CF3 Coffee Chat - Friedman Residence Tour

With summer in full sweltering session, CF3's August coffee chat took us to Amberley Village, a local suburb of Cincinnati loaded with great Mid Century Moderns. The Friedman Residence is a very modest house cared for with meticulous maintenance by its current owners. The home is also slated to be featured in an upcoming issue of Atomic Ranch magazine.

The house has a typical low pitched roof from street side, yet the roof partially zig zags to butterfly along the back of the house. Similar to our house, one walks into the compressed area only to have a nice release of space of the main living and dining areas. The large expanse of glass across the back of the house emphasizes the open space.

Inside the living space, it's obvious why Atomic Ranch is featuring the house, the original details are immaculate. A large brick fireplace anchors the large open area complemented by a recessed bullet light and Nelson Pear lamps beyond. The layout of the furniture is precise and cohesive, providing a very functional and open space.

A photo of the aforementioned fireplace up close. The roman brick wall and hearth are accented with different masonry patterns and limestone banding to create an asymmetrical composition. A built-in planter has been converted to a bench on one side and a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Sprite on the other.

A couple of super sweet freestanding Danish lights are at one end of the living / dining area. Newer cork floors keep it crisp.

I wish I had taken some photos of the original bathrooms, but I did grab a couple of the ultra 50's kitchen, almost perfectly in tact. The upper cabinets are outwardly profile with linear frosted glass doors are backlit. Underneath, Boomerang Formica counters are edged in stainless and cap base metal cabinets complete with the recessed door profile. It's not often to see these cabinets, let alone in such a great intact setup.

These cabinets deck out the entire kitchen. In this photo you can barely see the Nutone exhaust fan on the ceiling at the top of the photo, at the bottom a glimpse of the retro stove. Be sure to look for some more photos of the house in an upcoming issue of Atomic Ranch magazine.

Flat Roof Replacement - Day 5

Things have been busy, thus posts on the roof progress are a bit delayed, no worries, Day 5 is here. Today I was able to catch photos of different phases of the demolition and installation of the tapered installation. To the left is the original built up tar and gravel roof. This is some nasty stuff, while the roofers have been very clean with their demolition, we still are in clean up finding lots of little black gravel around the yard.

Here's a closeup of the vent stack and it's original flashing. The original plywood is still in place in these first two photos.

Later at lunch plenty of progress was being made. Having erred on Day 3's work and subsequent ponding, we made a change to the flat area tapered insulation slope. We opted under the roofer's suggestion to go from 1/8" per foot to 1/4" per foot. Additionally the 'crickets' are being switched from 1/4" per foot to 1/2" per foot. With so much variation at the top of the existing roof joists, shimming and framing as necessary to level the initial installation of the plywood will be imperative.

Another view to put it in perspective. After installing the new tapered thicknesses at this area, the work from Day 3 will be redone next to tie into today's work. All in all there, the existing roof joists and purlins are in pretty good shape this area.

Today I managed to catch the tapered insulation installation, something that has since become very educational. Basically there are underlying planes of the 1/4" tapered insulation. Then crickets tapered at 1/2" are then installed on top of the initial 1/4" per foot slope. A cricket is an elongated ridge that diverts the water to the drains. None of the crickets have been installed in the photo to the left.

Here's a romantic shot of the finish install. The wrinkled in the top center of the photo are temporary. You can see the valleys running diagonally along the large cricket shaped like a diamond. The roofers seal every day's work before leaving in case we get rain between work. With the way the roof has weather has been we've averaged about 2 days of work so far. Craving more? Check out CincinnatiModernation's facebook page for more photos.

Flat Roof Replacement - Day 4

Day 4 started with a light approach to finish off the sloped area of the roof while strategizing a better approach to the flat roof areas. Given the weather has been in the 90's lately, I certainly have empathy for how hot it must be to work on a black roof all day. With Day 3's work closing on a bad note, we used this time to reconcile a new approach to negate the ponding over the new installation.

Although much of this work is the same as Day 1 & Day 2, I think it helps to document the process day by day to get a sense of the amount of work and time it's going to take to finish this roof. Again, up comes the existing 4 layers of roof, down goes the batt insulation, followed by the 3/4" T&G plywood and the new roof.

At the transition to the flat area that has major existing ponding issues, we discovered that portions of it actually have 2 layers of built-up roofing, originally we thought there was just one. The sexy photo to the left gives some perspective on just how many layers builds up to about 2-3" of material to be removed. My roof thanks me every day we have work done.

After the final install, we got some soaking rains. It's a good thing they seal each days work off, the small puddles along the transition between the new and old roofs is a result of the level change. Removing the existing roof could almost be considered excavation. Day 5 & Day 6's work are complete, so I need to catch up on posts to catch you up to where we're at. In the meantime, be sure to check out CincinnatiModernation's facebook page for more photos, Day 5 going up shortly.

Cincinnati Modernation goes on the road to Columbus Indiana

This weekend, yours truly gets to represent Cincinnati in Columbus Indiana on a special tour organized for architecture and design bloggers from around the country. This includes a sneak peek at Eero Saarinen's Miller Residence. Rest assured many photos and reports soon to follow. In the meantime check out Columbus' facebook page here.

Also be sure to check out Cincinnatimodernation's facebook page here and become a fan of both today!

Cincinnati Modernation turns 1

Wow, one year, 36 posts, and several projects later, Cincinnati Modernation hits its one year mark as of the beginning of April. Thanks to all my readers for showing kind support as we navigate our way through the trials and errors of home renovation. The original post that began Cincinnati Modernation can be found here for your reading amusement. Let's look back at a throwback round of photos from when we first moved in, almost 5 years ago.

The always framed photo of Wendy and I, sans kids, posing in front of our first house. Note the fake green shutters on the windows and the full effect green on beige in the background.

This shot of our dining area directly reflects our small apartment contents struggling to fill the space. Sorry, these totally awesome, errrr 'Gened Up' ceiling fans are no longer available. Glass block railing, carpet in the entry, and no color in the white space yet.

Red and white furniture color scheme long gone, what the heck is that bronze fabric hanging on our window? We did have slat blinds when we moved in, and promptly removed them, Gene be gone.

This place looks lonely, no art or photos. Wendy looks pretty stressed, watching TV on the floor. The ceiling lights must be giving her a headache, they sure do give me one just looking at this picture, the improved installation looks much better.

Alas a few months in, art collection in effect, and a trip to Ikea later, we were well on our way to modern living. The door to and wall to the studio being gone really opens the living area up even more.