If you are planning to remodel or build an addition onto your home, or if you plan to build a new home, here are five tips to help you get off to a good start.

1.  HAVE A BUDGET IN MIND - Before you even begin talking to architects or home builders, figure out how much money you have to spend on your project.  This may depend on a number of factors including how much money you have saved for the project, how much you feel comfortable spending on a monthly mortgage or loan payment, and how much your lender is willing to lend you.  (SEE What Will It Cost?  and Construction Budgets and Setting Priorities)  Note:  the square foot costs in the "What Will It Cost?" blog post are very much outdated, but the article can give you a general idea of how different decisions affect the cost of your construction.


2.  ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME -  It's easy to underestimate how long a building project can take.  There's selecting an architect, schematic design, construction drawings, bidding / choosing a builder, getting permits and finally construction.  Depending on the size and complexity of your project, it could easily take from 6 months for a small remodeling project to 18 months (or more) for a unique home with many custom details.  And that's assuming that your preferred home builder has room for you in their schedule when you want to build.


3.  CONSIDER YOUR FUTURE NEEDS - Consider how your life may change over the years.  Are you planning to start a family soon?  Are you expecting to become empty nesters in the near future?  Or perhaps want to have a space where aging parents can come to live with you?  Or are approaching retirement age yourselves and want to have a home that will allow you to stay in your home as long as possible?  (See Aging in Place and The Aging-Friendly Bathroom)


4.  CHOOSE YOUR BUILDER WISELY - You'll be spending a lot of time with your home builder and entrusting a huge investment to them.  You'll want to select one who does good work, whom you trust and can work with and who is well-suited for your project.  (See What To Expect From Your Home Builder, Choosing Your Contractor, Part 1 and Choosing Your Contractor, Part 2).  I can provide you with a list of questions that you should ask your builder and references for that builder.


5.  UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS - See my series of blog posts: Working with An Architect:  Getting To Know You, Working with An Architect:  Programming, Working With An Architect:  Schematic Design, Working With An Architect:  Design Development, Working With An Architect:  Additional Details, Working With An Architect:  Bidding or Negotiation, and Working With An Architect:  The Construction Phase

I don't often get the chance to work on modern designs, but in the last few months I've been working on projects for two different clients which have mono slope roofs, in other words, roofs that have a single low pitch from front to back.  

The first project is a home that will be constructed on a rural site in Vernon County.  It will be built into the hillside, with entry into the home on the lower (walkout basement) level and the main living spaces and primary bedroom suite on the upper level.  It will have flat 9' ceilings on the back (hill-facing) side of the house, rising up to a height of nearly 15' on the front of the house.  The result is a dramatic home that opens up to the views.  

The second project is a garage, which will be built in rural Sauk County.  Purely by coincidence, it has the same type of roof and roof pitch. although on a smaller scale than the house.  It will have a wall height if 8'-6" at the back wall, rising up to 12' at the overhead garage doors.  The roof extends past the walls of the garage to create a covered porch shaded by cedar slats.

I first presented drawings of this project in a blog post in March of 2022, with an update in July 2023 showing the addition under construction.  Construction is now complete.

The homeowners are from the Chicago area and plan to retire to this farmhouse in the country.  The purpose of the project was to replace the existing kitchen and mud room, add a first floor primary bedroom suite and add a family room / guest bedroom on the second floor.

​The general contractor on this project was Aaron Hubbs of Hubbs Construction Inc.

For decades, the focus of sustainable building has been to decrease the amount of energy that buildings use over their lifetimes for things like heating, cooling, lighting, and operating appliances. Building codes have required increasingly better-insulated buildings, manufacturers of heating and cooling equipment have improved the efficiency of their equipment (such as with highly efficient heat pumps), and lighting has become more efficient with the development of LEDs.  There's also been a growing switch to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.  All of these changes reduce the amount of carbon released as a result of the energy used in the day-to-day running of buildings over their lifetime - known as their "operational" carbon emissions.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in and acknowledgement of the importance of a building's "embodied" carbon - the emissions from harvesting, manufacturing and transporting  the building materials used to construct it.  Some materials, such as concrete, steel and aluminum, release a lot of carbon in their manufacture.  Other materials, such as cellulose and timber, can actually store more carbon than is released in their manufacture.  Architects can choose materials which have low or even negative carbon emissions and reduce the use of those with high carbon emissions.

Studies have shown that it can take 20 or more years for the cumulative operational carbon of a building to equal the carbon produced by its manufacture - its embodied carbon.  Given the urgency to reduce our carbon emissions as soon as possible in order to reduce the catastrophic effects of climate change, it's become apparent that reducing new buildings' embodied carbon emissions is extremely important in addition to reducing their operational carbon emissions.

There are a growing number of resources available for estimating the embodied carbon of a building during the design process.  One popular tool is the BEAM Estimator, a "pay what you can" calculator put out by the organization Builders for Climate Action.  The BEAM Estimator can be accessed here:  https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/choice-to-contribute-to-beam-update.html.  

​And for a more in-depth explanation of the new emphasis on embodied carbon, here is a link to an article in Fine Homebuilding:  ​https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/energy-retrofit/a-better-path-to-a-low-carbon-future

Summer is drawing to a close, and I've been busy getting out to photograph some of my recently constructed projects, including this prairie style home.  Its 20+ acre site is located in the Town of Mazomanie and includes a pond and a marshy area adjacent to Dunlap Creek.  Coincidentally, the site sits across the valley from another home that I designed in 2013.  The property has beautiful views of neighboring hills and farms.  My clients have owned and camped on the property for years and have been planting trees and making other improvements in anticipation of building their new home.  

Interior characteristics of the home include light decks, bands of windows and an open plan with spaces that are visually connected yet maintain a separate identity due to the design of the ceiling and the walls.  The partial view of one space from another creates a sense of mystery, calling one to explore.

A special feature and focal point of the home is the masonry heater around which the living area, dining area and kitchen radiate.  This highly efficient fireplace includes a heated bench, firewood storage nook and a small cooking oven on the kitchen side of the masonry mass.

My clients desired a home that would be unobtrusive, and so it was designed to nestle into the gentle slope as much as possible, connecting to the outside with a breezeway between the home and garage, a series of patios and rock retaining walls.  Future plans include a stone stair connecting the sunset terrace to the west side of the property.

As is characteristic of the prairie style, there are hip roofs with broad overhangs and horizontal banding of windows and materials to emphasize the expansive nature of the prairie.

A lot of work has been going on in our garden since I posted in April.  John Pohl of Folly Afield has been busy weeding, grading, planting, transplanting and watering.  We now have most of the plants in place.  

We decided to build two stone paths with limestone pavers.  My husband Paul is at work on that.  He also ordered an arching cedar trellis, which will eventually support roses or some other vining flower.  

The garden is looking a bit sparse and messy right now.  For one thing, we're using a lot of plugs rather than full-grown plants, in order to save money, so there's quite a bit of bare space where the plants will eventually fill in.

For another thing, we've had a rainy and mosquitoey year so far, so I haven't been able to keep up with the weeding.  The thought is that the plants, once grown, will crowd out the weeds.

One of my current projects is an addition to a four-square style house near Monroe Street in Madison, which was built in 1924.  Like most homes of that era, the kitchen is small by today's standards, measuring a little more than 10' x 10'.  In addition, the paths to the basement, the 1/2 bathroom and the mud room run through the kitchen.  The homeowners enjoy cooking together and would like to have about 50% more workspace than they currently have.

In addition the homeowners would like to expand their very tiny 1/2 bath and replace the existing mud room with one which is more functional and safe for their visiting parents.   On the second floor, they would like to either expand the only bathroom on the second floor (which is very compact) or add an ensuite bathroom to the primary bedroom.

CONCEPT #1
​I came up with two main concepts:  Concept #1 keeps the kitchen in its current location but expands it with a 6' addition into the back yard.  The addition would include a larger mud room as well.  On the second floor, an ensuite bathroom would sit above the new mud room.  The addition looks fairly small due to the fact that the second story of the addition is substantially smaller than the first-story portion.

Below are floor plans and elevations showing Concept #1.  In the elevation drawings, the white part of the house is existing, and the blue part is the addition.

CONCEPT #2
Concept #2 moves the entire kitchen to the addition and repurposes the current kitchen as a mud room with new 1/2 bath.  The second floor primary bedroom moves to the addition, and the current primary bedroom is remodeled into a larger walk-in closet and ensuite bathroom.

Advantages of this concept are that the kitchen and primary bedroom are larger and can have windows on three sides for more natural light, and the homeowners gain a larger bedroom closet.  The primary disadvantages of this concept are that it is 60% larger than Concept #1, and it has a boxier, more imposing look on the outside.  

My clients are taking some time to decide which concept they'd like to go with.  It's looking like they'll go with Concept #2, with some modifications.

​

Last fall, my husband and I decided to remove several overgrown evergreen trees and bushes in our yard, leaving some large bare areas where weeds are happily sprouting up now.  We've decided to fill the gaps in our gardens primarily (although not exclusively) with native plants.  We're hopeful that native plants will provide a supportive habitat for birds, bees, butterflies and other animals.  We're also hoping that, once established, the native plants will require minimal maintenance and be resilient in the face of droughts and extreme heat.

I'd love to be able to achieve a look of abundance similar to the photo above (that photo is not of our yard.)

John Pohl, of Folly Afield LLC, located northwest of Spring Green, will be designing and installing our new beds.  We're excited to see what he comes up with!

Below are a couple of photos showing the two corners of the yard where the trees and bushes were removed.  I plan to post again to provide updates as things progress.

I'm currently working on a remodel and addition to a farmhouse built in 1936 in the Town of Brooklyn, south of Madison.  As is common in a home of this era, rooms are small by today's standards.  My clients have been gradually carrying out their long-term plan for bringing their home up to date.  Twenty years ago they added a new living room and primary bedroom suite.  They've also done a number of smaller projects over the years.  Now they are ready to remodel and expand the original kitchen.

To begin with, the existing kitchen is small.  Secondly, the path from the primary entry to the remainder of the house passes through the middle of the kitchen.  In addition, the range and refrigerator sit side by side with no counter space between them to use when cooking or to place items taken out of the refrigerator.

The alterations will include removing a stair and the non-bearing wall between the kitchen and dining room, giving the kitchen double the space that it has now.  An addition will make room for a walk-in pantry, 1/2 bath, laundry room, new primary entry with mud room and a garage.  The 3D floor plan below shows the enlarged kitchen on the right side and the addition at the bottom (garage not shown).  The new kitchen will be large enough to include wall ovens, a large island, coffee station and desk.  Circulation from the new entry to the rest of the house will pass behind the island stools rather than through the "working" side of the kitchen.

The 3D interior view below looks from the new dining room toward the door of the walk-in pantry.  The new larger window above the sink faces south and will bring in lots of natural light.

It's always satisfying to bring new life and functionality to an older home.

In late September we took a two-week trip to the northern half of Italy.  Needless to say, we saw more churches that you can shake a stick at.  In Italy, one can't go very far without running into a church.  I was less interested in the church interiors than in the many ways that stone was used as ornamentation on the facades of the buildings.  The church that amazed me the most was the Duomo (cathedral) in Milan, shown above and in the following two photos below.  I was so glad that our entry ticket included a visit to the top of the cathedral, where we were able to walk on the roof all the way around the building.  The amount of decorative detail and number of statues is overwhelming.  No wonder it took about 600 years to complete.

Another famous Duomo that we visited was the one in Florence, shown in the following two photos.  The photos don't really do justice to the colors of the facade, which are not painted on but are due to the different colors of marble that were used.  So much intricate detail carved into the stone - so many statues. . . .  The famous dome was engineered by Philippo Brunelleschi.  This cathedral took less than 150 years to complete.

The church in the three images below is the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Matricolare in fair Verona.  One could say that it's rather plain in comparison to the two duomos in the previous photos.  However, beautiful detail has been incorporated where it really matters:  at the entries and capping off the roofs.  The sides of the cathedral have less sculptural ornamentation but are still decorated with alternating stripes of stone.

The Basilica of Saint Anastasia, in the one photo below, is also located in Verona.  However most of its facade shows off the sculptural quality of brick rather than stone.

I'm fascinated by all of the different textures and patterns that were created with only minimal use of color in the facade of the Duomo of Siena, below.  The striped tower on the right looks like it belongs to a different building but is nonetheless beautiful to look at.  

Last is the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Monterosso Al Mare, one of the five towns of the Cinque Terre.  Although it is a relatively modest church, I still find its striped facade, gothic entry and simple rose window to be striking.