What does the darn thing look like?

You must know a little background with this project. We have been dreaming of our own house for years. I have sketches and sketches of floorplans- from new builds to additions on our current bungalow. But here is the thing, you can't really get serious about a house until you know what size your lot is going to be. And then there is the issue with the bulk plane and set backs (see zoning).

And here is another thing to consider. We found the lot that we wanted. We could have just bought it. But given the current state of the banking world, we needed to make sure that we could get a construction loan. The construction lenders won't give out loans until they are sure that you can get a loan on the backside of the construction. So we basically had to have a final set of plans for this particular lot before we could get approved by a construction lender and we had to get approved by a mortgage lender before the construction lender would speak to us and then we could proceed with the purchase of the lot. I will post about this cluster process later.

Back to the house.

So we employed our dear friend Kathy Parker to help us flesh out our ideas for this house. Kathy and I have spent endless hours talking about house design in general, our house, their house. So, it only seemed right to have her be part of the project. Of course, we had already pretty much sketched out what we wanted and handed those over (I just love when clients do that). So Kathy complied with our wishes, added some features and design twists of her own. The only obstacle that we ran up against in this process was the amount of time Kathy had to put into the project vs. the amount of time we had to get plans put together. So, after the first few rounds of plans we passed the drafts work off to Matt Joy and Finn Ely. They jumped right on it and helped us get things to where they needed to be. They have also continued to help out as things come up.

We wanted the space to be communal on the main level and sacred on the upper level. We like to entertain a lot and it made the most sense to just have one large open room that encompassed kitchen, dining and living. There are a few things that Terry was very adamant about: windows and lots of them, a sunken living room, and a big ass kitchen. She also came up with the idea that the second floor rotate and project (cantilever) out over the yard. Due to the bulk plane it could only occur on one side of the house, but it should have a really great effect.

Stuart suggested that we sit down with separate sheets of paper and assign one sheet for each room. Then we were to write everything that we do in that room, how we saw living in that room, etc. It really helped give us perspective on how we wanted to live and move around in these spaces. It is interesting to realize that we rarely get the opportunity to create how we want to live in a house and not just live with what we have moved into.

These are earlier elevations. Some things have changed- mainly the window schedule for the South side.

elvation oneElevation two

Main and Second Level Floorplans.

MainFloorPlanSecond Floor Plan