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.