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.