Selecting a Builder

Our architect provided a "Preliminary Bid Instructions" document, along with a copy of the final floor plan and P met with four builders, previously identified as ones with experience in building modern homes. All were asked to submit prelim. bids before the holidays and three did -- ranging from a brief one page -- X$ per sq ft. -- to quite detailed breakdowns of likely costs, including items we would purchase, such as appliances. The fourth never did offer a bid.

One bid, from the largest company of the four, was 25% more than the other two, so the choice was between two similar bids. One of these was from a builder with more "green" experience, so after one more visit to his most recent house -- including a walk-through with him, discussing choices and specs -- we elected to go with him.

So the start of 2008 has us us with an agreed design, a floor plan (which just needs a few tweaks,) and a builder. So now we start on the more detailed planning and permitting phase with target date to start the demolition and build no later than April 1, 2008

Final steps with the Design

Our architect presented us with a revised roof line, given our concerns about how the "double butterfly" would allow a lot of light to enter all three bedrooms, as we like dark bedrooms for sleeping and do not want have to devise window coverings for angled windows. To help us consider this roof line and also the overall look of the house footprint, P. elected to build a rough model so we could move into three dimensions before we locked down this decision.




As can be seen, this still has the sloping roof elements at each end but a flat roof in the middle. So while the living/dining area on the left-side roof will have clerestory windows on three sides, the only clerestory windows in the right-side roof area will be over the garage, so none in the rear over the master bedroom area. We agreed that this would work for us and still give the house its "feature roof."

So the last steps in this phase are for our architect to provide us with the final floor plan and to develop a list that will help builders/GC's ballpark some prices.

Design Process: Step 2

Our architect presented his proposed design with site plan, floor plans, elevations and perspectives.

We had a very positive reaction to the overall design, which had double butterfly roof over the main, rectangular module. We also liked the idea of a block "feature wall" which he proposed to continue inside the house, showing the exposed block.

We then reviewed the floor plan and how our room wish-list had been accommodated and found we had everything (excluding the garage) in approx. 2550 square feet.

He then asked us to take some time to go over the proposal and we initially focused on our room size wish list -- rechecking why we arrived at such #s and and either getting comfortable with them or tweaking them.

We then reconsidered the house's double butterfly roof line and started to imagine ourselves in the rooms this covers.

Obviously, it will give us the high ceilings and light we want in the living/dining space but when we considered this in the rest of house it raised some questions. The first was how light would enter the smaller rooms like the laundry and the second bath. The second, more significant issue for us, was how much light would be entering all three bedrooms as we like dark bedrooms for sleeping and do not want have to devise window coverings for angled windows.

We decided to revisit this with our architect and seek advice on whether such a roof can work aesthetically if one chooses not to have glass in certain sections, or whether there are other roof designs that still give us a "feature roof" without so much natural light coming into the bedrooms.

Design Process: Step 1

Our architect asked for an initial 2 hr meeting to gain a good sense of our design preferences and the specific needs we want this house to meet – and that we should bring any relevant photos and anything else that would help.

We had prepared a wish list of desired rooms and their approximate sizes, in order to estimate the overall size of the house and also to get clear on what would be their min. and max. sq. footage. We had also found ourselves asking about, and noting, different room sizes as we toured the homes we looked at. Obviously he has to make all this fit together, so we need to be flexible, but the list was helpful as a basis for discussing our needs for this house.

The discussion beyond these more specific aspects was more intriguing as we sensed our architect wanted more specifics on our design choices -- beyond those house photos we had selected. So he asked us to comment on some pictures of elements of Palm Springs houses. Looking back, we feel we had possibly avoided getting too specific on design elements as we really want him have some freedom and potentially test us with ideas we may not have considered.

At our next meeting he will present “a freehand site plan, floor plans, elevations and perspectives,” as per his process.

Our green education

After looking at the various houses and a lot of reading, what "green" started to mean to us was 1) the opportunity to build an efficient house, in terms of heating and cooling, thus making a green contribution, and 2) to also select other products and materials that are appropriately green.

The efficient aspect was easy, starting with the use of tankless water heaters and radiant floor heating. Optimization of natural cooling opportunities through window selection and placement was another obvious aspect. Next was achieving efficient heating and cooling through solar-generated electricity and solar-heated water, both of which we had seen in some houses. Given our site, solar electricity quickly emerged as a fairly obvious choice, particularly as our long term plans for this home allow return-on-investment models with longer periods.

An inevitable question with such equipment is where it will be placed, as we do not want our home to have "racks" and other hardware projecting above those flat and/or slightly sloping roofs. Fortunately, we learned that for our site's solar orientation the solar panels can be placed almost flat with only a 5% reduction in efficiency.

As to the selection of other products and materials that are green, our architect has experience in these areas, plus our reading and research continues.

Designs in line with emerging preferences

Two of these houses have different roof levels within the one structure, and some of those roofs also have some slope -- something that interests us as we had began to think of our house as two modules, one with the garage, bedrooms and bathrooms, and the other for living, dining and the kitchen. Two also have clerestory windows, with high ceilings, a common feature in modernist houses. Also their frontage is broken up by how certain aspects are set back, plus none of them have elements that we feel would look out of date in the future.

Given these preferences, we inevitably like the following house, from the portfolio of our chosen architect who had also satisfied our other criteria.

Our evolving preferences

So we wanted "a modern, single-story house in the 2500 sq ft range" and now we were needing define what modern specifically meant to us. In addition, the architects' houses we had seen added to the list of what we liked and occasionally didn't like, in terms of overall design, key design elements, and interior finishes.

While such architects will (truthfully) tell you they can design all types of modern houses we inevitably saw preferences in design elements, such as how one favored horizontal wood elements on doors and balconies, while another favored metal for siding and to face garage doors. While we have often noted and liked houses that use such elements we were also conscious of some possibly looking out-of-date in the future -- and remember this is our "last house" which we hope to live in for a long time.

So it was back to looking at more house photos and the breakthrough came when J articulated that we wanted a modern home, with "mid-century modern" influences, that would look "timeless," such as many of the homes we had seen on our Palm Springs visits.

Remember, we are still not at the point of agreeing an actual design, but getting to the next level of direction -- to help us select, and then instruct the architect.

Finding/selecting an architect

We wanted a modern architect, with experience on the LA west side and also with green aspects of home design and construction. So we went back through all our Dwell and Sunset back copies plus the literature from the modern house tours we had been on.

We next went through the Web sites of architects of interest, developing a list of eight that we contacted by email, asking them to meet us. Our email briefly described our goal and the initial meetings started at the site, as we wanted to observe their reactions to it .

In preparation, we developed an agenda, which evolved through our meetings, as we added to our knowledge, -- such as the importance of an architects access to, and relationship with, general contractors (GC) with experience of building in the modern style.

For us, the following criteria evolved and they determined our short-list and then the final selection:

• Nature of the architects' work todate and how that fitted our (admittedly evolving) preferences.
• The likely cost of of this type of work, based on more recent projects.
• The quality of these recent projects, accepting a lot of that falls on the GC but trying to establish how the architect has influenced, or not influenced, this.
• That amorphous thing called "chemistry," in terms how we would feel working with this person.

For the final four architects on our short-list we then asked to see examples of their current work "in the flesh," and ended up visiting at least 7 houses.

Pictures of our lot

The original house, from the garden area in narrow point of the triangle. Also, from the street, which will be at the rear of the new house.

















Then a street view of the lot from our "new street." and lastly a view looking down the triangle, which will be the view from our living area. Note no houses in sight!

Finding a buildable lot

We purchased a tear-down/lot in Culver City, CA, in Sept, 07. It's triangular, being at the point of two angled, intersecting streets -- what the city calls a "through lot." We were attracted to it because neither street is a through street and we will have just one adjacent neighbor. In addition it's a ten min walk from downtown, important for our preferred lifestyle.



We envisaged a 2500 sq. ft., single story house with a two car garage -- so the key question became could be build it on such a lot?

While going through the offer/acceptance process we researched the city planning regulations, particularly the impact of applying the normal setback rules to this lot. We also had meetings in order to discuss the direction we wished to develop our house design. "Direction" is the key term here as no planning dept will approve a plan without going through the full planning process and yet we only had so much time before the "no going back" phase of our offer. This particular slide became key to illustrating that direction.



We found acceptance of this direction, hearing enough assurances that left us comfortable. One key assurance was that the city applies flexibility to lots like this as they exist because of how the streets were laid out.

We had also started interviewing architects at this point so those interviews became an additional sanity check on our direction.

Some background

We retired to Southern California in late 2003, the location choice influenced by where our children live and the usual stuff about climate. We found ourselves in a hectic real estate market on LA's west side -- our preferred location -- not the ideal situation when you want the time for an architect to look at potential purchases and consult on a possible renovation or re-build.

So we moved further down the coast and continued to monitor the LA west side real estate, looking at many new houses over the years and also potential remodels. While not our original plan, this period was helpful as we became knowledgeable about SoCal's modernist history, through house tours, readings and several enjoyable visits to Palm Springs.

More and more we found ourselves feeling that we wanted to build a modern house from scratch.