Chapter 3: Aesthetics, Aspirations, Art, & Architects: Preparation

Being fired by our architect was a good thing -- it made us stop and think and do some research. I found a guide to selecting an architect on the AIA website. ( I've tried to find the same guide to reference here, but everything has changed -- there are many guides with somewhat different messages.)

Here is what we did, and admittedly, I interpreted and didn't completely follow the AIA guide (not a surprise to those who know me!). We assembled the following information, and then embarked on our search for an architect. In Chapter 4 I'll tell you about that search, this is the preparation. I don't know if it would work for everyone, but it definitely worked well for us.

Design Aspirations
This was the most important thing we did at this stage. The lack of this simple yet hard-to-compose list was central to the debates and disagreements not only with our first architect, but with each other.

We didn't have a definition for what design aspirations were supposed to be, but they seemed somewhat fuzzily clear. Like, we ought to be able to come up with this. And so we did.

To start, we separately worked on our lists, and I remember staring at empty space for a while as I let the thoughts come. These initial lists were like brainstorms – we didn't try to focus on the wording.

Once we had each created a list, we met at our dining room table and shared the elements on our list, and why these were important to us. There was a lot of overlap, sometimes said differently, and there were also some slightly different key elements in each list. Not necessarily things we differed on, but a difference in how important some things were. Understanding these things about how we each saw this was very good to do at this stage, and was continually helpful during the ensuing design and build processes.

Our merged and polished design aspirations were:

• Aesthetically different, not just a box in a forest.
• Energy independence. All electric. Don't even want propane.
• Take advantage of the setting in the trees, the forest and canyon views, and use clean lines and smart design to blend into the setting, lots of windows to blur the lines between inside and outside. Build within the trees and remove as few trees as possible.
• Very open feeling within the house and between the house and the outside, but also the ability to close off areas. I like to be able to shut the door on the kitchen when I want to, and yet not feel isolated in there if I don't want to.
• Use of interesting materials – doesn't mean expensive – can be artistic use of industrial if it also fits the setting, colors, and style. Like the idea of using concrete and metal.
  

Primary Building Goals

• Create a principal residence (not a vacation place)
• Energy independence including active and passive approaches to solve for our energy needs
• Radiant heat (extremely important -- noise, comfort, and health)
• 2500-2800 square feet (prefer smaller end of that range)
  

Property Description

• ~ 12 acres, wooded and hilly, on a gravel road
• 11 GPM well, septic system, on the grid
• gravel driveway access to building site
• 200 sq. foot cabin with bathroom, at end of driveway, want to retain as future workshop

Known Limitations

• Limited level space
• Current septic tank located at widest area in driveway
• Access to cabin needs to remain after construction (can't block driveway without putting in new driveway)
• Build around/within the trees – in particular there is a glade area with large, old trees immediately adjacent to where we want to build – the trees stay

Ideal Features

• High ceilings, walls for hanging art, bookshelves
• Ceiling fans
• Indirect lighting, sky lights
• Pocket doors
• Vehicle turnaround space, extra parking

Concerns or Questions

• Wood stove(s)?
• Future fence location
• Exits from floors
• Trade-offs – know we need to make decisions (can't have everything) and will need help

We also itemized the rooms we would like to have, any unusual furniture or electronic requirements, and the room sizes in our current house as well as which ones seemed like good sizes and which ones were too large or small. After some false starts and learning, we were ready to move forward again with new hope.

Looking back on this list today, I realize we got it all. Here are some shots of our house from the east side, showing some of those aesthetics, and taken about 2 weeks ago. :-)







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Chapter 2: Where Do You Put The Garage?

Switching back to the past (after my last post of weekend photos) ---

It's Fall '99, we own the property, and we think we're ready to consider some designs. We knew some of what we wanted:

• an architectural design – to get that edge in form, function, aesthetics
• modern or contemporary architecture – the clean lines, the utilitarian approaches, letting the actual materials show through
  
• to produce our own energy – expected to use a solar power solution as well as passive design -- hadn't thought about how much we would produce versus buy
  
• to preserve the forest, its character, and particularly the magnificent trees
  

We independently reviewed some contemporary style architecture books and compared our opinions. We walked around the property and seriously considered 3 locations for the house.

We found information about 3 local architects, didn't like one, one wasn't interested, and we met with the other one. (As you are probably thinking, this was not a good process for selecting an architect. And you're right, but we learned quite a bit with this approach -- learning we needed more than we realized!)

The morning we were to meet with the architect, we were excited and tense. Ron was pacing and I couldn't eat. But nothing prepared us for his first words, which he repeated over and over -- Where do you put the garage?

He paced across our property near the potential building sites, and he didn't see a solution. We were dismayed and confused. He identified myriad difficulties, such as building a garage floor overhanging the hillside or building it under the house resulting in a high rise, or blocking access to the cabin (which we had planned to keep).

Yet -- he suggested we look at some of his houses, and we toured several over the next few weeks. The owners of the houses praised their working relationship with him; they were clearly pleased. The houses were solid and we didn't see anything wrong, although they were larger, seemed to have some wasted space in my opinion, and nothing really drew us to his work (but then they weren't contemporary designs). Bottom line -- despite his misgivings about the garage issue, and our lack of excitement about his work, we were all willing to try some designs. I think we were thankful he was willing to work with us. We loaned our annotated architecture books and agreed to his hourly rate (very reasonable) and we were off!

We met with him every few months – primarily because Ron and I were working long hours. We'd take a long weekend to visit the area, stay with my Dad, and meet with him for a couple of hours. Those early meetings were quite exciting and fun as we debated various alternatives. We also completed some work at the property -- cleared some brush, widened the driveway, and arranged for a topographical survey, this latter item providing some answers about those slopes.

Over time I began to worry because we had repeated debates with him about solar power. He pushed us to reconsider, saying he didn't understand why we wanted it and that he wasn't sure it was that effective. In retrospect, I think he wasn't comfortable working with the technology.

Another issue was size. We were a part of that issue, but every time he drew a floor plan (several) the house increased in size until it was over 3500 square feet. I don't think he knew how to push us on the trade-offs, or I'm not sure he heard us about the size (we were expecting 2500 square feet).

We limped along this way for a little over 3 years, which sounds long now but it probably only included 10 sessions with him. It was a very slow pay-as-you-go progress that we were making. We still didn't know when we could afford to build, so this seemed fine.

Then a couple of crises intervened – my Dad's declining health and some financial setbacks caused us to put this work on hold. My Dad died in early 2004. Although he had seen us buy a place near him, and he knew we would build there someday, it is an additional sadness that he never saw our place, and there are so many things about it today that he would appreciate.



So, now, let's move forward to 2005. Our finances have recovered, and we expected we'd be ready to break ground in 2006. We contacted the architect and he agreed to start working with us that spring. Then after delays and rescheduling, he wrote in June and regretfully fired us! Say what?

We were shocked, angry, and depressed -- this was a low point in creating this home. However, as we accepted his decision and reflected on our experience (no surprise to you I'm sure), we realized there was an obvious mismatch between his craft and our wants and somehow we had been so eager for progress that we didn't stop to think.

The time we spent working with him had achieved some benefits for us.

• His arguments and questions, even about aspects that seemed most basic to us, helped refine our thinking.
  
• We abandoned some ideas along the way and thereby became more focused on what we wanted.
  

As I look back today, I realize it is fortunate that he had the courage, self-awareness, and wisdom to end his work with us before we went further. This was a gift that we didn't appreciate at the time, but do now.

Where did we put the garage? There was some grading involved, and we had to remove a few young trees , but for us it didn't turn out to be a major design consideration.

Here are some shots from 2006, before we broke ground, and some taken today.

1) View from looking down the driveway from our house location today
These shots include the same Monterey Pine tree in the foreground. It has continued to thrive, and towers over the garage today. 2006 versus 2009; what a difference!



2) View coming up the driveway
These next 2 show the garage from the other side, coming up the driveway. The multiple trunk oak tree towards the right is the same tree, still there today. You can also see the Monterey Pine further back -- behind the garage in our current picture.



3) Panoramic Shots Across from our House Location
Here are 2 panoramic shots, each produced in Photoshop Elements from a series of 3 pictures that the application pasted together.



Next post I'll describe the successful process we used to find an architect – part of the reason we live here today. It's a process that included so many important and complex facets and one of the quickest solved was where to put the garage. :-)

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