Better Late than Never

I uploaded these drawings nearly two weeks ago, but got interrupted and forgot to finish the entry. We're nearly complete. Just a few minor tweaks to the basement to go. Stewing on elevations now. In a way they are harder because I don't have a concrete idea what I want. One thing I do know is that I get tired of siding. I'm told bricks are too expensive here to put all the way around a house so I guess I'll have to compromise on that issue. The inside is more important to me than the outside.

A New Contender

Yes, that's a house in there.

We stumbled upon this place a couple of weekends ago while driving north of Columbia City and just happened to notice it is for sale (by owner). So Liane called and made arrangements for us to see it, which we did yesterday.

After having looked at it I can say it's one of very few we walked away from we can actually envision ourselves living in. It's about the only house I've seen on our quest that has a master bedroom, bath, and closet comparable to what we want. It has a walk out basement, a good sized out building, and the view from on top of the hill it sits on is pretty spectacular. The configuration of the rooms is decent, although we'd have to make a few changes. One of the bigger drawbacks is that virtually all of the woodwork is oak, just like what we have now and are SO tired of. This includes a set of bookshelves built into the great room, and the bar area of the basement, not to mention all the kitchen cabinets. Normally I'm not one to be put off by decor because I feel like things can be reworked, repainted, etc., but swapping out all the cabinetry would be a huge expense, and not really something that would add much to the value of the house. This is a major drawback for me.

They also are asking quite a bit too much for it in my estimation. But...at the end of the day it could be workable. They aren't in any big hurry to sell so we have time to sort through our stuff before we have to make any decisions.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting on what is hopefully the final layout from Nicole. Then we go to blueprints, and then the fun begins.

Buying a Home

Simon, a friend and coworker happens to sit near my office. I often hear his conversations with customers. He's fluent in a few languages so it can be quite fascinating to listen in (somehow it makes me feel more "worldly").

He's been building a home, which is now nearing completion, so sometimes I hear him talking to contractors, banks, and so forth. Recently the "talking" has been more like yelling. A couple of days ago he sent me the following.

Today's topic is buying a home. Enjoy.

DAY ONE:

March 1st:

Enter the scene a young happy romantic couple smiling with their beaming children they are pre-approved and very happy as they saunter out of the bank with a colorful picture of their dream home in their hands.

June 1st:

Me (With a glittering face): What else do we need to do to be able to secure the money for our house?

Bobby the Banker: "Well your credit is perfect and you make way more money than you need to live on and have a lot in your savings account and it looks here as if you have the signatures of all of the living presidents on the bottom of your resumes. You will be just fine, we should have you in your new home in a couple of months.

Me: Great wonderful you are the best banker ever.

Bobby: "I know, I know...now sign here on the dotted line...(insert theme to Jaws).

ONE DAY BEFORE CLOSING

Ring. Ring....

Me: "Hello"

Bobby: "Its Bobby the Banker, I'm working remotely today (he says from his iPhone from the golf cart between Tee #4 and the green) but I noticed that you failed to include the blue prints to the sheik of Iran's bedroom along with your credit application (mutes phone to snigger to the under-writer)....silence..

Me: "Are you serious"?

Bobby the Banker: "No, I'm just kidding... seriously that would be ridiculous... we meant the sheik of Oman. Anyway, get that to me by tomorrow or we won't be able to close.

Several weeks pass and thanks to a covert operation run by an ex-CIA agent and a group of underground spies working in close contact with the mafia and the Afghan rebels, I get the plans in my hand and pay off the spies. Fortunately for them only one of them dies recovering the blueprints.

THREE WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL CLOSING DATE

Ring....ring..

Me: "Okay Bobby, I managed to get those blueprints."

Bobby: "Really? (flipping through the Psychological Torture Methods for Dummies manual while his caddy fishes for an iron at the 16th tee)... "Now we noticed in the well report that you submitted last week that there was no test done for Kryptonite" (barely containing himself as the lender tips the caddy with a hundred dollar bill).

Me: "Okay I didn't see that in the list of things to test our water for, but then again I only read the first 647 pages of the FHA requirements before I fell asleep. "

Bobby: "Well it is pretty clearly stated there on page 648 just have that faxed over to me when you are done."

Click.

Me to my wife: Sweetie I need to rent the space shuttle to go get some krpytonite for the bankers,

My wife: "Okay, well I already sold my hair and all of the family heirlooms last week to pay the rent since we aren't allowed to use our bank account or any of our credit cards so that the lender doesn't ask for more photocopies.

Me: "We ran out of ink for the photocopier again, huh?

My wife: "Yes and I've already robbed the kids piggy banks twice, we really can't afford to make any more copies, plus the bank is asking us for the interest on the construction loan that is now overdue from the delays and we owe another month of rent on our apartment that we hadn't planned on.

Me: "I'll think of something."

AN HOUR LATER:

Me: (to the black market organ vendor on the corner): So you can really only give me $10,000 for this kidney.... Okay go ahead and take it...can you give me more if you don't use any anaesthesia?

FIVE WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL CLOSING DATE (from my hospital bed)

Ring, ring forever...Bobby's voicemail picks up..."Today is Monday November 1st, I will be out of the office for the next month in celebration of the ...umm...Thanksgiving Holidays...yeah... feel free to reach any of my associates if you require immediate assistance...

Me: (after three hours of calling everyone at the bank..getting transferred to Bobby's cell phone...by a desperate secretary...)

Ring..Ring...

Bobby: "Hello..how did you get this number?...)

Me: "I got your Kryptonite".

Bobby: (getting desperate) "Well good. Did you have the County Official certify that the Kryptonite was captured according to the state code, I will need a letter in triplicate, signed by your paternal great-grandfather as well as a relative of the author of the original superman novels."

Me: "But both of those people are dead.

Bobby: "Well that isn't our fault, the government has made mortgages a lot harder for everyone this year."

SOME INNUMERABLE NUMBER OF WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL CLOSING DATE:

My Four Year Old Daughter: (Eating thanksgiving dinner- on top of a cardboard box shared with her brother in the middle of my furniture-less living room)

"Daddy, why can't we move into our new house now?"

Me: "Daddy isn't really sure sweetie... I couldn't get on the internet to find out who wrote the superman novels because the cable company has already moved our phone and internet over to our new house..

This fairly well encapsulates the mood of many of my friends as they've neared the completion of their homes they've built. Something to look forward to....

November...

I never thought we'd still be working on drawings in November. Very close now, I think. Didn't I say that on one of the drawings a few weeks ago? In fact, I think I thought we were done. HA! That was September 20th.

This is Option #1 of a couple of similar, but different versions. Initially I liked the other one better (it had a shorter hall to the master bedroom), but after a few minutes this one grew on me and is now my favorite, primarily because of the laundry room, half bath, and the closet off of the garage entry. Liane has a few minor (?) reservations so we'll just have to see where we are after sleeping on it a few days.

I Aint No Architect...

...but I did stay at a Red Roof Inn last night. Yeah, whatever.

Updates have been slow to come recently, which reflects the slow progress we've made. It's hard to believe, but people do have lives and important things they must tend do beyond working on my drawings. Additionally, I think we are becoming that nightmare client. Everyone who does custom work for others knows what I'm talking about -- the one where you just can't wait to get the project done because it's never going to be good enough. I don't think that's us, but...if the shoe fits... I do have some specific things in my mind's eye and so does Liane. We are very close.

To try to "help" I dropped a few lines on one of the old sketches, which was pretty much the first serious drawing we had.

As usual my lines gloss over a lot of details about how things will really fit together and work, but I liked how the garage fit in on it, and Liane liked the kitchen layout the best (although I wish we could have a bigger pantry). There have been a couple since then that I could have lived with, and I liked certain things about them better, but when Liane didn't like the kitchens on them it kind of blew them up. And in looking I realized there may be a way to do everything we want with the garage nestled up into the front of the house more. The big problem with that design had been the layout of the bathroom and trying to keep it all around 2400 square feet. Since then we've realized the 2400 number is not going to be attainable, so with that loosened there are other things we can do.

We'll see where it all goes.

It is difficult because not only do Liane and I not agree on everything, but we sometimes change our minds about the relative importance of various factors. So it is a bit of a moving target, and to some extent it changes depending on who you're listening to.

I wonder if anyone finds this humorous? I do. I am perfectly willing to step back and see how nutty we are at times. And that's the idea of the blog.

Patience of a Saint

We got some more ideas and drafts from Nicole the other day. Much of it was based on the last round of changes and input from us after stewing over the last drawing. We're still unsettled on the kitchen layout, master bath (though we're very close there, I think...), and the whole garage, laundry room, half bath area.

We talked to her today based on these drawings, and at one point I recall words being uttered that both annoy and amuse everyone I've known who's been in the business of creatively designing things, whether that's building projects or mixing records. Yes, at one point Liane actually said (in regards to an aspect of the kitchen) she wanted to go back to where we were on the first (serious) drawing. AAAAAAHHHHHHH! And Nicole, to her credit, didn't even blink. Well, maybe she did. This conversation was over the phone. Now that I think about it her eyes could have rolled out of her head, but if they did we didn't know. This kind of thing used to drive me nuts mixing records. Once the recording was complete I'd always start the mixing phase alone, spending time to clean everything up and get organized. I'd get the mix to a reasonably complete and good state, then I'd bring in the artist, which usually resulted in spending days zeroing in on the little details that would be in their mind's ear. And after two or three days of this they would sometimes declare that it sounded better when they first arrived. ARGH. Of course I agreed, because when they first arrived it was my mix and all my ideas we'd be listening to without their influence mucking it all up. Nowadays, with computers, it's pretty easy to get back there, but in the old days it was almost impossible to get all the way back.

So I laughed on the inside when Liane said that. Poor Nicole. She really has the patience of a saint.

For those who are following along here is a brief tour of the drawing updates.

This is a partial front elevation drawing. Not much detail yet. She's just trying to get a feel from us what we like. Of course the right half of the house is still up in the air so she (wisely) hasn't tackled it yet.

Rear elevation. This drawing, more than any other one I've seen, really starts to show how over the top it is. Holy cow. No, we don't really need this much room, but when we plug in our various wants and desires this is what we end up with. What can I say?

This is the upstairs loft area. Assuming we even do this at all, not much of the upstairs will be finished. Most of it will be storage; space that can be constructed and turned into living space later if anyone wants to. Part of my reasoning for even having an upstairs is to make the front facade look more stately. Imagine that front elevation drawing without the upper window and a lower roofline. The other big reason is that the upstairs area should provide a much better view of the lake at the back of the property...although I'm now gathering that the windows on the back of the house may not be high enough to allow this. Hmmm...I'll have to think about that.

New revision of garage area, with changes to laundry room, half bath, and master bath. Still not quite settled on this. I am deeply concerned about how far the garage sticks out in front of the house. At this point this is probably the only thing about the design that is "bugging" me. Other concerns are minor and I think can be dealt with pretty easily. Liane isn't bothered by it at all so this one is entirely my hang-up. We're going to try swapping the two car bay with the one car bay, and making a few other changes to see if we can push it back a little more. The master bath has been reworked again, and we like it even better. In this design the tub and shower would share a raised platform, not unlike the one we saw at the Parade of Homes. This alleviates the problem of having to have the bathroom share the same slab as the garage because of my no-step up or over anything criteria.

Kitchen variation. It turns out Liane couldn't get comfortable with how far the sink/dishwasher area protruded into the space in front of the dinette as it was in the last drawing. I liked it a lot, but she just couldn't get her head around it. So this is a variation that minimizes it some. We'd probably still have to make some changes to this, mainly because we can't see the oven/microwave area not having a counter next to it. Maybe swap fridge and ovens. Not sure. This drawing shows what I think is the winning idea for the master closet. We had to give up on the island, but I think I'll like this peninsula better in the long run.

Kitchen variation #2. Liane and I got the idea of putting the dishwasher at an angle from the sink at the Parade of Homes. Don't think it's going to work for us though. I think it causes more of an egress problem than the straight design did. This drawing shows the first idea for the master closet peninsula idea. We like the other one better though.

This is one of two basement ideas worked up (the other is nearly the same). Hard for me to even think about this while the upstairs is still in flux, and who knows how much of it we'd be able to afford to finish anyway. You'll notice the studio is carefully positioned under the spare bedroom upstairs, which should minimize sound transmission issues. That drives the position of the main TV to the opposite wall. My idea is to be able to see it through the studio doorway. Most of my best work on the computer is done with a sporting event on TV. The rest of the layout is pretty much in flux right now. The doors at the bottom of the steps may seem weird, and we probably do need to rework that area, but Liane and I agree that for the sake of sound transmission we want to be able to close the basement off from upstairs.

If we do end up with the master shower and tub on a platform together it means the retaining wall can be moved/simplified accordingly. So in this drawing it would move up to follow the contour of the garage, which will mean less backfill of dirt needed to support it, and should save a little money.

The ball is in our court. We've given Nicole our input on the kitchen and laundry/garage areas. But she wants more input on the basement so she can tackle it all at once. We need to sit down and think through that part a little more.

Whew, this is seriously hard work folks. Big, big decisions that we know we'll have to live with for a long time.

You've got to be KIDDING me!

One I neglected to post from the Parade of Homes. Another disco ball.

Is this is competition for the Columbia City Discotheque? I guess everyone wants to be a DJ these days. They did throw a gratuitous guitar in there. Oh, and don't forget the trumpet on the bed...because anyone who plays a Randy Rhoads style Jackson guitar is bound to also be interested in trumpets and mirror balls. Seems like they should have gone all the way and put a Copter-Sphere in for the lighting fixture. And how about a fog machine? Jeez...

The Parade of Homes

An annual event in Fort Wayne, and probably a lot of other places, the Parade of Homes is put on by the Homebuilders Association. When Liane worked for the architect she used to have to work the booth for it, and one year I helped her (still wondering how I got sucked into that). We thought it would be prudent to check it out this year.

There were seven homes in it this year. Admission has gone up to $9. I'm still trying to figure out how they get so many people to pay $9 to walk through houses and be sold to all day. Gotta' hand it to 'em there. And we did, $18 for the two of us. A lot of other people did too. It seemed very crowded to me. Almost difficult to walk through and see the houses. You'll notice a line to get in one of them above. It turned out that was mostly caused by the lady with a builder working the door who had to tell everyone ALL about it as they walked in.

We've seen some pretty spectacular houses in the past at the few of these we went to. This year, not surprisingly, the entries were a little more down to earth. It struck me this time that it seemed like more of an interior design show. The houses were nice, but for the most part pretty basic in terms of their design and construction. What appeared to set them apart from one another in many ways were the little things that had been done -- the extras, and the decorating. I can look past most of that pretty easily though, and get right to the design of the house while still enjoying the decorating ideas.

A few highlights below...

A fairly attractive kitchen. I especially liked the hood over the stove top. Not sure I'd want that one for me (glass hood, hard to keep clean?), but it looks cool here. Undecided, but I think I might like the high contrast colors.

I had mentioned a while back, when we were first struggling with how to keep my shower flush with the floor, that both the tub area AND shower could be raised, and I was okay with that. I even did a mock up showing the tub at an angle like this, with the shower off to one side (as this one is -- to the right) and Liane didn't like it. But she liked this bathroom. Go figure.

Not totally dissimilar to the way part of our kitchen may work. For us the sink will overlook the dinette, but I wonder if we should consider the angles like this, and maybe even the bar vibe? Ahh...decisions.

I kinda' dig the three side fireplace. Liane isn't enthused. Guess that will be another debate at some point.

I like it. Liane didn't. Big surprise!

Cool sidewalk. Practical?

Kind of a nice vibe here.

Seems like a smart and functional way to use the area under the steps. This idea might be worth stealing, except I think my studio will be in that area on our design.

Ultimately I didn't see a house I would want to buy, even if the price wasn't as over-inflated as these were. However there were aspects of each of them I really liked. I think we got a few good ideas.

Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding...

I think we've arrived at a workable plan! Nicole really is good at this stuff. She's done the impossible, and gotten us everything we asked for with minimal compromises. She even came up with some other really good ideas in the process. Hooray!

Click on the image for a larger view.

It looks like the garage had to be moved out some, and the closet shape is slightly weird, but those are things we think we can live with. There are still some minor things we want to move around and change, and still quite a few little details to be worked out, but the basic floor plan is finally ready...we think. We do want to sleep on it a couple of times first. I've started a list of little things to think about and change. For the most part it's not stuff that would cause any major walls to move or anything.

After a few weeks of getting increasingly discouraged about this project I'm excited again, and looking forward to pushing this train down the tracks to the next stop, whatever that is. Obviously the next step is to get the floor plan for the loft and basement done.

If there are any opinions, thoughts or concerns from the peanut gallery it's time to start submitting them as we very well could be just a few weeks away from submitting this thing for bids.

Cannot Defy the Laws of Physics

The meeting with Nicole went well. The good news is that she really does seem to understand what we want. The bad news is that doesn't change the problem. I think she wants to tell us, in the voice of Scotty from Star Trek, "Captain, you cannot defy the laws of physics." We're trying to feed three rooms (bed, bath, closet) from one point (the end of the hallway) and we have an arc of about 110 degrees (more or less) in which to do it. That's going to make for some odd shaped rooms or a longer hallway. If we push the garage forward the job becomes easier, but I'm not a fan of houses in which the front facade is dominated by garage so that concerns me. I'm also somewhat hesitant to push the rest of the house further down the hill on the lot because it will make it harder to be able to see the lake at the back and cause more dependance on a retaining wall between the front and back yards. We could also maybe look at a way of moving the kitchen out of there to make more room, but that pretty much blows up the rest of the design and causes a total do-over. So that would be a last resort I guess. If either the kitchen or the garage moved out of the way the available arc of space at the end of the (short) hall could be a full 180 degrees (like most normal houses) and it would be a lot easier to get it all in there. Barring any change in the laws of physics the answer may lie in some compromise involving all of these things: slightly weird shaped rooms, slightly longer hallway, slightly more garage on the front, and somewhat moving the kitchen.

The ball is in her court now, so we'll see what all she can come up with.