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Paying attention to what we're doing . . .

The Docket, FOURTH QUARTER 2009; Projects currently under way

TO BE BUILT

American Piedmont Style. 
Knoxville, TN.  Unusual exterior style mixing cottagelike appearance in both English and French manners.  11,000SF approximately.  Three levels, 6beds, 4 full & 2 1/2-baths, three kitchens, 2 bar/kitchenettes, 4 bays of garages.  Shingle over water table and natural stone veneer.  Interesting, extensive, radon mitigation plan.  Of seismic interest.  Apparently hung-up since early first-quarter on this custom home designer's objection to local home building authorities interpretation of electric code, eventually settled in favor of the home designer, all thanks to steadfast clients.  Major home redesigning under way again, including 3-level elevator, change-out all three fireplaces, clerestory alterations, and opting to move mostly from thin to full-depth natural stone.  Many, many modifications - all for the better. 

American Piedmont Style, Predominantly French with Tuscan flares, compact two-story with full, walkout L0.  For one of two lots in Washington State.  Now in the middle stages of vetting client interests and intentions.  It's about a stock plan that's both fish and fowl - English and French (reminiscent of the American Piedmont- cottagelike.  The client interest is to 'Frenchify' and Tuscanize it inside and out, which seems within home design reach.  The client intention is a long-term, perhaps, 'forever' home, but with resale in mind.  Successfully executed crucial siting on survey.  Majorly home redesigning interior and exterior, especially Kitchen and Masters Bath and environs.  Sited footprint on property and designed home driveway for one site, including turnaround.  Laid-away until Summer of '09, on return from senior military posting in Afghanistan.  Back on track.

Several:  Sign-of-the-time whack-jobs to the left and to the right of me.  Gimme, gimme, gimme, your knowledge and experience focused like a laser beam directly on each of 'em for, oh, a while or so, and then we'll talk big biz when they're good to go with - - - a portico for their tract home, a roof retrofit for their mobile home, a mid-50s kitschy kitchen cabinet consult, a doghouse, greeny-design, etc., etc., etc.  Did guide a guy needing a wheelchair ramp and another who knew he was getting screwed over a weak design for concrete stairs.

Just now looking back at cracked corn through the Christmas Goose in Texas.  Big hat, no sense of design.  Liked what they knew, and knew not much.  BTA delivered direct replies to questions and initial remedy to a very needy stock planlike, puerile confection in its early stages of disrepute.  Got to hear the Dolorous Dirge of the Dreadful Deadbeat for the first time in a long time.  This one slithered past the 19 Deadly Sins undetected - not without suspicion - but without cause until the first invoice passed desktops.  Looking forward to a time to see the laughingstock in person.  Considering naming a new home design style - Texas Tacky.  Immense opportunity foregone seemingly out of pure mean.

Other:  Redesigning website packaging with Graffiti CMS (mixed blessing in the software, horrendous time consumption); moving webhost from LunarPages to ORCS, at least for the time-being; splitting out American Thought to its own website for blogging; adding  pages and pics to the website; expanded the e-book in draft to 951 pages for the 3Q09 Edition.

LAY-AWAY

 

Traditional Style. Seattle, WA.  Consulting to owner/clients in regard to an architect-designed to-be-built, principally in matters of custom home design safety, durability, and convenience.  One cranky client is one too many.  Not likely to return.  No tears shed hereabouts.

COLD STORAGE

Jacobean English Manor House,  Southeast U.S.  2- story, full basement, 4-bay garage attached. 7 beds, baths - 7 full, 4 half so far. To 15,000 square feet habitable approximately, not quite 20,000 square feet total.   Status: L0-L2 floor plans drawn and several times tweaked. Still tweaking.  Wireframes in 3-D drawn to study rooflines and Front Of House.  Fenestration drawn. Floor plans, Front Of House isometrics and elevations all under review and many marginal revisions.  Modified home design to increase visual interest.  Applying home elevator with innovative fire safety features. Researched Rumford fireplace home building technique as applied to home design - 7 Rumfords, 1 gasser (plus one false stack).  Several schedules done or underway, including ceiling fan, bath exhaust fan, finishing, net free vent area, header, runoff, window, door, home design standards, etc.  Began extensive lighting plan with unique, adaptable schedule, preparatory to working with lighting pros on how-to.  Drew kitchen design for somewhat limited mobility - 20-page text, 3 plan views, 8 high-end appliance tables. Laid out furniture in major spaces to facilitate both lighting plan and other aspects of electrical design.  On what may well be last run at floor plans and elevations.  Added 7 sheets (3'x4') of Standards of Specification.  Drew 36 interior elevations in the ARCH E sheets of house plan details.  To be let for bids.  On long-term hold for pressing business commitments.

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RECENTLY FINISHED

European Style with Italianate and Italian Revival flares.  Meridian, MS.  Fully hipped, complex rooflines over 1 level of about 4500SF on a slab.  Articulated footprint.  Substantial belvedere in towered form distinguishes this 3 bed, 3 full and 1 1/2-bath, 4-bay garage which has a borderline-modern appearance that elegantly reaches back here and there in American home design history.  Old World and New World meet.  Hand-of-the-craftsman stucco over water table and natural stone veneer.  Plotting and proofing.  Beaucoups complements on the home design plan project set.

Victorian Gothic Farmhouse, Nashville.  2-story, full basement, 3-bay attached garage.  5 beds, baths - 4 full & 1 half. To 7,500 square feet habitable approximately.  Wonderful wrap-around porch.  Status: L1, L2 floor plans drawn.  Working out matters of interior home design fit and personalized features.  Elevations in 2D and 3D under way.  Extended family adaptability reviewed and completed based on 4 functionally different layouts for the same space to include darkroom, guest bath and bed, recording studio, and, in time, a kitchen to help assist a live-in family member in years to come.  Clients delighted with latest floor plans and elevations.  Held 29 months for various client-based reasons, including but not limited to finding a great building site.   Just now off of long-term hold.  Working on Electrical & Lighting Plans, Roof Plan.  Finishing up early November, Before The Architect having insisted unusually that much be left to local management.  Strains of The Dolorous Dirge were wafting across the fruited plain . . . terminal case of the cheaps and the hurries. 

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