Welcome to my journey
Posted on March 21st, 2007 – 10:31 PMBy Jason Hammond
I woke up today to the realization that not only am I actually going to be embarking on what most people categorize as the most stressful time in their lives, (building a house) but I’ve also agreed to document it for the entire flipping world to read. Yeah, good idea Jason, you should have time to do that, what with working 60 hour weeks in a start-up company, two young kids at home and building a house. Heck it should be easy, it’s just words and you’ve been using those for most of your life, right?
So here I am. I’m doing it. Writing a blog and building a house. I can’t say I don’t love the idea of sharing my house project with anyone who will listen (you can read more about it in the Star Tribune’s story)
I’ve found myself working the topic into some pretty strange conversations. “.. well speaking of road construction my new house is going to be on a road”. yeah, imagine that, a house on a road, brilliant, nice segue. But I can see that as I’m doing this that it sure feels good to get some of the things I’m feeling or thinking down on paper or LCD in this case. Granted it’s all pretty rosy looking now but I can imagine there’s going to be something that doesn’t go as planned or when I stumble across just the right light fixture and I’m feeling the aching need in my belly to tell someone about how great it is, that this whole blog thing might come in real handy. OK my panic has passed, good idea Jason, this just might be a lot of fun.
So hang on, here we go, now comes the good stuff, concrete walls, store front windows, passive solar, lots of planning, lots of decisions, lots of drama. And did I tell you I bought some cool sinks already? Yeah the sinks are in, now we just need a foundation and some plumbing and were good to go.
60 Responses to "Welcome to my journey"
Jason
Thanks for sharing the experience with us. Best of luck for the project.
Will a regimental “once-a-week” blog capture the impulse, excitement and progress of your build?
Your previous blog seemed to have a certain feel for detail and I looked forward to following it.
Hi Jason -
I look forward to following this - and really like the house plan, both the look and function. My background and interests are similar so will follow your blog. I have one suggestion from the plan in the paper (you did say 90% done, right?) My master bath/closet set-up is much the same.
A. Switch Master bedroom closet and sleeping area - without reconfiguring plumbing. B.Move washer/dryer to opposite wall so entry to closet & laundry is available directly from the bathroom.or C. Add a second closet entry at end of closet, leaving it where it is.
Benefits of A. or B.
1) closer to the laundry area - reduce steps, 2) look at the number of steps to navigate if you run up at the last minute to change shoes! Not everyone is so forgetful, but at least think if you make more than one trip into your closet per day. 3) This would also allow cross ventilation corner windows for the bedroom.
Good luck!
Thank you for sharing your story. I truly enjoy the building process - especially the planning.
The house looks great! I wouldn’t build a contemporary home but yours has a wonderful scale and presence that is sometimes missing in modern architecture.
How will you place furniture in the living and family rooms? I’m concerned as the fireplace is a focal point in most homes. You have it offset which makes furniture placement more difficult. It is also almost in the traffic path to the deck/patio.
Best of luck with your new home!
Hi - I had the same thoughts about the closet and master bedroom as Marj. Good for you going for moco design and what you want. Good luck!
Regarding the fireplace, we looked at the two rooms on the first floor as being integrated and wanted the fireplace to translate as a unifying element to the living area and the kitchen/dining area.
Interesting comments on the closet. It’s great to get other peoples take on the home.
Thanks for sharing your comments, I truly love hearing other peoples thoughts about the projects so please keep them coming.
Jason,
Exciting times for your family. so you are building from the ground up. Craftsman homes have a charm and coziness that I hope you are able to retain. The picture in the Star Tribune seems to show more of an International Style with its ribbon windows and level roof lines. The charm of most Craftsman are the gabled roofs and some form of a porch on the front. If you go modern could you at least add some interesting stone work for the fireplace, a hipped low lying roof, wood window sashes…. I wish you well.
Actually our new house is a Modern Contemporary. Our current home is a great little craftsmen built in 1916 with a front porch and great built ins. All wonderful features but just different from what we are looking to do with this house.
In a future post I’ll put up some pictures of our current little craftsmen. We love the house and it’s styling but I don’t think I would try and recreate a period style of architecture. 90 years ago those houses were considered modern, time we try the same thing.
Centering the fireplace would ruin the balance of the facade and would make it so you couldn’t have the corner windows. I have a fireplace off to the side of the room in a 1950s rambler. It was more difficult to arrange the furniture at first. But I looked at arrangements from the 1950s and saw that the centered arrangement is very neo-classical and not necessarily how furniture was arranged in modern homes of the 1950s. My house seemed to be designed for a SMALL sectional, for example, not for a sofa and two chairs (my problem was always scale - cont. furn. is too big for my house). My rambler also has the corner windows and they are great. At first I didn’t know what to do with them, but they’ve grown on me because I have so much more wall space, which allows for more freedom when arranging furniture. Having unusual features in a home leads to creative solutions, and that’s what’s fun about having these homes. With the internet it’s now so easy to find something perfect. I love the Russell Wright Guide To Easier Living for ideas on how to organize a home.
Your philosophy and plans are impressive. I cannot help but agree with Marj, and I prefer her option A. If you took a pencil to a copy of your floor plans and traced the journey of your footsteps during an average day/week, the bedroom floorplan would appear cumbersome. Closets on interior walls provide options for windows (light and/or fresh air); important factors in that are which direction the bedroom windows face and what scenery is provided! Marj’s option C is a good cure for the identified issue, but brings forth the problem of reduction of wall space for furniture placement, etc.
Finally, with two boys and no basement, my preference would be to extend the garage to the right(?) behind the extended wall for storage.
Best of luck to you!
I’d suggest reconfiguring the laundry room for a different reason; the noise of the washer/dryer and water pipes in the wall will likely transmit directly into the master bedroom…if you don’t ever do laundry when the other person is sleeping, its not an issue. We have the shower in our master bath backing up to our master bedroom and I wish we would have had the water pipes on the adjacent wall due the sound transmission into the bedroom.
Thanks for sharing your dreams and the process. The project looks great. (I’m curious what the neighboring homes look like.)
We built a more traditional home 2 yrs ago, but tried to have a craftsman feel -especially with the open plan of the main living area.
Do you have any wall space in the living area for art?
I’m curious if you plan a wood floor throughout the lower level? We felt that dividing the living area with carpet would make the furniture arrangement more limited. We also want to be able to expand the dining table into the for large gatherings.
Someone else noticed the same things my wife did - a closet on an outside wall wastes a potential view or at least light from transoms over the bed. Also a pass-through from the closet to a laundry basket is something we wanted, but didn’t achieve. It seems your layout could accomodate that. Direct access from the bath is important, too, however.
We love the family room being away from the public viewing area.
Lastly, it’s unfortunate that the upper bath is not adjacent to the bedrooms, but I don’t see a solution to that.
Good luck!
While your 1916 craftsman has probably retained it’s charm after 90 years, I predict that your “Modern Contemporary” will grow stale after 15 to 20 years. In 2027 it will just be an ugly house that no-one will want to buy. I feel sorry for your neighbors who will have to pass by your monstrosity every day.
Great article Jason. I’m looking forward to following along as your plans com to fruition.
Hey bro,
It’s cool to finally start seeing some floor plans. I’m looking forward to the final plans and the actual construction. It should be fun to watch.
Jason -
As evidenced by the impressively anti-intellectual shame based approach to architecture peddled by Frank above, welcome to building in Minnesota! I’ve never understood this, but our man Frank has to at a minimum provide sources for his claims.
I’m a fan of well presented and well executed architecture of any kind - from the cabins of Edwin Lundie to the FlatPak from Charlie Lazor. I’m not sure your house falls into this, but I’m passionate about your willingness to build a home that fits your needs. It’s not easy.
But to counter Frank’s claim of neighborhood discord via modern home design I offer the Grove neighborhood of St. Paul. Arts and Crafts bungalows stand proud alongside masterpieces from Rapson, Graffunder and Close. It’s easily one of the best neighborhoods in the TC area for this reason.
Jason-
WOO HOO! I’m so happy to see your project under development - my wife and I are on the same track as you - we’re building a mo-co home (similar to yours) on a lot in North Minneapolis. We’ve got our plans “finalized” with our architect and we’re assembling our subcontractor bids - bidding alternative construction methods (ICF, t-mass, wood, etc.) and materials - we hope to break ground in the next month. So I’ll be reading your blog often.
I’m very curious about your material selections - looks like corrugated metal and is that cor-ten steel? It’d be very interesting to read about your initial cost expectations and how they change/adapt along with your specs as you finalize your construction costs.
You are going to have a beautiful home and it’ll be fun to watch it’s progress.
Chris
Oh, and a message to Frank - Open your mind to the value of architectural diversity (you don’t have to like it). You sound a bit like Frank Lloyd Wright when he described Summit Avenue in Saint Paul as “The worst collection of architecture in the world.”
Greetings:
Homes of modern design have been around since the early 1900’s, yet many people are not familiar with them. When I talked to a mortgage broker for the buyer of my 1st modern home(built in 1946), he thought flat roofs were extremely uncommon and did not want to approve financing for the buyer until we showed him photos of numerous Twin Cities homes and reminded him that most commercial buildings have flat roofs. I relish in the idea that my home is unique and that modern design does not appeal to the masses.
I laughed reading of your magazine and TV list as my family teases me for my excitement over the same! I also enjoy Modernism and Atomic Ranch magazines.
Have you been a collector of modern furnishings along your path? If so, how fun to finally place them in the environment they deserve.
I am envious of your venture and will enjoy following along.
Thanks,
Greg Aakhus
I find myself in a similiar situation and I am really curious how this process goes for you. I was also wondering how the financing works (not to get too personal!) when you build. Is it all new financing (since your house isn’t sold)? Most of my experience has been with pre-existing homes or completed new construction.
I wrote about you on my blog and will be checking back often. Good luck!
– Lighten Up Frank!
You sound a bit bitter. Did you miss out on that big promotion at work or something? Houses/Buildings from all eras look dated, that’s what’s great about architechture. No, not everone will apperciate Jason’s house the way he, and perhaps few others will. To say that only certain styles of homes are worth building because they will maintain their traditional charm is stupid and boring. Think about all the cookie cutter homes being built around the country these days. Are they special? Will they have any greater charm in 15-20 years? Certainly many of the older homes around have retained their charm, while at the same time they’ve lost there functionality as people’s lifestyles have evolved. They have also become inefficiant on many levels. In the end people end up completely remodling them and they become modernized (especially insided) looking nothing like the orginal architechture from the period in which they were built. Traditional charm is overrated!
This is awesome!
I suspect that “Frank” is somehow involved with one of the major builders affiliated Parade of Homes and is resentful of all the ink this will get.
I like the concept and your design. I admire your willingness to share, hope you have time to keep up with it. Couple of observations; Interior space is important, exterior design needs to be mindful of the changes others may want to make with time. Keeping that in mind you listed as misc. items relating to energy and efficiency. I suggest you keep these at the top of your list. These will be as important as home workspaces and definitely your bathroom sinks in twenty years. If you stay-you might find yourself wanting a wood fire instead of gas, for the comfort and exercise it provides. Then you will see that external chimney chases don’t work that well. You may want expansion for active solar and yard space for energy utilities adjoining your power grid. The green roof is easily planned for in advance by meeting load requirements now and an extra layer of EDPM. Good luck.
I found the passive solar (Magellan Map) very interseting. I must admit I’ve never seen one myself. I’m wondering what other kinds of green things will be incorporated into your home. I’ll be interested to hear more in future blogs.
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