iT house blog: 2008

I went out at dark to walk up the road and text Linda that everything was OK-there's no cell service at the house. Walking at night through hip-deep snow was an amazing experience but I got a little scared after I let her know I was fine - so I used my iphone as a flashlight and found coyote and bobcat tracks criss-crossing my tracks. Got back in one piece and woke to find coyote tracks going up the opposite hill from the bedroom and circling around at my bed level. Guess he was wondering if he could get into the warm house somehow.

The roof wasn't specifically designed for snow loads. Good thing structural engineers design with a x4 safety factor!

I couldn't figure out how to get off the roof without slipping once I got up there to clear the snow of the solar panels. Then I realized the best method was to simply fall into a giant drift of snow for a nice soft landing.

40" of snow and three miles of walking (no snow shoes) from my abandoned 4wdr Subaru to check our house. No one in our area has seen anything like this snow storm for 30 years or more. Because I knew the solar panels would be covered by snow, I wanted to get up there to jump-start the house so I wouldn't have any frozen pipes. The Sheriff's helicopter hovered in front of the house to make sure we were OK and airlifted out some of our neighbors even further down the road.

Check out the iT house feature in the November issue of Dwell.

We will be launching our new website for the iT house, a development project called "Three Junipers", and the Taalman Koch main website all to coincide with the article.

Links to our new iT house sites will be available at taalmankoch.com

perfect weather has arrived
we luxuriate in opening up all the sliding doors

even the bathroom is open to the fresh air

Oleana loves our new curtains

bath time

spring flowers are blooming

Summer plays hide and seek with Oleana

the new bench has a nice hand-hewn quality that contrasts
nicely with the aluminum and glass

Olee's friend Summer sitting on the new bench

almost done

halfway there

we salvaged a tree from another construction project of Chris'
here's what it looked like right after the first longitudinal cut
just before we slid the scrap piece off

the stair delivers guest right to the entry court

all the steel in place

my cousin Chris Wilson - the late night welder

we installed the stair down from the parking area. they are steel
risers (that will turn to an orange rust color) and decomposed
granite backfill.

the house now feels complete with the pattern and curtains installed.
it feels like a home.

now that the patterns are applied, we turn our focus towards the
landscape work. on the left of the image traces of the construction
driveway remain. we will begin to reshape and plant this area to
help it blend back into the desert.

a little sweeping up after some visitors. 30 people from the
houston art museum visited today

the front door with the finished pattern

the far kitchen wall will also be covered in the pattern all
the way to where the curtain hangs

the design as seen from the entry court. we want to screen the
view as you move towards the house so that the view isn't revealed until
entering the house proper

the first two Sarah Morris / Liam Gillick panels were installed -
the second panel is visible draped over the chair, still attached
to the transfer tape

a beautiful three day rainstorm visits the high desert - snow in the
mountains just above us.

the house sits on 5 acres of high desert hillside -
it's the place we go to clear our minds.

it is so remote that it has to function off-grid with
green technologies.

new curtains for the house designed and fabricated
by Elodie Blanchard (http://www.elasticco.com/) the
curtains are sheer to allow trace views to the landscape.
white to reflect the sun's heat in summer

the guest bedroom curtains

the master bedroom curtains are felt - sewn in narrow panels
to create a hinged pleat. we decided to make the curtain large enough
not only to cover the glass doors to the courtyard, but also to act
as our privacy door to the hallway.