JANUARY 2004
If you've been following along, you probably noticed how nothing really happended in December.
Actually nothing new has happended to the house since Thankgiving weekend. The whole
project got held up by city planning department. It turns out that we have to go through a "design
review" process because of the nature of the project. Not really a big deal or anything to worry
about, it just set us back for at least a month. We had to put together more a more complete set
of architectural plans as well as a lot of photos, materials samples and such. But the biggest
setback was finding out that we had to have a landscape/site plan and at least a 1-car garage!
We weren't planning on a garage at all in the initial construction, so that really surprised us (and
effected the budget). Consequently, December and most of this month is all about getting the
plans ready and getting through the process so we can get back to construction in February.
So, this month's web page is our new full-color elevation drawings, which I created in
Photoshop over a scan of the CAD drawings. I've left them pretty large so you can really
see what it looks like.
01.18.04—This shows the new garage on the left side in the front elevation. The house was already
very long, so the garage really adds to that. The facia trim is a dark brick red/brown sheet metal.
The garage will be done in wood frame and stucco with a smooth/sandy texture. The color of the
stucco hasn't been decided yet, but it will be the same on the entry dormer walls as the garage.
What you don't see here is a lot of the trees and shrubs that will be in front of the garage as well
as the house and front patio (where the two roll-up doors are). There will also be 3-foot high painted
stucco walls in front of the patio. The landscaping will make it look much more "homey" and
less commercial.
Here's another color scheme and views from the side. You can see the garage door
here that is simular to the front patio roll-up doors. You can also get a better idea
of how the garage and dormer walls are visually connected by color and materials.
The silver metal plates under the facia overhang are galvanized metal and will also
be on the bottom of the overhang all around the house. All the windows will be
a blue/green solex glass with aluminum block frames.
Here's the proposed site plan. A lot of the actual ground cover, trees and turf will come later after we've moved
in, but the driveway, garage, fences, front patio/walkway and low planter walls will have to be done by then.
This landscape and site plan concept was created by my boss Gary Orr. We were going to have the garage in
the same place, but facing the street. But that would require two driveways. Gary figured out how to keep it to
one driveway and fit the garage the other way. He also came up with the very cool retro polka-dot walkways.
It will be made of concrete circles in grey and whatever color we decide for the stucco walls.I don't know if there will be anything else this month. But hopefully February will bring a flurry of construction!
Click here to go to the next month...
Also visit Don's portfolio site: www.designbutton.com
