I am currently working on construction drawings for a new home near Readstown, Wisconsin.  My clients will soon be empty nesters, and this will become their full-time home after they retire in a few years.  

On this site, the best long distance views and sun exposure throughout the day are to the southeast, and so all of the public spaces, including the screen porch and deck, as well as the master bedroom, are lined up along that side of the home.  

The garage is tucked under the house in order to make use of the site slope and also to reduce the amount of basement space.  With the exception of the guest entry / mud room, all of the living spaces are on the upper level.  A covered patio on the opposite end of the house from the garage is sized so that it could be used as a single-car carport in the future if the clients find that walking up and down stairs becomes too difficult.

The 3D floor plan below shows the arrangement of the public spaces and master bedroom along the southeast side of the house.  A den, guest bedroom, second bathroom and laundry occupy the northwest side of the house.  

The living room includes a 10' ceiling and large window grouping flanked by built-in shelving and a window seat.  It is divided from the kitchen by a partial wall which helps to define the two spaces but allows some visibility between them.  In place of a formal dining room, there is a dining nook with built-in seating, which is given a sense of separation by a partial wall and a 7' ceiling height.

The long 3D section through the house, shown below, clearly illustrates how the utilitarian spaces (garage and basement) sit below the main level of the house.  It also illustrates how the ceiling is highest in the center of the house (the living room) and steps down towards either end.

It takes a team of people to bring a construction project to life, including a lender, architect, homebuilder, material suppliers and government officials. Others may be involved as well, depending on the project.
 
LENDER
 
Many people who build a new home will borrow money from a bank, credit union or mortgage lender to fund their project.  The lender will decide what they can afford to borrow based on their monthly income, existing debt, anticipated home-related expenses, and credit score.  The lender will be interested in the value of the finished home because they don’t want to lend more than what the house can sell for.  They will want floor plans and elevations and will have the design of the prospective home appraised to determine its value. A lender will usually require that the borrower contribute a percentage of the cost of the home in the form of a down payment.
 
For an existing home, equity that has been built up may be borrowed against to fund remodeling or an addition to that home, in the form of a home equity loan.
 
Before approaching an architect or builder, it’s helpful to meet with a lender in order to know how much can be borrowed.
 
ARCHITECT
 
The architect will design your new home, remodel or addition and may also guide their client through the bidding and construction processes. 
 
HOMEBUILDER
 
The builder actually constructs the new home, remodel or addition.  The builder and their crew will likely do some of the work themselves but will also subcontract out parts of the job that they don’t have the in-house expertise to do.  Trades (subcontractors) that are frequently “subbed out” include concrete, cabinets and other millwork, electrical, plumbing and heating/cooling, as well as specialties such as sound or security systems.
 
The builder will have a contract with each of these subs, and the lender will likely require lien waivers from the builder, showing that the subs have been paid for their work. 
 
MATERIAL SUPPLIERS
 
The builder will typically have certain material suppliers that they like to work with. The homeowner will likely have little to no involvement with the supplier of materials such as trusses, lumber and sheathing but may work directly with suppliers of cabinets and counters, floor finishes, and plumbing fixtures, who may have showrooms where homeowners can view their products.
 
MUNICIPALITY, COUNTY AND STATE
 
The local municipality, county and state will also be involved in the project by way of ordinances and code requirements.  The municipality will usually have rules about what and where you can build on your property.  The county may have rules about private sewage systems, and building near flood plains, bodies of water or wetlands.  The state has mandatory building standards in the form of the Uniform Dwelling Code. Depending on the nature of your project, a building inspector may be required to inspect the project at certain stages of construction.
 
 
The project team may also include the following: 
 
INTERIOR DESIGNER
 
An interior designer can help with the selection of cabinets and countertops, flooring, tile, light fixtures, and plumbing fixtures  (although an architect may also help with these selections).  An interior designer can also help select and purchase furniture, window coverings, and paint colors.
 
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
 
A landscape architect is a specialist in the grounds surrounding the home.  They can help with the design of patios and other outdoor paving, trees, shrubs and flowers, decorative or retaining walls, outdoor lighting, and water features. 
 
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
 
Depending on the structural complexity of a project, a structural engineer may be involved. They will usually be a subcontractor of the architect.
 
ENERGY MODELER / CONSULTANT
 
The services of an energy consultant may be included on projects where the client has a strong interest in energy efficiency.  The energy consultant can work with the architect and builder to suggest the best ways to build an energy-efficient home and may do energy modeling to predict the energy performance of a new home, possibly modeling different floor, wall and roof assemblies.
 

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to that question.  Building costs can vary widely depending on the home design, materials and details used and even location.  Here is a Fine Homebuilding article I've found which does a great job of discussing some of the decisions which can affect the price of a new home.  It appeared in issue #259,  the Spring / Summer 2016 issue of Fine Homebuilding.

​If you're building in the country, don't forget to add the cost of a septic system and well as well as a driveway.
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My client, Erin, was kind enough to share photos of her recently completed home makeover.  I originally began working with Erin and her husband Jeff in 2014.  They purchased their home years ago as a spec home but were ready to make an investment to turn it into their "forever home".  

Their first idea was to build an addition to the front of the house in order to expand the kitchen and dining area, (see "Lancaster Addition" post on 5/18/14) however they were not able to get a variance to extend the house into the front setback.

Next we looked at expanding the house upward, adding a second story and moving most of the bedrooms upstairs.  That was going to result in a much larger addition and a much bigger deal, since it meant taking off the existing roof.

The final concept was to add on to the side of the house, moving the guest bedrooms to the addition so that the kitchen, dining room and entry could expand into the former bedrooms.  This is the idea that was actually constructed.
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The result is a home that has gone from a plain Jane spec house to a spacious Craftsman-style home.  Erin did an excellent job of bringing the Craftsman theme throughout the added and remodeled areas. Erin's vision was expertly carried out by her general contractor, Jon Pickel Construction Inc. of Cuba City, Wisconsin.  The real stars of the house are the incredible cabinets and woodwork by Broihahn Custom Woodworks of Lancaster, Wisconsin.

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The front of the house "before"

The front of the house "after" - the addition of roof gables, replacement of the skinny porch posts with beefier Craftsman-style posts, higher quality siding materials and better detailing give the home tremendously more curb appeal than the original house had.

The original kitchen was too small and rather plain.  Most of it was turned into a new mudroom / laundry room, a space which was absent in the original house.

The new kitchen is situated in what was previously the bedroom wing.

Craftsman-style details are carried throughout the house, including in the range hood.

The tall cabinets in the kitchen conceal the refrigerator (right) and the passage to a hidden walk-through pantry (left).

A wet bar sits to the side of the dining room.

The entry foyer includes storage cabinets and a message center . . .

. . . as well as a built-in bench.

The back side of the bench is a china cabinet.

The existing living room was enhanced with new Craftsman-style trim, a new color scheme, new windows and door, replacement of the carpeting with hardwood flooring and an improved fireplace and mantel.

New bedrooms in the addition replace those that were repurposed for the kitchen and dining room.

It has been a busy spring for me, professionally and personally.  So that I can concentrate on my projects, I have decided to take a hiatus from blogging for a few months.  I look forward to returning, refreshed and with some interesting new topics and projects to share.

Option #1, above, requires the least amount of alteration.  The existing doors and walls remain, and a new bathtub and window are added to the original closet.  To get to the new closet, the owners would walk through the new tub room.  One advantage to this arrangement is that the owners don't need to walk through the main part of the bathroom to get to the closet. ​

This is a project I'm currently working on - a passive solar home for a rural site in the Town of Viroqua.  The 8-acre property is one of six parcels which make up a community of organic farming estates.  Owners of these farmettes agree to grow or produce organic food for sale or their own user and to use their land in a way that enhances natural diversity for humans and wildlife.  

Most of the 2,000 square foot home will be slab on grade, although there will be a small basement for utilities, storage, a hobby room and a root cellar.  The long face of the home is oriented 15 degrees west of south.  This orientation was arrived at as a compromise between a due south orientation for maximum solar gain and the southwest orientation of the site's contours.  The concrete slab floor will absorb heat on sunny winter days and release it at night.   The main rooms - dining / living room, 2 bedrooms and screen porch - are on the south side of the house.  The stair, bathrooms and laundry room are on the north side.  The kitchen borrows light and heat from the living and dining room.

The site is gently sloping, and the north and east sides are partially bermed into the hill to work with the natural slope.  The west side and half of the south side of the house are completely above grade.  

A separate 2-car garage to the west of the house will include a workshop and storage area.  The plan includes future solar panels and a cistern for rainwater collection.

This is the perfect time of year to enjoy a warm fire, and one of the coziest fire areas of all is the inglenook, which is defined as a corner or nook near a fireplace, often with seating.  Inglenooks combine the physical and visual warmth of a fire with a sense of shelter, a place to sit and look out into a larger room yet feel somewhat separated.  This is what Sarah Susanka in her book "Home By Design" and Christopher Alexander in "The Pattern Language" refer to as alcoves.  They note that we are psychologically attuned to feel comfortable in a place where we can survey what is happening around us from a well-protected place.

Here are four variations of an inglenook, shown in the same family room of an existing house, ranging in size and amount of enclosure.

The nook above is the least "inglenook-y" of the four examples.  It defines the space around the fireplace with small seats and windows on either side of it.  It takes up minimal space, and yet it declares itself slightly separate from the room in which it sits.

Inglenook #2, above, occupies the same amount of space as the previous inglenook, yet has a more sheltering feel because of the lowered ceiling above it.  Light sconces are a beautiful and practical touch which help to define the space with light and create a cozy place to read.

Image #3 above begins to look more like the traditional inglenook, with seats facing one another.  It requires more space than the previous two examples and includes built-in shelving flanking the fireplace.

Inglenook #4, above, has the most "inglenook-y" character of all.  Not only does it have seats facing one another, but it is further defined by columns, glass-faced cabinets and a dropped ceiling.  Extending the wall between the inglenook and the door all the way up to the ceiling would further enhance the sense of shelter.

Located on the north shore of Lake Wisconsin, near Merrimac, this vacation cottage was originally designed in a half-timber chalet style.  The owners' goals were to change the exterior style, expand the kitchen, add a bedroom and 3-season room and replace the flat-roofed garage. 

My clients' original idea was to add a bedroom suite above the garage, but I showed them how a new bedroom could be tucked under the kitchen addition instead, resulting in a smaller overall addition and eliminating the need to run plumbing and heating to the garage.

The "before" picture below shows the half-timber chalet style, reflected in applied trim boards and Swiss-style railing.  A deck wrapped around all four sides of the cottage, but only the lake-facing side was ever used.  The flat roof above the garage on the left side appeared to be designed as an outdoor seating area but had fallen into disrepair.  

The "after" picture above shows the style transformation that occurred by eliminating most of the wraparound deck, replacing the original railings with cable railings and changing the original stucco on the upper level of the house to lap siding and shakes.  The new exterior color scheme of french blue with accents of white and pale gray gives a more nautical feel to the house.

Building a home on a flat property is pretty straightforward; building on a property that slopes gives you the opportunity to be more creative in the way your home meets the earth.  Below are five ways you can deal with your sloping site.

FLATTEN THE SITE
​I believe that this is the least desirable way to deal with a sloping site.  If done poorly, it can make the site look awkwardly unnatural, and the additional grading adds to the cost of the project.  It's better to find a home design that works well with the natural lay of the land, or find a different site that works well with the home design you want to use.
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CHANGE THE GRADE SELECTIVELY
Changing the grade selectively can help a home fit into its site and even improve the site if done thoughtfully.  In the example shown in the two photos below, the east (left) wall of the garage is nestled into the side of the hill, but the grade between the garage and house was lowered for better access to the back yard.  Stone retaining walls make the regrading possible and are a beautiful visual feature as well.
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​MODERATE SLOPE - USE 1/2 LEVELS
A moderately sloping site may mean that there is less than a full level change between front and back.  In the example below, the great room (on the left) is a half level below the front entry (on the far right), reflecting the natural grade change between front and back yards.

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STEEPER SLOPE - WALKOUT BASEMENT
The walkout basement is a common feature of houses that have a steep enough grade difference that the back side of the house is a full level lower than the front side of the house.  Below are two examples.

HOUSES THAT DO THEIR BEST TO TRULY BLEND IN:  BERMED AND EARTH-COVERED HOMES
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The two homes below take the concept of fitting into their sites even further.  In both cases, much of the building sits below the natural grade.

The first home shown below is heavily beamed into the earth.  Driving up to it from the road, there is little more than roof visible until you walk down the exterior steps to the front door at the side of the house. (Photos 1 and 2.  Home designed by Owner)

The third photo shows a home that takes this idea even further.  It is not only bermed into the side of the hill, but the lower level roof is underground, rather like a Hobbit home.  The retaining wall on the left side of the photo is actually part of the lower level roof, and the strip of lawn in the middle of the photo sits on top of the lower level roof.  (Home designed by architect Herb Gausewitz)