Chapter 6: The Country Lane

Of all the days we've spent creating this house, this was the most extreme – extreme excitement, edginess, euphoria and exhaustion. At the end of the day, we couldn't think and didn't want to talk.

It was a typical sunny August day in the San Francisco Bay area. We left our home in the hills a little after dawn, driving into the valley for the 70 mile trip across the bay area – from Morgan Hill to Berkeley – during the morning commute – 2 hours each way. This would be our first visit with DSA, whom we hoped were our new architects. Our separate and combined dreams for what may happen filled the space between us – hope, fear, anticipation, anxiety. Once again we were meeting an architect. This time we were prepared, yet that shadow of potential disappointment was there, with the worry that, perhaps, we just wanted this too much. Butterflies in the stomach? You betcha.

We brought a few architectural books with our favorite designs, some pictures of our forest, and a small pile of magazine clippings. One house that we'd been drawn back to repeatedly was the Leonhardt house  that Philip Johnson designed in 1962. Built on Lloyd's Harbor Long Island, it is an interpretation of Miesian architectural style. The glass living room seems to float above the view. We imagined what it would be like to have a house that floated above the forest, yet we also realized this design didn't agree with our goals and probably wasn't suitable for the Sierras. However, it illustrated a design that would entice both of us.

Our simple goal for this meeting was to find out if we could all work together, and confirm we would hire DSA. We didn't expect to design the house at this day and weren't sure how the things we were bringing would be used. Yet we brought them.

The DSA office impressed me as a serious place of work – shelves of books and drawings with computer workspaces and drafting desks between them. It was in an older industrial building with a concrete floor, open ceiling, no frills, but comfortable. We liked it there. We quickly learned that DSA had loaded our survey into their CAD system. They quickly made copies of our papers, while we drank tea and coffee and wandered around, absorbing the sense of being there. Just remembering this almost makes me want to do this again. Almost.

At the table at DSA

Dan placed us at the table opposite him, with Dietmar at his side. Dan Smith (principal architect at DSA) introduced Dietmar Lorenz who would be in charge of our design. Dan rolled out a large survey map of our property on the table between us (upside down to him), grabbed a roll of transparent tracing paper (vellum?), and said he liked to draw things out and deal with them visually, which was exciting for us to watch.

Dan knew we had had problems with a potential garage location. He started by saying he liked to have an overall vision of the site and then to design components within that vision. I remember this so clearly, because what he said both puzzled and delighted me – One way of thinking of your property is to visualize a country lane with several buildings along the lane.

To illustrate, here is what the initial site plan looked like when they drew and sent it after the meeting. 

 Our final plan, which was then months away, moved the garage a little further from the house and worked better with the slope (less dirt to haul away) as well as preserving a couple of important trees.

The lane starts at the bottom of our driveway (at the entry from the road). On the survey map the grade lines depict the slope of the hillside. Every line equals an elevation change of 5 feet from the previous line. Where they are closer together, the hill is quite steep. Uphill is at the top of the map, ~north (the mountain ridges in this area generally run west/east, and we are on a south-facing slope).

Today if you come up our drive, the first thing you encounter is a flat area on your right (accommodates a fire truck), followed immediately by the garage. Just beyond and on the other side of the drive is our house, and the drive now twists to your right and up the hill. Next you come to the garden area, a flat bench on your right, about the height of the garage roof. Assuming you don't turn off to enter the garden, the driveway continues uphill just a bit more and ends at Ron's workshop (former cabin). The country lane vision helped me to see our property this new way, and it made right so many things we had debated for years.

Beyond the Site Map

Dan said, I like to start with bubbles; they're easier to change. So now within a large circle for the house, he started drawing circles for where various rooms would be, working on two floors and then trying out a third (pop-up, or partial floor in the NE corner of the house). Kitchen here, living room here, etc. We'd react and he'd tear the sheet away and do it again. And again. And again. I remember one time when he tore a sheet away that we'd both liked, and we wanted to snatch it out of his hand. Seeing our alarm, he said, don't worry, we're not discarding it, but stay with me and let's try a different approach. From each of these he was learning about us, and he was making sure the our initial choices were optimal for us.

We spent time on the kitchen. I had visualized it at the back of the house, overlooking the forest and canyon, but Dan had good reasons for putting it at the NE corner, near the drive. This is where it is today, and I like it. It's a natural location for everything we do in a kitchen, and it has a spectacular view out a large window on the east, where sunrises entertain me daily. I've grown quite attached to this up-canyon view.

One of our desired rooms was an area for me to quilt that could also double as a family room. In our Morgan Hill house I was quilting in the living room – not optimal for anyone. Dan introduced the idea of a pop-up – a room at the third level (above the kitchen) which is partially embedded in the house (the rising living room ceiling goes around it). This is architecturally interesting and it enabled the drama of our central stairs, while also creating a room with southern clerestory windows – excellent light.

Meeting Dietmar

Throughout this several hour meeting, Dietmar sat upright on the edge of his chair, looked very focused and intense, but he rarely spoke. Those who know Dietmar will find this description surprising. We didn't know it at the time, but normally Dietmar has no trouble sharing his great wealth of knowledge and opinions. It was later obvious to us that he had corralled his excitement and ideas in this first meeting. Dan had told us that Dietmar had been eager to design a straw bale house using a contemporary design; I think he was actually as excited as we were. His creative and passionate work on this project is a major reason that we are so happy with it today.

Meeting Dan

Dan was calm, professional, enthusiastic, and visionary – creating sketches that led us through a careful process that worked so very well. Both Ron and I left the session excitedly committed to working with DSA. Both of us felt we had been heard, listened to, and that there was a meeting of the minds between DSA and us.

As I reflect back today and compare this experience to our earlier ones, I realize there were two reasons this was so successful. One was the match between our aspirations and Dan and Dietmar's work. Yet as important as that was, an equally major contributor was how well Dan Smith managed the meeting. He (and Dietmar) were extremely well prepared, had obviously considered our property's issues and opportunities, had reviewed everything we'd sent them, were eager to understand our ideas and suggestions, and had some ideas and concepts to test our response. They were focused on understanding what we thought and felt. Dan facilitated the session such that each of us had the opportunity to share and know that we were heard. Wow.

Next Steps

Dan described the future design stages as:

1. 
   
   
   Schematic Design
2. 
   
   
   Design Development
3. 
   
   
   Construction Documents
4. 
   
   
   Construction Services

It would be important to thoroughly complete each phase before moving on, as there is more detail and therefore more work as you get closer to building. And things become more difficult to change. Although Dan provided a list of what each phase entailed, I don't think I understood the distinctions until we experienced the process (and probably still couldn't describe some of this well).

Dan and Dietmar said they would send some first schematic designs to us, and warned us that these were additional feedback documents – we shouldn't expect them to be it. Here are 2 of the early ones to show the types of changes that evolved (and none of these are exactly what we ended with when we finished schematic design).

Soon to come would be a site visit when we would all walk the property together.

Summary

I believe that wisdom comes not necessarily with age, but from the realistic examination of misguided choices to uncover the underlying truth and learn. From analyzed experience. When I'm aware of misguided choices, I especially try to learn from them. Our first architect firing us made us face several realities, including recognition of our flawed process, and that we had continued despite an obvious mis-match. Examining that process yielded a different solution, which brought us to Dan Smith, Dietmar Lorenz, and DSA. A great ending to what had been a troubling part of this journey and a great beginning for our house design. We were off!

Just Photos: Our Sleeping Loft

This Labor Day Holiday (first weekend in September 2009) I decided to finish our Sleeping Loft.

The Sleeping Loft was a great idea that Dietmar Lorenz, our project architect, suggested as DSA developed the design details. However, later, when we encountered plan check (an interesting process that I will describe in more detail in a future chapter), our plan checker did not like the stair access from the guest bedroom to the loft, nor the sleeping loft concept. He believed it was dangerous, that someone could get hurt.

The compromise was to label the room an attic loft on the plans, and to provide access through pull down stairs that are in the corridor outside the guest bedroom and bathroom (see the first set of pictures here).


When the stairs are extended they intrude into the hallway, but there is still room to walk around them. We also sacrificed a closet, but we gained closet space in the guest bedroom.

The attic has 2 deep bale windows, and the west and north bale walls are finished like the rest of the house, as are the south loft and east interior walls, but the builder left the floor unfinished (it's an attic) and we have used it as a somewhat awkward attic as we've settled in. Nevertheless, I've continued to be intrigued with the potential for this room, wanted to do something, and just wasn't sure what or how.

The room is interesting, very secluded from the rest of the house yet with windows and views into it. The bale window on the west wall outlines a lush green Douglas Fir; the bale window on the north wall frames the view across the front drive to one of my favorite oak trees and the garden area. My camera (or my photographic skill) doesn't do these windows justice -- the light isn't this harsh and the room isn't this dark -- but here are some pictures that give you some idea of how interesting this is.



The east wall of the room has a spy window, a twin to a spy window in the pop-up (quilt room). This interior window allows anyone in the room to spy into the gallery, directly across to the quilt room through the other window, and down into the stairwell/living room.

The south wall is the partial loft wall, with an open airy feeling.

Which also means that whoever is in the guest bedroom needs to be comfortable with whoever is staying in the sleeping loft, but then that was the case with our plan before the plan checker interfered. This is overflow sleeping for times when we have several people staying here, not a place to live.


Before Labor Day weekend, the room had an ugly, dirty-plywood, unfinished floor, and was full of, well, storage that someone else would call junk perhaps. It was junk we wanted to keep, but cluttered and disorganized -- things we stashed there.  I had a vision of what this room could be -- notice there is no floor in this picture, it's a picture I took after I changed the room because it illustrates my plan -- and the more I thought about this, the more I wanted to do something.


While I've lived here (about 20 months now), I kept thinking about solutions. I considered buying an inexpensive large indoor/outdoor carpet, but the room dimensions are awkward (a long rectangle, with a cutout for the stairs). I thought of buying several remnant carpets. Of cutting them up. None of this was appealing. And so I wouldn't think about it for a while.

Then I started thinking about carpet tiles, investigated them on the web, and I had my solution, if I was brave enough to do this. (I'm not confident about my handyman skills.)



The Flor tiles I purchased are just under 20 inches square.

1. First step was figuring out how many tiles to order. I needed a plan for how I would lay them out. I used spreadsheet software to map out the floor (made the cells into squares and assigned each a dimension of 2 inches) and decided on a checkerboard design
   
2. I ordered the tiles -- including a few more than I needed.
3. I downloaded the instructions, which was particularly good because I needed to buy or borrow a few things -- a carpet knife, something to mark the floor, and a 24 inch carpenter's square. I was a bit intimidated, but the instructions were clear.
   
4. I cleaned the floor several times to get it as dust and debris free as possible.
   

The actual installation (after cleaning, assembling tools, and having a plan) took 2 afternoons.

1. The first step was to establish the center of the room. The instructions said to measure from opposite corners and mark the floor. Where these lines intersect is the center.
   
2. Then you draw lines through this center to the center of each wall, and that establishes your grid.
   
3. The layout begins at the middle -- I created a T that went between the north and south walls and over to the west wall. (The pull down stairs opening is on the east side.)
   
4. Once I was comfortable with the carpet tile grid, I trimmed the tiles at the ends of the T, a little tricky with uneven bale walls, and then attached them to each other using the Flor spots.
   
5. I then filled in the NW and SW corner sections before heading east toward that last wall with the interesting deviations.

The part I was most worried about was the opening for the pull down stairs. I knew I would have to cut tile in odd shapes, and that the bale wall was particularly irregular there.

It was somewhat tricky, but not as difficult as I expected. I didn't attempt to keep the checkerboard going along the bale wall, and that seemed fine considering the tile was framing the opening for the stairs.

The unexpectedly difficult corner was the junction of the south loft wall and the east house wall. Since these were not bale walls, I thought this would be easier. But I had overlooked the little jog in the wall that goes around a support beam, and then it wasn't exactly straight (the tile layout is sensitive to about 1/8 inch).

Again I deviated by using more of the charcoal tiles versus staying with the checker board pattern, and I'm happy with the result.

Also I want to mention Homer-Kitty, who kept track of my activities and was the first one to sleep in the loft. However, he doesn't like cameras.

The final picture -- here is our sleeping loft today. It's a very nice room. The disadvantage is the pull down stair access. But particularly when I was a kid, I would have loved staying in this room, and I like just being in it today.

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Chapter 4 Aesthetics, Aspirations, Art, & Architectects: Finding DSA

What I believe now is that when you select an architect, you are choosing:

• An artist whose work inspires you,
• A partner you can work with, and
• An expert who can bring new ideas, knowledge, possibilities, and solutions to you.

There is also a lot of solid hard work as part of this capability. I cannot imagine the effort, focus, and processes that turn dreams into realities and produce a complex building. A big part of this is the builder's work, and working with the builder as well. Nevertheless, at this point in our selection process we were assuming basic architect capability in anyone we would consider, and so the ideal architect seemed like a blend of artistic talent, technical expertise, and interpersonal style/skill. We found a perfect match with DSA (Dan Smith & Associates, Berkeley, CA).

As detailed in Chapter 3, we had completed our design aspirations. In addition we'd assembled a list of topics for phone interviews with potential architects, including:

• Sharing our design aspirations and asking about their relevant experience.
• Discussing the size (residential mid-size), scope (our fantasy budget), and timing.
• Requesting samples of their work. (Many had websites, but we wanted to visit a site.)
• Inquiring what they would gain from working with us. (Do our interests align well with their goals?).
• Asking who would work on our project.
• Seeking any information on costs.

We also had 4 key deciding factors:

• Are they listening?
• Do their responses inspire confidence that they have the capability we're seeking?
• Do they seem to be thoughtfully looking for a good match?
• Does it sound like our aspirations and interests will be important to them?

I had located 8 potential architects -- most seemed like a match to our interests (contemporary designs, energy independence); some were on the list because they were local. DSA was near the top of the list, and Dan Smith's responses in our phone interview created so much excitement that I didn't care if I talked to anyone else. Subsequent brief contact with others was not compelling.

Dan listens very well – during this first discussion and during our entire working relationship. The following are some core topics that we discussed in that first phone meeting on July 25, 2005; a meeting that jumped around and didn't exactly follow my script, yet exceeded my expectations. We talked for 0ver an hour, with growing enthusiasm on both sides.

Straw Bale Construction
Straw Bale Construction was featured on the DSA website and it was one of my first questions. We hadn't been thinking about a straw bale house; I'm not sure we had heard of them. Dan said that although they often design projects with other materials, they were featuring straw bale because it had been drawing a lot of interest.

Dan's firm is focused on a green approach, which means things like integrated photovoltaic (solar electric power), solar hot water systems, passive solar design for heating and cooling, minimized energy usage, and use of natural materials. Straw bale construction helps with efficiency (creates thermal mass) and uses natural material (a waste product from the production of rice), so it is an appealing construction material for a green design.

I'm sure you can imagine how this felt to me, since I had been arguing with our previous architect to simply consider what I called solar power, and here was Dan, throwing out terms such as photovoltaic (PV), and speaking authoritatively about various options. This contribution of new possibilities and ideas was to continue, and our resultant straw bale house incorporates things like a SIPS roof and geothermal power that we didn't know anything about before working with DSA.

Radiant Heat
Radiant Heat was one of our goals because both of us dislike the blowing hot dry air from the central forced air systems, and we also think it isn't healthy. We had been in houses with radiant floor heat, it felt very natural, and we were strongly interested -- it was in our goal statement.

Dan agreed that it is a superior heating solution, and also explained the critical relationship between design and insulation in making it more efficient and effective when also considering power needs.

He also brought forth the flip side of our temperature needs – cooling -- which is another advantage to straw bale because the thick bale walls add to the thermal mass. This means the house is resistant to temperature changes – easier to keep warm in winter and doesn't heat up quickly in summer. He said he had been designing straw bale houses without air conditioning, including one in California's hot Central Valley.

Money
While not a surprise, one challenge for us was that DSA expected to be paid hourly for their work, on a monthly basis, which meant that we needed to have these funds in place before any construction loan. Fortunately we had built up a reserve and we thought we'd be okay.

We also discussed construction costs, and this was less helpful. It is extremely difficult for an architect to predict costs to build – they're not in that business and, worse, they can't know what choices a client will make. The discussion made Dan nervous and he was careful to tell me that he couldn't predict. They can compare alternatives as we go through the design, and indicate which are more expensive, and thus help us include cost in our decision process.

As I mentioned, we started with something I'm now calling a fantasy budget. It was a range based on a little research about building costs and some hopeful thinking. We found it enormously difficult to get good cost information before we had a design. We eventually spent over 150% of the top of that range to build this house (ouch!) because (a) our budget was unrealistic, and (b) we made decisions, such as the geothermal system. I'll dedicate a future post to the geothermal system in particular, both technically and from a cost perspective. We debated about whether or not do this for agonizing months. It was our most radical decision.

Builder
Dan asked if we had identified a builder. He recommended that we involve a builder early in the process to get the builder's feedback during the design. This approach would mean contracting with that builder versus putting the plans out to bid, because the builder invests time and effort in helping with the design.

Green Architecture
DSA is particularly known for green architecture. When I talked with Dan they were in the finishing stages of a large dining hall at the Presentation Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This building has a living roof with an integrated PV system. It's a passive solar straw bale design and does not use air conditioning. They had just made it through a significant heat wave without a problem. Dan suggested that we visit them.

The Presenctation Center is LEED-Gold certified by the US Green Building Council. Dan asked if we were interested in LEED certification. While we probably had most of the same goals, I didn't see the advantage of a certificate. He said the certification process adds time and expense, which settled the question. (Our first example of a cost decision perhaps.)

Our Project and DSA
At that time Dan had over 20 years experience designing buildings and homes, and his practice was centered on green architecture. He was very interested in our design aspirations and goals, and felt that our project was a very good fit for his firm. This seemed obvious to me as he passionately described various green approaches. He was intrigued with the idea of doing a straw bale home with a modern design – most people who came to them for straw bale homes were interested in more traditional approaches. He was certain one of his project architects, Dietmar Lorenz, would love this challenge.

Next Steps

1. We would visit the Presentation Center. (More about this in my next chapter.)
   
   
2. We would send materials for review before a consultation meeting – the topographical survey, our design aspirations & goals, photos of the site, any articles or clippings we had of different houses or features that we liked. He encouraged us to send anything that appealed to us.
   
   One item I sent was a clipping from Sunset Magazine showing a bookshelf running up the side of a staircase. We're both readers, have a lot of books, and are always looking for places to put them.
   
   See the pictures here of our stairwell bookshelves! The picture on the left is looking down the stairs from the main floor, and the picture on the right is looking up those same stairs from the lower floor.
   
   
   
   Dietmar included these shelves in the plans. I hadn't known they made it (building a house is so complex; I couldn't track it all). Dietmar just doesn't lose the details!
   
   
3. We scheduled a visit to their office in Berkeley August 17, for a consultation during which they would sketch some initial ideas.
   
   
4. If all were agreed, Dan would write a contract after that session and they'd start to work.
   

I remember this first phone conversation so well because I emailed a summary to Ron. I couldn't describe how excited I was – didn't have the words. As I think back now, I guess it was like the anticipation at the start of a ride (roller coaster comes to mind), coupled with the relief and pleasure in finding someone who shined a light on our aspirations after what had seemed like a long time in darkness.

This roller coaster ride was going to increase in intensity over the following 30 months, gradually consuming all our free time.

More to come!

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