The Space You're In

I had said in the previous post that we were told how to start planning, especially how much space and how we'd use it. As we've been thinking about this, we started to really pay attention to how we use the space we're in now. This is critical, as a lot of people think about what they don't like, and what they'll do to change that. In our view, this is what led to the profusion of "McMansions" that have grown up in our area (and now sit ownerless in this economy).

We wanted a bit more space. Our existing house has 2000 sq. ft. of useable space, including the semi-finished basement, which we use for laundry, workshop and storage. The new place is only about 2200 minus the garage (we currently park on the street). We noticed that we use the dining table a lot, especially for working on stuff. We also like that our work rooms, Julie's studio and my home office, are conveniently separated by a floor level and several yards of intervening structure. Julie likes it quiet. I like to play music while I work. So one example is this: much of the first floor would be an open plan (entertaining) with the dining area open but central (for our frequent debriefings, meals, and work piles). Julie's studio is large enough for two pianos and all of her piles of projects, and separated from the main area. My office is on the opposite side of the house on the second floor--separation is good for a relationship!

I shifted from the software to full-size drafting vellum (a kind of thick tracing paper) and made pencil drawings with tools you can buy at an office store. (I could have sent the program files to a professional copy place, but they might not be able to open it.) Now I had architectural drafting in high school, so I had an idea of what was needed. Mary complemented my pencil drawings and dubbed the design "efficient" and the drawings are understandable by any professional. If you don't have that experience, try an extension course at your local vo-tech school or community college. With the vellum, I am now able to tape a fresh piece onto the board over my pencil drawing and "ink in" for the final drawings that will be submitted to the lumber supplier for roof trusses, the building codes inspector for the permit, the window people for their estimates, etc.

Anyone you talk to, outside of the well driller, will want plans. The nice thing about the hand-drafting I found is that--in the "pencil stage"--it's super-easy to make small changes, and we made our most recent change just a few days ago when Julie said she liked the little alcove over the bed in our current home. But we're done now, and will be distributing plans this week to all those folks listed above (and some I didn't list).

Buy some White-out. You can make changes to the ink drawings as needed, but make sure they're small changes. Get the pencil version as close to perfect as you can. (And make copies of the ink version! Keep the originals safely off-site.)

You might think "efficient" sounds cold and bland. Efficent design makes the most use of materials, and keeps the tech expertise that will be demanded of us owner-builders to a minimum. We can suggest Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House books for ideas. I like her ideas, but you'll see the homes are showpieces, often with lots of expensive details. But the great thing about her books is that they'll give you ideas about little things like drop-ceilings, maintaining a theme, and how to make the most of details, etc. If you want to tackle this (or even just a renovation/addition), we recommend her books, as well as surfing for home ideas in other places like magazines and websites. Like our theme throughout: make the design yours but learn from other experts as well.
 
In Buddhism, we're asked to be mindful, be present, and appreciate what we have. We wanted to keep the good in what we have now and add to it the things we want and need. Next time, we'll say a little bit about landscaping with that theme in mind.