Just Redo It
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The prohibitive cost of outfitting the structure with radiant heat led Dunbar and Astrakhan to pull down the solid south-facing rear wall for additional sunlight and solar gain.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
Fashioned from beechwood countertops that were supplied free with six kitchens worth of Ikea cabinets, the huge island is the hub of the kitchen. No framing was needed to build it because the cabinets below support the weight.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
"Small Ikea kitchens drive me crazy, but six kitchens' worth of Ikea cabinets can be made into something beautiful," Dunbar says. Staggered by width, the cabinets have exposed kick-plate gaps for storing CDs. The easy-to-assemble cabinets cost $12,000, which is about a tenth of the price of custom storage units.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
In the ground-floor gallery, 40-foot-long library shelving is punctuated by floor-to-ceiling columns made from white acrylic panels that conceal low-cost fluorescent-tube lighting.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
The roof became the perfect location for their vegetable garden, as well as benches and a recreation space crowned by a hot tub powered by a four-kilowatt solar array.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
The couple initially painted partition walls between the children's room and their own with black metallic paint creating both a writing surface for the children and a magnetic bulletin board for notes. However, "the black looked too oppressive," Astrakhan says. So they applied several coats of lively lime green paint to brighten up that section of the house.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
With just one side window, there was insufficient light and air in the center of the house. As a remedy the couple installed a custom Rollamatic retractable 24-by-7-foor skylight.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
Dunbar describes the bathroom as an outside-in room because it has light, air, and sometimes, when it drizzles and the skylight left open, even rain. Designed for exactly these circumstances, a blue-glass mosaic tile floor is laid at an angle to drain with ease.Photo by: Justin Fantl -
Dunbar and Astrakhan's low-cost, high-impact tour de force is a storefront facade constructed from salvaged double-insulated window glass panels arranged in a shingle pattern.Photo by: Justin Fantl
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