By LISA BOONE — Los Angeles Times
It happened by accident. When Kurtis and Wanda Weller Sakai went to remodel their 1971 Ojai, Calif., ranch house, the original plan was to add a fourth bedroom for Kurtis to use as an office.
“We realized that if we went over 500 square feet, the add-on permits would get very expensive,” Kurtis said.
A new master suite consumed much of that square footage, so architect Darwin McCredie’s shifted gears and added to the front of the house a compact 14-by-14-foot office – no bathroom, no walk-in closet, to stay under that magic number of 500.
The result is a work space that feels apart from the rest of the house, a quality enhanced by the fact that the office is accessible only by an exterior door at the end of a long covered porch. Read the rest of this entry »
Dreambuilder toured EPCOT’s 
The Vision House at EPCOT at the Walt Disney World Resort recently opened. It showcases the latest in construction materials and techniques with an emphasis on energy-conservation, ‘green’ building and technology. Dreambuilder will be touring the walk-through exhibit this weekend; our report and pictures to come next week.