A Glimpse of the Inside

Now that we are completing most of the work on the first Passive House in Texas it’s time to share a few photos of the dramatic changes that have been made!
One thing that was exciting for us to reinvent as part of this remodel was the bathrooms.

A dramatic change!

For the guest bathroom above, we used cement tile as the organizing element for our design.  This tile is a modern take on an Arab/Meditteranean design.  The particular creation of these tiles revitalizes an art form that developed in France in the mid-1800′s and quickly spread around the world.  Cement and color pigments are poured into different compartments in a metal mold and then left to cure.  The end result has a bold, vivid color.

Tile Detail

We used cement tiles in our second bathroom as well, but this time we just used a few tiles to create a decorative panel above the sink.   We chose an Arabesque pattern that reminded us of design elements we saw during several trips to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.  We handmade the counter top out of concrete.

Second bathroom

Moving on, lets take a look at the development of the living room.  As a reminder, here is a taste of what the interior of the house looked like when we first bought it:

What a disaster!

 Because this was a gut rehab, there is really a drastic change from the old design of the house to the finished product.  The roof was bumped up and the footprint of the house was bumped back so in the end, we have much more space than what we started with. 

In the main rooms of the house, we designed a system of indirect lighting that keeps the house bright without any glaring lights shining in ones eyes.  It is difficult to capture this light on film, but take my word that it has an extremely natural feel that is not glarey or intrusive.  The lights are tucked behind wood panels that were salvaged from the old roof of the house.

The livingroom

More pics are on the way soon so stay tuned!