Design Session One

Kim and I met Wes at the land Saturday afternoon. On the way, we stopped by the Westport Dump for the weekly ritual of recycling and trash drop off. We like this a lot more than having a weekly house pick-up and hope that Kent has a cool dump to go hang out in on Saturday mornings.

We got to the land a little late as we didn't count on the Saturday traffic on Route 7 and will leave more time next week.

The site visit started out with a first. We drove all the way up to the building site on our new almost finished driveway. The only thing left to do on the driveway is to add the two conduits underneath for drainage and eventually put the finished stone on top, which we decided to hold off on until after construction is almost complete.

As Wes starting discussing his ideas, he took out his old Boy Scout compass to show us where the Southern and Northern exposure would be. This is where we hit our first 'glitch' of the day as Kim, thinking he was holding a GPS, asked him for directions to a friends house in Westchester.

Kim and I had sent over a 'Big Decision' document earlier in the week for Wes to look at. This started out as a few bullet points about major decisions (like 'no garage, but a barn' or 'we need a screened in porch to keep from being attacked by bugs' or 'internal bathroom instead of out house') , but ended up as a three or four page detailed epic. We were envisioning Wes with his face in his hands hunched over the email sighing after reading the first page, but instead, he complemented us on the detail and said it it was 'MOST helpful '. Kim and I took his enthusiasm and use of capital letters as a green light to send more of our 'concise challenged' documents in the future.

The challenge of siting the house (above) is that we we want to take advantage of the view (below), but also have to take into account the land on the top of the property sloping down to the left. To do this, Wes has drawn in some retaining walls to integrate the grade change and also make use of the stone we'll most likely get from excavating.

After we left the land, we met Wes down at his office in Kent and went over a lot of material that we have extracted from various books and magazines and a simple sketch that Wes had developed as a way to talk about the rooms, but not meant to be a design document. In showing Wes our material, we basically did a core dump, as we had pictures ranging from Great Rooms and Stonework, which makes sense for this part of the design process, to pictures reflecting way too much detail (like bamboo sinks in the powder room, kitchen cabinets and specific gas ranges with red knobs) which we could have done without at this session. Wes was patient, but needed to get us back on track more than once.

At the end of the session, we agreed that we could meet next Saturday to look at some revised sketches.

As we drove off into the sunset, Kim and I reflected on the day. We're impressed with the way Wes incorporates our ideas into the planning. We did however, agree that we need to be more specific on how we will live in the house (function) and also on the internal and external look and feel of the house (form).

Blazing

Smaller trees and branches are taken care of on site by a large bonfire ... and we forgot the marshmallows. I woke up in a sweat that night wondering how it would go over with the neighbors if we started a fire and burned down the development. Probably not a good way to get invites to pot luck dinners.

Filling in over the ledge

Here Jason dumps some fill over the ledge at the top of the hill. This really looks like fun, but I think I'll master a wheel barrow before I suggest to Kim that a large dump truck would be a good investment as we could use it to haul firewood, rocks and possibly as a snow plow.

Talking shop

Jason thinks Kim is joking when she starts talking about buying a chain saw and cutting firewood. Seriously, we're going off to buy a chain saw and talked to Kim's cousin Dane, aka 'Woodsman', for some advice. After settling on a Stihl MS-280, it turns out that Dane's Dad, Uncle Britt, has a Stihl MS-390 that we can have. What a deal and thanks Uncle Britt. We'll be doing some cutting this fall, but a lot more a year from now. Hopefully, my nickname won't be 'Stubs' after a few firewood cutting sessions.

Just a litte firewood

We asked Wes and Jason to leave us with some firewood.  This was only about one fifth what was taken doing the driveway.  Jason then reminded us that we'd be taking more when we cleared the house site.  What were we thinking? I think we need to give Wes a call and tell him we only want two cords from the driveway.

Driveway view from the street ... a work in progress

The driveway work has begun. It's going to be about 600' long, and will wind up a hill to the site of the house. Wes, our architect, made some alterations after Jason (who is building our driveway) discovered ledge that either needed to be blasted or filled over. We decided to fill and save the blasting for the house site. We also decided to curve the driveway a little more near the top of the hill. We're hoping the driveway will be done in a week and then we start the design work on the house with Wes.

When we bought the land, we didn't think much about the the driveway or pulling the lines (underground) up to the site. In fact, we didn't think about much other than how much we liked the lot. We're learning now.

Tractor arrives to start the driveway

Right before work was to start on the driveway, I went up for one last look at the lot in it's almost natural state, and there was a tractor sitting fifty or so feet into the woods, ready to start. We can't help feeling some guilt as we start this project as the site seems so natural.

Trees, hills, ledges and a stone wall

We choose to look for land around Kent, as it's a small community that is not too far away from New York and Boston, but far enough to stand on it's own and have it's own sense of community. There are beautiful lakes and the Appalachian Trail runs right by it.

We choose our development, St. Johns Peak, as much of the land is set aside for conservation easements and we'll be able to enjoy living in natural surrounding with we hope, like minded people.

We choose our lot as its beauty is very much in its challenge.