Got to sit by the pond this evening, surrounded by the oaks that define our emerging home space – setting a chair down about where the duplo man is looking out the window. The white material – around the model – is the slope. The pencils are the oaks. This is taken from the South as if the camera is over the pond. The light is shining as a sunset does this time of year, low in the southwest.
Welcome to our evolving design. The house is 16 sided with each side being 7.5 feet wide and 12 high. The radius is about 18 feet. There’s a loft planned for the back 7/16 of the space. There’ll be about 1,400 square feet of space in the round part of the house. The centre will feature a masonry stove.
The main floor entrance is on the right/east. We foresee another entrance – to the loft -through a dormer-door – just visible at the back right of the image. The additions on either side of the main house will be sod covered – so when you walk up to the house from the back, you’ll see the loft door and the roof only as the whole back wall will be landscaped as if part of the hill. There will be a small greenhouse in front of the mudroom. The room to the left/west will be screened in warm-weather space that will open on to a deck overlooking the pond.
We worked intensely on the model a couple weeks ago so we could send images and commentary to Tim Krahn (Architect with Building Alternatives). We needed his initial feedback on whether or not this design is feasible – structurally. And it is. He sees challenges but no fundamental problems. We’re good to go! We’ll keep tweaking the design and researching ways to build with local materials and within our financial means. We hope to get all the below grade (foundation and heat sink) work done this year.
Thanks for walking this path. We appreciate feedback, questions and ideas. Best. David and Maggie
