Details and Architectural Drawing

I met with Phil Godenschwager in his studio on Wednesday, July 30^th, for design discussion.  I can’t stress enough how helpful he has been.  I owe this to Sara Tucker who suggested him.  I was lucky he was available. 

To have someone who has the knowledge of an architect to help me with this project has been priceless.  I can bounce ideas off him.  He’s both an artist and a builder himself, so he understands how to combine a realistic idea with a beautifully balanced implementation.  He can also tell you when something won’t work.  And he knows my builder and keeps in touch, so the communication there is great. 

As we looked over the plans and my materials list, he asked questions to make sure he understood what I wanted and sketched what the elevation of an area would look like.  So much fun to see something come to life. 

I made a few changes based on his feedback.  For example, even though I had chosen beautiful lights to put on each side of the front door, it is more important to me to keep the original house design in mind.  Studying the photos of the old house, he showed me the simple light above the door.  I want that.  So, he catches details like that. 

On the other hand, since there wasn’t a porch on the south side (at least in the Cooley family’s past), then I feel free to get the lights for the porch- one of each side of the French doors (which the original house also did not have).  I am taking a few liberties. 

My main goal- have the house strike you as the same house from the road if you were to drive by.  Also, when you come in, the layout will be very familiar.  All the rooms are basically where they were before. 

Here are the exceptions:  No half wall between the dining room and kitchen, instead an island.  Phil suggested a couple of stools there on the dining room side to make hanging out and chatting with whoever is working in the kitchen easier. 

The front hallway is still wide with the stairs going up.  The big front door lets in light from the sidelights along each side of the door.  But now you will be able to see the stairs from the living room.  The living room wall will not be there.  The wide quality of the front hallway will add more width to the living room.  The light from the front door will be seen from the living room. 

Phil liked my idea of keeping the same style Newell post at the base of the stairs.

But for spindles I am varying them from the original just a tiny bit.  Instead of matching narrow spindles the whole way up, I am going to have one slightly wider spindle, followed by two narrow spindles...repeat.  Here’s a photo of the basic idea of the spindles.  I think it will add just a touch of interest to the stairs compared to the original. 

Another change is the screened-in porch.  Also known as the 4-season room.  It is where the saltbox house (fireplace room/garage) used to be.  You can get to it via the same door from the dining room or from out back via wide steps and an outside door.

Here's another idea I ran by Phil for the 'look' of the screened-in porch.  He agreed a slanted ceiling that matches the roofline above, made of white beadboard, along with wainscoting of white beadboard on the walls up to the window line would help make it feel more like a porch.  This room will have a window on every available wall space.  It will have a ceiling fan. It will have lights between each window like this. Here is a photo of a room I found online that I would like to mimic a bit (though our windows will not go to the floor).

Even though the kitchen will have the dark-stained bases (hoping for 1920’s look) I was planning on a lot of white otherwise. 

White countertop, white walls, white beadboard backsplash. 

But Phil convinced me that instead of white shelving in the kitchen, the shelves should be the same dark wood as the cabinet bases. 

Something more like this.

And instead of white ceramic tiles behind the stovetop, I have decided to go with terracotta tiles. 

The result should be a better look to seem ‘older’ instead of so much white.  A warmer look.  I like it!

One thing we are preserving is the trim on the exterior of the house. 

It is a little fancier style of crown molding than some farmhouses in Vermont.  Here you can see the builder is working on preserving that even in the garage! 

Again, this is communication between Phil the artist/architectural drawer and Joe the builder.  How lucky I am.