Down Under

Land of Plenty 1.17.07
In the past few years I have started to turn to the internet for almost all my "need to know" questions. Phone numbers, definitions of words, a speedy search for an obscure fact (that I can use to belittle my family and closest friends during a trivial pop culture conversation). This has also proven to be my outlet for everything I want or desire from a modern design perspective. Many many ventures into the world of the web has left me to one glaringly obvious discovery, Australia is truly the land of plenty when it comes to modern design. In America when I refer to the term modern home design I am as likely to find anything built in the past 10 years featuring indoor plumbing as I am to anything who's attributes actually reflect the modern design movement. However in Australia these ideas seem to be one in the same. Modern design (the conceptual movement) and modern housing (those built in the past decade) seem to be synonymous. Inevitably when I find a cool product (that is not sold on some highly over priced design driven site aimed at the upper 1% of home buyers) It's from — You guessed it — Australia.

There even appear to be entire neighborhoods filled with highly thoughtful modern contemporary houses. It's almost as if you were to plop down a two-story craftsman in the middle of Australia the people there would stare at as if it were the landing of some alien craft.

Massing Studies

Going in a Good Direction 1.03.07
The first few phases of the architectural process went really, really fast and easy. I think it's a combination of a good architect who listens (and my experience is they don't all do that) and us having really thought about what we want. Anyhow we did some early exterior studies and from there we basically narrowed down. So at the end of September we landed on where we are at today. This is a massing study of the exterior, there are interior drawings as well but they are less solid than these so I'm holding those for later. This exterior looks strikingly similar to one of the first three rough sketches that Michael showed us.



Withdrawal
Since September we haven't done anything with the plans. A combination of busy schedules and trying to do some research to ensure we're within our budget have made the time past quickly.However the lull in progress has been driving me crazy. I find myself thinking about the house every free moment I have. It's an obsession. I'm going through some sort of creative progress withdrawal at this point. I find myself watching every episode of any HGTV or FineLiving show that may have a hint of modern design. Paging through back issues of Dwell and Metropolitan Home hoping to cure my craving but nothing is working. hopefully tonights meeting with Michael is the antidote.

The Mailbox

I'm a designer it's my nature 12.31.06
Ok so at this point it's a tad bit early to start worrying about if the mail carrier is going to have a tough time finding our house, or if we are going to get anything good in the mail, but I'm a designer so it's my nature to obsess about the details. Plus I want to put my mark on the design of the house and what better way than to design the first thing you see— the mailbox.

I'm pretty happy with it but I'll put it away for awhile until it's existence is closer at hand. I have a fabricator/engineer in mind for the metal, plexi and to get the appropriate light working. The top is intended to be oxidized metal the middle section is a frosted plexi that is back lit so that the stainless steel house numbers stand out clearly at night and the base is poured concrete.

Contractors and Architects

Good Sledding so Far 12.30.06
One of my close friends (Corey Benedict) is the owner of Benedict and Associates and is going to be our General Contractor on this project. He's focused his business on build "high performance homes" or in other words as energy efficient and green friendly as people are willing to let him build. As well this past spring his model home on the Western Wisconsin Tour of homes won the award for quality home builder.

This past spring when we started talking with Corey about building a MoCo home he mentioned we should meet with an architect name Michael Huber (http://www.mhuberarchitects.com). Corey thought highly of him and felt he would be a great fit for some of the ideas we had talked about. Prior to meeting him we saw an episode of the HGTV show "What's with that house" that featured Michael's own home. We both liked what we saw and heard and when we met him in early June we that this was going to be great fit.

Since we settled on our lot in August we've been having regular meeting with Michael to begin the really neat stage of designing a custom home. I think what we have liked most about Michael is that not only does he bring a level of creativity to the table but he also collaborates with Stacy and I and that is important as we both have lots of ideas and opinions.

From Craftsman to Moco

In The beginning 12.29.06
My wife and I and our two children Evan(4) and Aidan(1) live in a wonderful 1916 craftsman house in N. St. Paul, Minnesota that we purchase ten years ago. We are only the second family of owners to call this wonderful little gem of a house home. However, After 10 years of renovations our families needs, my wife's business and our own personal desires have pushed us to do something new. Something different. Something that allows my wife and I (both of whom are creative professionals) to express our vision of what a home is and can be.


I've started this blog to allow our friends, families and anyone else who will listen to my ramblings a glimpse into the minds and experiences as two creative people take the journey to building their dream home. A modern contemporary home, designed to meet our wants and needs while considering the environmental impact it will have for our children and future generations.


The location 12.29.06
In the spring of 2005 we decided that our current 1800 sq. ft. home was busting at the seams with two small children and a growing business. With that said we know finding a new house would not be easy. We are both creative people with a vision in our head of what we could see ourselves living in, especially if we were to leave the wonderful house we have called home for the past 10 years. We both knew that if we were going to move we would have to build something special, something custom, something that we could allow our creative minds to impact the way we live and work on a daily basis — but where?

In may or June we thought we found a lot in old downtown Stillwater. It was a short distance from the area we live and a bit more of a drive for me for work (I'm in Downtown St. Paul) but Stillwater is a great little city and the lot seemed like a diamond in the rough. We made an offer the seller agreed but at the last minute he pulled the sale off the table. There were issues with the neighbors, the city and sites ability to be built upon and when it was all said and done we were glad that we didn't pursue it any further. On the Fourth of July, after a outing with Friends we drove down McKnight Rd. On our way home. I saw a sign for a lot for sale. The neighborhood looked nothing like what we would pick to live in. A dozen or so half million dollar McMansion homes all built sometime in the later 90's or early 2000's. On a lark we turned down the street and to our surprise the lot sat in a quiet, slightly wooded cul-de-sac but nothing like we had imagined. On the south side of the street was a wetlands, on the east side sat the only two house in the cul-de-sac and on the west side of the lot was another quarter acre wetlands. It seemed perfect, so we checked to see if there were any covenants on the development that would keep us from building the type of home we wanted. To our surprise there were none, so just three weeks later we signed papers and purchased the lot.