I own the 1st floor of a 2-storied building. The ground floor being occupied by one of my close relative. We had been sharing the same entrance to the house till now. But due to some personal problems there has been a need to change the entrance to my house (i.e. the 1st floor). I have to construct a staircase in the front side towards the left side of the building. I am also planning to extend the existing drawing-room ( to the extreme left side of the building, as seen in the Photograph, attached) filling-up the open space, as seen in the photo. Please help me out to redesign the entrance and the extension of my Drawing room.

Warlike Tiger, Good Morning. Whats your dilemma. Is it the budget, design plan or availability of a professional to do it? Either of that would require a site study, without that it is not possible to estimate the plans or costs or even a realistic design plan. If you are keen , you can search for professionals in this forum and contact them or leave your number for interested architects to call you. However, this idea of building the second story and then breaking the lower floor walls is not feasible. It is a hilly area and you should be all the more cautious with the foundation. Hope this helps! Amit CORNERSTONE DESIGNS Bangalore.

Dear Mr. Alok, Its great that you are keeping the safety into considerations while using glass. There are many types of glass available into market as per its utility in the space interior or exterior like laminated, toughened, lacquered, DGU etc. Glass allows lot of heat into space so has to be placed very sensitively in the building facade like west and south facing glass may end up heating a lot interior space so additional shading devices has to be provided. Saint Gobain is one popular brand in India.

I have been struggling as a homeowner who is off on medical leave with watching a 3 day install by one of the 2 big box retailers on 2 59 x 24 vinyl Pella casement windows. I found the 50 foot roll of Pella Smart Flash in the garage after installation then realized they used the cheap red house wrap tape to seal the nailing fins then put the 4 inch cedar trim in and not have the proper caulk (so the cedar is not caulked 5 days after start of install and we have had thunderstorms every day but one it will rain 3 more days). I called em on it and got red tape is fine, then me demanding otherwise to "it was temporary we where going to rip all the 4 inch cedar trim boards we placed around the windows off". Mind you they cut back 12 inch Skirl cedar siding to get at the fins but then why where they going to caulk it if it was temporary. So they put the windows in and nailed em over the OSB not replacing the 4 inches of barrier when they cut thru the felt then placed the red tape over the fins and OSB). I think they should have set the saw shallower not to cut the felt? Do I need them to pull the windows out to put splice in some type of 4" barrier as I told them they should? They agreed pull the 4 inch trim off anyway to replace the "temporary" tape. Should I ask for new cedar trim boards as they will take em off with nail holes and possibly break? What about the rain getting under/in the uncaulked cedar trim(the cuts are tight thank goodness) its going to rain all week is it ok the uncaulked trim boards are getting steady rain for a almost a solid week? They showed up asking if they can use my ladder ok no longer, they did not have caulk asking me if I was going to caulk the second story windows(I am on crutches), having to reorder interior oak they did not have enough, did not have a vacuumn asked to use mine, and here i sit with windows as the rain pours down the west side of my house and windows not caulked waiting for my hip to heal. Thanks for the help! Just really disappointed in the whole job and one window does not even close easy at all I have to jack around with the crank, he said the trim was too tight he will cut it back.