Very early iterations of our house design had this cool metalwork running down the front of the house, forming the balcony railing for the roof deck and then continuing down the facade.
The architect was into it and it seemed like a neat idea to me and Ash. We decided we wanted an overlapping circles design (which we later decided to mirror on the kitchen tile), and we didn't think much more about it.
About a year later - a few months ago - it become clear that the builder had no idea how to execute it.
He keeps calling it our 'artwork'. But it's more than decorative. It also needs to be a code-compliant balcony railing. Which means it needs to be rigid and secure, and not more than 4" off the front of the roof deck, and with no holes larger than 4" in it. The builder points out we could just use a glass balcony railing to meet the code requirements, and then mount our 'art' on the front of the house without worrying about its functionality. But what I like is the integrity of purpose. I don't want some decorative screen faking that it's our balcony rail - while behind it sits a glass parapet. Also I hate glass parapets, stair rails, and pony walls. I got the impression Ash and the builder thought I was being difficult on this one - but the heart wants what it wants.
So we met with our builder's usual metalwork guy who looked at us like we were crazy and showed us options for vent covers that he could maybe order in very large sheets. I then tried to convince Ash that those perforated metal screens you see over the windows of abandoned buildings could be cool, but he was not persuaded. We found some people on Etsy who can make also sorts of artsy screens but we didn't think they'd be sturdy enough. The builder asked the sheet metal guy who does the roof vents, but he wasn't having anything to do with it.
We decided we'd find someone to make the panels we need, and mocked up a design that would work for our space. When I say mocked up I mean pieces of paper held up to the wall, and my clumsy powerpoint skills. Hector the metal work guy added studs to the front of the house, to mount some kind of frame on - exactly what kind of frame was still tbd - so they could start stuccoing. Much remained unclear.
The white on the roof is the finished stucco. The grey is where they've started the stucco, but have paused in case we need to move the studs.
Finally thanks to the wonders of google Ash found Moz, a company who can make exactly what we want. They even have a system for mounting it on the front of the house. It's called a hat channel but I don't think it has anything to do with hats. We still had a bit of debate about how the screen becomes the code-compliant handrail, but Hector can apparently add that to the top of the panels. He removed his studs (the hat channel will do the same job) and the stucco finally got finished.
I did some more crappy powerpoint mock-ups so we could see how we felt about a 10" circle instead of an 8" circle.
Yup, totally worth losing sleep over.
And after several complicated estimates and some terrifyingly precise measurements we ordered the screen. Yikes. I hope it fits. I hope it meets code and doesn't end up just being art. And I hope it comes some time before we move in.
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