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Posts from the ‘Before you begin’ Category

More than just a pretty picture - March 25, 2010

Secret weapons of design - June 26, 2009

Building green, getting real - April 22, 2008

You, the tile shop, the decision - November 22, 2007

Figuring out how much your building project will cost - September 19, 2007

Getting bids: “The rules” - August 17, 2006

Not your father’s living room - January 8, 2006

Some basics to know before you build - January 30, 2005

News Flash: Good builders earn their money - December 26, 2004

Meeting of the minds in your design - April 11, 2004

Recent Posts
Categories
Columns by Date
- Secret weapons of design - 01/15/15
- The rise and fall of Penn Station - 12/07/14
- My New York Story - 11/30/14
- What the Napa earthquake taught me - 11/30/14
- Napa: the earthquake aftermath - 10/01/14
- My eclectic house - 07/22/14
- The wind is rising. We must try to live. - 05/16/14
- Back to Mexico - 04/24/14
- Mister Science - 04/24/14
- Driving like an Italian - 04/24/14
- Yosemite to myself (sort of) - 10/29/13
- My day at the America’s Cup - 10/29/13
- Pompeii, Italy – my kind of town - 10/29/13
- Croatia visited - 10/29/13
- Elsie Robinson’s Benicia - 10/29/13
- Q and A with the high school kids - 10/29/13
- Who will speak for design review? - 10/29/13
- Features I want in my next house - 06/24/13
- Bogart slept here - 06/24/13
- My kitchen remodel a year later - 04/16/13
- Five days in the Grandest of Canyons - 12/05/12
- The house-move makes its final landing - 10/11/12
- Notes from the Coconut Coast - 09/24/12
- At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - 05/26/12
- How Venice got its mojo - 05/04/12
- A paint color by any other name - 03/21/12
- What I learned while designing for First Street - 02/17/12
- Favorite Architects - 01/10/12
- My two smoke detector stories - 10/22/11
- The Great Kitchen Remodel of 2011 - 08/07/11
- Building them like they used to - 07/21/11
- The website the architect built - 05/10/11
- Benicia Magazine – An Interview with Steve McKee - 05/04/11
- My Benicia fixer-upper - 04/07/11
- Smokestack Benicia – PART 3 - 03/02/11
- At the corner of West X and 15th Street – PART 2 - 01/26/11
- ‘48ers: Benicians rushed for gold before it was cool – PART 1 - 12/22/10
- A tale of two buildings - 11/26/10
- A time when I could slay dragons - 10/28/10
- Remodeling your Southampton home - 10/07/10
- Sweet Sistine - 08/25/10
- Why we travel: Finding the Rome within - 07/28/10
- Confessions of a lighting junkie - 06/23/10
- A day in the life of the architecture student - 05/25/10
- Job site tips I learned the hard way - 05/04/10
- More than just a pretty picture - 03/25/10
- A Benicia sense of place - 02/18/10
- Aging in place - 01/27/10
- Why we travel: The hidden Puerto Vallarta is there for the taking – PART 4 - 12/24/09
- How we lost our bit of paradise to someone’s greed – PART 3 - 12/01/09
- The new rules for downtown - 10/25/09
- A remarkable San Francisco bike ride reveals the city - 09/20/09
- How to almost miss out on architecture school - 08/23/09
- Visiting Italy in the movies - 08/02/09
- Secret weapons of design - 06/26/09
- Germany, the war, and why we like life in Benicia - 05/24/09
- A hundred and sixty years in Benicia - 04/23/09
- On dream houses in Mexico and life lessons – PART 2 - 03/12/09
- Building a house in Mexico – the reality – PART 1 - 02/15/09
- Phil Joy’s house move enters the home stretch – PART 4 - 01/15/09
- Fireplaces: New rules - 12/26/08
- A Benician in L.A. - 11/27/08
- Why I’m doing my addition now - 10/22/08
- Mont St Michel – must see - 09/17/08
- Americans in Paris - 08/20/08
- Front porch city - 07/30/08
- On turning fifty, crescent moons, and Frank Lloyd Wright - 05/30/08
- Building green, getting real - 04/22/08
- Benicia versus the country club - 03/27/08
- Stone arches totally rock - 02/27/08
- These are a few of your favorite things - 01/23/08
- Another vintage house is delivered to Benicia – PART 3 - 01/06/08
- How First Street keeps us together - 12/16/07
- You, the tile shop, the decision - 11/22/07
- A Benician in New York - 10/23/07
- Figuring out how much your building project will cost - 09/19/07
- Why we travel: The city of Prague is a marvel – who knew? - 08/21/07
- The “it” moment with my new house - 07/22/07
- Dream-house for rent (no kidding) - 06/20/07
- Artist Open Studios reveal creative undercurrent alive in Benicia - 05/20/07
- Rome – 1982 – five weeks - 04/22/07
- Haiku moments and performance art in the comfort of your own home - 03/02/07
- Countertops: We live in a stone age - 01/28/07
- The day the Thompson-Joy house came to town – PART 2 - 12/31/06
- The revenge of the unpaid carpenters (and other true stories) - 12/03/06
- A house move for the ages – PART 1 - 10/29/06
- My best five seconds at design school - 09/24/06
- Getting bids: “The rules” - 08/17/06
- Benicia’s growth rings - 07/23/06
- The well-considered window seat - 06/18/06
- Hearst Castle – residential design mind blower - 05/14/06
- San Francisco April 1906: Ordinary people in extraordinary times - 04/16/06
- Dog handling at the Iditarod - 03/17/06
- Your house’s defense against rising energy costs - 02/12/06
- Not your father’s living room - 01/08/06
- The best design book ever - 12/11/05
- Further adventures in the Eternal City - 09/23/05
- Lessons from Rome - 08/28/05
- Roadside from the Tour de France - 07/31/05
- My accidental getaway room - 06/09/05
- Lighting Basics: It’s the layers - 05/08/05
- Architecture school: The reality - 04/10/05
- Southampton concrete slab floors: What’s to know - 03/13/05
- Some basics to know before you build - 01/30/05
- News Flash: Good builders earn their money - 12/26/04
- The wonderful failure that is Benicia - 11/14/04
- Energy laws and your building project - 09/26/04
- Architecture goes to the movies - 08/14/04
- What’s really up with a 2nd floor addition - 07/11/04
- Home design in earthquake country - 05/30/04
- Sightlines make a huge impact - 05/02/04
- Meeting of the minds in your design - 04/11/04
- Welcome to the new column - 03/21/04