you can enter the deck through the home’s sliding glass doors, reaching the deck from the side of the house is highly recommended. By entering in this way, you get the full effect of lush landscaping with a hint of the deck seating as a focal point:

The deck is, obviously, still in progress but already looks wonderful! Here the raised level looks over the rest of the deck:

The focal point of this raised area is the custom-made cedar sitting area built by our carpenter Tony. Even incomplete they add elegance and geometric interest:

The decking material we used is a fascinating product. It is called Trex Contours and, as you can tell, looks like wood but is actually a wood-plastic composite. Made of recycled plastic and wood-waste, it is durable and rot-resistant. We used Trex Contours in saddle for this project:

The edgeboard gives the deck a polished and finished look.

© Rose Construction 2009