Design Updates: Volume 7

(Brendan)

Well, we're about 1/3 of the way through the bidding process, with the bids from general contractors due back on Wednesday, November 26th. We're very much looking forward to getting some hard numbers for our project. But while we wait for the completion of the bidding, I thought I'd do a brief post to show you the final chapel design as it's depicted in the construction drawings.

The final chapel design is somewhat different than options that had been previously considered, mostly due to cost concerns. Placing clerestory windows in the roof, in whatever manner proposed, was going to add significant unneeded expense, and so I long had the thought in my mind of simply having windows in the walls themselves. It turns out that my brother had the exact same thought, and on the first re-design try came up with exactly what we were looking for. Here are the exterior elevations...

From the South:


From the East:


From the North:


The design from the exterior is simple and yet clearly communicates that this is a chapel, and a different space from the rest of the home. All of the windows, even the circular window on the East side, are standard-sized Andersen windows (that is, they are offered in these sizes and shapes by Andersen, and are not custom windows, which keeps costs low). The idea with the windows on the North and South sides is that they enhance the feeling of verticality, due to their tall/thin shape, while also providing a rhythm for seating in the chapel, which would align with the gaps between the windows. These windows are also placed up high so that they let light in but don't provide distracting views to the outside. The bottom of each window is set at roughly 6 feet above the chapel floor.

Here is an interior section view looking to the East (click to enlarge):


Here you can see the final design of the "bump-out", or "mini sanctuary", on the East side. The re will eventually be an altar at the base, but the concept was changed from my previous idea so that the entire bump-out is open to the chapel space all the way up to the circular window (and contains the circular window). See this post, near the end, for some previous models I had done that differ from this design. I like this change as it provides another traditional design cue for Catholic sacred architecture.

To give some scale to the diagram above, I mocked up a figure, about 6 feet in height (or a few inches taller) to place in the diagram, along with an example of how such a figure would relate in height to one of the side windows, shown in light blue (click to enlarge):


The interior of the chapel will not be finished at first, to save cost, and also to allow further detailed design to make sure we get everything exactly right. I'll finish the interior myself, and in fact for some things I feel that I need to actually be in the space in order to determine the best approaches (like final placement of lighting).

Design Updates: Volume 6

(Brendan)

I thought it was time to collate some design updates that have actually impacted the physical structure of the home. Some of these have been completed in the construction documents for some time now, and others are hot off the presses. Work on this stuff has been a flurry lately as my brother is finishing updates to the construction documents (they are 99% complete) and I'm trying to get things together so that the bid package will be sent out to our prospective general contractors on Thursday, October 30th. We'll then be getting the bids back the week of Thanksgiving. Anyway, so here's some updates that have physically impacted the home.

Cricket between garage peaks

No, this is not referring to actually placing a live cricket on the roof of the garage, this is referring to a method of addressing drainage between the garage roof peaks. For those who remember, those peaks above the garage got the attention of every contractor who looked at them, all concerned about water drainage. And, despite me defending these peaks "as is" for months to all contractors, and even displaying how they have been done before in Minnesota (snow included), my brother decided to finally change them after discussing with another architect who is helping on the construction documents. Needless to say, I'm relieved to not have to talk to contractors about this anymore, as they should be well satisfied.

The picture below, from the latest construction documents, shows the new forwards/backwards slope in the roof between the peaks, defined as a "cricket" (click to enlarge).


Alteration of first-floor ceiling in south wing

The first floor of the "south wing", for lack of a better term, contains the family room and library. This area has been planned to have a 10' ceiling all along, while the ceiling in the "north wing" has a 9' height. My brother thought that rather than transitioning from 9' to 10' abruptly at the intersection of the north and south wings, it would be better to continue the 9' ceiling for a few feet into the south wing and then transition to 10' in the center of the room. This then creates a soffit in the ceiling where rope lighting can be placed. I know, it's hard to visualize, so first let's look a a cross-section view of the family room, looking toward the fireplace (click to enlarge).

Hopefully you can see the two areas of lowered ceiling height on either side of the room (my brother lowered the ceiling on the opposite side of the entrance to the room as well for symmetry). The picture above shows the transition from 9' to 10' height in the center of the room as being a "step" on both sides, but in actuality there will be a little lip at the edge which will be able to hold rope lighting. Here's a top view, where the soffits on either side are denoted by a dashed line (there is a call-out note that says "line of soffit above"). Click to enlarge.

There are two dashed lines because of the small lip that will hold the rope lighting. The rope lights in the family room and library will be controlled on separate switches so that you can turn them on and off independently, and will be on dimmers.

I loved this whole concept, as it really brings extra character to the room. There are also so many things that make it fantastic design. Now there will be a lower height ceiling area that will visually lead straight to the chapel door, and the lower ceiling height as one enters the chapel will enhance the drama of the very high ceilings inside the chapel. There is also extra space in these areas to run ducts to the upper floor, which was previously not available.

Rearrangement of the laundry room and boys' bathroom

Upstairs, the laundry room has always bothered me a little because I know how much Molly wanted a larger laundry room (given the amount of laundry that she does) and due to space comprimises we ended up at a room that was only big enough to fit a washer and dryer and some organizational stuff. Molly also wanted a sink in there for soaking any clothes when needed, but there wasn't a good way to fit a sink in the room. We were just going to move on and deal with it, but my brother had to make some changes to the room shape in order to run ducts in the proper places, and this created a whole conversation about how to best design the laundry room and boys' bathroom. Here's the original iteration of the laundry and boys' bathroom:


In order to properly align ducts coming from the first floor, my brother had to rotate the laundry and boys' bathroom 90-degrees, taking a couple feet of space from the boys' bedroom (on the top side of the image). In doing this, he still kept the rooms the original size, and then used the extra space created along the hallway to put in a closet.


At this point, still resigned to a small laundry room, Molly brilliantly saw what my brother and I could not (you know when you spend so much time looking at something you can't see the forest for the trees?). Molly, knowing the new closet wouldn't get used effectively, wondered aloud why we couldn't just get rid of the closet, flip the location of the laundry and boys' bathroom, and use all of the previous closet space for the laundry room? Voila!


I feel so much better about this, as I now know Molly will get one of her primary wishes, some space to move and work in the laundry room without piling tons of clothes in the hallway. And there's now plenty of space for the sink.

"Floor-to- ceiling" windows in family room and library

I wrote some time ago about dividing up the floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side of the family room and library in order to contain cost by using smaller, standard-size windows. Well, here's the result of my brother's changes:

The windows with the dashed triangles are operable casement windows (the side with the "point" of the triangle opens outward, with the opposite side being the hinge) and the blank windows are fixed. The bottom windows will be tempered glass, and all of these are standard-size Andersen windows. Again, we loved this result. The facade will look very cool with all of the windows open at an angle, and the design is certainly nothing crazy while still being distinctive and non-ordinary.

Design Updates: Volume 1

(Brendan)

Well, we've been in the construction documents phase for some time now and have lots of little updates to the home design as a result. Updates often result from my brother finding a problem while doing the detailed design and needing a solution, or sometimes design updates have come from selecting interior materials and details. It would be way too painful for you readers to try and read a "Brendan-post" that tries to pack all of these updates into one loooooong commentary, so I think it's probably best to do it in bight-sized chunks. This is design update, volume 1.

Symmetrical exterior windows beget interior rearrangements

You probably all remember this rendering of the exterior of the home that my brother did some time back:
On the main facade, there are three sets of three windows on the bottom level (with the middle set including the front door). These three sets of windows align directly below the three windows on the upper level. Sounds great, but one problem: this doesn't exactly work well with the interior of the home. The symmetry is lost due to the placement of the rooms. See below (click to enlarge).
See how the set of windows in the dining room is off-center with the axis of the room? The set of windows in the school room is also off-center, but we all agreed this was not really a concern as much as the dining room. With the size of our family there will be a nice-sized dining table in that room that will be long and centered, and there should be a sightline straight through the room on both sides or it will seem a little weird. So, my brother set about finding a correction to this. Here's his solution (click to enlarge).
There's a bunch of things going on here. The biggest change is that the bathroom and closet have switched to the North side of the foyer instead of the South. No problem, it doesn't change anything functionally or aesthetically. Secondly, the windows have been shifted into different positions slightly on facade. Thirdly, the sets of windows have been more defined, with the center window being operable (a key requirement of mine so that we can take advantage of cross-ventilation in the summer) as a casement window, and it's also larger than the windows on either side in order to be more symmetric with respect to the front entrance (where the door is in the center). Here's how that looks on the exterior (windows on upper level not shown):
One item to note is that my brother showed the windows rotating inward, but we would change this to be outward. You don't want the windows rotated and sticking into the interior space of the home itself, that's just asking for Aidan to either A) hang off of them with his full weight, like some sort of primate, or B) run smack into them while running as fast as he can and looking backwards at the same time (a frequent occurrence with walls already).

The set of three windows in the school room is still off-center (just in a different position) but, again, this doesn't bother us as much as it would have in the dining room. It might even be better for keeping the sun out of people's eyes while trying to do school work.

Master Bathroom Redesign

(Brendan)

My brother has been hard at work on our construction drawings and has made fantastic progress. In fact, we probably have a few posts to do to update on all of the little decisions that we've had to make over the last 2-3 weeks. One of the most impactful new updates is a re-design of the master bathroom that my brother just completed.

Original Design (click to enlarge)

Two things were a problem in the original master bathroom design. First, there was no shower depicted, and we definitely wanted a separate bath and shower as it has been Molly's dream to have a jacuzzi bathtub for a long time and this doesn't make the best combo bath/shower. But there really is no place to fit even a tiny shower in this design (it would go where the little closet is near the toilet) and so the wall behind the sinks would have to be moved, which then screws up the walk-in closet. And speaking of the walk-in closet, the fireplace flue has to go straight through the closet, which takes up space. Not only this, but apparently, per code, it should be covered be a small wall that encloses it (which isn't a bad idea anyway because it might be a little hot when a fire is going). So, all in all, the master bathroom needed a complete re-design. I think my brother's re-design is much better than the original.

Re-Design (click to enlarge)

Ah, much better. A 3' by 3' shower has been added in the bath/toilet area, and this area has been enlarged slightly to accommodate the shower. In order to allow this expansion, the door from the bathroom to the nursery/guest bedroom has been removed and the sinks have been placed where the door was. There's now a spot for the flue to go through the walk-in closet, and the closet has even been expanded! We lost some little closets in the bathroom area, but I think that's the right way to go and we can always figure out storage in other places and even use a small cabinet in the closet. And getting rid of the door was a great idea, the door wasn't necessary. When the baby is crying in the middle of the night, we were just going to end up going straight down the hall to the bedroom door anyway. Now the nursery also has more wall space for dressers and other things, so it seems like a bigger room.

Chapel conundrum...

(Brendan)

Lately my brother and Molly and I have been reviewing proposals for ways of bringing natural light into the chapel. This is really the design question of the moment for the chapel, since we almost certainly won't be completing the interior right away. Finishing the interior more slowly over time will save on initial cost attached to our mortgage, and I also think it's the right thing to do in order to ensure we end up with the chapel we really want. Statues and other art and iconography take time and money to obtain, and we don't want to be rushed to design the interior and regret it later.

But, in order to build the enclosure we need to know where any windows will be going. This does have to be done now, and it's been an interesting discussion. We definitely want natural light to come into the chapel, but I also had strong feelings about not wanting to be distracted by outside views. I think having light come in from "up above" not only raises our eyes toward heaven, but the absence of outside views at eye-level concentrates the mind and makes a statement that the chapel is not a "sun room" where one goes to enjoy the views. It's a room for prayer. Molly and my brother agreed with this and so at least this point is very consistent in all of the options. But the options themselves are very different. We can go through them briefly and I'm sure you'll have your own thoughts and comments.

Here are my brothers' initial proposals...

Option 1: Clerestory windows offset in plan

First, before getting into this too much, here's a really interesting Wikipedia article on exactly what is meant by the term "clerestory window". The article is quite good. And by the way, it's pronounced "clear-story," something I screwed up. Anyway, my brother explained that a vertically oriented window would be good for ensuring that water leakage wasn't a major issue, and it is fairly easy to install, and I agree with that. It's also a good way of indirectly getting light into the space. But in this case, for one we thought the windows were too big. My brother wanted to continue the rhythm of the windows on the upper floor of the home across to the chapel, but it looked like the windows were almost floating in space. Another concern was that it felt like the windows should not be the tallest item on the roof of the chapel, and that they should come down towards the outer wall. This kind of inversely-pitched dormer also is kind of a novelty of some modern architecture (often called a "light scoop") and while it may work on some non-religious buildings I don't think it works on a chapel or church. It looks like the chapel is unnecessarily trying to call attention to itself.

Another rendering of the interior shows an idea my brother had of filtering light into a pushout area for the eastward facing altar...
Light is brought in from an exterior window of some sort (that is kept out of direct view). He said that certainly other geometries could be done too, like a rounded top or triangular. We definitely liked this idea.

Option 2: Clerestory windows symmetrical in plan

This is basically the same idea as Option 1, with the clerestory windows aligned on either side instead of staggered. Again, our thoughts and feedback are pretty much the same as those for Option 1.

Option 3: Clerestory windows symmetrical in plan with exposed scissor trusses

This option is the same as Option 2, but here exposed cross beams are added. My brother noted that the dimensions of the room are such that these beams would not be needed to support the structure, and given that alone, we didn't think we would go with them (for design honesty and to save on cost). Also, it tends to make the room feel a little shorter than it otherwise would, and we definitely want to emphasize the verticality of the room.

Option 4: Longitudinal skylight at peak of roof, with rose window

There's a lot going on here. First, the longitudinal skylight. My first question was whether the structure could be supported with such a window in place, and my brother did say that some small supports may have to be added that span the window. This window seemed costly, and again it doesn't really fit with any Catholic architectural tradition, and seems more oriented toward a generic "spirituality" instead of a purposefully Christian one.

Second, what's shown here is a barrel vaulted ceiling, which I personally would love to have, but I know they are extremely expensive. I'm glad it was shown here though, because I think it does take away from the verticality of the room a little bit, so I'm not sure I would want it even if we could afford it.

Lastly, the rose window we definitely like. This was a suggestion of mine before my brother did the renderings, that we should have a window on that wall somewhere to take advantage of the "ad orientem" ("turned towards the Lord" or to the east, towards the rising sun) orientation of the chapel. It would be great to have a window that floods the space with light as the sun rises, as this is extremely aligned with Christian tradition going all the way back to the church fathers.

So, at the end of all these options, where we stood was that we definitely liked a pushout in the east wall of the chapel for the altar, we definitely liked a circular rose window on the east wall, we definitely liked the clerestory window concept, but still weren't satisfied with how the clerestory windows looked. Given this, and my ability to do some modeling with Google sketch-up, I decided to look at a different option for the clerestory windows on my own, just to brainstorm.

Brendan's Option 5: Clerestory windows formed by shed dormers

A shed dormer is the simplest, most inexpensive dormer style, and consists of singled-planed roof with a shallower pitch than the rest of the roof near the window. This would still allow a vertical window, but would allow more of the light to contact the ceiling, and would preserve a design more oriented with tradition. The pushout in the back I modeled as rectangular from the outside (for lowest cost) but from the inside I made the top rounded to align with the circular window. The exterior look of the push-out could be different, this is simply the way I modeled it. I like the pushout idea because in essence it adds a small sanctuary to the chapel, which is really cool. And though a rose window is typically located on the front wall of a church, I like how the circular window recalls a dome above a typical sanctuary in a cruciform church. Consider the bottom picture above, and this picture below of Coutances Cathedral in Normandy, France:
The really cool thing about a circular window on the east wall is that later we could overlay a stained-glass window on the inside. The exterior window would protect the stained-glass window from the elements and provide thermal insulation. I wanted to understand the look of this, plus actually add in an altar and a crucifix in it's likely location, and here's what I came up with (click to enlarge):
I found an image of a circular stained-glass window of the Holy Family and was able to overlay it onto the circular window in Google Sketch-Up. I added a marble-clad altar with a crucifix in the pushout area. The effect you don't get here is lighting, as there would be light coming through the stained-glass window, and the altar area would be more bathed in light than it shows.

My brother liked these ideas, though we all agreed to more thought on the shed dormers. One thing he suggested was that we could extend the interior cut-outs from the windows downward into the wall for placing statues. That seems like a cool idea.

So we're not done yet, but we're making progess.

Options for detailing the upper floor ceiling...

(Brendan)

My brother recently presented us with an number of options for supporting the upper floor ceiling, and ways of exposing or concealing this support structure. For him and me both, we'd rather go for the "truth in advertising" and not conceal structures unnecessarily. But nonetheless, it's fun to look at all the options. Here's the way the options look with some quick renderings he did of the master bedroom (some windows were left out, and the renderings aren't high resolution). -- click any of these to enlarge

The top and bottom set of pictures represent two options in essentially the same theme. The pics on the left are looking to the east in the master bedroom, with exposed and painted cross-beams. It may not look like it, but the beams are symmetrical and cross in the center of the room. The pics on the right are views looking to the west in the master bedroom to the small hallway that serves as the entrance to the room. These are small sections of other cross-beams, while the rest is embedded in the wall. The difference between the top and bottom sets is simply that in the bottom set some other support beams are partially exposed in the ceiling. By the way, cross-beams could also simply be left as natural wood instead of painted, though that may be more expensive. Higher quality beams would be needed in order to leave the wood exposed, and a lower cost option is to use lower quality beams and paint them.

Here is another option, with smaller exposed beams that are further up.

And here's an even more understated option, though I would question whether these single beams up so high are providing the support to the roof that is necessary. In any case, we didn't like this option as much because it seemed like you wouldn't even need the beams.

These are both options for actually concealing any beams, with the one on the left being a concealed version of the small beams from the previous option. The shape of this ceiling essentially mirrors that attic room that myself and my two brothers had growing up, and for this reason I wasn't really big on this option as it would be nice to have a little something different. The option on the right is another variation, where the supports are concealed but the ceiling still comes to a point at the top.

Molly liked these because she thought they evoked barn-style architecture, which they do. In the end though, we thought concealing the support beams was kind of lame since it seemed so much more interesting to expose the structure. It gives a more direct visual connection to the roof overhead, and it provides a kind of contemporary farmhouse feel. Our choice out of all of these was the first set of pics at the top of the post, the exposed, low cross-beams with a smooth ceiling. These supports will also be in the kids' rooms, not just the master bedroom. I have already guaranteed Molly that Aidan will eventually find a way to climb up and hang from the beams. Molly thought that was unlikely, to which I immediately replied that it was most certainly likely, and that if I grew up in this house as a kid I definitely would have done that! :-)

Home Renderings, Volume 4

(Brendan)

Continuing in the series of renderings, this one is a little less dramatic, but still very useful. The point of this rendering was to show a different angle from the front of the house, and to show the sightline straight through the front door and out to the wetland as one approaches the house. This sightline not only adds drama but gives a visitor a sense of the "thinness" of the volumes of the home and the connection of the home to the surroundings. Click to enlarge.
My brother finally got Clara in there!

An immediate question I had was whether we would really have a front door with that much glass. Not that there aren't front doors with lots of glass, but in Minnesota you typically would see a heavily insulated front door with maybe a small pane of glass toward the top. My brother really insisted (because of the sightline) on the need for a door with a lot of glass, and it could be one with double or triple panes for insulation. This I will have to research. Molly also thought, is such a door less secure? For example, couldn't someone just break the glass to enter the home? But, given all the other glass we have, I guess if the front door is solid they could just move over to a window if that's really what they want to do. Another potential issue is privacy, with any visitor having the ability to look right into the home from the front door, but this is where the brilliance of my brother's design comes through. The main volume of the home has small dividing walls that separate the kitchen, dining, entry, and homeschool room areas, and so the front door really only offers a view into the entry area, which I think is appropriate. Other areas of the home are visually separated and contained.

Another thing my brother felt strongly about was that the entryway be white so as not to distract from the view through the home. I think it makes sense, and the shelves you see to the left of the entry are just simply bookshelves from IKEA or similar, aligned side-to-side. These could be used for displaying family pictures and other such things.

Anyway, that's the renderings we have to date, my brother is currently working on two more: the interior of the chapel (something we'll have lots of discussions with my brother about, no doubt) and the interior of the master bedroom. When we get them, we'll post them!

Home Renderings, Volume 3

(Brendan)

Now we move on to a view from the front of the home. This view is interesting not only because it's of the front, but because it contains a few design changes as well. Here it is, click to enlarge.
Beautiful, isn't it? Landscape-wise, my brother thought we should have apple trees or some other flowering tree in the enclosed wall in front of the house, and we really like that concept. I think we'll definitely go with apple trees, and stay on top of trimming them so they don't get too large. He added that little door in the wall so that you can go in and tend the other plants in there, and also to pick apples. It's kind of monastic!

Also, he thought that a good way of transitioning from lawn to wooded area was with wild flowers. It's also low maintenance, which I had requested of any landscaping. Our current home has too much landscaping and it takes an incredible amount of time and effort to take care of it all. We'll probably have more lawn that what is shown here, but I like the concept, especially how the flowers go right up to the house.

Structure wise there are other changes you can see. First, there are new forms of windows on the lower level. The front entrance and the clusters of windows to either side are meant to be a family of similar forms, and there are now only three windows on the upper level which are aligned with the clusters on the lower level. This eliminates yet another window on the upper level for cost and I think aesthetics are still preserved. Also, there used to be brick that went all the way up the southern face of the main volume of the home, which my brother said he didn't end up liking once it was rendered. So now the brick on that face is limited to being even with the brick on the front, and a small brick face is added on the secondary volume of the home to continue the small brick wall into the hillside to the right.

Home Renderings, Volume 2

(Brendan)

So now we are on to the next in the series of photo-realistic renderings my brother has produced to help visualize the home and tweak the finer design details. The next rendering is from a position in the family room, with one's back up against the wall that adjoins the stairway upstairs. Again, it's best to click to enlarge it to see the details better.
Again, we laughed seeing Aidan plopped in the picture way off in the corner of the terrace!

I really like this view because this really shows the design concept of this volume of the home, to separate the wetland area from the wooded area and create two separate views with the home running in between. I think this also shows how the terrace, being at the same level as the interior floor, really makes the home feel much larger than it is. In actuality, the volumes of the home are quite thin (which I think is unique and will make cooling the house in the Summer a breeze... literally), but the terrace enlarges the feeling of the spaces. Also you can see the exposed flue here, with a fireplace that my brother designed.

We had a lot of discussions after looking at this rendering with my brother. First, those doors are cool but huge. I had modeled the doors in my Google Sketch-Up rendering as the standard 7 ft. height, but here they go all the way up to the ceiling (which is 10 ft. in this room). Wouldn't those be expensive? My brother convinced my that they wouldn't. The doors are very simple and could be custom made (hollow even) using quality plywood or other basic materials. And he has no door hardware on them. It would probably cost more money to do a standard door because then you have to continue the wall above the door with the framework behind it. We did tell my brother we'd rather have the doors to be "pocket doors" or sliding doors, which he is going to try to change. The doors will almost always be open, so we'd rather not have them sticking out into the family room all the time.

Another discussion point was the height of the windows by the terrace. I had modeled these to be shorter to save cost. But my brother really felt like they needed this level of height, and this was one of the reasons he got rid of the large windows in the school room to save on cost. It is still yet to be determined what we can afford in terms of these windows, and they will certainly be subdivided into smaller, stock-size windows to lower cost.

Lastly, the fireplace is to be a see-through fireplace so that it can be used in the library area as well, something my brother forgot about. The windows on the woods side are also too large. But these are all details that can be worked out later.

Home Renderings, Volume 1

(Brendan)

My brother has been working on the exterior design details of the home, and as part of this process he has created some photo-realistic renderings for better visualization. He has a CAD model of the home which allows him to set up the design of the home and exterior, and once that is in place he uses his fancy schmancy architectural software to create the rendering. The rendering takes the form of a single picture of the view of the model he wants, and it usually takes an hour or two for the computer to actually create the rendering (a lot of it is probably calculating light reflections and all the subtle details that fools the eye into thinking it's real or near real).

The renderings have blown Molly and I away with their reality and ability to give us a preview of how the home will really look. Each one is fascinating to look at. I'll post these renderings in a series of posts, with only one rendering per post to give each its due. Volume 1 of this series is a rendering of the back of the home, as if you were standing on the covered walkway outside. It includes actual photos of our land so that this is essentially exactly how this will look in real life. You'll want to click this to enlarge it for better detail.
We thought it was hilarious how he cropped an actual photo (from our trip to Florida a couple months ago) of Molly with Aidan and Eleanor and included it in the rendering! Here's a link to a previous post that has the real photo.

A few points of discussion. This for the first time shows exterior design color schemes which we really liked. The accent color, which is located on the columns and in all of the trim is a cream/yellow color. I think it looks great, and since it is included underneath the balcony in the covered walkway it really brightens up an area that could have been too dark.

In terms of the terrace, my brother rendered it with all brick, and it's this rendering that has convinced us that this is the way to go. We had previously thought we would attempt to simply use wood decking to make the terrace, which certainly would cost less money. But given the fact that we almost certainly will not be able to afford to do the terrace or balcony right away, and seeing how much stability, permanence, and quality the brick adds, we figure we'll just wait (and wait) until we can afford to do it right. The brick is also much lower maintenance than a wood decking material, which we all know degrades badly over time. Oh, as an aside, you'll also notice that any brick on the home will be this more subdued gray color, with cream accents in it. My brother thought this would be best with anticipated roof colors and the trim of the home.

The chapel at this point is only starting detailed design, and so you can see there are no windows in the rendering in the chapel. This will not be the final form. He also left out a few windows that should be there underneath the balcony along the side of the home (to the right in the rendering). He did actually remove large windows that were planned in the school room and these will be replaced with more standard windows to conserve cost (and they weren't really needed anyway).

I love the fact that in some ways the back of the home feels like a lake home, except without the worries of actual water for children. It's rare to have wild areas come right up to the back of the home like this. Garden areas and lawn will be more towards the South and front of the home.

One last thing. Right now he also rendered the home with a standing seam metal roof, which we would absolutely love, but probably won't be able to afford. We need to get a quote on this first. Also, he rendered the in-set gutters along the lower roof-line, and this is something I'm having second thoughts about (watching the ice in my current gutters). I think I have a different solution that I'll post about in the future.

Cost-saving "cool"...

(Brendan)

In the course of my expansive travels on the internet looking for insightful home design ideas, coupled with my recent homebuilding reading (see sidebar near the bottom for good books), I came across one design idea which my brother has already incorporated in the design. It's a fireplace with an exposed flue. My original thought was that brick would encase the fireplace flue on the roof of the home, and that this would be carried down through the interior. However, brick is expensive, and it would have been expensive to surround the fireplace and flue with brick. A few of the books I read recently cited an exposed flue as a cost-saving measure, and I really liked the look from the pictures I saw. Luckily, Molly really liked it too! (I wasn't too sure she would, so I was pleasantly surprised). Here's a few example pics:
An exposed flue does a few things in terms of design, in my opinion. It adds metal to the design "palette" of the interior, it's unexpected so it adds interest, it's a contemporary look that won't go out of style due to it's simplicity, and... well, it's cool. AND it's less expensive. You can't go wrong there. We'd really like to do something like the last pic above, by having a concrete fireplace surround. Decorative concrete is definitely one of the coolest materials now being used in home construction (and retail construction), though it can get a little expensive. We'd like to use it for kitchen countertops as well, but again the expense will have to be checked.

I modeled my own vision of our fireplace in the family room in a pic I posted previously:
The fireplace is a "see-thru" model, so that it is usable on the other side of the wall in the small library. The flue would be exposed only on the family room side, but the fire can be seen on either side of the wall. I was just playing around with the model, but my brother will integrate this more formally in our home plans soon.

Another idea I came across was an incredibly cheap way to do a cool wood floor. It sounds cringe-worthy at first, but it actually is being used in a few architecturally designed homes (for clients who are penny pinching). It's a plywood floor. Typically this takes the form of plywood squares pieced together via tongue-and-groove joints (milled in), where the plywood consists of sandwiched layers of wood (with grain, not little wood chips). It can be done for somewhere around $2 per square foot, and the look, again, is unexpected and interesting. A few examples:
We're considering it, especially since one of the general contractors we are interested in actually installed the floor in the bottom pic. In any case, it's definitely a low-cost option for anyone considering wood flooring.