House Architecture

Referrals and many conversations.

Thanks to Kelly Karls, our realtor for her many referrals.  We also used Google search to build a list of a dozen architects whose work we loved.  About a third of them were located within or near Lexington, Kentucky which is near Sugar Hill.

Video Conferences

Since we were still in Michigan, we “met” with all the architects via video using the usual online services (examples:  Zoom, Google Meet).

Prior to our meetings, we sent them our drawings and a one page note about what our design philosophy is for the new house.

The key questions that we asked:

1. 1. Interest in working with us.
   2. Availability.
   3. How they work with clients.
   4. Fees.

It was straightforward to eliminate 75% of the architects due to either availability, their method of working with clients, or pricing.

Fees

Architecture fees come in three flavors:

1. 1. Percentage of the anticipated total value of the house.
   2. By-the-hour.
   3. Fixed cost.
   4. Hybrid.

We chose architects that used a hybrid financial model of fixed cost and by-the-hour.  The fixed cost was for the majority of work and allowed us to put together a total anticipated cost for our new house.  The by-the-hour part allowed us flexibility if there were scope changes as we went though the architectural design process (there were changes).

Architect

In the end, we selected Vincent Thompson from Gibson, Taylor, and Thompson Architecture in Lexington, Kentucky.

His enthusiasm, willingness to explore cutting edge design, experience, and personality were a great fit for us.

It was also helpful that he was local to Sugar Hill because he was able to easily incorporate the uniqueness of our land into his design.

He’s also been very helpful either on conference calls or onsite to talk with us, the trades, utilities, and government folks we are working with to build our house.

Architecture

One of the key questions that we all had:  what style was the house going to be?

We love everything from English Tudor (our current home), to Craftsman, Castle, Modern, and Brutalist (note:  only Tom likes Brutalist!)

After many discussions and a lot of new boards on Pinterest, we narrowed our choice to a unique combination of Craftsman and Modern with stone as the primary material on the outside and white and red oak as the primary material on the inside.

Windows

Our current home has a lot of natural light and our goal was to increase that even further with floor-to-ceiling windows on the front and rear walls.

This lead us to our first major decision:  the cost of large windows was too expensive for us.

And this is where one of the many advantages of working with a creative architect like Vincent come into play:  he was able to maintain our overall goal but substantial reduce the cost through clever sizing choices and by directly working with three window suppliers to design around standard size windows which were used in the majority of the design.

From this:

To this:

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

While we’re both in good health, we’ve learned from taking care of our parents, that you never know what will happen later in life.  We had many conversations with Vincent about room accessibility including everything from door and hallway widths to how a bathroom is designed; all from the perspective of potentially having basic mobility issues to living in a wheel-chair.

In light of our collective experience, our house is designed that a person in a wheelchair can easily move around by themselves.  This was key to life quality for our parents who were confined to a wheelchair late in their lives.  Being able to move around independently was a big factor in improving their quality of life.

Three areas were very important:

1. 1. Bedroom layout to incorporate, as opposed to accommodate, the regular use of a full-size wheelchair.
   2. Bathroom layout to incorporate the use of a full-size wheelchair.  In particular, the location of sinks, the toilet and a curbless roll-in shower.
   3. Wide doors and hallways (beyond the ADA requirements).  We were all tired of skinning our knuckles while trying to maneuver wheelchairs.

Basement

Our basement is utilitarian, being originally designed for four purposes:

1. 1. Woodworking shop.
   2. Plant growing.
   3. Fitness center.
   4. Utility space (HVAC–heating and cooling equipment, electric, plumbing).

But with over 3,000 square space we had the opportunity to utilize it beyond our original concept.  So we added two things:

1. 1. Two car garage.  Having worked in automotive engineering for many years, we love cars and trucks, but were never fans of the design trend that we affectionately named “garage with attached house.”  Due to the hilly terrain of our land and the location of our house on top of a hill (Sugar Hill), the two sides of our basement allow for walkout space.  With Vincent’s help, we took that to the extreme.  One side is now a drive-in garage that has space for two cars plus gardening equipment.
   2. Elevator.  This was Vincent’s idea based on our conversations about ADA requirements.  It turns out that “home elevators” are a thing and not extremely expensive if incorporated during the design stage.  A teleconference with Vincent and a home elevator company (more on this in a future article) sealed the deal and now we have a one-person elevator that is large enough and easy to use for someone in a wheelchair.  This will be immediately helpful because one of our dear friends is confined to a wheelchair.  Now, all she has to do is drive into our garage, then into our elevator, and in minutes she’s on the main floor of our house.

Engineers, Trades, Utilities, and Government

Next time, we’ll share how we went from architectural design to Tom becoming a General Contractor, working with engineers, trades, utilities, and government, and the start of construction.

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