We break ground tomorrow!

We signed the papers this morning....

....staked the lot this afternoon....

David is standing on the deck!

Thisclose

We are thisclose to signing a contract. Keep your fingers crossed!

That's ours - Lot 23

David is standing in the pool.

Cha, cha, changes...

...to the base plan. So far:


1. Design would have to be mirror-image flipped and the exterior materials chosen to fit the neighborhood.

2. The room marked Dining Room would become the office/den

3. The room marked Sun Room will be extended by 5-6 feet, would become a KILLER dining room with windows on 3 sides and great views.

4. The area marked Breakfast would become the butler pantry

5. The kitchen will entirely open to the Family Room.

6. Will capture space below extended dining room.

7. Will reconfigure the utility and basement spaces to give direct access from the pool to a bathroom in the basement.

Retractable screens

For the covered porch:

Can go hog wild - fully motorized...
 

Or...
 

Plan F: Back in Business!

We're building in Gramercy!

What we're starting with....

The house is pretty ordinary-looking, right? It was built in 1980 and I think this is the original siding. Note the location of the front door - you'll soon see why it is problematic. As you can see below, the siding is old and grungy.

Old, grungy siding

The color is no longer adhering

This is what happens when you try to power-wash it.

More kitchen organization and storage ideas

Here and here.

Kitchen organization and storage

This is in a spice store near Trader Joe's in Indianapolis. The spices weren't all that interesting, and they were very overpriced, but we liked the display area that was an old kitchen space. Lots of good open shelving here!

I also liked the bins and the very shallow spice shelves.

Back to the drawing board

The house on Smith Road project got KO'd by Monroe County, in all its planning and slope-use wisdom. Plan B, which was to buy a new house, fell through as well. Plan C (or is it Plan D?) is to renovate in a big way the house we're living in now. In terms of design and decision-making, the project is pretty similar to building a new house from the ground up. So.... back to the drawing board.

At the Indianapolis homeshow.....

We saw lots of nice tiles and tile ideas.

Some examples of backsplash mosaics and patterns

Warm floors... yes.

Want an efficient heating system that will keep you warm and toasty on cold winter days and nights? Look no further than to radiant floor heating.

It is more efficient than baseboard heating, as well as forced air systems. And unlike forced hot air, it doesn’t blow out uneven-feeling air and dust, and there are no ducts that lose heat. It costs more to install than other heating systems, but its energy efficiency pays off in the long-term. You’ll also enjoy lower monthly energy bills. Plus, radiant floor heating is great for for those who enjoy an evenly comfortable, warm interior space and for those with allergies.

Radiant floor heating systems work through radiant heat transfer (heat radiates to people and objects in the room) and convection (heat rising from the floor into the room). Due to the radiant heat transfer effect, this type of heating system works especially well if you have thermal mass (concrete floors, masonry wall or fireplace, etc) in the room. Those surfaces absorb the radiated heat and continue to radiate it back into the room throughout the day and night using little energy.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “The most popular and cost-effective way to heat an entire house is the hydronic (liquid-based) radiant floor heating system. A hydronic system can be heated with a wide variety of energy sources, including standard gas- or oil-fired boilers, wood-fired boilers, solar water heaters, or some combination of these heat sources. Hydronic radiant floor systems pump heated water from a boiler through 1/2-inch flexible, polyethylene (PEX) tubing laid in a pattern underneath the floor. In some systems, the temperature in each room is controlled by regulating the flow of hot water through each tubing loop. This is done by a system of zoning valves or pumps and thermostats.”

This Old House explains, “The flexible tubes can be installed in a variety of ways: on top of the subfloor in grooved panels or snap-in grids; clipped ­into aluminum strips on the underside of the floor; or embedded in poured concrete (the least expensive install for new construction). Once the system is in place, you can cover it with most types of finish flooring, including hardwood and tile.”

If you’d like to have radiant floors installed in just one or two rooms in your current home (like the bathroom or kitchen), an electric radiant system will be less expensive to install. “Electric cables are built into the floor. Systems that feature mats of electrically conductive plastic are also available, and are mounted onto the subfloor below a floor covering such as tile.” To operate most efficiently and cost-effectively, thermal mass (like a concrete floor) should be integrated into the room.

Home on the range

Bluestar Ranges

Pool

This is kind of the look I was thinking of.

Not sayin'... just sayin'

Wood burning pizza oven.  Inside or out?

From Forno Bravo

Ideas from the kitchen of one of the best cooks I know

The layout of this kitchen is terrific, and the width of the aisles around the island are perfect.

The island has glass-fronted drawers that make finding things really easy.

The upper shelves and cabinets are at easily-reachable heights, and there is plenty of counter top work space.

There is a deep pantry closet and, above the oven, the same kind of vertical "filing" storage for pans and cookie sheets as in Annie's kitchen - the highlight of this kitchen's design, according to the owner-cook!

We have the first draft of a house plan!

It is an eerie feeling knowing that you're going to look at the plans for the first time. Our ideas, dreams and desires, filtered through our vocabulary, into the architect's brain, and out again through his fingertips... what will they look like?

Not bad, actually (see left).

And how do you make a flat plan come to life in your mind? Jim showed us through the house, room by room, imagining every sort of scenario. Think about it - what do you do first when you get home? How do you move through the space where you live? What is the flow of your life?

After a discussion that lasted nearly two hours, we agreed on a few things: the pool needs to move 20 feet or so to the right; the stairs in the entryway need to move about 4 feet to the right, to clear the sight lines in the entry hall; the laundry room needs to be bigger; the garage need to be somewhat smaller. Things to think about: Should the whole thing be moved farther south by a few feet? Or turn slightly to the west?

Lots to ponder.

Wells House

I was in there this week for a meeting and took a few moments to look around the kitchen. The attendant there said that caterers tell her the kitchen is a dream come true for them. Must get the proportions!

Tennis court anyone?

Requires a flat (ish) 60x120 clearing... not sure we're going to have that to spare...

The latest hurdle cleared

We're including an apartment for Mom in the new house; we introduced Mom to our architect, Jim, yesterday and all is well - they hit it off perfectly. Mom now refers to him as "our" architect.

The four of us did a walk-through of the existing house, to talk about elements that work and that could be transferred to the new house. We also looked at possible pieces of the old house to save and incorporate into the new house - beams and stones and the like. We think honoring the old house in the new is a good idea.

And we have a survey of our buildable space now! Things are moving, albeit slowly. Slow is good, I think. These are momentous decisions and it is best not to rush things.

Internet-ready driveway

Wireless, outdoor IP camera. Add keypad, intercom & gate opener. Video intercom/opener in house. 

More good ideas from S's house

Security doors. The glass can be popped out easily and replaced with screens.

And a dog bath built in to the laundry room. The rim is about 9 inches higher than the interior tub; the rim is about 13 inches in height from the floor.

More good interior details...

Note the double doors in the defined entryway, and the large closet to your right as you enter.

Green technology that saves greenbacks

Geothermal heat pump. 50-70% less operating cost. Recoup extra install cost in 5 years (with tax credits).

No-brainer.

The other proximate cause of our house project

Radiant floor heating?

Discuss.

The proximate cause of our house project!

I love my friend Annie's dining room, especially the built-ins. The room is large and comfortable, conducive to long, happy dinner parties of all sizes. The view is great - it has windows all along one wall that look out over the porch and the woods. And it has a fireplace, which makes it very cozy in cold weather.

I am pretty sure that the first time I stepped into this room, our house-building project was set into motion. The built-ins run along an entire wall, as you can see, and provide not only storage/display space, but also a huge amount of sideboard room. This works as well for buffets as it does for sit-down dinners.

Annie's son, who does a lot of their cooking, likes the layout of the kitchen, especially the fact that there is plenty of room to chop things right next to the stove-top.

They've also got some good cabinet designs that they recommend - cookie sheet "filing" cabinets; broiling pan vertical storage just above the oven, and an "appliance garage" (I love that term) with a power outlet inside.

See?

More stuff we like

A nice big dining room. Like this one, maybe.

Time out

Here's what we learned today, in our third meeting with Jim: expect each meeting to take a few hours. I under-budgeted my time and ended up running out on Jim and David early, leaving them to discuss the kitchen. We spent a lot of time today talking about cars, car storage, views, placement of things like mud rooms and pantries, and we also talked about levels. All one level, for accessibility? Or multiple levels, for design? We're opting for the latter.

"...the restraints thereon..."

Just for the record, this is making life just the tiniest bit complicated. Never mind - am confident that all will work out for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.

More stuff we like

Stuff we like

Built-in shelves, for one thing.

Habemus architectum!

We've been thinking about this and talking about this and looking at pictures in magazines and asking people lots of questions and looking at house plans and making lists and so forth, but now we're ready to start moving forward. At left is a picture of the existing house and some of the building site.

I'm nervous because I've never done a project like this before. David has, so he knows what we're in for. Nonetheless, he's willing to do it again - isn't that great? Given the topography and the restraints thereon, and the magnitude of what we want to accomplish, we decided we needed an architect instead of a designer or instead of buying a ready-made house plan. So... again after talking and looking and cogitating, we've found our architect: http://www.jamesrosenbarger.com/. The process of picking an architect is as shrouded in mystery as is the process for picking a pope, hence the title of this blog post. David and I just went with what felt (and looked and sounded) right.

We are moving into the program-building phase of the project (read about it under Services on Jim's site).

At his suggestion, we are reading "A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander. At my friend Legene's suggestion, I've also bought a copy of "House," by Tracy Kidder.

Some of the things that we want to incorporate:

• A butler's pantry
• geothermal heating/cooling
• pool
• solarium
• appliance garages (isn't that a great term?) in the kitchen
• A couple of mosaics by our friend Monta
• screened porch
• unscreened patio with fireplace

What are we leaving out????