It was just a matter of time

Before the issues the financial sector, and the economy are dealing with right now came home to roost. Despite my previous post of encouraging progress from the bank, I got a call today telling me that the deal was not going to work as originally thought. The result, was that the bank was looking for a larger percentage of the loan amount down at the initiation of the loan. As a result of things I had set in motion a while ago, this was what I have been budgeting for to this point, and it was the limit we were prepared to pay out of pocket. While we can afford to pay the extra amount of money, its past our comfort level, and we are going to wait til the spring to see how the market looks at that point.

Up to this point, we had just as much going for us with the down market as we had against. By this I mean that all we were going to give up - small mortgage to big, renting our other house - we were going to be able to mitigate with buying better from the contractors, and getting better deals on items for the house then we would have in a normal market.

Alas, it is not to be for this year. We are most likely not even going to tear the house down. It seems that with everything the way it is, we are better off leaving it up, then renting a temporary fence for who knows how long.

The upside in all of this is we can pull back the reigns and be able to take a good hard look at everything we are doing, so we can get the best deal possible on whatever we are going to use in the house.

I will update sometime in the near future.

Closer to Decision Time Then We Were Last Week

Well, we are through the first hurdle of qualifying for the loan. While that was more a formality then anything else as I did plenty of confirmation before we bought the property, its still an important part of the process. With the general financial health of both individuals and banks, nothing is a certainty anymore.

We are now on to the appraisal portion of the bank's obligatory work. The process now moves to the architect and appraiser to establish as projected value for the home when its finished. This will determine if our budget meets that value. If the two are equal, then we should have a deal, and we will just need to move through the process of closing the loan to be ready to go. If the appraised value comes up short of the projected budget, then we will have to asses how far, and if there are costs that can be pared to get close, or if we are going to have to sit things out for a half year or more. This would be done to let property values settle, or to come up with more money to help finance the deal. This is the spot that I have been most concerned about from the very beginning, as its quite subjective and very difficult to asses in this market.

Nevertheless, they will be doing this either way, and once they are done in a week or so probably a little more), we will know what our options are, and where we are going. This will also be the time that we will be ready to knock the house down. If the demo permit happens to come through earlier then the appraisal, then I think we will most likely bring the house down either way so we can go if the bank gives us the green light.

We took the two trees out of the back of the yard, and its a nice preview to the demolition that is coming. I am going to take a few more pictures this week to refresh everyone's memory, and so that the progress will have a good benchmark to start from.

Either way, in 2 weeks, we will either have a piece of empty land, or we will have a piece of empty land with a BIG hole in it.

I am hoping for the latter, its more fun.

No matter what, the end resut will be TEAR IT DOWN!

If we should happen to not be able to get the financing to work this year, we do get a consolation prize: We get to tear the house down this year no matter what.

I went over to meet with our local alderman last night at his "ward night." If anyone is not familiar with an alderman, its essentially a councilperson that represents a specific area of neighborhood in the city. There are 50 wards in cook county, and each one has an alderman. The alderman is responsible for local city politics, issues like parking permits and trash removal, and any sort of building permit needs to have the sign off of the alderman.

So thats what brought me to Alderman Ariel Reboyras' office - getting whats called an alderman's letter for both the general building permit process, and one specifically for the demolition and excavation. I just needed to sit down with the alderman and his right hand man Carlos to show them the plans, and talk to them about what we are trying to do. This is really just a formality, but its part of the way that Alderman Reboyras gets to know his constituents, and its a good way for people who are applying for permits get to understand the direction and focust of the neighborhood.

Nevertheless, we got the sign off from the Alderman, and he is excited to see the project come to fruition. What I did confirm with them was this: they would much rather have me tear the house down and put up a temporary fence if we dont get the financing, then to leave the house stand through the winter. The reasoning is fairly simple: empty houses are just asking for squatters, and we dont want to foster any of that in our neighborhood. Therefore, this place is going to go down in the 2-3 weeks either way, and for this I am grateful.

If nothing else, it will be nice to have some sort of physical progress on the site for the future of the house. Speaking of which, the trees in the back are coming down on Thursday. Depending on the weather, I may document some of the process just to show everyone the before and after.

Ignoring the fact that we need permission.....

Even though we need the "green light" from the bank, we have to continue to push ahead as though we are building the house. This means working through the demolition and excavation permits. By doing this, we are hoping to avoid several weeks of down time while we wait for the city to approve what we would like to. Also, since we plan on doing this either way, being this year or next, these permits are renewable, and will allow us to be ready when we want to do it. As a result, the money we pay for permits will not be spent in vain.

The process of getting the demo/excavation permit is two-fold. First, the demolition company does their part by applying for the permit, doing the air quality, and rat infestation prevention, and sending approval letters to the alderman, and each of our neighbors. This just assures each neighbor that every possible measure will be taken to ensure no damage will be done to their property during the process. On our end, we are responsible for getting the excavation permit, which means that I have to get signed approval letters from each of the neighbors, and the alderman to confirm they are in agreement with our decision to dig a really big whole in the ground.

One thing that has come up through the course of all of this, is at what distance from the neighbors foundation do we have to be in order to not have to use shoring to protect the other home from having issues due to collapsed land. In the end, this is going to force us to move the house as much as two feet to the west. This will present us with some re-design work in the form of re-creating the north face of the garage so the door is in line with the back door of the house, and if the three in the front yard will then be directly in front of front door. The former will not be much of an issue, but the latter could be a problem, and its something we will know about this week some time.

So, this week we are going to have the two large tress in the back taken down - one is dead, and threatening our neighbors wires, and other is in the middle of the future garage. Once we are done with that later this week, we will be working through the rest of the design to make sure we have things right before we finalize most of the design to go to the permit process.

Firming up the Kitchen Design

The kitchen is something we have really locked down exactly what we are doing yet as we know this is the one place that we have to have just right. I have talked in the past about the size of the kitchen, and the fact that we are going to have more cabinet space then we know what to do with. As a result, we have had windows on the east wall instead of upper cabinets. Until now, the windows shown above as two sets of two, were actually only one window on each side. This is change that I have been pushing for since we decided to put windows on this wall.

Part of the reason I wanted the tall, thin windows was to help elongate the kitchen from the counter top to the ceiling, but to also allow more light into the full width of the kitchen. If we were using two individual windows total, they would have to be VERY large in order to accomplish this. Furthermore, this will give us an infinite number of options for backsplash design as this will give us a far better template to work with creatively if we want to stray from the current thought.

The cabinet style is going to be flat fronted, and the wood stain will be a shade or two lighter and warmer then the floors will be to help slowly bring the color lighter as we move towards eye level. We will then be putting something like a solid white quartz counter top on the east wall counter space to help warm up the space further.

For the island counter top, I have had a design in mind for a while now. My uncle astutely pointed out that the island, and its design, will be the focal point of the main living space, and its something that should think about making very unique. I took this to heart, and since I read this in an email/post from him, I have been thinking about it all the time. I came up with a design idea for a custom made counter top, but I had to find a way to get it made, and not have it cost $5,000. So this is where I called my friend Jonas who is a woodworker and furniture designer. Jonas designs custom made contemporary furniture, and now full installations for restaurants and stores.

It turns out that this wasnt the exact project that Jonas was looking for, but his friend Mack Terry definitely was. Mack and I talked earlier this week, and he seems to be the exact type of person that I need to work with to get this done the way I have it in my head. Mack and I have a concept of cost, and once we have a better idea on the financing end we are going to talk specifics and see what its going to really take to get this designed. More to come as we get closer to that process, which should be truly exciting.

Plenty of work to be done

While we may be in a holding period waiting to hear word about financing, we are going to have to keep working like we are getting the loan in order to be ready for the bank to say go. This will be happening on several fronts: finalizing blueprints and permits,working on finalizing design choices, and driving down cost by looking for cheaper options on materials for the home.

From an architect's standpoint, we are far from finalized on the plans. While the guts of the home are generally set, we have to firm up everything from the lighting plan to the HVAC setup. We have little less then three weeks to get these documents set, and get them to the permit office to be taken care of. This is a very tight time line, and its going to take quite a bit of effort on all fronts to make it happen. The upside is that permit-wise we shouldn't have too many issues as the place we are building is far under the allowable height and square footage for the zoning. Furthermore, we also have to get a separate permit for the demolition. This permit requires approval by the local city government office (Ward 30) and by both of our neighbors. This way the city is sure that all parties know we are going to make a mess.

The design choices are proving to be difficult to say the least. We are working on straddling the line between nice and cheap. The good news is that there is a line to be straddled, and there are a ton of good products out there that are far more affordable then what can be found at Merchandise Mart etc. The bad news is that we have to get a really good feel for where we are going to cut costs and save money, and then pick the places where we don't want to cut corners. A really good example of this is with our master bath vanities. We found a vanity at the Merchandise Mart that we loved, and knew we couldn't afford ($15,000) but we have found several since then that embody some of the same qualities for 10% of the cost. In this case we are sacrificing the want for something that is EXACTLY what we want for something that is pretty much like what we want because we never really had that $15,000 piece in mind until we saw it. Either way, we have about 100 of these decisions to get an idea about over the next few weeks. That means field trips!!

We are working through kitchen and bath this week, I will post as the week progresses and we make more decisions.

Its officially out of my control.....

Sorry its been so long since I have posted, but I have been buried under the massive undertaking that is budgeting for the proposal that I submitted to the bank today. SO, we have finally reached the point that I have been looking toward for 3 months. I took full sized blueprints of all four floors along with the master electrical plan, and elevations with a line item budget for each basic cost of the construction. Along with this, I included a 5 page description of the home, what we hoped to accomplish, and a floor by floor account of the finishes and design of the interior of the house. This is important because we have to make sure that the bank, architect, and appraiser all can get a good sense for the home without actually seeing it. Clearly this subjectivity is what is really hard about financing a deal like this. Now its up to the bank to do their thing, and that sounds like it will take a few week to get some direction. Its going to be close to 10.15.08, but thats the goal still.

Let me just say that its been a LOT of work. Thankfully, I have had the help of an experienced professional who knows what he is doing, and has been gracious enough to help me through the process the entire way.

Taking rough plans and getting them into a very specific bid number is not easy. I am not saying that I was the one that did all of the wrangling, as I had help with someone who was leaning on his subcontractors to create accurate bids based on the plans. However, taking the bids, and turning a less-then-specific number based on inexact plans and getting them to the point where they are as accurate as possible for the budget, is challenging.

The tougher part was making a decision on some of the finishes in the house without actually being able to see how they will look put together. This was mainly relegated to the tile selection, counter tops, and master bath fixtures. Lets just say that its really easy to spend a ton of money on these things before you even realize what you have done.

More on the design choices, and where we are at architecture-wise tomorrow.....until then, one peaceful night of sleep without having to think about hitting the deadline today.

Progress! Progress! Progress!

We are really starting to pickup some steam on this. Its really getting interesting, and I am starting to get a taste of what is going to be like to "co-develop" this property should we get the chance to build it. We have been talking about windows, doors, molding, and flooring choices. We are really starting to formulate a lot of the base costs for the budget that we are going to need to have in order to put this together right. I am very lucky to have someone helping me with this process, and I know that its already making a difference in the way we work to drive the price of the house one way or other.

The hope is that we will have a budget and plans to submit to the bank by 9.15.08. In the meantime, we are working on lighting schemes, outlet and wiring placement as well as some more specific touches on the place. I have been getting some good advice from my Uncle as well. He is an architect, and someone who I have found I share much of the similar tastes in architecture. We have already implemented at least three of his ideas in our home. Thanks Duncan!!

We are going to see some examples of homes that have been built by one of the General Contractors we are talking to in order to get an idea for both style, and type of materials. We are going to be doing more these types of things going forward as we get closer to building the house. Its going to be important to understand whats being used currently in other homes, as well as what the GC is going to have access to as far as standard materials and accents.

More to come after we see some of these as I will post some pictures.

Moving On....

Well, Joe and company did a fantastic job working their rears off getting us the design layout in one week! The above example is what the new drawings are shaping up to be. If you look at it, you will see there are now dimensions on EVERYTHING. Not only that but this has the exact dimensions of the property along with the basic materials we will be using. I must say that after living in the world of "theory" in the design up to this point, its really nice to see the space defined. HPZS and Co. provided us with these type of documents for all four floors, all four exterior elevations, and the one floor cross-section of the 1st floor.

SO. Now we get to the next phase of this process. Its not Phase II per say, but more of Phase 1.1. This is because while we are still working through the design of the home, and the placement of the electrical outlets, and finishes like tile, lights, hardware, molding as well as the exact specifications for the contractors, we now have to work on getting the financing for this grand design.

So now its on to creating a budget, which we are going to be working on for roughly the next two weeks, and then we will be submitting the budget and the plans to the bank. The general contractor is going to be taking the plans to each of his sub-contractor who will provide us with preliminary pricing for each facet of the building (masonry, plumbing, electrical etc). Once we have done this, the bank is going to work to approve the budget, and then to create an appraised value for the property. And at that point we will know if we are going to be able to build this thing this year.

I will update things as I get into the budgetary process, I am sure its going to be an invigorating experience!

Tons of New Stuff!

There is quite a bit going on right now, so I am going to try to post everything and start conversations about things that I think we are going to end having to deal with consistently over the next few weeks as we head into the home stretch of the design phase of the home. We met with Joe and Gary, who is another architect at HPZS, on Thursday afternoon. Joe and Gary came with versions of the documents that I am posting, however their versions where substantially larger and showed much detail now that we have moved from 1/4" = 1' from 1/8" = 1' . Our focus for the day was to work on a minor details, and to start looking at the actual relationship of things to each other in the home. The idea is that windows are centered on opposite walls, other walls are in line with openings from the stairs etc. These are important for the basic symmetry of the building, and its something we havent worried about until this point because the scale was too small to make accurate measurements on these things. So all of the plans you see below are tweaked very slightly so they can be part of an actual space.

This isnt to say that we arent going to have to make minor changes here and there as we move on, as its clear that we will have to as we get into the more specific engineering requirements that the building is going to have.

Above you can see that we have a more detailed view of the front and the back of the home. Joe has added color to show the specific material that we would like to use on each part of the space. Our current hope is that we are going to be able to do a limestone fascia with brick on the entire building. The limestone will be featured prominently in three large horizontal bands, around the windows, and front door, along with most of the flat portion of the fascia above the door. We also added a planter at the base of the stairs. This is something that is an integral part of the design of other homes in the neighborhood, and one of the small things we are going to do to help adhere to the style of design around us.

The only other addition to this elevation is the specific look of the part of the roof where the stairs to the roof from the 2nd floor will be located. Its currently shown as wood siding, and will have windows on both sides. We are pretty excited about the amount of light this is going to be bring to the home along with the future of the roof for down the road.

Now onto the rest of the drawings!

1st Floor and Lower Level

This is essentially the layout we are going to use. We are very happy with the layout, and pretty much everything works. We are trying to work one thing out related to interior support for the load bearing wall, and weather its going to run down almost the center along the dining room wall and bathroom wall, or on the wall that is the support for the stairs, and pantry. Based on the conversations that I have had, it sounds like we are going to be able to do what I would like to do, but I am going to leave it alone until I know more as I could go on for a while about it. Something that will change in the layout is the windows that we are going to be adding in the kitchen. Materials wise, we are going to be putting hardwood floor throughout the first floor with the exception of the entrance hall, the bathroom, and the apron at the base of the fireplace extending over to the butler's pantry. This has been something we are going back and forth on, as we like the idea of running tile from the entry all the way down the hallway into the kitchen, but we are just really worried about how hard that tile is going to be under our feet, and how it might also feel cold under our feet.

There is also more definition on the layout of the back area around the garage, and you can see the small trees they are hoping to plant right up next to the walls. The tall thin trees will help to draw the eye up to the top of the garage and over from the deck. We feel like this is something that is necessary due to the proximity of the garage and the house being so close.

You can also see that we are starting to add the functional parts of the home to the design as well. Areas like the utility room in the basement are starting to show electrical panels, the furnace, and the on-demand hot water heaters.

1st Floor Interior Elevation - East View

Something new for this blog, interior elevations! This is an inside look at what we plan the first floor to look like. The top part is the west interior walls, the bottom is the east wall. This clearly shows the plan to make the west wall exposed brick from front to back. I havent really talked much about materials to this point as we have been focusing more on the form of the building, but this is now what we are getting to. Our plan is to have the entire west wall be built inside with reclaimed chicago common brick. We have a bit of this in our home, and we really like the look, and energy saving qualities of it. For the sake of visual continuity, the bathroom and butler's pantry have been omitted from the drawing. Moving from the back of the house to the front, you can see the fireplace design along with a close up of that design down below. Currently, our hope is to have the fireplace made of the same limestone that we are going to use for the front of the house, and we think it will be a nice contrast against the pinkish brick background. As we head to the dining room you can get a much better look at what the Sullivan arch is going to look like from the entrance of the room. I get giddy just looking at it, its going to be quite a fantastic room! Moving the front of the house and the library, we are going to continue the brick all the way through the turret to the entrance of the library. We are going to then put a set of bookshelves in front of that wall to make a nice relaxing background for the library.

The east side of the first floor is also represented with its main material - drywall. Most of this side will contain that and windows. Start from the left, or front, of the house, you can see a window in the entrance hall, and then the split of the stairs going up to the second floor and then further along the empty space that denotes the hallway going down. Next you come to the door for the pantry, and then the entrance to the kitchen. This is the first glimpse of the kitchen that we have, and we are already going to change it. We are keeping the layout with respect having the fridge on the left, range in the middle and the sink and dishwasher in the island, but we are going to choose to not put in the cabinets hanging on the wall above the east face of the wall. There will most likely be a set of cabinets on the wall shared with the pantry next to fridge, but that will be it for above the counter cabinets. Our thought process here is two fold: 1. We really feel like we are going to have more then enough cabinet space below the counter tops, and if you combine that with all of the space we will have in the pantry, we are talking about a lot of empty cabinets - 2. At this point we are pretty excited about the idea of putting smaller windows on each side of the range hood and then running a nice tile back splash all the way to the ceiling from the bottom of the range. Not only will this bring quite a bit more light to the back of the house, it will provide some very nice morning sun in the winter, as the sun rises on the southeast corner of this property thru most of the middle of the winter. More to come on this as we push forward on these specifics.

2nd Floor and Roof

We actually made a pretty big change in the second floor plans. Jen was having a really hard time envisioning where Nora's bed might go with all of the roundness in her room. So we talked with Joe and Gary about this, and they came up with a great idea on the spot. We moved the closets from the south wall to the east wall, and extended a hallway that also will double as a bed wall. This will not only give us several different options for where to put the bed, but it will also open up the front of the room and keep us from having to put the bed on that wall if we dont want to. Other then that, there really isnt much else. The extension of that be wall is going to allow us the extend the length of the vanity in Nora's bathroom, but everything else will remain the same for now. Keeping in tune with the matrials, here we will be doing hardwood throughout this floor, with the exception of tile in the bathrooms, showers, and tub area.

West Elevation

No changes here really at all other then further detail on the Sullivan arch, showing a more specific look at the brickwork and layer around the window opening. Some detailing was added on the the chimney to indicate the two floo's (one for the 1st floor fireplace, and one for the rooftop fireplace). There is quite a bit more detail on the stairs, stonework around the windows up front, and the finalized deck work at the back of the house. Notice that the garage isnt done yet, we are still in the process of finalizing that design.

East Elevation

Some changes here. We nixed the window in the pantry and moved it to the stairway going upstairs. We all think this is going to bring more light to the middle part of the home, and we just didnt see any reason to heat the pantry with sunlight when we assume that door will be shut more often then not. As I mentioned above, we will most likely be putting windows in the kitchen above the counter tops, and will end up on this elevation to the south (left of the windows currently on the first floor).

More Images from the Neighborhood

Nora and I were walking around the neighborhood today, so I decided to take the camera along and get some more images of door enclosures, windows, and front porches. All of these are indicative of the style that we are hoping to focus on in order to stick with the style of the neighborhood. We will most likely be forced to have our own door surround/header created, but this gives us some good direction.

New Drawings are In! And in Color!

We met with Joe today. Our efforts today were focused on the final little touch ups before moving on to larger scale views of each room. We were going to be instituting some minor tweaks we had from the previous two weeks conversations, and then working on more finalized hardscape drawings for the outside of the house. We are also starting to talk about some of the other landscaping ideas directly around the garage that will help minimize the proximity of the garage to the house. We talked about windows, doors, and started talking about materials for floors and walls which is detailed below with the description of the floor drawings.

Coming up the next, we are going to be working towards the design documents, which is going to get us to the point of no return - finding out if we can finance this baby. We will be meeting with Joe again next week to look at each room in much more detail, and as a result, be much more specific about the way that we are going to size walls, where we are putting doors, and orienting windows to the space of each room, and to each other on the home. We are really getting down to the fact where we are going to have to start making some very specific decisions about the materials we are going to use in the home.

Plenty more to come in the next week or so. I will update once I have an idea where we are going to be with the detail needed for the financing appraisal as that will be the big day.

Lower Level and First Floor

Here are the lower level and first floor plans. Minimal changes here. We decided to extend the future home theaters wall out just a bit and turn one of the adjacent storage spaces on the east wall into a closet that will house the electronics, and be the central nervous system for the wiring going to the rest of the house. This room will have an extended power supply, and a large fan that will help cool the room. This is going to make the home theater quite a bit larger, and add more functionality to the house. The only other thing is that the green coloring on the floors indicates that we are planning on having the floors consist of polished cement floors. This will be exceptionally warm with the planned radiant floor heating system we would like to use.

The first floor is basically as it was on the last drawing. The only major change here is the indication of the material choices for the flooring. The darker area indicates a stone or monolithic surface that will be something like tile from the entry all the way down the hallway and into the kitchen. Furthermore, Joe added this same material choice to the hearth, and then extended it along that wall north into the butler's pantry. I think this is a really nice touch, and I am looking forward to working with choosing the materials for both the hearth and the hallway/entryway/kitchen as I think its going to be a distinguishing characteristic of the home.

Another thing we focused on today was the finalizing the hardscape along with talking about few of the landscape options we have to compliment that part of the backyard/garage area. We definitely agree on the deck and subsequent stair positioning as well as the gate network we will need to keep the dogs out of yard/landscaped area. Joe brought some pictures of some grass, and smaller Aspen looking trees that he thing will look nice planted very closely to the north and west walls of the garage. This is going to help soften what the eye sees when looking off the back of the deck at the garage. There will also be a small planter running along the north end of the room that should help draw the eye up above the roofline of the garage.

2nd Floor and Roof

The second floor is where we have seen the largest change in the plans from the previous version to this version. Though these charges really arent large, they are the bulk of what we have amended on these plans. Thanks to some thoughts from some other people we smartly moved the door on Astor's bedroom closer to her bathroom door to free up space on the opposite walls. Similarly, we moved the door of the walk in closet from the wall in the bedroom to the hall just inside the door at the entrance of the master suite. This is going to allow us to put the bed on either of the two walls in the bedroom in stead of thinking that it might have only fit on the west wall of the room. The other change on the second floor is the combination of the utility room and the laundry room. We havent exactly figure it out yet related to where to put the washer and drier, but we were just trying to take a door off that wall if we could. In the end it will make the hallway flow just a little better.

The roof again is pretty speculative at this point in the fact that we dont plan to develop it right away. Joe did come up with a very good idea in having a vestibule type set of doors to keep traffic up there that is using the restroom from dumping lots of hot/cold air into the stairway. This will go a long way to keeping this area a more consistent temperature. The other thing Joe added is a set of windows around the stair area that will allow even more light to flow downstairs from this spot. I really like this idea, and think it will bring some even more great light to the house.

Thoughts While Waiting for the Next Drawings

I am sorry that the posts have been so sporadic lately, but we are really working through quite a few of things that takes time. Joe is working through inputing the hardscape and a few other changes (mostly door placement) into the CAD system for the home. At the same time Joe is also creating some 3D renderings of the exterior elevations as well, so we can get a better idea about material choices (brick, limestone etc) and what the structure is going to look like. While we wait, I thought I would talk a little about where we live, the awesome homes in our neighborhood, and some of the things that happen to be on our mind right now with respect to the home.

I will say this: things post-wise are slow now, but just wait until the home is under construction, pictures and updates daily! While I would love to post constant meanderings of thought on this subject, I don't feel the need for a constant barrage of garbage. Therefore, I am keeping to the meaty subjects for now.

Speaking of meaty subjects, we are going to be meeting with Joe on Thursday when I get back from Seattle, and I am hoping that we will have plenty of post worthy items.

The Villa

The neighborhood across the street (Addison) is called "The Villa". The Villa is this very small area of Avondale that runs between the highway/train tracks and the intersection of Pulaski and Addison. This is full of nothing but beautiful, well maintained homes on boulevard style streets. Most of these homes are brick or stucco, and they have a very consistent style. Some of the homes are said to be designed by disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright, and it shows in the uniqueness of design from home to home.

Jen and I walked around here with the girls today, just taking pictures of some of the homes to get an idea of what we are building near. Our hope is that we will be able to add subtle little nuances in the design of our home that will adhere to a similar style concept as these homes. Our street does not embody this style consistently down the block, but we can at least try...

Door Ideas

One of the things that we have to think about is how to do the limestone work around the door. This is something that is used heavily in the brick buildings in our neighborhood, and we feel one of the things that will tie the home to the older ones in our neighborhood. I have been trying to document the ones that I like so that when we get to that point, we have a really good idea what we want to do, and if we can do it. This may mean we have to find a way to get one from salvage. There are places that will keep these surrounds if the building goes down, its just a matter of which way (new or old) makes the most sense.

No Visual Updates Yet

We met with Joe this week, focusing on what we were going to do with the "hardscape" around the home. The hardscape can be defined as the decks, sidewalks, stairs, patio area around that home. We spent most of the time talking about how to orient the deck and stairs off the back of the house. The most difficult prospect was figuring where we were going to put the dog run. Jen and I have been messing around with this idea for weeks now, and we still didn't have a great place to put it on Thursday when Joe got there. The problems we kept running into: we really didn't want to look down from the back of the house or the deck into the dog run if we could avoid it, and we didn't know if we wanted to eliminate the potential for a sidewalk down the east side of the house by putting it there. In the end we made a decision through a process of elimination - we are going to put the dog run on the east side of the house between the house and the property line. Furthermore, we had to figure out how to run the stairs off the back/west side of the house. The credit here goes to Joe, he came up with several different ideas during the course of working it through that got us to the end result. We decided that it made sense to have the stairs start down towards the west near the house, go to a landing, and then split north and south to meet the ground. This will make much more sense when seen on the drawings, but this will allow us to create a nice patio and close the dogs off from the back "yard" and the side yard which will have a sidewalk and landscaping all the way down the west side. Its going to be very useful when its finished.

Some of the others things we talked about were related to the materials we are going to use inside the home. We are working on how to use different types of flooring to define space. Its becoming more clear every day how much work we have ahead of us to create a simple, cohesive design for the actual materials on the interior of the home. Very interesting.

Progress-wise, we are moving right along, and on pace to be done with the plans in full by early September allowing us to get the plans to the bank for appraisal, and a potential ground breaking October 1.

We are going to make a few other aesthetic changes related to moving a few doors and walls that will show up on the next iteration of drawings that I hope to post early next week.

Stay tuned....more visuals of plans coming next week.

CAD Drawings Are In!

Jen and I met with Joe yesterday to go over the first set of plans created with the aid of a computer. As I have mentioned, we were very curious to see how our space changed when we had to deal with actual engineering and spacial limitations that we didnt have when Joe was doing things by hand. Posted below are the four floors plans. There are some changes that I detailed on each floor, but generally things are pretty much as they have been since after our first meeting. Joe has been making some fantastic decisions, and coming up with some even better ideas for changes to the home, he is invaluable to us, and seems to have read our needs and desires accurately and has us pegged. I have to say that I think we are pretty much set on the interior design of the home. I know that a few things are going to be tweaked here and there as we get to materials designation and the like, but I would be very surprised to see major changes to the layout from here.

By the way, I am sure most people reazlied this, but you can click on the posted drawings to get the full size view of the document, which gives you a much clearer picture.

Next up we are going to be meeting with Joe early next week to focus on the outside spaces and seeing some CAD and 3-D modeling of the home itself.

First Floor and Lower Level Plans

So here is where "CAD-ing" the soft drawings really showed how the aforementioned variance in feasibility from soft drawing to hard drawing. We found out that when this was being put into the more finite drawings, that we couldnt fit the pantry, stairs, and powder room all on the east wall. The good news is that Joe had plan, and a good one at that. If you look at the drawing above, you will see that we were able to move the powder room to the space between the living room and family room, and this will then clear the way for a butlers pantry on the west side of that space. Both Jen and I agree that this is the perfect way to use this space, and we actually like the new layout better this way! So this move then sets it up so the up and down staircases will be side by side, we will now have a built in something (yet to be determined) in front of the downstairs, and a double pocket door separating the dining room and family room.

The move of the stairs naturally meant there would be changes in the lower level as well. This also worked out to our advantage. With the stairs moving 4ft or so towards the front of the house, this pushed the guest bathroom further towards the front of the house as well. This move created an open space just outside of the mud room. So, we decided to extend the mud room and add a place that could have both the stand up washer/drier, and utility sink that can we be used for any number of things. Whats even better, is that Joe came up with the great idea of putting in clerestory windows between the mudroom and playroom to allow light to be shared by the two spaces. Here is a good example of a clerestory window setting. This is from a Frank Lloyd Wright home, so its not quite the same, but its the concept of windows at eye level. Further changes were made to the back of the house as well. Joe decided that it made sense to extend the foundation under the deck where the space wasnt going to be useful anyway. This was an idea that I had gotten early on from a friend, and it just didnt seem to make sense at the time. Now its looking more like this will be very useful storage space. We have two other storage spaces at the front of this level as well that we think we might turn into something else, but we have yet to come up with something we both think is necessary.

Second Floor & Roof Plans

There are really very few changes here from the soft drawing layout. Joe said that when they were laying things out in CAD he noticed that we had enough room to make the girls bathroom's independent, and they could each have their own tub/shower. After talking it through, Jen, Joe and I agreed this was a favorable change. Along with extending the lavatory/area in both bathrooms, everything else is basically the same. The roof continues to to be mostly speculative with the only thing set in stone are the location of a future bathroom, and the ideal places for the green roof and exit onto the roof from the stairs below. More to come here as we begin to understand our cost base for things in the home, and where we are going to have to cut things off to stay on our budget.

Green Thoughts.......

Jen and I went to a local building supply store that focuses on green products over the weekend to get a feel for some of the things we were hoping to incorporate in our home design. Philosophically, we are not looking to make a statement about our "eco-friendliness" but to make sure we focus on the things that we find important for our family's health and pocketbook. The two main things we find important: indoor air quality, and energy efficiency. Looking at these things from a surface level, it seems that we should be able to accomplish these tasks with a minimum amount of increased cost. So, we decided we would get a more hands on feel and see what things actually looked like in person, instead of on the web as we have been doing up to now.

As we were looking around at the EVO free paint, the urethane free cabinetry, and the spray-in insulation, it got me thinking about what exactly we were going to be able to do to make our home as efficient as possible without spending massive amounts of money to be green. So the question that really comes to mind is: even if the green products are of a commensurate cost to the normal construction materials, will they install the same way, and can a general contractor install it with the same easy they would the normal construction product? There is SO much more to making a green home then just choosing the right products, and thats becoming increasingly clear to me.

I fully expected the process of building a home to be a learning process, and to this point it has been a challenge, but nothing that we have not been through with the remodeling we have done over the years. This is going to be much more of a challenge on both our part, and the part of any builder that we contract for the construction. We are going to have to be cognizant of the potential for our bids to increase as a result of a GC not being familiar with the installation of a certain type of product. Qualifying that is going to be one of the more important cost factors to the bid process, and eventually the building of our home.

More to come.....next up LEED certification, and the green "process"...

After Some Digestion

Ok, so now that Jen and I have talked about it, and I have had some time to let the design ideas settle, I have to say that I really like the layout for several reasons. One - we are going to have some great light in the house. Good light into our bedroom in the morning through the master bath and back windows (especially in the winter). Same goes for the Kitchen. Tw0 - the front and west sides of the house will get much more light later in the day. Since we will be spending the bulk of our waking time in the common areas, and as a family in the afternoon/evening, the windows in the back of the first floor and the in the basement will provide some warm light. I can see us having many a nice meals sitting in the dining room enjoying the sunlight.

More important then anything else, I had thought that it might take several iterations of design style for the front of the house to be what I wanted, but I think that its pretty much on the head. I am still unsure on the porch design, and I think that we are going to have to figure out how we want to do the stairs, but for the most part, I dont have many changes right now. I know that as much or more like the inside, things will change. However, I think we are talking about 20% or less, and thats going to much more focused and will be easier to work thru!

We are going to be meeting early next week, and then we will have some CAD drawings of the inside that will have a much more defined space. So far so good!

The Elevation Drawings Are Here!

Sorry its been so long since I posted, but things have been moving along in a way that is hard to really update. We are working through getting the interior design into CAD right now, so its a slower process then just drawing them out. Above you will see the front and back elevation drawings and below the drawings from the east and west. I will update later this weekend with thoughts on the whole thing.

Elevation Drawings - West Face

Definitely the more exciting side of the house! The prominent features on this side are the Sullivan arch which is going to garner the bulk of the attention, but also the large windows in the back of the house that is going to give us a lot of great evening light in the kitchen. Coupled with the windows on the back of the house, this is going to make the main living space very bright! The turret is prominently shown here as well, and you can see how nice this is going to look with the full 5' diameter rounded front and the stone on the top and the bottom.

Elevation Drawings - East Face

Here is the first "soft" drawing of the east facing wall of the proposed home. As you can see, there isnt much to this wall. Most of that has to do with there being a lot of the mechanicals and bathrooms on the west wall, so there ability to utilize windows. The only other thing of issue here is that you can see a side view of the portion of the turret at the front of the building. I think it looks good!

Moving In The Right Direction

We had our meeting this afternoon with Joe. We talked about the couple of changes that Jen and I had talked about, and some of the seemed to ring true with him so we instituted them. Also, as we moved through this version and went floor by floor to talk about the space, we made some further changes, and we are steaming towards our first set of drawings produced in CAD! Yes, this is the point where you shake your head and say Dave is a dork. But, this is where things are really going to get interesting, and where we will be forced to really nail down how big the spaces on each floor are really going to be. To this point, they are just hand drawn lines with a basic space concept based on using a ruler to delineate the actual distance. With the main living space, and more specifically the kitchen still in flux this is going to push us into making decisions fast. I would say that we are set on about 95% of the setup of the interior spaces to this point.


The best part of the meeting was when Joe shared our first conceptual elevation drawings. As I said yesterday, I truly think this is going to be THE tough decision design wise. I have to say that I really like the first drawing, and where we are heading with this. A lot of the exterior decisions are not going to be as much form as they are going to be in color and material choices. I think that Jen and I have ideas in our head, but bearing them out on paper will be different.

I will be posting the changed/updated drawings next week when I get the updates. For now, enjoy a weekend without my rambling : )

The First Plans Have Arrived

This is where I think this blog is going to truly show its meddle. In posting all of the descriptions of our thoughts on the current designs that we have been working on with the architect, I think its going to be great watching these evolve. Even as we have posted these drawings, we are meeting with the architect tomorrow, and I can say at least three things will most likely be changing. What is truly great about this is that we will have a record of what we are doing, and what we are thinking now, and in six months when we are building this home (hopefully) we will be able to look back and think "wow, what were we thinking" about some of these things. Its going to be a fantastic way to keep track of our progress both in designing the building, and refining what Jen and I think to be integral parts of a home.

For those of you not familiar with the process in working with an architect, there are generally three steps to creating a home. You start with soft or hand drawn designs to get the basics down and generally work through several iterations. Then, you move on to hard line drawings, these are more finite, and generally indicate that you have made some very final decisions. Once you are set on those, you then create construction documents. This indicates actual locations of outlets, gas lines, water lines, floor materials etc.

So we are in the soft drawings stage, as seen below, and careening towards the the hard line drawings phase as we finalize the interior spaces. We will be meeting with our esteemed architect again tomorrow to finalize some of this as well as start in on some of the exterior elevation drawings. I personally think that my biggest challenge for decisions on this home is going to be related to the design and materials used on the fascia. While its fairly obvious that this is the face of our home to everyone on our block, its also something that needs to fit into the architecture of the neighborhood, and not stand out as this monstrosity amongst a group of seemingly normal homes. Getting this settled in my head is most definitely going to be difficult, and while I might be a decisive person, and Jen and I a decisive couple when it comes to these things, this is going to be hard, and we will think long and hard on this.

Without further ado, I give you the first images (second version) of "soft drawings" that were created by our brilliant, patient, and thoughtful architect Joseph Bardusk of HPZS.

Roof - Top Level

This is by far the most subjective part of our plans. The most likely scenario is us finishing the stairs to the roof, running all the necessary utilities to the roof, extended the chimney/fireplace so it can be built out at a later date, and leaving it at that. I do like the ideas presented here, and I think that down the road we will most likely be doing something up here. However, for now, we feel like we have enough on our plate with the lower three floors to focus our efforts here. Long term, we would like a powder room, a kids play area, a greenhouse, and an outdoor fireplace up here. None of that is an immediate need, and thus, we will most likely just prepare the roof so it can be done. Stay tuned on this.

Second Floor Plans

Here are the second floor plans. These plans are essentially what our architect proposed initially, with the only real changes coming in the form of master bedroom layout. Part of the identity of the second floor is for it to feel private, and that both of the girls, and us have our own spaces. This starts with the set of stairs that only goes up. This gives a distinctly "private" feel from the first floor. When we decided to cut out the second set of stairs going to the basement, our architect said he thought it made the stairs to the second floor, and the second floor itself seem private. This rang true with me the minute he said it, and now I cannot think of any other way I would rather have it. We have tentatively assigned the girls rooms, with Nora getting the prime front room, and Astor getting the middle room. The girls will have a nice Jack and Jill bathroom that will give them each their own vanity and toilet, and they will share a bathtub/shower in the middle. Up in the front corner of the the second floor we will have a nice sitting area with a built in bookshelf and a nice large windows for relaxing (right). As you head to the back of the house, you will pass a set of stairs leading up to the roof, a laundry room, linen closet and mechanicals, and then to the master bedroom. As you walk into the master bedroom, you will see glass patio doors on the back leading out to a small private balcony. Off to the right will be a 6' x 20' master bath with a double vanity, steam shower, and oversized built in tub (Jen requirement). The main are of the master bedroom will be a large open space with the large full walk in closets behind the bed wall. The only thing we are unsure about is the open space listed between the up and down stairs that connects to a skylight. We are unsure if this is going to provide a conduit for noise from the first floor into the second floor.

First Floor Plans

This is where the fun really begins. For Jen and I the first floor is the most important space in the house. This space has changed the most from the first version of the plans to this second version. Following the flow of traffic from the outside, through the basement, and up the stairs to the first floor you will be looking at the west wall which will have the fireplace, a fully exposed brick wall, and a nice breakfast nook in the southwest corner. Continuing through the kitchen, you have a large island with a sink oriented towards the main living area (a Jen requirement, and good idea) along with a dishwasher in the island, a built in cooktop, 42" cabinets. The north end of the kitchen will be a walk in pantry and the fridge built into the back side of the pantry facing into the kitchen area. As you head back to the the stairs leading up from the basement towards the front of the house, you will find a powder room, and across from that the dining room featuring a Sullivan arch measuring 8' in height!! If you would like to get a better idea of what a Sullivan arch looks like, go here: http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/National_Farmers_Bank.html/cid_aj1934_b.html
Across from the dining room the stairs going up (yes, they are separated from the downstairs) and a coat closet under the stairs. The front of the house currently has a rounded shape which we like, and that turret will house the study/office area that will be floor to ceiling bookshelves and windows on the rounded portion. A large wood front door and entry area should give the space a nice open feeling and welcome guests as they arrive into our home. Also, the entire back of the first floor currently is proposed to have windows and doors leading out the the first floor level deck area.

Lower Level Plans

Here are the proposed plans for the lower level. Jen and I expect the bulk of our day-to-day traffic to come and go from the back of the house since there will be a garage that we will both park in. As a result, we have decide that coming into a lower level mud room with cubbies, a bench with coat hooks, a utility sink, and tile floors makes the most sense for all seasons. From there you will head in the the "family room" or what we plan to be the children's play area and then up the stairs to the first floor that are located more towards the back of the house. This is to help promote the idea of the back half of the lower level and the first floor as a cohesive unit - one that we will utilize for 90% of our waking home life. Other highlights include a basement laundry, full bath, guest bedroom, and the future for me - a home theater - most likely to be finished down the road after we are have finished the home and gotten settled.

Where we are at

Lets start with where we are, and how we got here.....

We currently have purchased the property two doors down from our house at 3935 W. Eddy St. (we live at 3945). This home was being re-habbed by a would-be home flipper and this person was an unfortunate casualty of the current home "crisis" that is tearing through the nation right now.

Jen and I were not sitting on this property licking our chops waiting for it to fail. We had begun looking to move locations as our home seems to be subjected to greater volumes of traffic down the alley to the west of our house as our neighborhood gains ground in popularity, and construction was more proliferate. As a result, we decided we would see if we could move within the city, so to try and avoid the supposed "inevitable" move to the suburbs, and the 2hr commute to and from my office daily.

While working with our property broker to find a potential new home, we were also trying to establish a value for our own home so we knew where we stood when we needed to sell our house. This was going to tell us what it was going to take for us to sell if/when we found a suitable place to move. When our broker provided us with a list of "comps" or places that were sold or on the market near our home, we noticed the property two doors down had just been put on the market for the value of the land.

My eyes immediately lit up, and I knew this was going to be our chance to do what we had hoped to do sometime in the future, BUILD A HOME!! Jen and I talked it through, and we decided that this was offering us the opportunity to do what we waned: Stay in the neighborhood we have come to know and love, to get off the alley that we are growing weary of, and to design and build a home that was distinctly us, and was not a home that we had amended from someone's previous iteration.

Let it Begin!!

Here we go! Jen and I have embarked on what is arguably the most ambitious project yet......design and build a house from scratch!!

The goal of this blog is to allow our friends and family share our movement through the process, and hopefully see how much of ourselves is going into this venture. When we are done, we hope to have created a home that is ours, 100%, front to back.......and one we can live in for years to come.

I will endeavor to take pictures daily of our progress (assuming we build) so that everyone can see where we are at, and where we are going.

Furthermore, this blog might actually also serve as a way for others who are aspiring to build a home to be able to learn something from our experiences, good or bad.....

And with that, let the games begin!